I'm running flood season in about a week's time, and for the first session I want to go all out on the flood festival. I'd like to get some feedback on some of the events I've got planned during the festival. Here's the idea's I have so far
Opening ceremony. This is pretty straightforward. The flood season opens on the evening of the first rainfall. Each of the city's clerics casts Control Water at the pavilion. Of course Jenya is forced to use a scroll as she lacks the levels needed to cast the spell. People are surprised Sacrem isn't there to perform the rites himself. Kristoff lacks the resources to cast the spell even from a scroll. Embril exploits this opertunity to the fullest to promote Wee Jas and put down the temples of Pelor and st. Cuthbert
Hero's baquet: This is the opening party of the Flood festival. It is thrown by the Lord Mayor at his manor and all of Cauldron's most influential residents attend. The PC's, as well as the stormblades and Alec Tercival are invited as special guests. The baquet is traditionally a party to honour this years heroes, those that have done remarkable things for Cauldron. It's an opertunity for the PC's to meet the movers and shakers of cauldron.
The festival: I want to run several events organised by the Temple of Kord. Here's some ideas:
Archery contest. Pretty straight forward. Three attacks at targets 100 paces away. Whoever hits the highest AC wins.
A run through obsidian avenue. Start and finish lines are the temple gates. - not sure of the game mechanics I should use on this one.
A wrestling match - I'll use grapling rules to resolve this one. Perhaps whoever pins his oponent for three consecutive rounds wins.
I would like to have some more contests, as well as some mechanics to resolve them.
There's some independant contests as well. Drinking, pie eating, that kind of stuff. Anyone have any ideas (and mechanics?)
I want to include a bear wrestling match as well. The bear is well trained but ill treated. For one thing, the chain around its neck is way too tight. The poor bear is also malnourished. and it's cage is too small. The bear does not fight at its best. After a few rounds of wrestling the animal starts to bleed. After a few rounds more it gets into a pain-driven frenzy, and starts to attack the jeering croud.
There should probably also be some sort of a market or fair. Perhaps something where players can buy stuff that's normaly not available in the city. I'm not sure what kind of theme the market should have.
At night I'll have feasts in the taverns. Some of the taverns host minstrels and actors. I may do some foreshadowing here. Perhaps play out the legend of the demonscar or something. Any other ideas?
Well, thats all I could come up with right now. Any thoughts, comments?
Hero's baquet: This is the opening party of the Flood festival. It is thrown by the Lord Mayor at his manor and all of Cauldron's most influential residents attend. The PC's, as well as the stormblades and Alec Tercival are invited as special guests. The baquet is traditionally a party to honour this years heroes, those that have done remarkable things for Cauldron. It's an opertunity for the PC's to meet the movers and shakers of cauldron.
Great idea! I'm gonna steal this for my campaign, and use it to introduce the Stormblades to my party.
How about a Challenge of Champions? It is a combination of a riddle contest and a challenge for intelligent problem solving...
I don't know. I like some of the puzzles. They should fit into most adventures without too much hassle. The idea of a whole contest based around them does not sit well, though. I'm afraid they'll turn into a joke.
Great idea! I'm gonna steal this for my campaign, and use it to introduce the Stormblades to my party.
Now hold on... You can only steal something of mine if you contribute something yourself you hear...
Just kidding. Steal away.
:-)
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Just read the last one in Dungeon 108... if that's not your style. I played in one and mastered another and a good time was had by all, even though the roleplaying aspect took a step back to the solution finding inherent in the contests. (There are five different Contests published in Dungeon 58 - 108).
BTW: I will also adapt the "Heroes Feast" into my campaign, a marvelous idea to introduce further NPCs
Just read the last one in Dungeon 108... if that's not your style. I played in one and mastered another and a good time was had by all, even though the roleplaying aspect took a step back to the solution finding inherent in the contests. (There are five different Contests published in Dungeon 58 - 108).
Just to clarify: My issue with the challenge of Champions is not so much that they aren't put together very well, or they aren't fun to run or play.
I just can't come up with an in-game explenation why it would be held in Cauldron. There's no adeventurers or wizards gild. There aren't that may adventurers who would participate (the Party and the Stormblades, that's it). And Cauldron's pretty small-time as far as cities go.
It turns out that I have quite a bit to add on this subject, so I will make two posts... one for some basic Flood Festival tips (which you may disreguard, of course), and one for competitions and suggested mechanics.
I introduced the Flood Festival in our first gaming session, handling it like Christmas: the vendors were getting ready months in advance, ordering extra items for their warehouses, re-painting signs and store fronts, and an influx of street vendors and what not. Some of the PCs helped various groups in their preparations, as well.
By the time the festivities began, the players were all primed and ready to participate. I ran the bulk of the festivities before the events that lead the party to the Lucky Monkey. My group had a great time with the Flood Festival. They took the competitions so serioiusly that we actually spent time over two sessions for the competitions.
My first recommendation to all DMs is to have a good assortment of games that will play to each of the player's strengths. Throw in some musical-, joke telling-, and/or story telling competitions for the bards, and some flashy shows of magic for the magic users.
I think it's best to have the NPC competitors vary a couple of levels below and above the PCs in each event. The extra levels to the NPCs will give a challenge to the PCs, and the players will probably enjoy the victory more.
And I also like the Heroes Feast.
Here's one competition I used:
Dueling
Two contestants face off and roll initiative each round. The winner makes a single attack roll. The opponent then makes an attack roll to block. If the attack roll is higher than the opponent's block attempt, the attacker scores a hit. If the block attempt is equal to or greater than the attack roll, the attack missed, and then the opponent makes an attack roll, followed by another block attempt. Repeat until someone scores a hit. Each round ends when one person scores a hit, then roll initiative again. The first to get five hits wins.
If you want to make it more involved, you could allow two-weapon fighting vs. single weapon fighters with buckler shields (non-magical, of course). In this scenario, you could rule that the attacker must at a minimum hit an AC 10 + Dexterity modifier + Shield bonus to AC. That way, if one contestant has more attacks than his opponent can block (the number of blocks a contestant can make equals his number of attacks), the attack may miss because it didn't meet the opponent's AC.
I will post more later, but that's it for now.
I like the idea for wrestling. I think that maintaining a pin for three rounds is perfect.
Remember that festivals have a theme. Harvest season has the reaper and thanksgiving stuff. All hallows eve has costumes. Etc. Flood festivals would have everybody carring festive umbrellas or parisols. Colors of storms(grey, smoke, fog colors), as well as colors of after storms(rainbows, sunbeams through clouds etc.) Remember the gods of weather at this time too, and what would please a storm god. How about people on stilts dressed as storm giants??
You may want to look at Tournaments Fairs and Taverns, (I think its called that), anyhow it has some events you could run, and the rules for them all, including archery, wrestling, drinking and various other events. Off hand I cannnot remember who published it, and my copy is MIA, maybe I will take a look around for it and give you some more ideas
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You may want to look at Tournaments Fairs and Taverns, (I think its called that), anyhow it has some events you could run, and the rules for them all, including archery, wrestling, drinking and various other events. Off hand I cannnot remember who published it, and my copy is MIA, maybe I will take a look around for it and give you some more ideas
Print edition is from Mystic Eye Games, PDF is from EN World Publishing
As everyone was quite enthousiastic about the Heroes Feast (formerly Heroes Baquet) idea, I thought I would do a write-up of the event.
I've described all the key participants, as well as their short and medium term goals. Take note that the following was written with my campaign in mind. It may differ from the official take on the NPC's.
Following the participant's I will include a flow of the evening's events. Expect it tomorrow.
The Stormblades
Annah Taskerhill
Strikingly beautiful, allways knows exactly what to say. Used to getting her way. She has her parents (especially her father) wound around her little finger. She spends an extrodinary amount of time smoothing over wrinkles between other members of the stormblades. She's not easily provoked, but has a knack for holding a grudge for an amazingly long time.
Cora Lathenmire
Cora is rather crude and aggressive by nature. She tries to hide this behind an expensive private education. The effect is that she comes off extremely haughty. She talks down to almost everyone. If provoked, though, she may very well fly into a blind rage and attack whoever provoked her. She dotes on Zachery, and tends to be jealous if she feels someone is invading on her territory
Zachery Aslaxin II
Zachery has, to the great pride of both his parents and Cora, recently joined the temple of Kord. He finds the teachings of Kord much to his liking but has to get used to the discipline demanded from its priests. He enjoys the company of Omar, the Temple's high priest.
Todd Vanderboren
There is little love lost between Todd and his Parents. Or between Todd and Cora and Zachery for that that matter. Whenever he gets into a social situation he cannot bluff or smooth-talk his way out of his has the terrible habit of insulting whoever is standing between him and his goal.
Goals: The stormblades feel the PC's are stepping on their glory. After all, they where to be the main guests of honour at this feast before the party showed up. Although they attempt to act polite in public, they will try to provoke the party into acting inappropriately. They intend to demonstrate the PC's are nothing more than a bunch of crude peasants that happened to get lucky. If he gets wind of Jenya's discomfort, Todd will start to tease her mercilessly.
Omar Tiskinsen
Omar is the high priest of the temple of Kord. He is extremely exited about tomorrow's events and keeps talking about them. He is also full of stories about last year's events.
Goals: He considers his recent 'acquisition' of a member of Cauldron's nobility into the temple of Kord to be a master stroke. Understandably, he isn't too pleased with the PC's overshadowing his own aprentice's success. He isn't going to let it show, though. Instead, he'll try to get the party to enter in his temple's events during the flood festival. He hopes the stormblades will upstage the PC's there.
Jenya Urikas
Jenya is nervous about being here, as these functions are usually the providence of the st, Cuthbert's high priest in Cauldron, Sarcem Delasharn. She feels intimidated by the wealth and influence that surrounds her at this event. Her confidence and authority completely evaporate in this setting.
Goals: Jenya's goal is surviving through the night. She doesn't know exactly how to behave around the wealthier and more influential guests and tries to avoid them. She clings to Alec most of the time, relying on his experience in these events. She will step in if tensions between the PC's and the stormblades or other guests escalate.
Sir Alec Tercival
Sir Alec is the only one to have been invited to this event as a guest of honour for the second time, although his achievements are much less spectacular than the party's or the stormblades'. Being of noble birth, he also has some experience in the finer points of etiquette that usually surround these functions. He accompanies Jenya most of the evening, comforting and assuring her.
Goals: The loss of the Tercival Estate has hit Alec hard. His relationship with the other noble houses has become strained as a result. They no longer consider him a true member of the nobility, although he still holds the Tercival titles. If tempers rise, Alec is likely to chose Jenya (and therefore the PC's) side
Alec was contacted by the Chisel a few days ago. A meeting has been set up in Redgourge for the following evening. Alec does not know the Chisel yet, and is anxious about the meeting. He has told Jenya only that he has business in Redgourge he needs to attend to, but hasn't mentioned the Chisel. He informed Sacrem of the meeting through a sealed note he left on this desk.
Embryl Aloustinai
Embril is the most powerful person in the room, both as high priestess of the biggest cathedral in the city and as the person with the most personal power. She feels she is above the so-called heroes being honoured here tonight and will not be bothered talking to them.
Goals: Embryl is here as a personal favour to Lord Valhantru. She and the Lord-Mayor are the only ones in the room who know of his true nature. She spends most of the evening talking (wispering actually) to him. If the opportunity arises, she pesters Kristof Jurgensen.
Kristof Jurgensen
Kristof became high-priest to the shrine of Pelor two months ago. Both his superiors died in a storm that collapsed the roof of the shrine on top of them. Pelor's followers have been dwindling in numbers ever since, and Kristof is struggling tot keep the followers' numbers from dwindling even further, but his inexperience doesn't help.
Goals: Kristof finds the circumstances of his superior's deaths suspicious and suspects that the cathedral of Wee Jas is behind it. He has tried to seek justice through the mayor's office and the city watch, but to no avail. He has changed track recently and is now trying to seek financial backers to rebuild the shrine. Hopefully this will attract some of the followers the shrine has lost in the last few months.
Mauvu
Mauvu is a pleasant man with a quick wit and a ready compliment. He's quite the lady's man. He is keen to talk to the 'younger folk' (the PC's and stormblades). He claims they keep him young.
Goals: Mauvu is a member of the Chisel. He knows Vhalantru is the power behind the throne. He suspects the Vhalantru and / or Embryl are involved with the cagewrights, but isn't sure to what extent. He knows of Alec's meeting with the Chisel tomorrow evening and is quite amused at his discomfort. Mauvu is always on the lookout for capable adventurers to send out on missions for the Chisel or his own ends. If tempers rise, he's likely to follow Alec's lead, if only to win his trust for tomorrow evening.
Lord Vhalantru
Lord Vhalantru is a minor noble and adviser to the Lord Mayor. He is a pleasant enough man, and much more approachable than the mayor or any of the other noble families. He makes quick conversation with the PC's and the stormblades, but seems to be otherwise preoccupied.
Goals: Vhalantru is the power behind the throne in the city. The feast is his idea. It gives him the opportunity to keep an eye on new adventurers. He approaches both parties requesting the use of their services when the city needs it.
Severen Navalant - the Lord Mayor
The Lord Mayor is self-important man. He speaks with a drawl and tends to think in moral absolutes. He quickly makes his rounds at the beginning of the party and then retreats to talk to the other noble families. During his rounds he spends significantly more time talking to the stormblades than the PC's. After all, they are nobles.
Goals: These kinds of functions are a thing the lord mayor would rather do without. Still, they are part of his duties, and he plays the host as well as he can. If tensions do escalate, the mayor will probably chose the noble's (and therefore the stormblade's) side.
Terson Skellerang - Captain of the Guard
Kaptain Skellerang has a commanding posture. He speaks in crisp, sharp sentences and never uses more words than necessary. He keeps an eye on the party during the entire evening. He's courteous enough in public. In private, he will make it quite clear that he doesn't appreciate their meddling in his affairs.
Goals: Kaptain Skellerang received a lot of flak for the Guard's inability to stop the kidnappings. It was quite humiliating that a band of rookie adventurers had to step in and save the day. Of course, it doesn't help that the party also helped arrest 3 members of the town guard that were dressed up as members of the last laugh. He would not mind seeing the party put in their place at all. He won't actively play a part in the affair (he has his position to consider, after all), but he won't lift a finger to stop it either.
Noble families
I intend to use them as a backdrop rather than NPC's the party will interact with. Especially since the PC's are more likely to interact with their children than with the parents. If you do intend to use them, take the write-up from foundation in flame. The names and source of influence are noted below. Just in case.
Taskerhills: Own lots of plantations in the Cauldron area, personal friends of the Lord Mayor
Lathenmire's: Weapon traders and merchants. Recently made minor nobles. Want to move up in Cauldron's noble circles.
Vanderboren: not sure about this family.
Aslaxin: Own much real-estate in Cauldron. Competing with the Taskerhills for the position of most powerfull family in the city.
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Looks good, except the nobility trades are a little bit out. The Taskerhills are headed by Lord Ankhin Taskerhill. They own mines in the mountains and manufacture and ship obsidian furniture and knick knacks to the northern cities (Dungeon 113 Foundation of Flame page 59), The Vanderborens are self made commoners to nobility from being real estate tycoons (as above page 60) (they also own and run the Lantern Street Orphanage), the Aslaxins are art dealers (non-obsidian) and don't get along with the Taskerhills (page 61), and the Lathenmires aren't part of Cauldron's nobility (page 60), although they could be Sasserine nobility.
I finished the flood festival sessions last week. It turned out to be a pretty involved and succesfull couple of sessions. I managed to introduce a lot of important NPC's. The first session centered souly aroudn the heroe's feast. The party did some great roleplaying. I'm very satisfied by the way it turned out. In the next session I ran the first day of the flood festival. The PC´s participated in a lot of the competitions, including a race through cauldron and some of the ´fair´activities I described above. I managed to intoduce different perspectives on some of the NPC´s the party met the previous evening. In all, I'm very satisfied.
I ended my previous session with Sacrem's sending. The PC's are going to rush out to the luckey monkey next session. I'm also going to have an extra player next time, and I want him to play an NPC that can accompany the players to the lucky monkey. I was thinking of either Alec Tercival or Ruphus, both of the Church of st. Cuthbert. As it is, I prefer Ruphus, as Alec is in Redgourge when Jenya recieves the sending. Is there anyone I missed that I could use as an NPC?
On a related note, I'm thinking of changing the location of the Kopru ruins to something else. Has anyone else done this? what did you change, and how did it work out?
Chef's Slaad, great work here! I also like the idea of the meeting and the festivities. If you have the time I would like to expand this even further perhaps coming up with possible stalls, foreshadowing events, games etc
Let me know
Delvesdeep
Chef's Slaad, great work here! I also like the idea of the meeting and the festivities. If you have the time I would like to expand this even further perhaps coming up with possible stalls, foreshadowing events, games etc
Let me know
Delvesdeep
Well, I allready ran this session, but I would love to help you out. Here's a few ideas:
Foreshadowing:
The Flood Festival is a great way to set the PC's up as rivals to the stormblades. Whatever even they're participating in, make sure one of the stormblades are in it too. And the stormblades should come up one or two positions above the pc's in most events. During the umber hulk rampage in Zenith Trajectory, The PC's where more concered with beating the umber hulk before the stormblades than with saving the citizens of cauldron. Now that's rivalry!
I would also sugest introducing Alek Tercival during the flood festival. Position him as a paragon. It makes events in The Demonscar Legacy a lot more powerfull.
Tax increases: this is a set up for the tax riots in DL. Have the mayor increase the gate-tax for all the visiting merchants. The extra taxes are due to the extra patrols due to increased bandit activities on the road to Sasserine. As an added bonus, this is also a lay-up for events at the lucky monkey.
stalls
Have lots of fruit and foodstalls. To me, cauldron has always had a bit of a tropical south-east asia kind of feel. You know, like Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesia. Life pretty much takes place on the street in those countries. Walking through some of the cities there, you can literally pass a dozen foodstalls on a trip to the nearest shop. Go nuts on the type of food on offer. From the exotic (kobolt kebab) to the undefinable (I don't know what it is, but it tastes like chicken - kinda). And of course any type of fruit you can imagine. Pineaple, melon, liches, dates, djaga-fruit, durian, berries, you get the idea.
Markets: put similar stalls in the same area. A couple of wool merchants on Ash Avenue and you have a wool market. A few woodworkers on Lava Avenue and you have a carver's corner. Other likely merchant types are spice, copper (hammered bowls, artwork, masks helmets, plates, cups, etc.) cloth and clothing, rice, shoes, jewelry, birds, etc.
Events: Betting comes to mind. How about cockfights, dogfights etc. I mentioned bear wrestling in an earlier post. You could also include wrestling and perhaps even knife-fighting as events.
I would include a few major events during the day. I mentioned a swim across the lake, a cauldron marathon (a lap accross obsidian avenue) and some other athletic endevours.
Other options could be a religious procession, a show or play, a Pamplonan running of the bulls type event (Running of the velociraptors...? ouch), a staged naval battle on the lake, a drumming and firework show to drive out the rain-spirits. You get the idea.
So much for my brainstorm. Let's see if we can come up with a few more ideas, or elaborate on a few of the sugestions here.
Creative Director
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This is good stuff!
I'd originally intended to put in more events surrounding the Flood Festival in the adventure, but had to cut it down to a few brief sentences. It's good to see that you all are taking the Flood Festival back to what it was intended to be. :)
In the hardcover edition of Shackled City, I was able to reinstate several sample Flood Festival events (a drinking contest, a swimming contest, street performances, merchant sales, and a costume ball). Take this thread and those in hand and you'll have enough festivities to last several game sessions! Yay!
praise indeed!
I just scanned through Dungeon 223's campaign workbook (June 2005). There's a hundred different stall in there you could drop into cauldron. And just when you need it too eh :-)
Fantastic! Ideas aplenty :) I have also have that copy of Dungeon handy so I will have plenty of opportunities to flesh out the city, the NPCs and the party themselves.
Delvesdeep
This is a great old thread too full of cool ideas about Flood Festival events
OK...I'll stop now. I got a bit excited :)
Delvesdeep
I was just thinking, there are a lot of great threads out there. Why don't we make a list for the benefit of the entire forum, linking to each of them?
Great idea Chef....any volunteers to put it together (hint, hint) :)
Delvesdeep
Chef,
Like many others, I am borrowing your Heroes' Feast idea for my group. In one of your posts you sketched the main participants and their motivations, and said you would follow up with an outline of the evening's events. I don't suppose you would mind sharing that outline?
Cheers.
I never wrote up the outline, so unfortunately, there is little for me to share. I would, however, advise you to read up on Delvedeeps's excellently written adventure.
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Thanks Robert. It won't be the first idea I've borrowed from you! (I found your language rules and real estate prices of great practical help, and plenty of other stuff from your site good reading too. Thanks again).
You're welcome, friend. I'm glad that I'm able to help inspire ideas. To follow up, here are some of the adjucation rules I used for some of the events: (Its important to remember that for my purposes, no magic (spells or items) is allowed in any of the events. The Academy representatives use wands of Detect Magic to determine if anyone is "cheating."
(DM to use common sense with how many NPCs actually have a legitimate chance of winning - those are the only ones worth scoring - for the others, just narrate their failures/successs)
SWIMMING: Simply have the players/NPCs make 5 Swim checks. Add them all up. This is the first leg of the race (to the check point before returning.) Then roll 5 more and add them up for the return leg. Anyone with Endurance feat adds 2 to each of the rolls for the return leg.
FOOT RACE: The first fourth of the race, all those with movements of 20 fall out of the race. The second fourth, all those with 30 feet without the run feat or endurance feat. The third fourth, all those with 30 feet regardless of feats and those of 40 ft without any such feats fall out. If there are more than one person left in the final leg of the race, have each roll a DC 10 CON and a DC 10 DEX check. Those who succeed on BOTH continue. Those who failed fell behind and cannot win. Increase DC by 2 and roll again - once again those who make both continue. Continue to increase the DC by 2 until only one is left. If no one succeeds then just use the best result of those remaining.
ARCHERY: Over 50 hopeful archers show up for the contest. Three rounds of competition. Round 1: (Overall aim) Targets are placed 50 ft away, and 6 arrows are shot. (Make 6 D20 attack rolls. Add up the total modified attack rolls.) Round 2: (Speed Aim) Targets moved to 100 ft. Contestants get 18 seconds to fire arrows. (3 rounds). Those with Rapid shot can fire 6 arrows (albeit slightly less accurate); those without only get 3. Once again roll D20 attack rolls (adjusted for range of certain weapons). Add up all attacks and add to total from round 1. Round 3: Extreme Aim. Target moved to 200 ft. Contestants get 1 minute to study where target is and then blindfolded. Those without Blind Fight Feat are at -4 to hit (do not roll miss chance as the competition is merely trying to see HOW CLOSE one gets to the target - not whether or not its missed). Roll 1 attack roll modified for range and add to previous running total. Winner has the highest amount.
DRINKING CONTEST: More than 150 contestants showed up for the first day – pounding back the cheapest and roughest tasting liquor around. Among some of the notable drinkers are Cora Lathenmire, and Lord Vhalanthru. More than 50 contestants never made it to the end of the night without passing out. Among those who could no longer compete was Lord Valanthru who admits that although he enjoys imbibing a good drink, he admits he has not the stomach for it and is admittedly a light-weight. Contestants make a series of 5 Fort Saves DC 10. To advance to day 2 they must make 3 out of 5 checks. On the second day the DC is 12 as the liquor is stronger. Must make 5 checks - must make 3 of 5. 40 of the 100 remaining contestants fall from the competition. On the third day, the liquor is stronger. DC is 14; must make 4 out of 7 rolls. 30 of the remaining 60 fall from the competition. On the fourth day, the liquor is even stronger! DC is 16. Must make 4 out of 7 rolls. 20 Of the remaining 30 fall from the competition. On the Sixth day, only 10 people remain. The liquor is very strong. DC 18. Rull Fort Saves - after failing three checks, they pass out. Continue to roll until only one is left.
Robert
This thread details some other info on Flood Festival events, for those that are interested.
Hi,
I made a rowing contest, crossing the lake on a small boat, archery contest, running contest on obsidian avenue, wrestling contest and a non lethal duel contest.
I used the monk (disguised) from strike on shatterhorn for the running contest, she won but don't collected the prize, the even arcane archer for the archery contest and the drow (disquised) for the duel, I also used the half dragon half minotaur from an earlier adventure, some foreshadowing, some silver medals, fun....and now the cusp of sunrise is waiting.