I love dice, I own a ridiculous number. Sometimes I wonder if I love dice because I roleplay, or if I roleplay because I love dice… Anyway, let me tell you about my favourite, the humble weather dice.
When GMing I always keep a weather dice handy. Unsurprisingly, I use it to roll up random weather. As a resident of Scotland, its equal chances of generating fog, sun, rain, snow, storm or a bit cloudy; feels authentic. If I’m rolling it in a location which actually has some consistency in its climate though, it’s easy enough to adapt the roll to fit. Before I roll I decide what the most likely result should be, and if the dice rolls something inappropriate I just swap for that. Snow in a tropical rainforest? Swap for rain. Rain in a desert? Well, it does happen sometimes, maybe I’ll roll again and let it rain if I roll rain again. Otherwise, Sun. It’s maybe not a particularly accurate model of anything, but it’s fast and close enough.
Useful as that is though, that’s not actually the primary purpose of my ever-present weather dice. I like to keep it in front of me to remind me to add detail to the scene. What does the forest smell like? Who else is in the shop? Is the sky changing color as the sun lowers? Remind the players of the eternal thrumming of their spaceship’s engines. These are the sort of details which can turn a dry plod into an atmospheric delve or a samey fetch quest into a memorable adventure.
There’s also a third use where I occasionally roll one to find the mood of an NPC. It’s more useful than rolling 2d6 and trying to figure out what a mood of “9” is.
So yes, all my dice bags include a weather dice. I recommend it!
Ominosity 