I will be starting this campaign in about two weeks and as I was reading the first book and noticed that they mentioned that people from all over would be attending the festival, it got me thinking, what kind of invitation was sent out? I was wondering if anyone has written out an invitation for this on their end. In the coming days to will be trying to flesh out what I think it will look like and say, and was wondering if those who have run this campaign could toss out a few ideas of what they think it should say. I did a few quick searches, but since I'm posting this from my phone, it makes it harder to do the searches.
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I did it like this:
Requested their char backgrounds, and gave them all on printed out paper when session started a reason why they are coming to Sandpoint.
Some of them might be coming purely cause of food or simple things like getting a job. Some came to investigate ruins ( Old Lighthouse ) and such.
I wrote all those "invitations" in regards to how their characters might think to keep them less invasive, so it doesn't feel like I am manipulating their chars.
I did it like this:
Requested their char backgrounds, and gave them all on printed out paper when session started a reason why they are coming to Sandpoint.
Some of them might be coming purely cause of food or simple things like getting a job. Some came to investigate ruins ( Old Lighthouse ) and such.
I wrote all those "invitations" in regards to how their characters might think to keep them less invasive, so it doesn't feel like I am manipulating their chars.
I thought about this too, however with the last campaign we did (Kingmaker) they had a bad experience with the festival (carnival) in the beginning of that, so to mess with them a bit, I've already told them that the reason they are going to be in this town on this particular day is the festival. So now I want to come up with some sort of invitation that they would have received, or seen, that brings them here.
Consider it like a modern coumty fair. There will be flyers & broadsheets posted all over the place. No personalized invitations needed.
When I ran Burnt Offerings last year, we ran a pre-game session where the players talked about their character concepts. I told them all about Sandpoint, and the nearby major cities of Magnimar, Riddleport, and Korvosa; talked about the church of Desna and the other major religions in the region, and also told them about the Sandpoint Swallowtail Festival. I then told the players to come up with a reason why their character is in Sandpoint while the Festival is going on, and to include it in their background write-ups, and to get those to me at least three days before the first "real" session.
I then used information from the characters backgrounds to run a short one-character vignette role-playing encounter for each PC, as part of the events of the Festival.
Then the goblins attacked, and the adventure began!
Consider it like a modern coumty fair. There will be flyers & broadsheets posted all over the place. No personalized invitations needed.
This was my main idea, not necessarily personalized invitations, but more of a flyer that would have been handed out in surrounding areas. I have the basic concept down, now I just have to flesh it out. I hope to have something done tonight and will post it on here if I can.
I created a sample flyer that I am going to pass out to my group before the first session, not really anything describing the first session more as just a memento for the game itself, it can be found here
The wording can use improvement, this was just thrown together really quickly while in between working on homework
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Sandpoint was building a great cathedral to replace the old town church. That probably took many month, if not years. Many, many people in western Varisia probably heard about that, and probably about the plan to open the grand cathedral on this years Swallowtail festival. Considering the old 'Desnan sacred site' in Sandpoint and the fact that the Swallowtail festival is one of Desnas holy days makes Sandpoint a likely place for many Varisians (ethnical and national) to be at this day - while there may be flyers, I doubt they would be necessary.
While I understand that it would have been common knowledge to the people of the area that the church would be opened on the Swallowtail festival to the characters in the game, the players outside of the game aren't necesissarily aware about the festival. The flyer is for them to get them interested in the game. This was something I thought they would enjoy, it's not for the game itself.
While I appreciate everyone's feedback about the in game reason's why this wouldn't be necessary, I was asking for feedback on how I could make it for the players, to help get them into the game. Most of our group isn't familiar with Sandpoint history, or Varisian history for that matter, so they wouldn't know about any of this area. It is all new to them.
What I am asking for is help to design this to hand out to my players before the campaign starts to get them intrigued. Please from this point on, only provide constructive feedback on the actual flyer and how I can improve it please.
I'm sorry if that sounds snippy or rude.
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Sorry, I wasn't criticising your efford, I think what you did was pretty cool.
If the characters aren't done, yet, I would give the players some links to sandpoint beyond the flyer - if you have an sagely wizard or cleric, perhaps Quint was a mentor some time ago. If you have a Varisian (ethnic) in the group, perhaps he has family in Sandpoint or his Family used to stop there for a few weeks each year (maybe losing someone to the killer a few years ago). Links like that make the events during and after the festival more personal.
As for the flyer itself, I think it is pretty solid. Things I would change:
Don't put a date on it - Swallowtail festival will probably be known and many people will not use a written callendar, especially the Varisians (ethnic). Actually I would think many attendees will probably be in Sandpoint a few days before the Festival, with an ever growing market in front of the temple drawing even more visitors
The market with merchants from all over Varisia and possibly beyond can draw in visitors, too, especially visitors not from Magnimar, Korvosa or Riddleport but from smaller towns and villages.
Don't mention the speeches - I have a hard time believing anybody would travel to the festival for the speeches.
I would not mention the Swallowtail release - perhaps more along the way of Desnan/Swallowtail traditions. There will be more ohhs and ahhs among the attendees if they don't know this is coming.
Sorry for the delay, thank you. I'm not very good at wording things the correct way so I know it isn't very well put together. In regard to not including the Swallowtail release, how would you word the traditions? I'm not that familiar with them. In regard to mentioning the speeches, yeah I thought about that as I was typing it, but couldn't think of anything else to put in it's place. Although I think I'm going to leave the mentioning of the speech by Father Zantus at the end, since that is where all the action begins, that way they know to start gathering at the church around that time.
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You should of course, keep the speeches, just do not mention them in the invitation.
I would:
Keep the first paragraph.
Leave ot the line with the date, just tell your players when the Swallowtail festival is, as their character and probably next to every person in Varisia knows that.
To celebrate this special day before the eye of Desna and all all the six Protectors of Sandpoint (let the players ask if they know who those gods are, if not, they can always find out in sandpoint, make them curious merchants from all over Varisia and beyond will offer their goods at a special market for (insert timeframe, I would go with a few days ahead and after the festival
There will be games of chance and skill and song and dance for the merryment of all the family.
The proud citizens of Sandpoint will give their best and most preciious fare to provide free food and drink for every visitor in a grand banquet at the cathedral. just use the swallowtail release unannounced as the opening of the banquet
At sunset, our own father Zanthus will lead Desnas faithful in the the prayer of the first Dream to consecrate the manmade cathedral as a place of worship for the six protectors of Sandpoint.
Awesome thank you, definitely keeping the speeches, and adding a couple that weren't in the book that were posted on the forums before, don't have the link at hand, but once I find it, I'll link to it.