First, if you're one of my players, you shouldn't be reading this, at least not until after the next game.
For everyone else, I need an extra set of eyes to help me make sure I've got everything set up to run a festival smoothly. This is a celebration of Rak, goddess of hunting, knowledge, feasts and shadows.
I've written up most everything on the wiki except for the final event, the grand hunt, and I've got separate plans for that (not that it needs much in the way of mechanics anyway).
The players are minor nobles, so before things begin, they'll have to go around settling disputes and helping plan. The festival itself consists of an eating contest, an archery contest and a fantasy version of paintball. I wouldn't mind having another contest, but three is a good number and I'm out of ideas. (There's nothing celebrating Rak as a goddess of knowledge though.)
Now, the reason I need some help here is because I'm going to be away from the internet for over a week. I'll be back the night before the game, so while I've got a plan, I won't have a chance to go over it myself (or reply to any suggestions yall make, unfortunately). But hopefully if yall do see something terribly wrong, it'll give me a chance to fix it. Since I won't be able to say so later, thanks in advance.
(One thing that just occurred to me is that participating in the events should probably be worth a little XP, but I don't know how much. A wild guess would be a CR 1/2 equivalent each, or maybe just a flat 100 XP per character since they wouldn't be cooperating. Sorting disputes should definitely be worth something.)
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Test of Knowledge each constestant is presented with forest-born items preserved under glass. Such items could be the pelt of a rare indigenous creature, an obscure leaf or nut, or a handful of dried mushrooms. The point is that one of the faithful went out into the woods over the last few months, gathered some rare stuff, and preserved it.
Contestants chime in, game show style, to declare their answer to what the object is. The mechanics can be a series of knowledge: nature checks of increasing difficulty to represent their answers. Each round they answer correctly they get a point; after 10 rounds the most points wins.
Prize: a tome of forest lore, granting a +1 competence bonus in Knowledge: Nature checks for local flora and fauna for 24 hours after studying the tome for 10 minutes.
The rest of the games look great, but are these all your party is going to have the chance to do? What if there's lots of different games for the different aspects of the god?
Hunting: a test of hunting calls or horn blasts; an endurance test of waiting in blinds; speed-butchering a kill
Knowledge: identifying types of fletching blind; reciting the Prayer of the Fallen Kill in either an ancient language, or backward, or under duress; answering trivia on hunting topics
Feasts: a drinking contest; limericks and feastsongs; a challenge of toasts
Shadows: Hide and Go Seek tournament; a footrace at night; navigating an indoor maze with no light
I have a Barrel Festival going on right now in my homebrew game. Essentially the town is a forest-based economy ruled by a bunch of noble lords and there are festivals to honor the lords, the faith of Erastil, and market days; the commoners wanted a day just for themselves. It began nearly a century ago as a day of simple drinking and cavorting until the fey got involved and it was discovered that the smell and fire of burning barrels of pitch obtained from pine resin would keep the little pests at bay.
The modern Barrel Festival then is one part brewer's holiday, one part fey-warding and one part leftover disposal. Excess pitch not sold to neighboring coastal towns for shipbuilding is instead trotted out throughout the town and posted around the market square in heavy barrels. Some businesses buy a barrel or two just to get their name in the festival. Local brewers and vintners also offer up their best selections; some are just simply donated for free consumption in multiple locations around town while the best of the best is entered into a contest for bragging rights and nomination to cater the annual Nobles' Ball the following year.
Now for kids and young adults there's singing, dancing and food. There's also a hay maze and many commoner's games; feats of strength, throwing contests, and other simple events. At the end of the night young girls (12-17) who are unmarried and not promised to anyone in town are eligible for the honor of Barrel Wife. The fairest of them all is selected and awarded a prize. This then plays into a wicked fey queen trapped in a nearby dungeon who hunts and captures the fairest for her dark ends, but that's not part of the festival.
For grownups there's the barrels. There are feats of strength and endurance, footraces and such, as well as grown up versions of many of the kids games. Once the sun sets however the barrels of pitch are lit on fire. Now contestants gather to hoist the flaming barrels and carry them to the field that will be laid fallow that year. A band plays, leading a parade of these massive brands. This is tiring work; contestants are able to hand off the barrels to another but once they do they're out. When they get to the fallow field the winner is declared as the single contestant who made the longest march. The final event with the barrels is a contest of strength as the flaming missiles are hurled into the field for a controled burn.
I drew a map of the town. The players will have plenty of NPC interactions and be able to wander the whole map, having unique experiences at different points. There are multiple taverns in town, all with feasts happening; each of these events will be unique to the flavor of the locale. For example the cheap place with watery grog and gruel that caters to the poor will lay out trenchers of greasy meats and hard cider while the fancy restaurant style tavern in the noble ward will have pavilions of gauche fare.
I want to use the event to really bring the town to life. Hopefully some of my ideas are useful to you. Write back and tell us all how the game went.
Anything worth less than 1000gp should be for sale on a festival - any crowd attracts merchants.
Overall it looks like fun. Here are a few thoughts off the top of my head.
1) Pie Eating. Instead of saying that a will save is at -2, simply say that the eater chooses to make a Fort DC 10 or a Will DC 12 save. I would find that less confusing.
2) Archery. Don't predetermine what the attack penalties are for range. Determine the range of the target, and let the attacker apply the appropriate penalties. This allows characters with a superior weapon range (such as those with Far Shot) to have a slight advantage.
3) Ribbon Stealing. Is this a combat maneuver? Using the Steal maneuver allows use of an existing mechanic. Is it simply an unarmed attack? If so, does it provoke at attack to deflect? Those would Improved Unarmed Attack would have a leg up if so.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm just reading the replies while I have a chance. Do you think I should include more than three games? There's also a grand hunt after the games which leads in to more plot, though I wouldn't mind wasting more time on the more or less plotless games to give me more time to prepare. Anyway, I'll think about yall's suggestions and hopefully there will be enough time to prepare some more stuff once I get back to a good internet connection and a full keyboard.
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Have we done the 'catching a greased pig' contest?
Make sure Sir Guy de Gax puts in an appearance...
If not him, then at least sir Sir William Von Lichtenstein with his female smith, copper haired guard and most eloquent and vociferous scribe handling the introductions at the lists...
Caber toss?
Acrobats, Jugglers, Shell games
Gambling
Turkey legs (the trope has come full circle!!!)
Have we done the 'catching a greased pig' contest?
Make sure Sir Guy de Gax puts in an appearance...
If not him, then at least sir Sir William Von Lichtenstein with his female smith, copper haired guard and most eloquent and vociferous scribe handling the introductions at the lists...
Caber toss?
Acrobats, Jugglers, Shell games
Gambling
Turkey legs (the trope has come full circle!!!)
Don't forget his slightly large best friend who is as loyal to Sir William as he is joyful.
(one of my favorites, Ty for reference)
^_^
Ok. The game has been played. I added 4 more games last night: a sneaking contest (collect ribbons while avoiding being seen), a knowledge contest (recite facts about the creatures depicted in paintings), a drinking contest and a greased pig contest. At least one player participated in each contest and overall they won 4 of the 7 (and no one really won the greased pig contest).
How did you run the greased pig contest?
I applied the modifier from the grease spell to a standard pig. They were in a fenced off area small enough that movement wasn't really an issue. The participants were given a piece of rope and the goal was to be the fastest person to tie up the pig. (Getting bitten by the pig was part of the fun for the spectators.) Unfortunately, all the contestants were around level 2 or 3 and no one had a good enough CMB to handle that.