Sanity and Roll playing games

Sanity And Roll playing Games 

As a Game master it is often fun to have a little crazy added in to the game session. We all know that it can make for great game play to have the players interact with a NPC that's just not all there upstairs. What about allowing a or even forcing player character to play a crazy person? Have you ever thought wow if I had just gone though what the players went though I would need to see a shrink! Well for situations like that for my game sessions I implemented a stat called sanity or San for short.  

I have written this information using the Mazith RPG rule system because I believe it to be one of the easiest to convert over to what ever game system you play. The way I choose to use it is, that all players start with a 10 San.

Explaining Sanity to new players:

 You do not roll your Sanity it always starts at 10 and is one of the stats that you cannot take skills in to increase. Your GM will only ask you to roll a Sanity Check after your character has survived an extreme situation such as resurrection and divine intervention. Using these two examples if your character were killed by a falling tree and was brought back to life but failed the Sanity Check, your character would lose 1 point of Sanity forever, and from now on may have a fear of trees or something else depending on what your GM says . Using the other example of a divine intervention, if you’re Sanity Check was successful, your character would now know that they were on the right track in life, and would now have the mindset of a religious extremist, and receive +1 point of sanity.

Dealing with Sanity:

If a character sees or experiences a traumatic moment, you as the GM may want to have the player make a sanity check. Player rolls 2D20 and adds the total of the two dice. If the result is higher than the characters sanity stat then the check is failed and it is up to the RM to determine if the sanity stat should go down a point or up. It is more rare for a sanity to go up than down from 10. Here is a two list of reasons a Gm might tell a player to roll a sanity check. (NOTE this list in only to give you an idea and in no way represents the only times to make a sanity check.)

List of reasons to check to see if stat goes down:

            1.     Barely serving a burning building

            2.     Being the only survivor of a massacre

            3.     Seeing a demon or angel

            4.     Best friend/ loved one dies before your eyes

 

List of reasons to check to see if stat goes up:

1.     Dying and coming back

2.     Seeing your god

3.     See a miracle (100% DI answered)

4.     Brain washing or cult like event

If the sanity goes down you have some negative effects that take place to the character.

         

 

                                       Phobias

 Again this is set up for the Mazith game system simply change anything that does not fit for the game system you use.  For D&D or Pathfinder just drop the Morale stat and lower the charisma negative's till them seem right for your house rules.  

Sanity                         -from                - from                   # of         

Scores                         morale             charisma            phobias

                                               

                                                         

1	-10	-6	9
2	-9	-5	8
3	-7	-4	7
4	-5	-3	6
5	-3	-3	5
6	-1	-2	4
7	0	-1	3
8	0	-1	2
9	0	0	1
10	0	0	0
11 +	0	+1	Righteous complex

Handing out phobias:

If one of your players gains a phobia you can decide weather it is based off the situation if the player almost drowns and you decide to make them role a sanity check and they fail you could give them a phobia of water or if you just want to be random about it or can’t think of a phobia that fits use, the charts below.  

Phobia class table (1d100) 

1-10 animal

11-30 medical

31-40 miscellaneous

41-55 positional

56-60 sexual

61-90 social

91-100 weather (natural)

Phobias table for animal phobias

1 acrophobia = mites

2-4 aelurophobia = cats

5-10 agrizophobia= wild animals

11-12 alektorphobia = chickens

13-15 apiphobia= bees

16-20 arachnophobia= spiders

21 bacillophobia= microorganisms

22 bacteriophbia- bacteria

23-24 batrachophobia=frogs

25 blennophiba = slimes

26-28 botanophobia= plants

29-32 bogyphobia=boggy man

33-37 bug phobia= bugs

38-41 demon phobia=demons

42-50 doraphobia= animal skins

51 equinophobia= horses

52-53 featherphoiba= feathers

54 cynophobia= dogs

55-59 helminthophobia= worms

60-63 herpetophobia= lizards

64-65 icthophobia= fish

66 isopterophobia= termites

67-71 murophobia= rats

72-74 musiphobia= mice

75 myrmcophobia= ants

76-80 ophidiophobia= snakes

81-82 ornithophobia= birds

83 ostraconopobia= shellfish

84-85 paraistophobia= parasites

86-88 phasmaphobia=ghosts

89 phthirophobia= lice

90 spheksophobia=wasps

91 taeniophobia= tape worms

92-93 taasophobia= bulls

94-100 zoophobia= animals

Medical Phobia (1d100)

1-2 aerophobia= airborne diseases

3-4 albuminurophobia= kidney diseases

5 amychophobia= scratches

6-8 anginophobia= heart problems (angina)

9 asthenophobia= fainting/weakness

10 belanophobia=needles

11 chaetophophia=hair disease

12 cnicoiphobia= stings

13 copraustasophobia= constipation

14 coprphobia= feces

15 dementopobia= insanity

16-17 dentophobia= dentists

18-19 dermatopathobia= skin disease

20 diaberophobia=diabetes

21 diplpiaphobia=double vision

22 dipsopobia= drinking (alcohol)

23 dysomrphophobia= being deformed

24 dystychiphobia=accidents

25 emetophobia= vomiting

26 epistaxiophobia= nose bleeds

27 genuphobia= knees

28 gerontophobia= growing old

29 gerontophobia= aging

30-31 dinophobia=dizziness

32 helminthophobia= worm infections

33 hematophobia= blood

34 hormephobia= shock

35 hydrorgynophobia= mercurial medicine

36 hudrophobophobia= rabies

37 hylephobia= epilepsy

38 hypnophobia= sleep

39 iatrophbia= doctors

40 illyngophobia= vertigo

41-43 iophobia= poisions

44-46 leprophobia= leprosy

47-48 luiphobia= syphilis

49 lyssophobia= become insane

50 meningitophobia= brain disease

51 misopobia= contamination with dirt

52-53 monopathophobia= a specific disease

54 molysopobia= infection

55 nosmapobia= illness

56-58 neopharmaphobia= new drugs

59 nosocomephibia= hospitals

60 obesophobin= gaining weight

61 odonephobin= teeth

62 odynephobia= pain

63 ommatophobia= eyes

64 patrioiphbia= heredity

65 peladophobia= bald people

67-68 permatophobia= skin lesions

69 photalyiaphobia= eye pain

70 phtisiophobia= tuberculosis

71 pnigphobia= being smothered

72 proctophobia= rectal disease

73 psycgioibia=mind

74 pyrexecophobia= fever

75 radiophbia= radiation

76 rhadophobia= being beeten with a rod

77 rhytiphobia= wrinkles

78 scabiopobia= itching

79 scatophobia= fecal matter

80 tetanophobia= lock jaw

81 thahatophobia=death

82 tomophoblia= surgery

83 toxocophobia= being poisoned

84-93 traumatopobia= injury

94-96 trichinophobia= trichinosis (caused by eating pork)

97-98 trichophobia= hair

99-100 trypnophobia= needles

Miscellaneous Phobias (3d100)

1-9 acarophobia= small objects

10-12 acerophobia= sourness

13-14 acousticophobia= noise

15-20 aichurophobia= pointed objects and knifes

21-22 algophobia= pain

23-25 allumphobia= garlic

26-27 amathophobia= dust

28-30 amnesiophobia= amnesia

31-33 anthophobia= flowers

34-40 apeorophobia= ifginity

41-44 atachibutyrophobia= peanut butter sticking to top of mouth

45-47 atazphobia= chaos

48-50 autophobia= self

51-52 ballistophobia= missles

53-55 bolshaphobia= communismm

56-58 carnephobia= meat

59-60 catoptrophobia= mirrors

61-63 cherophobia= being happy

64-66 chrematophobia= money

67-69 chromatophobia= certain colors

70-72 chronophobia= time

73-75 clinophobia= beds

76-77 cnidophobia= strings

78-80 dendrophobia= trees

81-83 didaskaleinophobia= right handed things

84-86 dikephobiea= justice

87-88 clenthrophobia= freedom

89-90 erythrophobia= red things

91-92 geliophobia= laughter

93-95 geniophobia= chains

96-98 genmaphobia= taste

99-100 graphophobia= writing

101-105 hadephobia= hell

106-109 haigophobia= religious objects

110-114 harpazophobia= being robed

115-117 hedonophobia= pleasure

118-120 hellanophobia= science

121-124 hematophobia= sight of blood

125-127 heresyphobia= challenges to dog man

128-129 homitophobia= sermons

130-132 iatrophobia= doctors

133-135 ideophobia=ideas

136-137 iophobia= rust

138-140 kalnophobia= changes

141-142 kenespobia= motion

143-146 kleptophobia= stealing

147-148 kopophobia= exhaustion

149-152 lachanophobia= vegetables

153-154 leukophobia= white things

155-157 ligyrophobia= noise

158-159 linohophobia= string

160-162 litiyaphobia= lawsuits

163-165 logophobia= words

166-180 magophobia= magic

181-185 mechanophobia= machinery

186-187 megalophobia= big things

188-189 melophobia= music

190-191 metalophbia= metal

192-194 methyphobia= alcohol

195-196 metrophobia= poetry

197-198 mnemophobia= memories

199-200 myrophobia= dirt

201-202 myxophobia= slime

203-205 necrophbia= dead bodies

206-208 nelopobia= glass

209-210 neophobia= new things

211-214 noverlaphoba= step mothers

215-216 numerophobia= numbers

217-218 oenophobia= wine

219-220 olfactophobia= certain smells

221-225 oneirophobia= dreams

226-227 osmophobia= smells

228-230 ouranophobia= heaven

231 painphobia= everything

232-234 papryophobia= paper

235-237 pactriphobia= heredity

238-243 pedaphobia= sinning

244 pedaphobia= jumping

245 pediaphobia= dolls

246 pediophobia= children

247-248 pentheraphobia= mother in law

249-250 phasmaphobia= ghost

251 phobophobia=fears

252 phonophobia= echoes

253 phronemophobia= thinking

254-255 placophobia= tombstones

256 poinephobia= punishment

257-258 polticophobia= politicians

259 polphobia= punishment

260 ponophobia= several things

261 porphyrophobia= purple things

262 porophobia= drinking (water, ect.)

263 potpphobia= progress

264 pteronophobia= feathers

265 satanoophobia= evil gods

266-267 seelophobia= robbers

268-269 scotomaphobia= blind spots

270 selaphobia= flashing lights

271 siderophobia= rotting matter

272-273 sinistrophobia= left handed things

274 sitophobia= certain foods

275 sophophobia= learning

276 sybolophobia= symbolism

278 symmeterophobia= symmetry

279 sygenesophobia= relatives

280 tacophobia= speed

281-282 taphophobia= graves/buried alive

283-284 technophobia= technology

285-286 teletophobia= religious ceremonies

287 testophobia= test

288 textophobia= certain fabrics

289-290 thelolgicophbia= theology

291-296 theophobia= gods

297 tridecaphobia= numbers

298-299 tytannophobia= tyrants

300 vitricophobia= step fathers

Positional Phobias (1d100)

1-3 acrophobia= heights

4-6 aeroacrophobia= open high places

7-8 aginaphobia= narrow places

9-11 agiophobia= streets

12-13 amaxophibia= moving vehicles

14-16 anablepophobia= looking up at high places

17-20 atephobia= ruins, dungeons

21-22 aviatophobia= flying

23-25 basiphobia= walking

26-28 batophobia= passing a tall structure

29-32 bathophobia= depths

33-38 claustropobia= confound spaces

39-40 cenophobia= empty rooms

41-42 cieithrophobia= being locked in

43-44 climacophobia= stairs

45-47 coimetrophobia= cemeteries

48-49 cremnophobia= cliffs

50-51 domatophobia= being in a house

52-55 dromophobia= crossing the street

56-60 ecclesiophobia= churches

61-63 ecopobia= home surroundings

64-68 eremophobia= being yourself

69-72 gephyrophobia= bridges

73-76 hodophobia= travel

77-84 hypsiphobia= heights

85-87 koimoniphobia= rooms

88-93 lygophobia= gloomy places

94-95 nostrophobia= retiring home

96 oikophobia= home surroundings

97 theutophobia= theaters

98-99 topophobia= specific places

100 tropophobia= moving to a new home

Female Sexual Phobias (1d100)

1-3 agaraphobia= sexual abuse

4-6 algophobia= sexual pain

7-12 androphobia= men

13-14 annptophibia= being single

15-17 aphenphobia= physical contact

18-22 coitophobia= sex

23-24 coitus more ferasum= doggy style sex

25-29 coitus oralis= oral sex

30-35 cypridophobia= venerial diseases

36-38 dysparennia= painful vaginal sex

39-41 esodophobia= virginity

42-44 gamophobia= marriage

45-47 gymnophobia= naked bodies

48-50 hedonophobia= pleasure

51 heterophobia= heterosexuals

52-57 homophobia= homosexuals

58-60 ithyphallophobia= erect penises

61-63 maleusiophobia= child birth

64-65 malaxophobia= flirting

66-67 medectophobia= contour of penis through clothing

68-69 menophobia= menstruation

70-74 merinthophobia= being bound

75-77 necrophobia= sex with the dead

78-79 oneirogmophobia= wet dreams

80-82 paraphobia= sexual perversions

83-84 phallophobia= male geniatallia

85-87 primeisodophobia= losing one's virginity

88-90 proctophobia= rectal intercourse

91 sasmassophobia= fore play

92-93 seophobia= opposite sex

94 spermophobia= semen

95-96 teratophiobia= bearing a monster

97-100 virgivitipobia= rape

Male Sexual Phobias (1d100)

1-3 agrophobia= sexual abuse

4-6 algophobia= sexual pain

7-9 agmophobia= marriage

10-11 anuprophobia= being single

12-14 aphenophobia= physical contact

15-17 coitophobia= sex

18-20 coitus oralis= oral sex

21-23 cypriophobia= prostitutes

24-25 cypridophobia= vererial disease

26-28 esacuphobia= ejaculation

29-31 esodophobia= virginity

32-37 eurotophobia= female genetalia

38-39 gymnophobia= naked bodies

40-44 gynophobia= women

45-48 hedonophobia= pleasure

49-53 malaxophobia= flirting

54-59 medomalacophobia= losing an erection

60-62 merinthophobia= being bound

63-67 necrophobia= sex with the dead

68-71 oneirogmophobia= wet dreams

72-76 paraphobia= sexual perversions

77-80 parenthenophobia= young girls, usually virgins

81-85 penis captivas= having penis held tightly by vagina

86-89 primeisodophobia= losing ones virginity

90-92 proctophobia= rectal intercourse

93-95 sharmassophobia= fore play

96-97 sexophobia= opposite sex

98-100 venustaphobia= beautiful women

Social Phobias (1d100)

1 ablutophobia= bathing

2 agorophobia= public places

3 allodoxaphobia= other's opinions

4 amschopobia= being scratched

5 ankylophobia= immobility

6 anthrophobia= people

7 anuptapobia= staying single

8 aphephobia= being touched

9 arrheophobia= man kind

10 atelophobia=  imperfection

11 autodysomophobia= having a body odor

12 automysophobia= being dirty

13 basiphobia= walking

14 basistasiphobia= standing upright

15 bromidrosiphobia= body odors

16 catapedaphobia= jumping

17 catagelphobia= ridicule

18 catertrophobia= mirrors

19 cathisophobia= sitting

20 chaetophobia= hair

21 chorophobia= dancing

22 cilophobia= food

23 clithrophobia= being enclosed

24 copsophobia= bowel movement

25 deidophobia= desisions

26 defeccalgesiophobia= painful, violent bowel movements

27 demophobia= crowds

28 dromophobia= crossing the streets

29 dysmorphophobia=deformity

30 dystychiphobia= accidents

31 deipnophobia= dinner conversation

32 dishabillophobia= disrobing in public

33 enissophobia= sin

34 stemophobia= solitude

35 ergophobia= work

36 erythrophobia= blushing

37 euphobia= hearing good news

38 gelophobia= laughing

39 graphophobia= hand writing

40-41 hamatophobia= error

42 hypengyophobia= resonsibility

43 hypnophobia= hypsnsis

44 isolophobia= solitude

45 kakorrhaphiophobia= failure

46 katagelophobia= ridicule

47 kathisophobia= sitting down

48 kleptophobia= stealing

49 koinoniphobia= rooms full of people

50 kyptophobia= stooping

51 laliphobia= talking/studdering

52 lelphobia= jealousy

53 macrophobia= long waits

54 mythophobia= lying

55 nyetophobia= nights

56-57 ochlophobia= crowds

58 ophthalmophobia= being stared at

59 optophobia= opening ones eyes

60 orthophobia= propriety

61 osphteusuiogibia= body orders

62 peraliphobia= neglect of duty

63 peccatiphobia= wrong doing

64 peladophobia= bald people

65 penaphobia= poverty

66 phagiophobia= eating

67-68 phalaerophobia= being bald

60-70 philemaphobia= kissing

71 philphobia= love

72-74 pholophobia= being alone

75 pogonophobia= beards

76-77 psellismophobia= stuttering

78-79 sclerophobia= thieves

80 scolionophobia= going to school

81-83 scopophobia= being looked at

84-86 sociophobia= society

87-90 stage fright= performance

91 stasiphobia= standing

92-93 teratopobia=deformed people

94 tremophobia= trembling

95 vestiphobia= wearing clothes

96-100 xenophobia= non-humans, foreigners

Weather Phobias (1d100) 

1-2 achuluophobia= darkness

3-4 aerophobia= drafts and air

5-6 acrophobia= swallowing air

7-8 anemophobia= cyclones

9-10 antlophobia= floods

11-12 astraphobia= lighting

13-14 auroraphobia= auroral lights

15-16 brontophobia= thunder

17-18 burophobia= gravity

19-20 cenophobia= barren ground

21-22 chionophobia= snow

23-24 cometophobia= comets

25-26 cryophobia= cold temperatures

27-28 cymophobia= waves

29-30 dendrophobia= trees

31-32 dinophobia= whirlpools

33-34 electrophobia= electricity

35-36 esophobia= dawn

37-38 frigophobia= cold things

39-40 heliophobia= sun lights

41-42 homichlophobia= fog

43-44 hydrophobia= water

45-46 hygrophobia= dampness, humidity, mists

47-48 hylophobia= forest

49-50 keraunophobia= lighting and thunder

51-52 kymphobia= waves

53-54 lilapsophobia= huricanes

55-56 limonphobia= lakes

57-60 meterphobia= meteors

61-62 mephophobia= clouds

63-64 ombrophbia= rain

65-66 pagophobia= frost and ice

67-68 photophobia= glaring light

69-70 photophobia= lights

71-72 potamophobia= rivers

73-74 potomophobia= sheets of water

75-77 psychrophobia= being cold

78-79 pyrophobia= fire

80-83 sciaphobia= shadows

84-87 scotophobia= darkness

88-89 selenophobia= moons

90-91 siderophobia= stars in the sky

92-94 thalassophobia= seas

95-97 thermophobia= hot temperatures

98-100 zerophobia= dryness

Making a villain for any RPG game in 5 steps

Making a villain

Good stories need villains, and role-playing games are no exception. Sometimes you can get by with bad guys of the week, but a more permanent antagonist can be a huge Plus to your campaign. Central villains give the story a sense of continuity. They provide a focus for the PCs’ actions, turning a bunch of gaming sessions into one coherent story. Because central villains are so important, some thought should be put into making them.

Step One: Give Them Goals

It’s vital that you know what your villain trying to accomplish, because that’s the core of their ability to provide opposition. As the GM, you’ll be constantly reacting to what your players do, and knowing your villain inside and out will make you adaptable when the group throws you a curve ball.

Your villain can and should acquire new goals as the story progresses, but having some from the get-go is vital. It’ll provide the story with direction, and give you something to fall back on when you get stuck. Ideally, your players should be able to look back on the campaign once it’s finished, and see signs of what the villain was up to from the very start.

Despite their role as antagonist, your villain’s goals should not be to kill the PCs. First, this is something they will try to do anyway. Second, the villain needs goals that can be accomplished without ending the game. If your play it right the players should be worried about the villain succeeding at their goals, and most players will know their RM isn’t prepared to arbitrarily kill their characters.

Also note that goals are not the same as plans. How the villain will go about getting what they want should be decided as the game progresses, but their most important desires should be known from the start.

Let’s say the villain wants power, that’s his defining characteristic. To get that power, he wants to take over the city of Seacon, and then expand his influence to the entire Great Islands! Figuring out how he plans to do that will happen as the game goes on and the players show the GM what they’re interested in.

Step Two: Give Them Power

A villain must be powerful, otherwise there’s no fun in defeating them. How does your villain influence the world? What nefarious obstacles can they throw in the PCs’ way? In this step, you must get a basic idea of what your villain can do. Extra abilities can be added later of course, as the player’s level up so does your villain, but the more you can get down at the start, the better. Note that these are not actual game stats; those will come later, if at all.

There are many different powers your villain can have, depending on the kind of game you want to run. Does your villain excel at hand to hand combat? Are they a master of occult sorcery? Do they control a powerful political machine? Some villains act almost exclusively through minions. Decide on the mix that’s right for you! One hint is to have a means of escape if your players ever corner your villain to soon. Like a ring of teleport just remember that whatever items you give the villain your players will most likely end up with one day.

What resources can your villain call on when they’re in a bind? Do they have any major lieutenants that need their own names and abilities? Knowing this ahead of time will make using your villain much easier, because you won’t have to pause the game to figure out what they’ll do next. You’ll already know that their first instinct is to release the hounds so to speak, and that they only go for their sword of death rays as a last resort.

As much fun as this step is, it’s important not to go overboard. Give your villain too many powers, and it won’t be credible for the PCs to defeat them. Players should always feel like they have a chance, even if it’s a slim one. Otherwise they’ll get discouraged, and find some other way to spend their Saturday evening.

Step Three: Make Them Bad

Villains need to be bad, (unless your party is than your villain will be good) otherwise there’s no impetuous for the PCs to oppose them. Since stories thrive on conflict, villains who stay home and care for their sick parents aren’t going to cut it. They must have dastardly plans and selfish desires! They must disregard or actively hinder the well-being of others in pursuit of their goals!

Some of fiction’s greatest villains have been irredeemably evil. These enemies are scary because their thought process is so far removed from that of a decent human being that they become some sort of other. They are so malicious, they unnerve us despite not being real. If you make a villain like this for your campaign, then the PCs will soon be shaking in their boots.

At the same time, there’s a lot to recommend a more sympathetic villain, someone the players can more easily understand. No one in real life thinks of themselves as being evil, and bringing that realism into your campaign can help players invest in the story. There are great moments of drama to be had when the PCs look at a villain and ask if they are really so different.

It’s up to you were on this continuum your villain should fall, depending on the game you want to run. A hack-and-slash dungeon crawler might need an evil lich who wants to annihilate all creation, while a game of political intrigue should have someone with a bit more nuance to them.

Step Four: Give Them a Connection to the PCs

While you could probably get the PCs to oppose a villain who’s doing something bad in a context unrelated to them, it’s much more fun to make things personal. The villain should affect the PCs’ lives in a direct manner, otherwise the players may lose interest in the conflict.

PCs should be the center of any roleplaying, and that’s even easier to do if the villain is personally related to one of them. There’s also a bit of extra kick to a story about opposing your childhood friend or beloved sibling.

On the other hand, it can feel a little hokey to have a villain too closely related to the PCs. Instead, they can share something that’s important to both of them. Like that of polluting a local water supply.

It’s also possible for the villain to have a connection with the entire party. This can work even if they don’t know each other.

Step Five: Put on the Finishing Touches

The previous four steps have all been important under-the-hood decisions. They are primarily for you as the RM to know who your villain is and how to use them. In this final step, you add on the bits that the PCs are most likely to see. This is the presentation stage, where you try to impress your players with all the work you’ve done.

What does your villain look like? Because roleplaying games aren’t a visual medium, focus on a few essential details that will be easily remembered. You don’t need to describe an evil queen’s entire costume, but the coat that’s sewn from banners of her defeated enemies is pretty important. These details are a visual shorthand that will give your players an introduction to the villain. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even send contradictory signals. Perhaps the murderous serial killer has a kind, grandfatherly face.

You should also decide on a few mannerisms that will make your villain stand out from other NPCs. Do they have an advanced vocabulary? Do they always drum their fingers when speaking? Don’t go overboard on these, because you’ll have to roleplay them. A French accent is great, but only if you can actually speak in one. Unless, of course, your villain is supposed to have a bad French accent, which opens up entirely new possibilities.

This is also where you write down any necessary stats. Write down the stuff that your villain is most likely to use, and leave the rest for later. Even the stats you do record aren’t set in stone, but it’s good to have guidelines so your villain will stay consistent.

Once you’ve followed these steps, your villain will be ready to be unleashed upon your players while you cackle in glee! Of course, no plan ever survives first contact with the PCs, so you’ll need to stay flexible. But you’ll have a solid foundation upon which to build.

Bonus  

Have you ever wanted to have a drawing your character, or perhaps your a GM and have made a new monster and need a prop to show it off. all art in this blog post was made by Neil Anderson and artist that works at Manabu Games. that on the side does art for Roll-players and game masters. you can find out more about him and his art here Have your ideas turned to art 

      

How to handle Weather in any RPG Game

The problem:

Weather is never an easy subject. On its face, it looks simple, but let’s consider the real world that any game system would have to model. Weather is driven by Chaos Mathematics, which means that tiny changes can cascade into monumental consequences. A butterfly flaps its wings somewhere at the wrong place and time and you get different weather 2000 miles away and five days later. So the reality is difficult to reduce to a simple simulation, which is what you need for an RPG.

Of course, we’re not necessarily all that interested in accurately modelling real-world physics. It’s a game, and simulation verisimilitude can and should be sacrificed in the interests of play-ability as necessary. But even then, there are other problems that make weather a difficult subject to handle well.

Weather is a non-static system, where one day’s weather influences, but does not dictate, what happens tomorrow. That means keeping track of day-to-day events and ensuring that the trend, over many game seasons, reflects the climate that has been deemed by the RM to be appropriate to the geography in question, while still providing the degree of randomness that’s necessary to making it feel real.

Build Your Weather a Year in Advance

If the location of the story is going to be fairly predictable, then determine your weather a year in advance, or for as long as you think PCs will be in the region. (I once calculated weather for a whole decade because I was RMing a home base campaign.) This not only gives you an answer for every day of the campaign for a long period of time, but it helps you do this bit of campaign planning in one short sitting.

If the location isn’t predictable, you’ll need to create weather on a shorter term basis, or possibly mid-session.

Weather Should Affect Game-play

Make the weather affect the game. How does it impact the PCs? How does it impact their foes, locations, encounters, and plot points? If you’re going to put thought and effort into generating weather, then put it to use during encounters and situations.

Weather for pure flavor is great and is a minimum requirement. Use weather as another way to provide detail and description. Yesterday the smithy was where the PCs dropped off gear for repairs. Today it’s a wet and cold place because a chill wind is blowing rain under the awning and into the work area, and wide streams of water flowing off buildings and through the middle of streets makes everyone clutch capes and hoods tightly as they dash between places, leaving no room for identification, much less chatter.

It also is a good tool for generating hazards. Consider the risks of being cold and wet, the benefit of having the wind at your back, and the look of clear skies for direction. As a bonus, weather can be dropped anywhere outside and provides temporary dangers to make common routes interesting again.

Game mechanics for weather effects are good too. They present the group with interesting options. Is heavy rain coming? If so, should they chance the valley to shave a day off travel time, or take the ridge to avoid flooding, landslides, and other dangers?

So, while we all want realistic weather, please do consider in-game consequences your weather will presents to characters, encounters, adventures, and campaigns.

 Hear is one of the easiest weather systems to use till you work out your weather in your realm.

Step 1: before game day roll 2d10 one tells you the stating weather the other tells you the starting wind

 

Step 2: Every five candles of game time roll 1d100 use chart below.

          If 1d100 = 1or 100 roll of special event weather.

          If 1d100 =2-50   minus one from starting weather and wind total

          If 1d100 =51-99   add one to starting weather and wind total

1.     nice and sunny.

2.     lightly raining.

3.     raining.

4.     raining heavy.

5.     thundering and lighting while raining.

6.     hailing small hail.

7.     hailing large hail players take damage if not covered

8.     lightly snowing.

9.     snowing.

10.                        a blizzard take frost damage if not in shelter.

wind

1.     Blowing from the north.

2.     Blowing from the south.

3.     Blowing from the east.

4.     Blowing from the west.

5.     blowing from the north-east

6.     blowing from the north-west    

7.     blowing from the south-east

8.     blowing from the south-west

9.     not blowing

10.                        Changing direction every few minutes.

Special weather

1.     Animated clouds

2.     Aurora Borealis

3.     Avalanche, mudslide

4.     Ball lightning

5.     Crop circle

6.     Dust devil, water devil

7.     Earthquake

8.     Extreme temperature shift

9.     Flood

10.                        Raining Icicles

11.                        Colored rain

12.                        Meteor shower

13.                        Methane rain

14.                        Radiation

15.                        Raining animals, such as frogs or dead birds

16.                        Reverse magnetism

17.                        Solar wind

18.                        Sundog - illusion of multiple suns caused by ice crystals in the sky

19.                        Tsunami

20.                        Whirlwind

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