In my 3rd edition campaign I plan to set my adventures in Reikland during winter (possibly during the month of Ulric-Tide). I don't know if it snows in Reikland. It's farther south then most places in the Empire so would that mean it doesn't snow in Reikland? Does anyone know or have a guess?

lordsneek said:

I will say that snowy and cloudy weather is very common in Reikland in winter. The altitude is low, but it is a continental climate, so it will often be below the freezing point. You can put in a week or two with thawing and rainfall where roads and tracks get muddy and hinder the use of both wagons and sledges. Then, some days with snowfall and blizzard. Then, a week or two with cold and dry weather, where the use of sledges is perfect.

I'm trying to look up what areas of Europe match up with the locations of the Empire.

Geographically, Reikland touches Bretonnia, correct? So it's South-Western Germany (touching France).

Also, it's southern border touches a huge mountain range (Switzerland?).

There's a large river called the "Rhine" which kind of matches up with the "Reik". Heh.

So I guess find out what kind of weather/climate southern Germany has...

Perhaps use Wikipedia to look up cities like Munich? Stuttgart?

Climate change is so popular these days, so to be a bit scientific...

Let's assume that the weather in Reikland is similar to that of Central West Germany. Then, the average winter temperature will be around 0 degrees Celcius. In general, you will have some weeks with cloudy and windy weather with temperatures between 0-5 degrees during the day and around 0 degrees during the night (typical low pressure cyclones). Then, you will have some weeks with cloudless skies where the temperatures stays below the freezing during the daytime and drops to -10 during the night (typical winter high pressure). When a high pressure develops over Europe in winter it generally stays that way for at least a week (a cold dry wind from Russia).

Now, you can correct that a bit depending on whether you want to make the Reikland weather similar to the weather during the 'Medieval Warm Period' (800-1400 AD; in this case it should be slightly warmer and wetter) or the 'Little Ice Age' (1400-1850 AD; in this case it should be colder and drier) .

For instance, in the 17th century it was common to held winter markets on the ice of River Rhine! You could consider to let the River Reik freeze for a month.

Of course, on an annual scale there will be variations from year to year.

If you want it to snow... it snows! It would certainly snow in the area on occation, but would have nicer days to warm it up and melt it all a bit I would assume. So this means when it is not snowing, it would be wet and muddy [and the mud would be bonechilling!]. That is how I would make it any way.

I am glad it can snow in Reikland. Thanks for all of the replies. I was also wondering if the the core set has any information on the climate or geography of Reikland. The maps in my 2nd edition book are not very detailed and not zoomed in enough.

Can't help you in terms of weather, but this website has HUUUUGE maps of the Empire and all of it's regions:

www.warhammer-empire.com/library/guide/guide_index.php

Click on a region, scroll down to the bottom of the page and there will be links to massive images.

I would go with snow. Anything that is miserable (especially cold) fits well

Plus, having lived in crappy cold climates (Minnesota, South Dakota, and Colorado) leaves me wishing that all shall suffer like me!

jh

Yeah, Warhmmer is a dirty gritty place. Make sure it snows during the winter for even more miserable existance atmosphere.

Having lived in some pretty cold, snowy places (Upper Peninsula of Michigan), I wonder how people stayed warm and didn't lose all their fingers and toes back before they had nice synthetic fabrics to make good gloves and such out of.

NewTroski said:

They didn't.

NewTroski said:

About 5000 years ago the Independence people lived in northern North Greenland (80 degrees North), where noone lives today. There was no sun for five months, winter temperatures were around -30 to -40 degrees Celcius, and summer temperatures were rarely above the freezing point. However, there was really warm inside their huts because they used oil from seals and whales in their oil lamps.

I was arsing about with a weather table for a winter scenario, and thought it might be worth posting here:

Weather: Roll 2 challenge dice

Effect: In the depths of winter in the foothills of the Grey Mountains, the weather is harsh and can change suddenly.
Special: The GM should add F and M depending on the previous roll (shown in brackets) and at his discretion. Add M at night. Add Ms for higher altitude.
No Challenge: Cool (FFF)
C: Cold, unprepared and ill-equipped characters gain M on physical checks (FF)
CC: Chill winds, characters gain M on physical checks.
CCC: As above but very cold, characters gain MM on physical checks. Fatigue gains one extra fatigue. Characters take 1 dice environmental damage. (MM)
CCCC: As above but extremely cold, characters gain MM on all checks. Stress gains one extra stress. Characters take 2 dice environmental damage. (MMM)
Bane: Light snow, Observation, Ranged, gain M
Bane: Chill gusts and drifts.
Bane Bane: Heavy snow, Observation, Ranged, gain MM
Boon: Clear
Boon Boon: Bright, still, Observation gain F
Chaos Star: Storm, strong winds, gales. All checks gain MM, characters take shelter or take 1 environmental damage
Chaos Star Chaos Star: Horrific storm, lightning and blizzards, falling trees, floods, etc. All checks gain MMM, characters take shelter or take 2 environmental damage

I think that when were talking about climate of Reikland You can base on some Europe counties like Poland or Germany this would be the Empire in our world. So the snow is ok, sometime the winter can be very cold even -30 degrees Celcius. And Autums are very windy and with a lot of rain.

Hello there,

as i stated in an earlier post, i live in Germany, what clearly is the Empire in the Old World. Two things are proof of this: If you compare an european map with a map from the Old world, so you will see that the Empire and Germany are pretty much the same, as you correctly said. Second, the names used for towns and npcs are clearly german. Most of the names arent totally common today, such like "Karl Franz" or "Dietrich", but "Klaus" for example is a common name. I can assure you, that we have some strong winters here in Germany, last year there was snow, cold wind and so on. The temperatures start to fall at -10 to - 15 °, and often there is a phenomenon called "Blitzeis" (sounds great, but is awfwul if you are driving with a car when it happens) where wet streets become icy within minutes. The winters arent as cold as in Chicago or the northern US states, but its cold and not very nice. So i can assure you, the winter months in the empire arent very funny, and thats also because of an icy east wind blowing from Kislev ( Russia / Poland ).

For further questions you can ask me :-)

greetings,

Sky

The whole Empire, though based on The holy Roman Empire, and have its map form based of Germany, is propably much bigger then the whole of Europe (the warhammer world is somewhat bigger then ours, at least from the last I read about it from an GW interview).

In the Time of Legends Series, when you read about Sigmar and how he came to be, Reikland seems to have climate that is a meld between Germany and France actually.

NewTroski said:

This is going to sound like a stupid question, but does anyone have any links to the effects of ice cold on something like culture so I could translate that into game features?

Coming from a very warm climate (it's sunny about 320 days a year) I have never seen snow, or really don't know much about cold weather - so it's hard to relate.

froo said:

Where I am it is going to get down to 23F tonight. So personally, I think this isn't a real question on your part, so much as a way to BRAG.

I don't have a specific source, but I have read that one reason the Norse mythology was so fatalistic was in part due to the dreary weather.

I went to school in a place where you pretty much didn't see the sun from October-April. The school counseling center had special UV lamps because some people become badly depressed when they don't see the sun for an extended period of time.

From my experience in living with places with a lot of snow: It can be fun to go sledding/skiing/skating/etc. but overall the snow is a pain in the rear. You want to go to the corner store? Go start your car then take 5-10 minutes to de-ice it. That's assuming you already shoveled out your driveway. This doesn't translate directly to WH of course, but doing stuff when it's really cold and snowy takes extra time, since you have to put on the proper clothes before you go out and get the snow out of the way. It also takes more effort, since you're wearing more stuff, you're pushing through the snow, and everything becomes soaked/ built up with ice. It's also more expensive, since you have to buy more clothing, you might need to convert your coach to have skis instead of wheels, and that stuff really isn't useful at other times. So yeah, snow = more time, more effort, and more money

People native to a cold climate like that usually can't take the heat - over 90F and they start whining about how hot it is. My dad used to say, "You can always put on enough clothes to stay warm, but you can't take off enough clothes to stay cool."

Aye, the suicide rates in Scandinavia attest to the fact that awful weather leads to awful things.

Take a look at this article and scroll down to the section about seasons (just under a map of the US of A) - emedicine.medscape.com/article/288598-overview

In part this is already in game - those awful Norsemen, raiding the sunny southern countries, driven to desperation and madness by living in such mind-blasting conditions (and I don't mean just the weather).