Bastion's Metroclimate

This was touched on in a previous age, but it's worth stressing that conditions in Bastion are never quite fine. There's always something to complain about, and weather is a favourite. It's always changing, and people are always surprised by this fact.

These periods of change are rarely clean. Sometimes you get the worst of both worlds, or some new unexpected side effect arising from their mingling. This is Bastion, you can't just say "it's raining". Everything is complicated.

Roll 2d20 to see what things are changing from/to. 

1. Baking: The kind of heat that just stops things happening. Nobody wants to work, and those that must are driven to sweaty exhaustion. If it's bad then some adhesives start to melt, causing actual structural damage. If it's really bad then gum will start to melt, ruining pockets and souring moods across the city.
2. Damp: Water just sort of hangs in the air, hardly able to be called rain. Somehow everything is wet all the time, and all the slugs, worms, and amphibians treat this an an open invitation to your home. 
3. Foggy: Light up the lamps all you like, it almost makes it worse. You can't see further than your hand, and you've got rely on klaxons and bells to get around. Everybody takes this as a personal invitation to send out their own signals, causing a cacophony that leaves us just as blind as we were in the first place. If you can get high enough then you might get some respite, but most just lock themselves in and wait for it to blow over. 
4. Smoggy: Everything that's bad about fog, but you've got somebody to blame and the risk of significantly shortening your lifespan if you go outside. This causes mass gatherings in bars, community halls, and even clandestine Underground locations. Modern weather brings out modern solutions: mobile breathing tanks, macro-filtration systems, toxin electrolysers. All services provided at a fair cost, of course. There's a sense of injustice hanging in the fumes. Anybody that owns any sort of industrial enterprise will be tightening up their security or preparing a public statement. 
5. Misty: Fog leaves you stumbling blindly, but mist merely conceals the truth, twisting through the streets in waves. You know where you should be, but you're somewhere else. Perfect for getting lost or getting murdered. Dogs and other canines start to go a bit wild. 
6. Pollinic: Remember, the city is alive. Not literally (well, depends who you ask), but it's overrun with flora and fauna, and the former have a habit of conspiring against those of us with allergic conditions. When this is on a Bastionian Scale, nobody is safe, and Mass Pollination Events cause rushes on pharmacists and temples alike. Worse than the physical symptoms is the general irritability of everybody. At these levels, violent crime increases proportionately with the pollen count. 
7. Blustery: Sure, it's a bit windy, and then WOOSH. A chimney here, a tree there, umbrellas comically blown inside-out. Nothing disastrous to begin with, but the real problem comes later on. Who has actual legal ownership of this chimney that just crushed a locomotive? Now, how would the compensation be split by the cooperative that was restoring said vehicle? This weather draws out the solicitors, and you'd be surprised how much paperwork gets blown away in all the chaos. 
8. Stormy: Rain, thunder, lightning, the works. At first it's all quite dramatic, maybe even fun! Then rolling thunder that shatters windows, ball-lightning setting up home in a communal garden, hailstones piling up on the ground. The floods come later, as rivers burst their banks. Filthy water leaving a miserable stain across boroughs. Periods of eerie calm hang between these outbursts, giving victims just long enough to get themselves half-dry before the onslaught continues. 
9. Muggy: Humidity and insects, two foes that modernity believes it can fight. We have electric fans, of course, and chemical pesticides, but it's a genuine war. In a weird way, it brings people together. Huddle into your neighbours refrigerated bug-shelter, share stories of the most disgusting insect bite that you've ever suffered, and sip on anything with crushed ice and ginger. Haven't got that generous neighbour? Well, this is where things might get nasty. 
10. Brooding: The sky looms, strangely featureless. Blue? Pink? Orange? It's trying to tell us something... Yeah, it's alright now, but I can feel something in the air. Can't you? Yeah, I can definitely feel it. Something about the pressure rising or falling. We're in for something big. 
11. Drenching: None of the drama of a storm, just ongoing rain. Gets some down, others say it's good for the gutters to get a good wash out. Out of all the weathers here, when this one comes on you'd better settle in and get used to it. Get out your waxed coat and brace yourself. 
12. Grey: Almost a vacuum of weather. How do you even describe this? Not rainy, not sunny, not warm, not cold, not especially windy. What's notable here is the effect it has on people. Without any weather to complain about, it's inevitable that some huge social fills the void. The spark of a revolution might happen in a heatwave or harsh winter, but this sort of weather gives time to dry the wood, prep the kindling, and start a genuine inferno. 
13. Close: A sort of heat where the air feels dense. Not so much with humidity, but just dense with itself. Movement feels sluggish, and you always feel like somebody has their hand on the back of your neck. People are driven to seek solitude.
14. Dark: Seasonality is strange in Bastion. Sure there's summer and winter, but sometimes you just get a period that feels like the days are especially short or long. You could have sworn that it didn't used to get gloomy right after lunch time, but before you know it the city feels like it's in a perpetual twilight. Gloomy for some, but the nightlife extends to fill the darkness. Get the neon lights on, fire up the music, and let's put on a show. 
15. Bright: It certainly looks like summer, even if there's a chill in the air. Sunset feels like forever away, so people get outside and make the most of it. Indoor spaces are deserted, and sometimes it feels like a contest to see who can be the most outdoorsy. New clubs emerge as if from nowhere. The Free-Steeplejack Society, the Fruit Drier's Guild, and most meals evolve some sort of social/competitive element. 
16. Dry: The ground hardens, gutters clog, and the city almost feels like it stops moving. Canals are facing low waters, railway lines crack, and all the most popular vegetables are out of stock. We'll do anything for rain. Churches and weather-stations are packed, looking for answers. Just give us a drop. 
17. Freezing: The battle against ice begins, not long after the first few broken ankles. The streets are loaded with salted grit, furnaces pump out heat, and things just about stay moving. It's a struggle, though, and people do their best to keep spirits up with hot drinks and spiced food. You don't want to see what happens if enough boilers break, though. 
18. Snowy: Sometimes winter throws you a gift. A picturesque dusting of snow, covering all the muck and grime of the city at least for a while. Spirits are high, schools close, and people decide to be lovely to each other. It always starts like this, then as the streets turn to slush, people remember why they hate the snow. Things turn really quickly here. 
19. Moony: Sometimes the moon just gets real big and refuses to go away during the day, sitting proudly alongside the sun. This is used as an excuse for any number of things from strangely aggressive bird behaviour to a dissolution of various legal contracts that slipped in a lunar clause. It might not look like more than a cosmic curiosity, but it's a warning to keep your wits about you. 
20. Chilly: Can wind freeze? It feels like it here. Bitter, raking gusts that find every gap in your coats, scarves, and gloves. Well now it's become like a challenge. A few stay home by the fire, but most face it head on, brazenly proclaiming about how they're "getting on with things" despite the weather, and how they're "built for this sort of climate". Productivity and smugness rise in equal measure. 

Examples

3-14: Foggy to Dark

Most fogs lift into nothingness, but a particularly heavy cluster might just hang in the sky indefinitely, placing the city in a temporarily-permanent night state. For some, it's an excuse for debauchery, for others its the herald of the end times. Either way, the bars are open. 

6-5: Pollenic to Misty

A yellow haze weaves through the city, choking those exposed to its spores. Whatever plant is causing this, there's strong public call for extermination.