Weather - done better ?

[Ghench]

Generating random weather in TTRPGs never works that well because random tables are ...well, random.

One minute it's sunshine, the next it's a blizzard. Using a 'Weather Hex flower' allows you to generate weather that is more consistent, but still allows for some surprises:

Weather Hex Flower Image

Weather is more consistent with a Hex Flower because a Hex Flower is a bit like a random table, but with an inbuilt 'memory'. That is, the last result effects the next roll.


FAQ:

• Yes, the 2D6 roll makes weather near the bottom more likely (that's part of the design). More extreme weather is near the top of the HF, and so is less likely to occur
  
• Sudden changes in weather are still possible, because of the edge rules (going off the edge of the HF and re-joining the HF)
  
• Red X shows blocked directions
  
• The top hex is an extreme/dangerous weather event - tornado etc.
  
• HFs can be customised to make microclimates (like for cold regions in Rime of the Frostmaiden or deserts like in Dark Sun)
  
• HFs can be used to make all sorts of mini-games (Google it).
  
• If you have a preferred weather mechanic (and this is not for you), then by all means use that!

:O)

Here are some more examples of Weather Hex Flower

If you want to know more, I wrote a guide on Hex Flower design: Hex Flower Cookbook

[Anaraxes]

Have you done any analysis or simulation to pin a long-term probability for each hex given a random walk around the diagram? If a worldbuilder had some idea of the general climate they were after, it would help to be able to pick the right hexes to get approximately the climatology they were after.

[tshiggins]

The Pilot's Almanac for Harn has some nice weather tables. You move up.and down the columns based on your roll.

It works pretty well, but is kinda linear. I like this better.

[Anthony]

The best way I've found for generating realistic weather is to hit https://www.wunderground.com/history, find a city that resembles the area I'm generating weather for, and pick a random year. A random walk like this does produce gradually shifting weather, which is generally going to be more realistic than having zero day to day correlation but will also fail to emulate real world situations where weather does change abruptly over a short period.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A random walk... will also fail to emulate real world situations where weather does change abruptly over a short period.

How about patching the design by stealing one of the die rolls to mean "roll to select a new weather flower and use that" instead?

You might also do that if the rolls walk off the edge of the flower, but I expect that might be too common.

[Shostak]

Weather where? There is no way that a random table that even approximates reasonable weather for Maine would work for Arizona. You’d need a different hex flower for different climate zones.

[Anaraxes]

The links in the OP do lead to multiple different example flowers, including ones for different seasons in the same place. I didn't get the impression weather was supposed to be generated by only one flower for the whole world.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Ghench

One minute it's sunshine, the next it's a blizzard. U

Sounds like Iceland.

[DeadParrot]

I like the general idea. Might include a 'Stability' role. Some days start out clear and sunny, are clear and sunny at noon and still clear and sunny at sunset.

Other days are more interesting. At at real life SCA event, Friday was clear and sunny. Saturday started clear and sunny but a thunderstorm happened at 9am, down burst at 9:30. Did I mention a severe temp drop? Followed by rain, freezing rain, sleet, hail and snow. After which the SCA event was canceled about 2pm due to threat of the weather getting worse. Of course, Sunday was clear and sunny.

[Anaraxes]

Sounds like increasing the frequency of the rolls. Roll for each half of the day, roll for each hour (like The Weather Channel's forecasts these days)... Certainly, that's a lot of rolling. Probably only works if you're going to pre-roll your weather. Or just write a little program to spit out a week or a month at a time. (Alas, a program can't appreciate the hex grid flower layout; it'll just have the equivalent tables.)