The lands
Desert weather for your tabletop campaign
Sand, stone and glare: blazing days, nights that turn cold fast, dust storms on the horizon, and the rare rain that comes all at once as a flash flood.
Through the year
Averages from a year of Skyscribe's weather in typical the desert. You can set how high, how far from the sea and how far from the equator it lies, and the weather follows.
How it sounds at the table
A few days from that year, as Skyscribe describes them to read to your players. No two days read the same.
The caravans move in the dark hours and halt by midmorning, the drivers asleep under awnings strung from the loads, for the sky is cloudless and furnace-hot. A north breeze cools the sweat on brows and necks, a small mercy, gratefully received. The worst of the heat is passing, and the land lies scorched and exhausted.
Light runs over the wastes in patches as the cloud breaks and closes, and the party never seems to be in it. Sunburn starts on the back of every neck before noon, and every tent line hums in the west wind.
The sky is so clear and blue that the travelers keep stopping just to look at it, and the air is balmy. The day is warm enough to make the butter soft, and a gentle little northwest breeze keeps the flies moving.
What to watch for
The hazards that come with the desert. When the weather makes one likely, Skyscribe shows the risk and lets you roll to see whether it strikes.
- Flash flood
- Dust devil
- Mirage
- Snakes and scorpions
- Wells and streams run dry
- Locust swarm
Villages and cities
Put the party in a village or a city and the scene and the writing move into the streets, styled to suit the desert.
A dry, clear light lies over the village, so clear that a goat on a far ledge can be counted by its horns. The air is pleasantly warm. The warmth sets the crickets going, and a constant breeze keeps on out of the west. Every rain barrel in town is dry, and folk tap them hopefully as they pass.
Rare sights
Keep an eye on the scenery. Now and then something unusual turns up in the picture, and a few sights are rare enough that most players will never see them.