I'm Singing in the rain!... well trying to stay standing.

[garhkal]

Has anyone ever played a game where the elements of nature was a bigger factor in a battle than the enemy? Like say fighting with a gale force wind? Massive rain storm (or sleet/snow)?

What checks were being made to remain standing?
Vision/shooting penalties you used??
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[Bren]

Nope. Some quick thoughts...

• Weather could force a movement check (e.g. running, repulsorlift operation, ground vehicle operation, etc.) due to very high winds, rain, sleet, and snow.
  
• Seems you could use STR to remain standing in hurricane winds.
  
• Blindy rain or snow would provide additions to difficulty for targetting in line with the RAW for smoke, darkness, etc.
  
• Sand, debris, ice, and snow might require blaster repair, armor repair, computer repair, droid repair, repulsorlift repair rolls for the appropriate equipment to remain functional. Depending on the degree of the weather than might require a roll once per day or even more frequently. One could also increase the difficulty of the roll over time for prolonged exposure without the opportunity for full field maintenance. So Day 1 = Very Easy, Day 2 = Easy, Day 3 = moderate, etc.

[jmanski]

I'm thinking of a fistfight in a gale force wind... I suppose one would need to add a balance check each round. Perhaps failing the balance check means you slip or fall and adds to your melee/brawl difficulty.

This is an interesting idea, Garhk, and some good thoughts there, Bren.
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[Naaman]

I would think that the environmental factors could be resolved as free actions, assuming they affect all participants more or less equally. Failure of the check could result in a penalty to the declared action, or the loss of the action altogether, dending on circumstances.

[Downstrike]

dex checks prior to each combat round count against modifiers caused by weather on most other physical skills and attributes. So if wind has a negative effect of moderate [all physical -3D], a mod dex roll [TN 11 - 15] before initative means no negs, easy [TN 6-10] means -2D , very easy [TN 1-5] means -1D. If the neg mod kills the roll, they have to take extra time to up the dice pool.

And then there is the logical, a 12d dex PC trying to fly a kite in a hurricane is going to need an easy know or tech roll to keep from getting smacked by whoever is to the right or left of um.

thats just a quick but I haven't done weather in a SW game....might be time, thanks!

Cheers

PS Most of my players are prior service or still in so it's okay that we hit each other. Better than we talk to outsiders.

[Naaman]

Scratcin' my head at that last bit

[garhkal]

[atgxtg]

I've run stuff where the weather was the major obstacle.

In one Star Wars adventure the PCs had to fly into a planet that had very powerful winds, which forced the pilots to fly at higher speeds that normal just to counteract the winds. For instance, if the winds were at 100kph, the pilot would need to fly at 100 kph just to hover in place.

In another case there was a planet that had nasty ion storms which inflicted ion damage to ships flying through them, with the damage rating based on how fast the ship was travelling (the faster the ship moved the more charged particles it would run into during a round).

In other RPGs I once had some supers deal with a hurricane, and all sorts of related problems (storm surge, collapsing buildings, looters, 90 year-old lady who refuses to leave her beach-front house, etc.).

[mdlake]

Never have, though I've wanted to since reading Whiteout.

Just for a one-shot, though; most of the ideas I have for extreme weather only work when they can kill, at a table where punches are not pulled, and the players know and respect it. Otherwise, players will mistake dramatic weather for scenery, and reach for the popcorn. The players I know, while happy to buy the farm in a climactic battle, would object to dying in a climatic one.

Yes, weather can be a serious threat to life and limb, and knowing what to do about it is a skill worthy of respect. Yes, that threat has been made into dramatic stories--see "To Build a Fire." And yes, soldiers who die of dysentery or heat stroke on distant battlefields make a sacrifice every bit as meaningful as soldiers who take a sniper's bullet. Yet somehow losing to exposure instead of orcish hordes makes players feel like chumps.

[garhkal]

Wow.. if they are that 'shallow' that being killed cause the baddie managed to say edge them towards somewhere that when the wind kicked up it knocked them over the precipice, rather than being cleaved by said baddie, maybe they should go back to playing pc games with god mode enabled...
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[Raven Redstar]

Rather than having the weather outright kill them, I would have it put them in a sticky situation that they might be able to recover from. Luke got backed onto a ledge that he leaped off of to avoid going with Darth Vader. Falling out of a flying city should equate to instant death, but he managed to grab a hold of an antenna or whatever on the underside of the city.

garhkal is one of the GMs here who thinks it's better to kill his players than challenge their problem solving skills.

I'm sorry, let me correct myself, he's a GM here who feels if players aren't dying, then he's not challenging them.
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RR
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[Fallon Kell]

I've had great success with inclement weather. My player's character ended up in the downtown section of a costal city that was the focal point of an imperial land invasion to destroy a planetary shield, much like Hoth. Also passing through the city at the time was a hurricane, more massive and more powerful than any recorded on Earth. Since the city was deserted except for soldiers and mercenaries, the storm walls were not deployed, the dike burst and the city flooded with storm surge. The storm basically destroyed both armies, with a little help from debris raining down from the space battle that had just happened above.

I photoshopped together a picture of it from a photo of a storm, and a picture of New Alexandria from Halo Reach.

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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

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[garhkal]

[Fallon Kell]

[Bren]