Behind the Screen: Fancy Festivals I

Tomorrow my fellow Americans and I will be enjoying Thanksgiving. As such, I thought it appropriate that this week's Behind the Screen be about festivals and celebrations.

There are a few key aspects to consider when putting together a festival for your game world: events, reason, and size. Events are fairly self evident, reason is why the festival is held, and size is both how many people come and how long it lasts.



Size

1. Minor: the village gathers for part of the day; roll once on the events table
2. Minor: the village celebrates for the day; roll 2-3 times on the events table
3. Local: 1d3 neighboring villages gather and celebrate for the day; roll 3-4 times on the events table
4. Local: 1d4+2 neighboring villages gather and celebrate for 1d4 days; roll 4-6 times on the events table
5. Regional: 2d6 villages and towns gather and celebrate for 1d4+2 days; roll 6-9 times on the events table
6. Regional: 3d4+10 villages, towns, and cities gather and celebrate for 1d2 weeks; roll 6-12 times on the events table

For our sample festival, the dice have determined that it is a local festival with 3 villages and lasts for 4 days. Big deal for the villagers.

Reason

1. Harvest
2. War
3. Invention
4. Calamity
5. Notable Birth 
6. Roll twice

Rolling the dice, our local festival has two linked founding reasons: Harvest and Notable Birth. What comes to mind for me from this is the day coincides with a notable historical figure that somehow made the harvest easier, but not a new invention. Like the god of  agriculture having a child with a mortal. This gives us the name: the Godssbirth Festival.

Events

1. Archery
2. Drinking
3. Eating
4. Jousting
5. Racing
6. Hunting
7. Riding
8. Herding
9. Throwing
10. Gambling
11. Fighting 
12. Sport

The events listed seem a bit vague, but each one can be given a particular spin to make it distinct. For our Godssbirth Festival, the dice have given us Eating, Drinking, Fighting, and Gambling. Now to make these more interesting.

Eating needs to be something other than simply eating as much as possible. Perhaps a type of infamously spicy pepper grows in the region and the challenge involves a soup or stew made with it. While I would love to have the food be a fantasy version of ABTs, the amount of pigs that would be required to be slaughtered makes that impractical for a village-based festival.

Drinking, I have a competition that I've used in several of my home games called the Drunken Ax Throw. It is essentially a combination drinking/tomahawk contest where the contestants drink a pint then have three axes to throw at a target. If you manage to get enough points to advance to the next round, you drink another pint and the targets are moved back. This continues until there is only one contestant able to advance, or more frequently just able to stand.

Fighting is a simple one: a Brawl. The contestants, on their own or in teams, face off against each other and beat the snot out of their opponents.

Gambling seems like a suitable, low-key event for winding down the festival. The last day has people making bets on any small thing as the last of the drinks are poured and the last of the food is served. No big event, just people meeting, talking, and little, spur of the moment competition.

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