What real world Holidays have made it into you game?
- Thread starter Knightfall
- Start date
I've used Halloween of course, but have also incorporated Mardi Gras several times and a few years ago ran an AlQadim adventure centered around Ramadan.
In general I use the real world holidays when I want the players to have an intimate understanding of events relevant to the adventure without having to spend an hour lecturing them on something they don't care about.
In general I use the real world holidays when I want the players to have an intimate understanding of events relevant to the adventure without having to spend an hour lecturing them on something they don't care about.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Feeling silly one Yule session, I had Santa and his reindeer fly over the party as they were camped in a jungle. All the party sees is a red light (Rudolph) passing overhead, and what's their immediate reaction? They try to shoot it down!!! And one of them actually hits Blitzen...
Santa then lands nearby with silly gifts for some PC's (one, for example, got an extra letter in her name), more serious gifts for those who helped cure Blitzen, and lumps of coal (dropped from height as he left) for the shooters.
Other than that, "real" holidays don't crop up much in my game. I did once give a player a PC for his birthday (in the same adventure as Santa, come to think of it)...it was a PC he'd played in an old game; he was down a PC or two due to mishap, so with co-operation from the original DM we ported it over to my world and it just kinda...showed up.
About the only holiday that's become relevant in my game is something I call Skandigan, that happens about the same time of year as our Labour Day. Originally a Gnomish festival for their gods, over time it morphed into a great big Gnomish drink-up; other cultures thought this was a great idea, and adopted it. On more than one occasion, entire adventuring parties have been at minuses to their rolls when faced with an opponent the day after Skandigan, due to hangovers...
Lanefan
Santa then lands nearby with silly gifts for some PC's (one, for example, got an extra letter in her name), more serious gifts for those who helped cure Blitzen, and lumps of coal (dropped from height as he left) for the shooters.
Other than that, "real" holidays don't crop up much in my game. I did once give a player a PC for his birthday (in the same adventure as Santa, come to think of it)...it was a PC he'd played in an old game; he was down a PC or two due to mishap, so with co-operation from the original DM we ported it over to my world and it just kinda...showed up.
About the only holiday that's become relevant in my game is something I call Skandigan, that happens about the same time of year as our Labour Day. Originally a Gnomish festival for their gods, over time it morphed into a great big Gnomish drink-up; other cultures thought this was a great idea, and adopted it. On more than one occasion, entire adventuring parties have been at minuses to their rolls when faced with an opponent the day after Skandigan, due to hangovers...
Lanefan
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
I have made it a tradition to start each game in my Hawaiki (mythic Polynesia) campaign around the time of the Matariki New Year Festival - which is marked by the heliacal rise of Pleiades. The PCs might be on their way to a festival, leaving a festival or at a festival.
I have in the past had a Winter Yule Hunt in which a Druid in Boar form is hunted and slain and At the Autumn Equinox the Dark Hunter rides to gather the souls of the Dead.
I have in the past had a Winter Yule Hunt in which a Druid in Boar form is hunted and slain and At the Autumn Equinox the Dark Hunter rides to gather the souls of the Dead.
Knightfall
World of Kulan DM
Cool.Tonguez said:
I'm going to have my own Winter Yule Hunt. Thanks for the great idea.
KF72
Mighty Halfling
Explorer
I suppose this would be a good time to plug Johnn Four's new PDF -- Holiday Essentials!
Check it out, it's pretty neat. Johnn's the author of NPC Essentials, one of the best-selling RPG Pdf's of all-time.
http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=7673&
(Disclaimer: I'm listed as a co-author, but did very, very little (almost no) work for this one.)
Check it out, it's pretty neat. Johnn's the author of NPC Essentials, one of the best-selling RPG Pdf's of all-time.
http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=7673&
(Disclaimer: I'm listed as a co-author, but did very, very little (almost no) work for this one.)
