Weather
Weather can play a major part, especially on the North American plains, where the temperature can have a yearly variance of 150°, where tornados and blizzards can appear from seemingly nowhere, where the wind can start start at the great divide and not stop until the eastern seaboard.
Prior to the start of the game the GM (if there is one) should turn a card to determine the weather effect for the game. The result of the weather check should be kept secret from the players if possible...after all, who can really predict the weather that well? Effects are as follows:
| Weather Table | ||
| Suit | Value | Effect |
| Spades | A-K | No weather effects |
| Clubs | A-K | No weather effects |
| Diamonds | A-6 | Poor weather, immediate |
| Diamonds | 7-K | Poor weather, delayed |
| Hearts | A-10 | No weather effect - check again after card number of turns |
| Hearts | J Q K | Extreme weather develops - see below |
| Severe Weather Table | ||
| Summer Effect | Winter Effect | Game Effect |
| Pounding rainstorm | Blinding blizzard | All targets at 4" or greater distance become Class III automatically, beyond 8" targets cannot be seen. Close Combat as per normal. |
| Extreme heat (105° F) | Extreme cold (-40° F) | All morale rolls at -1; wounded figures left alone will die in four turns |
| Freak cold snap | Chinook | Disaster in disguise - treat as extreme heat/cold for 1d6 turns, at which point the weather will flip. In summer, treat as pounding rainstorm. In winter, all terrain becomes rough, wheeled vehicles will get stuck on 6 (1d6) each move. Roll 1d6 per figure attempting to extract the vehicle, 6 gets it moving again on the next move phase. |
The Sword and The Snow