This article is still Work-in-Progress!
You can use the rules below as-is, but please expect a (slightly) lower level of polish then from our usual material!
Weather, like your heavy rain and strong sunlight, are integral parts of Pokemon's identity. With the magic of automation, we can finally include these effects in a TTRPG context, and expand on them!
Weathers come in two varieties: [Weather] and [Intense Weather]. Standard [Weather] is made up of your standard inclement weather from the games: sun, rain, snow, etc., while [Intense Weathers] (called "Primal Weathers" by some) epitomize the Weathers set by the Super-ancient/Weather Trio in their Primal and Mega Formes. Our list is expanded to ten specific Weathers, all with Intense versions.
Weathers are Field effects, generally boxed into single rooms/airspaces (via Foundry’s region effects), though the Intense Weathers may be more expansive (perhaps conferring the standard weather to adjacent rooms).
There may only be 2 Weathers or 1 Intense Weather active in a Region at any given time. If a third Weather or another Intense Weather would be activated, the oldest respective effect is immediately ended.
Weather Type: Normal
Clear Weather demarks the natural weather of an environment, like standard sunshine or a mere drizzle. Provides no additional effects.
Weather Type: Fire
Sunny is the presence of harsh, overbearing sunlight, making fires burn hotter, and photosynthesis seemingly improving. Generally, Fire- and Grass- Types benefit from Sunny Weather.
Weather Type: Fire
Intense Heat is the supercharged sunshine that causes droughts - withering plants and dehydrating all that are present. Fire-Types benefit the most, although the effects on all other Types are more pronounced.
Weather Type: Water
Rainy is more typical of an intense tropical storm, as in the raindrops being liable to cause physical pain because they're so big and fast. Water-Types unanimously excel in rain, but their Electric archenemy finds it easier to deal with them.
Weather Type: Water
Intense Downpour is a storm of Biblical proportions. An absurdly heavy downpour that smothers flames and causes Trainers to regret not bringing their water wings. Extremely beneficial to Water-Types and strong swimmers.
Weather Type: Ice
Snowy consists of a fairly heavy flurry of snow, with the chill to accompany it. Ice-Types are quite content in the snow, and the cold has some knock-on effects that you may not expect!
Weather Type: Ice
Intense Snowfall might as well be the herald of a new Ice Age! Bone-shattering cold and shredding ice is the name of the game, and if you lack the Ice-Type, you're probably not going to be full of myrth and holiday cheer.
Weather Type: Rock
Dusty covers both sandstorms and dust bowls - generally windstorms with large amounts of particulate rock or minerals that aren't particularly fun to go through. Creatures who embody the Rock or Ground are at home here, usually, and is basically Snowy without the ice.
Weather Type: Rock
Intense Dust Storm, fittingly, can be best described by a passage from Children of Dune:
In the olden times, the birds were named for their songs. Each wind had its name. A six-klick wind was called a Pastaza, a twenty-klick wind was Cueshma, and a hundred-klick wind was Heinali - Heinali, the man-pusher. Then there was the wind of the demon in the open desert: Hulasikali Wala, the wind that eats flesh.
What fits the dust storm to end all dust storms, than comparing it to a demon? Truely, those not made of sand or stone are liable to suffer in its wake.
Weather Type: Normal
Foggy is pretty simple - a low-rolling, low-visbility wave of fog, obscuring vision as if you were inside a cloud. Notably, if you don't use normal ways to see and perceive, you might be at an advantage.
Weather Type: Normal
Intense Fog is something unparalleled, a truly oppressive and phobia-inducing soup that may cause one to struggle to even see their own hand in front of their face. This fog is so thick, you may even struggle to see silouettes in its walls. Predators and the clairvoyant are at their peak in these conditions.
Weather Type: Flying
Windy is the pretty obvious presence of high speed winds. If you lose your footing, you're likely to be picked up and thrown about! But, creatures adapted to the air are in their element with these heavy winds.
Weather Type: Flying
Intense Winds are, for many, completely unmanageable. Without decent aerodyanmics, you'd basically be helpless. But for the lords of the air, they might as well be unassailable in their "gale-force fortress".
Weather Type: Dark
Gloomy is that electricity in the air at dusk and twilight, the charge of life changing gears from day to night. And when the supernatural comes into play, the doors to witchcraft, demons, and the otherworld creak open to the plight of those that are unprepared.
Weather Type: Dark
Intense Umbra is a state beyond a mere Witching Hour. Indeed, the veil is thrown down and the supernatural runs amok. Woe be to those who befall the curses and misfortunes that await in the dark.
Weather Type: Poison
Smoggy is the presence of an smothering cloud of pollutants and toxins, which impede the functions and actions of most creatures. The artificial and those with immunities to the toxins are far more likely to take advantage of this enfeebling haze.
Weather Type: Poison
Intense Acid Rain consists of the showers that result from the polluted clouds growing too heavy and full. Unless you naturally thrive in poisons, this utterly corrosive rain can melt even the toughest of steel beams.
Weather Type: Normal
Shady is a bit of an unusual atmospheric phenomenon, consisting of any number of factors, such as pheromonal dispersion and atmospheric natural subliminal manipulation, that together ellict tension, confusion, and aggression in creatures. Creatures that are already ill-tempered or laser-focused become more ferocious in these conditions.
Weather Type: Shadow
Intense Enshrouding goes far beyond the mere manipulations of emotion, being a physical and psychic miasma that permeates everything inside and within. The stressors are so severe, reason becomes a distant hope in the wake of sheer brutality and desperation to survive.
Weather Type: Nuclear
Glowy is an odd sensation. The air feels "charged", full of energy and invigoration, but also it spurs tension and anxiety. One could say it's the most reasonable "danger" response, as this energy is uncomfortable to most creatures, and downright harmful with longer exposure.
Weather Type: Nuclear
Intense Radstorm really ratchets up the terrifying, all-consuming nature of the Nuclear Type, making it a truly opporessive and smothering weather to find oneself in. Particularly, Nuclear-Type creatures are supercharged here, making them almost terrifingly effective combatants against basically everything else.
Terrains are Field effects, boxed into a single space using Foundry’s region feature. However, unlike Weathers, Terrains only affect creatures physically touching a surface the Terrain affects (which the Grounded Affliction forces). Being suspended in the air or a liquid makes you immune to their effects, while all creatures underground are still affected. Some abilities allow creatures to be affected by certain Terrains even while they’re not touching the surface.
There may only be one Terrain active in a Region at any given time. If another Terrain effect is activated, the existing Terrain effect is ended and replaced with the new one.
Terrain Type: Grass
Increases the Power of Grass-Type attacks by 30%, reduces the damage of [Earthbound] attacks by 50%, and restores 3 Ticks of HP to creatures at the end of each Round.
Terrain Type: Electric
Increases the Power of Electric-Type attacks by 30%, and cures creatures of Drowsy and Nightmares.
Terrain Type: Psychic
Increases the Power of Psychic-Type attacks by 30%, and all Actions with [Priority X] and/or [Interrupt X] lose that Trait(s).
Terrain Type: Fairy
Halves the damage taken from Dragon-Type attacks and effects. Whenever a Minor Status Affliction would be afflicted on a creature from a source other than itself or a Major Status Affliction, they have a 50% chance to not be afflicted with that Minor Status Affliction.
Terrain Type: Bug
Increases the Power of Bug-Type attacks by 30%, and creatures without [Wallclimber] or the Bug-Type are Stuck and Hindered.
Terrain Type: Water
Halves the damage taken from Fire-Type attacks and effects. Creatures must use their Swim movement in place of Overland.
Terrain Type: Ground
Halves the damage taken from Electric-Type attacks and effects. Creatures without [Mud-Runner] affected by this Terrain are Slowed.
Terrain Type: Normal
Halves the damage taken from Shadow-Type attacks and effects. [Stage Change] and [Pseudo Affliction] effects originating from or targeting affected creatures have their durations increased by 40% (minimum 1).
Terrain Type: Fire
All Hazards and Rooms are removed, and new Hazards cannot be placed. Halves the damage taken from Ice Type attacks.
Terrain Type: Dragon
Super effective damage is reduced by 30%. Attacks made by Dragon-Type creatures have their Power increased by 15%.
All healing is 50% less effective.
All [Sonic] attacks have their Power and Range increased by 30%, and have their [Blast X] increase by +1 and [X-Strike] increase by +2.
Rooms are Field effects, boxed into a single space using Foundry’s region feature. Rooms are more universal than Weathers and Terrains; any number of Rooms may be active simultaneously, and few effects actually negate them outright.
All Normal-Type attacks become Electric-Type.
All [Wielded] and [Held] Items cannot be utilized, and the user cannot activate non-Passive effects of equipment or gear they possess. Actions or attacks that manipulate Held Items of others may still be used (such as Trick and Pluck).
The DEF and SPDEF stats of each Pokemon are swapped.
All creatures have one of their abilities Nullified, determined randomly (if an ability cannot be Nullified, another ability is selected).
All Type-based weaknesses, resistances, and immunities are negated. Effectiveness may still be changed separately by attacks and abilities.
All creatures' attacks and abilities that have a chance of causing an effect have that chance doubled.
All creatures affected by Charmed, Enraged, Taunted, Fear, Disabled, Nullified, Suppressed, and the effect of Torment are cured of those effects.
All [Set-Up] Attacks resolve their Set-Up and Resolution phases on the same activation.
All creatures’ [Stage Change] effects are overridden to be “0” while Zero Room is active.
[Sonic] attacks have their effect range doubled, have their effect durations increase by +2, have their [Stage Change] effects double in intensity, deal 25% more damage, and have their Accuracy increase by +20.
| Environment | Attack |
|---|---|
| Building, urban interior | Swift |
| Roadway, urban exterior | Tri-Attack |
| Abandonded/dilapidated building | Ominous Wind |
| Ancient Ruins | Ancient Power |
| Sandy, warm/lukewarm arid | Earth Power |
| Cave | Power Gem |
| Mountainous | Rock Slide |
| Grass, tall grass | Stun Spore |
| Long grass, brush | Seed Bomb |
| Forest | Wood Hammer |
| Tropical forest | Strength Sap |
| Freshwater (creek, pond) | Aqua Ring |
| Freshwater (river, lake) | Water Pulse |
| Saltwater | Brine |
| Underwater | Hydro Pump |
| Marshland, swampwater | Mud Bomb |
| Snowy, cold arid | Frost Breath |
| Tundra, taiga | Icy Wind |
| Area brimming with EM fields | Magnet Bomb |
| Area brimming with magical energy | Extrasensory |
| Volcanic | Lava Plume |
| High in the air | Air Slash |
| Outer Space | Meteor Mash |
| Ultra Space | Astro Sphere |
| [Terrain] | Attack |
|---|---|
| Grassy | Energy Ball |
| Electric | Discharge |
| Psychic | Psychic Noise |
| Misty | Dazzling Gleam |
| Sticky | Web Ball |
| Flooded | Liquidation |
| Mucky | Mudslide |
| Sanctified | Heal Bell |
| Scorched | Wildfire |
| Draconic | Drakon Voice |
| [Terrain] or Environment | Effect |
|---|---|
| Grassy | Drowsy 5 |
| Electric | Paralysis 5 |
| Psychic | Confused 5 |
| Misty | Charmed 5 |
| Sticky | -1 EVA for 5 Activations |
| Flooded | -1 SPD for 5 Activations |
| Mucky | -1 ACC for 5 Activations |
| Sanctified | Nullified 5 |
| Scorched | Burn 5 |
| Draconic | Suppressed 5 |
| Building, urban interior | Paralysis 5 |
| Roadway, urban exterior | Suppressed 5 |
| Abandonded/dilapidated building | Fear 5 |
| Ancient Ruins | Curse 3 |
| Sandy, warm/lukewarm arid | Grounded 5 |
| Cave | Splinter 5 |
| Mountainous | Splinter 5 |
| Grass, tall grass | Drowsy 5 |
| Long grass, brush | Drowsy 5 |
| Forest | Poison 5 |
| Tropical forest | Poison 5 |
| Freshwater (creek, pond) | -1 SPD for 5 Activations |
| Freshwater (river, lake) | -1 SPD for 5 Activations |
| Saltwater | -1 SPD for 5 Activations |
| Underwater | -1 EVA for 5 Activations |
| Marshland, swampwater | -1 ACC for 5 Activations |
| Snowy, cold arid | Frostbite 5 |
| Tundra, taiga | Frostbite 5 |
| Area brimming with EM fields | Confused 5 |
| Area brimming with magical energy | Burn 5 |
| Volcanic | Burn 5 |
| High in the air | -1 EVA for 5 Activations |
| Outer Space | Frostbite 5 |
| Ultra Space | -1 ACC for 5 Activations |
In addition to the Fire-Water-Grass Elemental core, a Rock-Ice-Ground Physical Pledge triangle and a Fighting-Dark-Psychic Mental Pledge triangle are slated to be added, with the following tentative effects.
Rock-Ice Pledge: For 3 Rounds, Normal-, Fire-, Poison- and Flying-Type Physical- and Special-Category attacks are one step less effective, and all creatures deal 20% more damage with Super Effective Attacks.
Rock-Ground Pledge: For 3 Rounds, all creatures gain the Rough Skin Ability as an Extra Ability, and creatures that already have the Rough Skin Ability as an Active Ability have its effect value double when activated.
Ice-Ground Pledge: The current Weather is set to Snowy for 3 Rounds. While this attack’s set Weather is present, all creatures that do not benefit from the Weather gain Splintered.
Fighting-Dark Pledge: For 3 Rounds, all creatures become immune to Fear, increase the default stage of the highest of their ATK or SPATK by +1 and DEF or SPDEF by +1.
Dark-Psychic Pledge: For 3 Rounds, all creatures gain the Moody Ability as an Extra Ability, and creatures that already have the Moody Ability as an Active Ability have the duration of the stages inflicted by Moody increase by +4.
Fighting-Psychic Pledge: For 3 Rounds, the user and all allies gain +2 default SPD stages and +40% to all of their Movement Scores (minimum 2).