The lands
Swamp weather for your tabletop campaign
Fens, bogs and slow rivers under drifting mist: warm and damp, with rising water, sucking mud and clouds of biting insects.
Through the year
Averages from a year of Skyscribe's weather in typical the swamp. 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.
Under a clear sky the swamp is loud by evening, bullfrogs booming by the hundred, and the still water turns gold with the sunset. Butterflies sun themselves on the stones in the warmth, and a good west breeze keeps the party moving.
A summer storm blows up out of a clear morning, and the rain hisses on the hot stones. It is furnace-hot, and water goes warm and sour in the skins. Pack mules lean against their loads and blow, and the muleteer has run out of new curses.
Thick fog sits on the land like a sleepy cat, and voices come out of it with nobody attached; a few dozen paces is as far as anyone can see. Soft fog makes the air smell of wet bark, while a stray feather drifts past on the northwest breeze.
What to watch for
The hazards that come with the swamp. When the weather makes one likely, Skyscribe shows the risk and lets you roll to see whether it strikes.
- Rising rivers
- Bog and quagmire
- Biting insects and fever
- Tornado
- Falling trees
- Spoiled supplies
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 swamp.
A thatcher whistles up on a roof ridge, with the whole village spread out below, and the sky behind him is deep, even blue. Insects hum in the warm air, and hat brims lift and settle in the light west breeze. A peddler with a tray of ribbons and buttons works the street, calling out his wares in a voice like a gate hinge.
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.