Weather ?

[taishon]

I have a question about a variant or rules addition that I am working up for possible submission to JTAS. I am a fan of simple, efficient rules that add meaningful realism, atmosphere to a session. Essentially, the 'metagaming' details need to be hidden from the players as much as possible but there should be enough rule detail to make the GM feel like he/she is adding some realistic complexity. As such I am coming up with my own rules concerning 'weather encounters'..mainly for earthlike planets but it can include extraplanetary events such as solar flares and even galactic events such as a core collapse that causes a galaxy spanning shock wave.
Ok..so does this blow-hard have a question you ask ? Yes ! The question is this..have you run across any weather variant/rules/supplements that you would recommend (ie- am I wasting my time coming up with my own ?)

An additional comment- why is Hydrographic percentage not related to a planet's gravity ? A planet with a stronger gravity should have a higher hydrographic than a low-g planet. A planet with 1/2 g should have many streams and estuaries and lots of avians while a 2 g planet should, on average have mainly islands with huge oceans and squat thingies. Any comments or criticisms of this logic ?
Thanx,
Taishon

 

[Ben W Bell]

Hydrographic is the overall percentage of surface water, not the volume of water. 70% could be all one large ocean with no water anywhere else, or it could be massive rivers every mile or two.

A planet covered in water that is only 2 foot deep would have a hydro of 100%, whereas a planet with a ocean 5 miles deep but only covering a quarter of the surface would have one of 25% despite being a lot more water. I cannot see how gravity would have any real affect on the hydrographic figure other than one with very low gravity wouldn't really have any as it couldn't sustain an atmosphere and the water would all evaporate off or freeze.