I spent a long time trying to find a way to randomize weather for my tabletop games. Floating around online is a pretty looking hex flower involving rolling 2d7 and while it's nice, I didn't find the complexity to be worth it. Below are the rules for weather I use, and how to tailor them to your own use.
Every day a roll of 1d6 is made on the following table. If the result is higher than the current weather, increase the current weather by one. If it is less, decrease it by one. If the result matches the current weather, roll 1d6 and the weather will not change for that many days. Seasons may cause a +1/-1 to this roll.
1. Clear*
2. Clear
3. Clear
4. Cloudy or Windy
5. Light Weather
6. Heavy Weather
Light weather reduces visibility by 20’ and increases the chance to become lost in the wilderness to 2 in 6. Heavy Weather reduces visibility by 40’ and increases the chance to become lost in the wilderness to 3 in 6.
In play this table gives a realistic weather pattern. The results of Light and Heavy are purposely vague, Implying a sandstorm in the desert, rain in the forest, or snowfall in a tundra. You may want to expand more with specialized weather depending on location, like ashfall near an active volcano, or a particularly hot day in the desert requiring characters to drink more water that day. I would use the 1 result for this special result, keeping it rare. Let's walk through generating a month of weather;
First roll 1d6 for where we start the weather this month
1st of April - 4 (Cloudy)
Then roll 1d6 and adjust the result. We rolled a 5, so we increase the previous result of 4 to a new result of 5.
2nd of April - 5 (Light Rain)
The next day we rolled a result of 2 on the die, meaning we shift the weather down to 4.
3rd of April - 4 (Cloudy)
The next day we rolled a result of 4, matching our current weather. We then roll 1d6 again and use the same weather for that many additional days, rolling a 3.
4th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
5th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
6th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
We will continue this method for the rest of the month. The dice roll is recorded in parentheses after the weather result.
7th of April - 3 (Clear) (2)
8th of April - 2 (Clear) (2)
9th of April - 3 (Clear) (4)
10th of April - 3 (Clear) (3) (2)
11th of April - 3 (Clear)
12th of April - 2 (Clear) (1)
13th of April - 3 (Clear) (3)
14th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (6)
15th of April - 5 (Light) (5)
16th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (3)
17th of April - 5 (Light) (6)
18th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (1)
19th of April - 5 (Light) (5)
20th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (3)
21th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (4) (3)
22th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
23th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
24th of April - 4 (Cloudy) (4) (4)
25th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
26th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
27th of April - 4 (Cloudy)
28th of April - 5 (Light) (6)
29th of April - 6 (Heavy) (6)
30th of April - 5 (Light) (3)
We find that the weather doesn't change dramatically, This month was mostly cloudy, started and ended with rain, but did have a week of clear skies. A roughly realistic result that only took ten or so minutes to roll up. If you end up using this table in your own games, let me know how it works for you.
Very simple and clean, thank you!
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