I'm trying to get into the spooky season with my players by throwing a harvest festival in the small town they're currently staying in, but I can't seem to think of a gripping plot to make surrounding the harvest festival, just small details to make the harvest festival itself more immersive. I didn't know if anyone had any ideas they were willing to share? (I'm a relatively new DM, so I kind of second guess any plot ideas I have.)
Look to the world of betting scandals and game fixing for inspiration.
"The festival of the harvest. The whole town works to harvest the crops for the coming year, and the whole town parties hard afterward. There are competitions (biggest turnip, fattest pig, best chutney, that sort of thing). It's all supposed to be rewards for hard work, nothing more. However the party has been a bit spoilt by the two biggest families, the Xfields and the Ycoys, who treat the competitions as a war. They fix the competition, bribe judges, threaten competitors, and on one brazen attack two years ago, kill all the livestock of one crofter.
This year, however, the Xfields have got a secret weapon, courtesy of a visiting priest of Z. But they are unprepapred for the horror that is actually bout to engulf the small town…"
The meaning and ideas around festivals change. Perhaps there is a detail about the festival lost to time and someone is either trying to bring it back, which could cause things to happen, or people have forgotten a ritual that needs to be done which allows something to come through into their world.
You could have some monster coming to harvest the towns folk and the players have to try and survive, hiding about town and slowly finding out what they need to do to drive this monster out.
Maybe during the festival they are transported to a world that mirrors their own and have to find a way back.
If you want to try something really different, there could be people telling scary stories and the party could listen. You then hand your players new character sheets to play the characters in the story. Once the story is over, they go back to using their own sheets.
As a DM, don't feel bad about ideas that don't seem like they are perfect or original. It is more important that the players have a fun game than they have a deep, meaningful story that changes their lives. DMs are far less common than players and so as long as you aren't doing any thing that is offensive or distressing for your players, you are doing okay.
I'm trying to get into the spooky season with my players by throwing a harvest festival in the small town they're currently staying in, but I can't seem to think of a gripping plot to make surrounding the harvest festival, just small details to make the harvest festival itself more immersive. I didn't know if anyone had any ideas they were willing to share? (I'm a relatively new DM, so I kind of second guess any plot ideas I have.)
Look to the world of betting scandals and game fixing for inspiration.
"The festival of the harvest. The whole town works to harvest the crops for the coming year, and the whole town parties hard afterward. There are competitions (biggest turnip, fattest pig, best chutney, that sort of thing). It's all supposed to be rewards for hard work, nothing more. However the party has been a bit spoilt by the two biggest families, the Xfields and the Ycoys, who treat the competitions as a war. They fix the competition, bribe judges, threaten competitors, and on one brazen attack two years ago, kill all the livestock of one crofter.
This year, however, the Xfields have got a secret weapon, courtesy of a visiting priest of Z. But they are unprepapred for the horror that is actually bout to engulf the small town…"
The meaning and ideas around festivals change. Perhaps there is a detail about the festival lost to time and someone is either trying to bring it back, which could cause things to happen, or people have forgotten a ritual that needs to be done which allows something to come through into their world.
You could have some monster coming to harvest the towns folk and the players have to try and survive, hiding about town and slowly finding out what they need to do to drive this monster out.
Maybe during the festival they are transported to a world that mirrors their own and have to find a way back.
If you want to try something really different, there could be people telling scary stories and the party could listen. You then hand your players new character sheets to play the characters in the story. Once the story is over, they go back to using their own sheets.
As a DM, don't feel bad about ideas that don't seem like they are perfect or original. It is more important that the players have a fun game than they have a deep, meaningful story that changes their lives. DMs are far less common than players and so as long as you aren't doing any thing that is offensive or distressing for your players, you are doing okay.