30 Years of Weird - Local Color

[The Green Adam]

Okedoke everyone, from the mind that brought you 30 Years of Weird-Strangest Campaigns Ever http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=195775 , comes 'Local Color'! What is it you say? A thread describing items, food, holidays, customs or similar elements of your campaign that have no bearing on fights, xp, raising levels or any of those other silly things that make up a RPG campaign.

Here's the format:

Local Color Item Name
Campaign name, Game World and/or System.
Description and notes

Feel free to use any of this in your campaign and please, please post your own...

Here goes...

Khlava
Traveller
A pumpkin colored beverage from the Vland Sector served hot or cold and made from the roasted seeds of a barley like grain plant. The grain is sadly not edible. Most people describe the taste as bittersweet. Solomani (Humans from the Sol System) often add a sweetner and some form of cream. As you've probably guessed Khlava is the Vilani version of coffee. Humans from Vland and Humans from Earth can get into very heated arguements about which is better. Khlava is not nearly as high in caffiene which some think is a benefit, though many Earth starship captains disagree.


Drakkenheim Festival
Dungeons & Dragons - Numerous Homebrew Campaign Worlds
A festival in the large town/small city of Drakkenheim that celebrates the slaying of a Dragon. The event enabled a minor noble to found the town. Festival highlights include Jousts, A Dragon Tail Cooking Contest (inspired by a fiction story from Dragon Magazine) and a show of local artists. The noble was the young knight who slew the dragon. Er...in truth...he never slew it. He tricked it into using a magic item in it's hoard on itself. The dragon is still asleep in a large room beneath the castle. Heheh...just waiting for someone to screw up and wake it.


The Smiling Bantha
Star Wars
In the town of Mos Espa is a tavern for people who think the cantina in Mos Eisley is too upscale. It's called The Smiling Bantha and in the back lot of the place is one big, smelly, ugly, really-really old Bantha. He's been there for years. The story goes that once, after a bounty target threw a grenade at Boba Fett, it landed near the Bantha and let out a strange gas. The Bantha made a weird expression and after Boba Fett caught his opponent he mentioned in the bar that the Bantha smiled when the job was done. The bar owner immediately went out back, found the Bantha's owner and bought the beast. Renaming the place, he took bets on whether or not a challenger could get the Bantha to smile again. He's made a good deal of credits over the years. The only group of pirates, smugglers and mercs to make it smile are now regulars and have been nicknamed 'The Smiling Bantha Gang'. So pull up a stool, grab a glass of smoldering green liquid and try to make a dull witted beast crack a grin. After speaking with the leader of the gang, try it with the Bantha.

 

[The Green Adam]

The Sylvan Veil
Ars Magica, Dungeons & Dragons
Somewhere in the northwestern forests lies the realm of the Wood Elves. It is essentially inaccesible by anyone other then a native. The region is protected by a mysterious, invisible 'wall' that stretches for miles to an unspecified distance. Contact with this 'wall' transports you to a deep wood where you emerge into a clearing miles north, back where you started or you simply wake up on a troll fell (burial hill) in the south. Legends say that passing through the veil wearing nothing but the color green might let you through. Others mention that wearing your clothes inside out or backwards will get you through. No one save the Elves are certain and they rarely tell.

Captain Federation and the Heroes League United
Star Trek and eventually Champions
First created in the early days of the Federation as a character used in Starfleet recruitment posters and ads, Captain Federation later became a popular character for teen and young adult holovids, games and novels. While his popularity had petered out by the late 23rd Century, an attempt was made to revive him by teaming him with a team of Heroes from different Federation worlds. With the widespread use HoloSuites and HoloDecks in the 24th Century, the dear Captain and his allies returned to a sort of cult popularity.
Lt. Bronson Kinkaid of the U.S.S. Redoubt was a big fan ever since childhood, mentioning that he owned a complete collection of all the Capt. Federation paraphinalia ever made. He was especially proud of his set of action figures.

Omni O's!
Mutants and Masterminds
A popular children's cereal inspired by the handsome, young superhero Omni. In this particular world, many heroes endorse a special series of approved products whose proceeds go to fund city repairs, government sponsored hero teams and other more mundance charities. Omni O's are fortified with vitamins and minerals and they stay crispy in milk.

 

[Jacob the Impaler]

Eruthnyl Night
Dungeons and Dragons - Homebrew
Although Eruthnyl cultists are hunted down and lynched in most civilized regions, they exist in certain outlying communities and liberal trade cities who find use for them. These small cults don't consist of the murderers and boogeymen whispered of by children past bedtime, although they are all insane in some way. They show utter disregard towards laws less than murder, rape or theft and often frighten neighborhoods with their savage, unbridled revelry that may or may not be part of secret rituals.

One of the reasons they are not extremely persecuted is their annual festival, Eruthnyl Night. The festival actually spans two or three nights and includes spectacles that draw brave and wild revelers from miles around. The festivals are crudely planned and usually descend into utter chaos. But one of the staples has been the mass public sacrifice of bulls. After the sacrifices, the meat is distributed for free until it runs out. Another draw are the cage fights, which have a few rules that are often thrown out after the first round or so. Deaths in these brawls are uncommon, but always a danger. Fighters of every shape and walk of life gather to get drunk and test their mettle in the filthy, bloody cages. Alcohol of every variety awaits in kegs, barrels and bottles along the streets. Women of ill repute explicitly advertise their services wherever there is a crowd. A few doomsayers admonish the debacle from a safe distance, the jeers they recieve only empowering them.

On most years, the revenue gained is significantly greater than property damage, and the temples have learned not to intervene outside of warning their followers not to attend.


Tidepool special
Dungeons and Dragons - Homebrew
Azik-takt, owner of the Whale Bone Tavern and a former kobold chief, offers traditional kobold delicacies alongside the standard fish, bread, cheese and beer. Daring patrons oder the tidepool special. It consists of a broth teeming with anything he scooped from a local tidepool that morning. Boiled starfish, steamed crab, kippered sea urchin, flavored kelp and anenome are among the things one can expect to find. On lucky days, he can salvage a large half of a clam shell to serve his masterpiece in. Those who finish the meal keep the clam shell as a trophy.

 

[The Green Adam]

The Great Triangle, Placeholder of the World
Dungeons and Dragons Homebrew World
There is a place in the center of the vast northeastern sea where the water falls in on three sides. This immense, triangular 'hole' is nearly the size of England and no one knows what's at the bottom or even if it has one. Many think it is a secret path to the heavens...or the abyss. While the truth remains a mystery, my players did find out that it was once a socket holding a great triangular stone. After finishing the construction of the world, the Gods couldn't decide or agree upon what to do with that last bit of creation. A placeholder in the form of a upside down mountain was put there until a decision could be made. Eventually the stone was removed but the area still remained unfinished. Now, many brave and mad adventurers try to navigate around the Triangle in hopes of finding fragments of the stone or reaching a legendary Dragon that lives on an island protected by the hazardous currents that drag ships into the Placeholder.

Magic 8 Ball
Champions
Bar and pool hall in downtown New York City near the Meat Packing District. Over the years the place has become a hang out of the superhuman set, with both heroes and villains relaxing after a hard day of beating the daylights out of each other. The owner of the bar is a mysterious fellow who looks like a perfectly normal, unremarkable man in his late 50's. However, anyone who tries to start a fight in the bar usually ends up on the receiving end of an invisible blast of unknown power. None powered heroes and robots often have difficulty finding the place and need their powered friends to bring them in. Super smart heroes believe that the meta-gene actually enables you to see the Magic 8 Ball.


Pepperthorn Juice
Dungeons and Dragons Homebrew World - My very first game ever
The halflings of the southwestern land of Summer Shire grow a rather interesting and incredibly spicy pepper simply called Pepperthorn. The plant is so named for the thorns growing on its leaves and vines. Extracting the juice of the pepper and preparing it correctly creates a potion that grants the imbuer heightened strength and endurance for several minutes. Drinking it isn't easy though and a saving through must be made as if it were poisonous. If you fail and can't reach and drink water quickly, you pass out for 1D6 rounds. Halflings from the region save at +4. My very first character, thirty years ago, was the son of a Pepperthorn farmer traveling to find his father who never returned from bringing Pepperthorns to the King of the nearby Human kingdom.

>Dude, both are cool but I'm definitely using the Tidepool Special soon. lol<

 

[Blackrat]

Flaming Green
Dungeons and Dragons
Halfling-made cheese with extreme amounts of curry in it. It has a faint green colour and its smell can make any non-halfling nauseated. Non-halflings trying to eat it must make a saving throw or become sickened for 1d4 hours. Somewhy halfling metabolism can cope with it without any ill effects and only halflings actually find it good tasting.

 

[The Green Adam]

Flaming Green
Dungeons and Dragons
Halfling-made cheese with extreme amounts of curry in it. It has a faint green colour and its smell can make any non-halfling nauseated. Non-halflings trying to eat it must make a saving throw or become sickened for 1d4 hours. Somewhy halfling metabolism can cope with it without any ill effects and only halflings actually find it good tasting.

Odd the connection between halflings and spicy food. :\

 

[Blackrat]

Yeah. They are a weird lot aren't they. I have allways pictured them preferring foods that are almost unedible by others.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Festival highlights include Jousts, A Dragon Tail Cooking Contest (inspired by a fiction story from Dragon Magazine)

Pretty sure JRRT never submitted "Farmer Giles of Ham" to Dragon.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From my Midwood D&D game:

Tootenfest

This gnomish holiday involves a great deal of playing bagpipes, dancing jigs, giving of gifts (real gifts are hidden all over the community, gag gifts are given directly), eating lots of sweet foods, and playing games.

No one from outside the Barony of Midwood has ever heard of Tootenfest, and it’s suspected that Rubik, Lord of Wit's End, made it up himself, but no one’s complaining.

 

[The Green Adam]

Pretty sure JRRT never submitted "Farmer Giles of Ham" to Dragon.

lol, it was another story - old issue, maybe late 80's or early 90's. A Dragon is slain and the local noble won't remove the carcass from this guys land. He decides to start cutting the dragon up and makes a pretty penny selling the meat even though he personally thinks it tastes aweful.