So one of my players recently complained that, while they're enjoying both parts of the campaign - IE, the adventuring and the kingdom building - the two parts have felt a little too disjointed for him. He doesn't really have a feel for what his character's role, as Baron, might be. So I thought it'd be fun to take a break from the adventuring side of things, and have a few sessions where the PCs just do in character kingdom interaction.
The basic setup is that the PCs are throwing a festival - Erastil's Harvest Feast to be precise - as a backdrop to some diplomacy (they've invited several delegations - a Mivoni trading barge, Baron Varn and his retinue, a group of Aldori swordlords from Restov, and a delegation from Kyonin, as the baron is a forlorn elf who wants to reconstruct ties to the Viridian Crown.) So a part of the diplomacy will be selecting the proper level of decorum and activities for the festivities, which I'm treating as a kind of interactive event. (The PCs are also dealing with the two distinct group of their citizens - the rough and tumble River Folk, and the slightly more refined, if dour, Brevic colonists that they initially brought with them.) If the PCs manage to please a particular group, they'll gain some temporary (or perhaps permanent) bonus to their kingdom stats.
With that in mind, I drew up the following rules, which I thought might be helpful to someone else out there. (Hidden behind a tag because it's rather long):
THROWING A PARTY
Rules for Festivals
In order to have a successful festival, you must plan the events and budget the details of the festival exactly. Your kingdom has been gathering resources for festivals on a yearly basis, drawing from a pool of Consumption points already accounted for each month (hence, the festival will cost you nothing from your treasury.)
A festival consists of four basic elements:
• Location: Where the festival will be celebrated – throughout the kingdom, localized in one city, in every city (but not every hamlet)? The more spread out the festival is, the higher the cost of the festival, but the more people will be affected.
• Food: What kind of vittles can the folk at your festival (generally) expect to have available?
• Propaganda: How will the festivities be advertised – through word of mouth, or will there be criers and announcements in every street corner?
• Activities: Activities provide discrete entertainments and events for the festival goers, to keep everyone occupied.
Budget: Your budget is measured in festival points (FP). You cannot draw a negative pool of festival points. You can acquire more festival points by digging into the Kingdom’s Treasury, however. You can withdraw 1 BP for 4 additional fp.
Your current allocated budget for the festival is 16 FP. Note: I calculated this based on the number of Festivals per year. Since they have 6, which is 2 consumption points, I figure they gather 24 BP per year for festivals, which is 4 BP per festival. And using the 1 BP = 4 FP rubric (which I figured from the roughly 1 BP = 4,000 gp rule), you get 16 FP.
LOCATION
Before beginning to plan the festival, you must decide where the festival will be held. Select one of the following:
• Capital City (1 FP): Holding the festival in Lelarin centralizes the festival and forces those in outlying communities to travel to the city. Not everyone in the Kingdom is likely to make it to the festival, however.
• All Cities (4 FP): You can instead choose to hold the festival in all of your cities, simultaneously. This will increase the number of people exposed to the festival, but more preparations must be made.
• Everywhere (6 FP): The last choice is to celebrate the festival throughout the entire kingdom. Preparations will be made not just in Lelarin, Leveton and Candlemere, but in every manor and hamlet in between.
FOOD
The next step is to plan what kind of supplies will be available for your people to purchase. Select one of the following:
• BYOF (0 FP): You’ve chosen not to supply any foods – people must make do with whatever’s in their pantries and stores. Not the best way to throw a party, but times are lean…
• Street Vendors (2 FP): You’ve hired dozens of street vendors and brought in supplies from the outside to sell fruits, meats and breads off of mobile carts. Not very healthy – or classy – but people love their finger foods!
• Halls and Kitchens (4 FP): A clear upgrade from street vending, these temporary tents hold ovens and kitchens where food can be prepared fresh for your visitors to dine upon. The fare won’t be much better than what you find at a common inn, but it’ll be hearty and filling – and folk will have places to actually sit.
• Food Faire (8 FP): Showcasing some of the better local cuisine, you’ve invited culinary masters from around the region to partake in your festival. They’ve brought the freshest produce, best cuts of meat, and masterful equipment, to provide your people with a gourmet dining – and breakfast and lunch – experience for the duration of the festival.
PROPAGANDA
Your citizens need to learn about the festival, otherwise how are they going to get there! Select one of the following:
• Word of Mouth (0 FP): You trust that rumor and word of mouth will be enough to get the people to come and attend.
• Rumor Mill (1 FP): Well, maybe you’ve paid an innkeeper here or there to plant a rumor yourself. You won’t promise anything you can’t deliver, but it doesn’t hurt to work up some of the excitement yourself.
• Town Hall Announcements (2 FP): Hiring a few criers couldn’t hurt. Let the people know directly what the plans for the festival are going to be!
• Advertising Blitz (4 FP): A modern day (or prior day?) P.T. Barnum. Everyone in your kingdom – and some beyond – will know there’s a festival brewing.
ACTIVITIES
Having decided the basics of the festival, the final task is to select from a range of activities to complete the festival. You can select up to three events per city district that the festival occurs in (based on your choice of Location, of course).
• Banquet (3 FP): A feast held for a select group of individuals. Regardless of the Food level selected, those invited to the banquet will react as if you’d selected the highest grade.
• Bazaar (4 FP): An open-air bazaar of tradesmen and trade goods. Tends to appeal to those commercially minded.
• Fencing Tournament (4 FP): Setting the stage to test contestant’s skills with one particular type of weapon – sword, club, mace, axe, staff, etc. Tournaments tend to bring in and entertain those who appreciate martial skill at particular arms.
• Games (3 FP): Simple carnival games, meant for all levels of skill. One of the simplest forms of hands-on entertainment.
• Hunt (2 FP): An organized hunt allows a select group of individuals some face time with the nobility, as well as the opportunity for excitement in the selected game. Appeals to those adventure-minded who don’t mind getting dirty.
• Joust (8 FP): Setting the lists, claiming a prize, and testing the strength of your people in battle! A known crowd pleaser and favored of the nobility.
• Magical Display (2 FP): A simple light-and-magic show. Fun for the whole family.
• Melee (4 FP): Testing the strength of arms of a nation is best done through the melee, a free-for-all fight in a controlled arena. Appeals to the bloody minded.
• Menagerie (8 FP): Exotic beasts from the wilds and beyond, caught, caged, and displayed for all to see. Appeals to children, academics, and those with an adventurous spirit!
• Mummers’ Troupe (3 FP): Hiring mummers to stage plays and farces throughout the city. These plays tend to be simplistic and aimed at pleasing the common man.
• Parade (1 FP): From a military march to a parade of organizations in your city, the parade is a good way to show national pride.
• Religious Service (2 FP): A religious or cultural service to mark the occasion. It strengthens cultural bonds and appeals to those traditionalist among your citizens.
• Stage Play (4 FP): Putting on a stage play is complex business – from setting the stage to acquiring costumes – but these complex works of art, often including music of some form, appeal to the nobility.
• Street Performers (1 FP): Hiring a few dozen street performers in order to keep the visitors entertained – from jugglers to street magician to poets and comics. Simply walking around the streets of your city will be a pleasure.
We haven't playtested it yet, but the math is more or less solid. Each of the groups they're catering to has certain Likes and Dislikes, and interactions that occur with them in a particular location will be impacted by those Likes and Dislikes. The festival itself will be mostly RP, with some opportunity for skill checks which will impact how the groups react. (Similar to the 4E Skill Challenges, but nowhere near as limited or structured).
I'm also looking for ideas for more activities, if anyone can think of some.
Big events like this are also occasions to show off your city's cultural achievements. Is your city clean? Does it have a sewer and are your city's roads paved? How about public baths?
Showing off monumental architecture is also a big part of something like this. Think the Eiffel Tower at the Worlds Fair, the Statue of Liberty, or how the Chinese bulldozed half a city to build stadiums for the Olympics.
There's also security. Have you rounded up the local rif-raff, or are your guests going to be dodging pickpockets and beggers all day?
Good call, Firest. I should definitely account for those variables.
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While I like the idea of FP and the stuff it can do a lot, I wish there was a bigger mechanical effect on what the picks actually *did*. What is the big difference between having the Festival in the Capital as opposed to the whole country? If it's just an RP thing, then what does it matter which options the players choose?
I'd, personally, suggest something along the lines of temporary bonuses. Maybe a 'successful festival' check at the end, with bonuses based off of where they placed their FP. If they had a good festival, they get a +1 to kingdom rolls or something for a month.
I don't really know all told, I just think there needs to be something more as a result of what they pick with their FP.
While I like the idea of FP and the stuff it can do a lot, I wish there was a bigger mechanical effect on what the picks actually *did*. What is the big difference between having the Festival in the Capital as opposed to the whole country? If it's just an RP thing, then what does it matter which options the players choose?
I'd, personally, suggest something along the lines of temporary bonuses. Maybe a 'successful festival' check at the end, with bonuses based off of where they placed their FP. If they had a good festival, they get a +1 to kingdom rolls or something for a month.
I don't really know all told, I just think there needs to be something more as a result of what they pick with their FP.
There will be, actually. I suppose I wasn't clear in my initial description.
Each group that they're trying to "please" (if you will) will give them a bonus (or a penalty, if they really screw things up) based on what the group is. For example, IMC, the PCs have invited the following delegations:
* A crew of traders from Mivon, led by a Mivoni swordlord.
* The Swordlords of Restov that have so far been backing them.
* Baron Varn and his entourage
* A delegation from Kyonin
There's also their own citizenry, which I split into two groups: the country folk and the city folk (right now, their population is split 50/50 between cities and "rural" hexes.)
The idea is that they have to impress each of those groups with their festival. So, for example, if they decide to have the festival only in their capital city, then the rural population will not be affected by the festival much, whereas the city folk will feel doted upon. Staging a sword tournament will draw the affection from the Swordlords and the Mivoni trade captain, whereas choosing a magical display instead will please the Viridian Crown. And so on.
I haven't detailed the bonuses the players will get so far 'cause I haven't decided them, but I figure they'll range from a temporary bonus to one of the three stats, to a permanent trade agreement that'll boost a kingdom's Economy and/or Stability scores. Or perhaps even access to special buildings or bonus resources (i.e., BP). We'll see.