If you live in the US, you’re probably aware Sunday was Mother’s Day. I was mentally running through a list of the most important holidays in our country; they’re probably Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Valentines Day, etc. I think it’s a close call for 3rd place there, but I’d say Mother’s Day wins by a hair. Here in the South we have a saying: “Momma ain’t happy, ain’t NOBODY happy.”
For someone that isn’t a mother, I had a really great Mother’s Day. We had my mother and mother-in-law over for lunch, and of course my wife was there. My daughter and I combined our culinary skills and served up some fairly tasty tacos. The food was good. All the mothers liked their cards. And I made my wife a special gift--a new towel rack to go up by our hot tub. It was all a big success.
It started me thinking about holidays within the context of our game worlds. Pretty much every society has them, so it makes total sense to include them in our game settings. Yet I think back on my years and years of running games and can think of less than a handful of times I included holidays to any significant degree.
I distinctly recall when I swiped Old One’s “Emor” game setting WAY back in my early days at ENWorld; I stole his idea of the Harvest Festival along with it. The opening scene of the campaign had the PCs attending the Harvest Festival, and it came off really well. It showcased a lot of the NPCs from the town of Glynden, around which the game was based. It further established some of the personalities and relationships the players had invented as part of their backstory. The PCs also participated in some cool events that were tradition at the Harvest Festival.
This worked so well, I’m really disappointed in myself for not using it more often. There was an archery contest, some feats of strength, a Greased (as in the spell) pig chase, and plentiful beer from Nan’s Tavern. I think we GMs are constantly in search of fun ways to include uses for the PCs’ skills that aren’t necessarily combat related--and these kinds of festival events are perfect for that kind of thing. One of the players rolled a (lucky) 19 and won the archery contest, scoring himself some Masterwork Arrows.
But I think the real power of such events is in consistency and repetition. For example, one of the green recruits, Tiberious, recently inducted into the town watch, completely failed his roll in the same archery contest. But as the campaign went on, Tiberious became one of the heroes of the town, more than once risking his life defending her walls. A number of “councils of war” took place in Nan’s Tavern where beer was served at Harvest Festival time. The party Druid even lobbied to have the Greased Pig contest discontinued in exchange for his aiding the farmers in growing their crops. It became a real touchstone in the course of the campaign.
Why haven’t I done more of that in the years since? I dunno. I think sometimes my campaigns get too much in the groove of Go Go Go all the time (something I addressed in my recent column) with too much intensity around the adventure at hand, and I forget to have these interludes around festivals and holidays. You’d certainly think in any polytheistic campaign setting you’d have a bunch of them.
Keeping a calendar for my campaign settings is a huge help in keeping such events at the forefront of my mind. I’ve drawn up several by hand in the past. When I was feeling less creative, I used an old wall calendar from a previous year, repurposed for a modern campaign setting. I feel certain better tools have come along in the past decade; I’d love to hear any suggestions you folks have about them.
Populating such a calendar with celebrations is not just a good way to inject some vaunted verisimilitude into your campaign world, but also a fun way to get your players more invested in your campaign at the outset. I was talking to the esteemed Piratecat, who mentioned one of his players coming up with multiple holidays of the Halfling goddess Yondalla, including Pie Day and Lambing Day among others. I mean come on! You KNOW your players are going to have fun on Pie Day. Bring some LARP to the session and serve actual pie. Things like that help make your games really memorable.
Chances are I’ll be launching a new campaign sometime this fall. I’m already gathering some notes and resources for the endeavor. I’d be really interested to hear some of your ideas about holidays, festivals, and celebrations you’ve included in your games over the years. Which have been successful and why? Did they include pie?
For someone that isn’t a mother, I had a really great Mother’s Day. We had my mother and mother-in-law over for lunch, and of course my wife was there. My daughter and I combined our culinary skills and served up some fairly tasty tacos. The food was good. All the mothers liked their cards. And I made my wife a special gift--a new towel rack to go up by our hot tub. It was all a big success.
It started me thinking about holidays within the context of our game worlds. Pretty much every society has them, so it makes total sense to include them in our game settings. Yet I think back on my years and years of running games and can think of less than a handful of times I included holidays to any significant degree.
I distinctly recall when I swiped Old One’s “Emor” game setting WAY back in my early days at ENWorld; I stole his idea of the Harvest Festival along with it. The opening scene of the campaign had the PCs attending the Harvest Festival, and it came off really well. It showcased a lot of the NPCs from the town of Glynden, around which the game was based. It further established some of the personalities and relationships the players had invented as part of their backstory. The PCs also participated in some cool events that were tradition at the Harvest Festival.
This worked so well, I’m really disappointed in myself for not using it more often. There was an archery contest, some feats of strength, a Greased (as in the spell) pig chase, and plentiful beer from Nan’s Tavern. I think we GMs are constantly in search of fun ways to include uses for the PCs’ skills that aren’t necessarily combat related--and these kinds of festival events are perfect for that kind of thing. One of the players rolled a (lucky) 19 and won the archery contest, scoring himself some Masterwork Arrows.
But I think the real power of such events is in consistency and repetition. For example, one of the green recruits, Tiberious, recently inducted into the town watch, completely failed his roll in the same archery contest. But as the campaign went on, Tiberious became one of the heroes of the town, more than once risking his life defending her walls. A number of “councils of war” took place in Nan’s Tavern where beer was served at Harvest Festival time. The party Druid even lobbied to have the Greased Pig contest discontinued in exchange for his aiding the farmers in growing their crops. It became a real touchstone in the course of the campaign.
Why haven’t I done more of that in the years since? I dunno. I think sometimes my campaigns get too much in the groove of Go Go Go all the time (something I addressed in my recent column) with too much intensity around the adventure at hand, and I forget to have these interludes around festivals and holidays. You’d certainly think in any polytheistic campaign setting you’d have a bunch of them.
Keeping a calendar for my campaign settings is a huge help in keeping such events at the forefront of my mind. I’ve drawn up several by hand in the past. When I was feeling less creative, I used an old wall calendar from a previous year, repurposed for a modern campaign setting. I feel certain better tools have come along in the past decade; I’d love to hear any suggestions you folks have about them.
Populating such a calendar with celebrations is not just a good way to inject some vaunted verisimilitude into your campaign world, but also a fun way to get your players more invested in your campaign at the outset. I was talking to the esteemed Piratecat, who mentioned one of his players coming up with multiple holidays of the Halfling goddess Yondalla, including Pie Day and Lambing Day among others. I mean come on! You KNOW your players are going to have fun on Pie Day. Bring some LARP to the session and serve actual pie. Things like that help make your games really memorable.
Chances are I’ll be launching a new campaign sometime this fall. I’m already gathering some notes and resources for the endeavor. I’d be really interested to hear some of your ideas about holidays, festivals, and celebrations you’ve included in your games over the years. Which have been successful and why? Did they include pie?
