I'm running a homebrew campaign which is going well at the moment. I recently made a specific calendar for the world and was wondering if anyone had some tips or recommendations for different festivities or holidays I could include or take inspiration from. Maybe you had some in your campaigns that went well and were fun to play out, could be an opportunity for a side quest, or a good environment for some down time?
So far I have lunar celebrations (blue moon once a year, a festivity celebrating Selûne with the first full moon in the winter month), a festivity for the last day of the calendar year, and a memorial holiday for an expansive war that happened in the past. I'm currently working on how society would celebrate these and what rituals would be included.
If you're talking about how to treat festivals in game, you could have a traveling troupe of performers show up for the festivities, and the players could interact with the performers. They could include bards and rogues among other types of individuals. There could also be games of skill in the festival, you could have the players throw darts at a target (like throwing darts at balloons in carnivals they have in the real world), or throw a ball threw a hoop. You just need to decide what the costs would be (probably 1-5 cp) and the prizes, plus the level of difficulty to hit the target. In an episode of Critical Role, during Winterfest, Matt Mercer designed a pie eating contest where the pcs and npcs had to role a constitution check after each pie. If they failed, the character threw up. I believe he also did an arm wrestling contest at that event too. I can't remember how that worked, but, you can watch the episode here:
At a typical festival, there would probably be food and beverages sold. Depending upon the size of the community, the locals could put on plays and/or have musical instruments.
You could also have npcs provide clues to a new adventure, or simply have them need to chase down a thief in the crowd.
The Harvest is likely to be celebrated, and likely celebrated at different times depending on when the communities bring in their harvest - a town who relies on vineyards to make wine to sell will celebrate, usually just after the hard work is finished. Traditional harvests will be celebrated in autumn.
Individual communities will have their own, often very unusual traditional celebrations. For some examples, there is a festival in the UK village of Marldon where a giant apple pie is pulled through the village by a donkey. There is a festival in Spain called la tomatina which involves throwing overripe tomatoes at each other. There is the Hindu spring festival Holi which involves throwing coloured powders over everyone. In Canada they have the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta, where people hollow out giant punpkins and use them as boats for a race around a lake.
Then you have remembrances for battles and dramatic events, like the remembrance parades we have in the UK. You have "all hail our immortal leader" days for tyrants, Oktoberfest for getting drunk, Independence day for Americans - in general, if you can think of a good reason for a celebration, you can probably shoehorn it in! There's enough weird festivals available in the real world, so go nuts!
sadly that is what its turned into....like christmas is the official holiday of buying junk for people you know, putting a stupid amount of useless lights on the outside of your house to interrupt birds sleeping/eating habits, and for killing a stupid amount of trees to make colorful paper to wrap around cardboard boxes that were mailed in other cardboard boxes....to throw that all away after you open the item....followed a few months later by throwing away whatever was in the box to begin with.
Malar worshippers would have a 'High Hunt' ritual where they would capture a humanoid, then chase him for two days. If he survived he would be freed if not well, use your imagination. Could be used as a one shot to help save someone.
Think of all the various gods who might hold festivals. As mentioned earlier, the harvest may be tied to Chauntea.
Gladiator fights might be held for various reasons, raises morales, creates revenue, allows scouting of good fighters
There maybe a gathering of various trades, craftmen, almost like a convention in todays times. Writers of poems, may gather to read and hear by all kinds of bards. Artificers may gather to try and sell their inventions. Or tie these things to various gods and religions. Milil is god of poetry, Gond is god of craft. Think of the story of robinhood and the king held the competition of archery, and jousting. Tempus is god war.
Smaller towns and villages may hold a day in remembrance of when then town was founded and by who, a hero back in the day who beat the goblins out.
Make our current holidays like Christmas in there. A wizard/artificer goes around leaving toys in a small region. ( Santa is an artificer)
Festivus for the rest of us. A day where people air their grievances of others. If they do not air them out, they believe that they will be cursed
Gyngus Day - a holiday in Buffalo where the girls chase boys with a willow branch and then ask them to the dance (Saidy Hawkins Dance)
Ale Day - drink the ales, maybe different brewers show up with their Ale for a competition. Kind of like, we have BBQ competitions
If a town is know for apple orchards, Apple festival.
Also for a darker idea, you could also include the Purge. Could be a good vent for murderhobo parties.
(for those who don't know, it's one night of the year where you can do anything you want, law doesn't get involved, so lots of murder and robbery. The idea is it gets it all out of peoples systems and then they are good for 364 days!)
Each of your gods will have their own holy day, either yearly, seasonal or monthly (depending on the nature of the god). Each holy day will be directly relevant to the god.
Some god's will also have their "anti-bad" day, when the god is weakest, and needs extra worship in order for it to survive through that darkest time.
As others have said, this also applies to local, national and international heroes and/or lords.
Holidays will vary by region, race, society, etc. So first, you need to define the major regions of your world, the dominant races within those areas, and the primary driving force of each society. For example, a dwarven area would celebrate holidays like "The Lighting of the Forge" celebrating the time when Moradin first taught the dwarves how to craft with metal. They celebrate by cleaning their forges, lighting them, and caring for their tools. While a halfling society might have a holiday like "The Night of the Fireflies", celebrating the first night of spring when the fireflies come out at twilight. They celebrate by lighting cute little paper lanterns, getting a bit tipsy on wine, and dancing through the forest with the fireflies. Agricultural areas will always have a major holiday around the Harvest. While a fishing town may have a holiday commemorating the time 29 fishermen were killed by that whale. A civilized area will always have a holiday celebrating the King's birthday, or maybe the establishment of the Tablets of Law that govern the kingdom. While a more uncivilized area may have a holiday celebrating the time they broke away from such tyranny.
Celestial and/or atmospheric holidays are also common. Elves may honor the Summer Solstice with dancing and feasting. While the Temple of a deity of death may celebrate the Winter Solstice for being the longest night of the year. An educated society with astronomers may search the night sky looking for signs or omens to try to predict future events. The appearance of a meteor shower within a certain constellation during a certain phase of the moon may result in warnings for all to avoid travel for the next two weeks and for the city's gates to be locked shut. One society may celebrate the arrival of flocks or herds of certain animals along their seasonal migration routes, while another may offer thanks to a Deity thought to embody or represent a particular mountain, or river, or warm water spring.
Gnomes tend to b a very tech-savvy people, with a bit of magic up their sleeve. In the homebrew world I'm working on there's a city with a large gnome population. Every summer they host a festival called "The Monster Parade". Perennial teams of gnomes spend weeks building and decorating floats, with a combination of clockwork animatronics, flower decorations, and prestidigitation. Then, on the day of the big festival, the floats are paraded through town. Crowds of people cheer, and street vendors sell food, and bards play music, and kids run around with firework sparklers, and people cheer for their favorite float. A panel of judges pick a winning float, and for the next year until the next Monster Parade, that team's captain is called The Grand Paladin and is afforded a great amount of respect around the city and performs some ceremonial chores too.
So... start by building the world. Then you'll know what kinds of holidays you'll need. And if you ever need inspiration, just look at all the holidays we have celebrated in our world for the past few thousand years and draw parallels. Have fun!
Hello all!
I'm running a homebrew campaign which is going well at the moment. I recently made a specific calendar for the world and was wondering if anyone had some tips or recommendations for different festivities or holidays I could include or take inspiration from. Maybe you had some in your campaigns that went well and were fun to play out, could be an opportunity for a side quest, or a good environment for some down time?
So far I have lunar celebrations (blue moon once a year, a festivity celebrating Selûne with the first full moon in the winter month), a festivity for the last day of the calendar year, and a memorial holiday for an expansive war that happened in the past. I'm currently working on how society would celebrate these and what rituals would be included.
Thanks in advance for your comments! :)
I have a celebration about a time of torrential flooding in my homebrew setting...
If you're talking about how to treat festivals in game, you could have a traveling troupe of performers show up for the festivities, and the players could interact with the performers. They could include bards and rogues among other types of individuals. There could also be games of skill in the festival, you could have the players throw darts at a target (like throwing darts at balloons in carnivals they have in the real world), or throw a ball threw a hoop. You just need to decide what the costs would be (probably 1-5 cp) and the prizes, plus the level of difficulty to hit the target. In an episode of Critical Role, during Winterfest, Matt Mercer designed a pie eating contest where the pcs and npcs had to role a constitution check after each pie. If they failed, the character threw up. I believe he also did an arm wrestling contest at that event too. I can't remember how that worked, but, you can watch the episode here:
Winter's Crest in Critical Role
At a typical festival, there would probably be food and beverages sold. Depending upon the size of the community, the locals could put on plays and/or have musical instruments.
You could also have npcs provide clues to a new adventure, or simply have them need to chase down a thief in the crowd.
Think like a king- they all want their own holidays. Look at North Korean calendars ...and pretty much any other honestly...both formal and informal.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
The Harvest is likely to be celebrated, and likely celebrated at different times depending on when the communities bring in their harvest - a town who relies on vineyards to make wine to sell will celebrate, usually just after the hard work is finished. Traditional harvests will be celebrated in autumn.
Individual communities will have their own, often very unusual traditional celebrations. For some examples, there is a festival in the UK village of Marldon where a giant apple pie is pulled through the village by a donkey. There is a festival in Spain called la tomatina which involves throwing overripe tomatoes at each other. There is the Hindu spring festival Holi which involves throwing coloured powders over everyone. In Canada they have the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta, where people hollow out giant punpkins and use them as boats for a race around a lake.
Then you have remembrances for battles and dramatic events, like the remembrance parades we have in the UK. You have "all hail our immortal leader" days for tyrants, Oktoberfest for getting drunk, Independence day for Americans - in general, if you can think of a good reason for a celebration, you can probably shoehorn it in! There's enough weird festivals available in the real world, so go nuts!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
sadly that is what its turned into....like christmas is the official holiday of buying junk for people you know, putting a stupid amount of useless lights on the outside of your house to interrupt birds sleeping/eating habits, and for killing a stupid amount of trees to make colorful paper to wrap around cardboard boxes that were mailed in other cardboard boxes....to throw that all away after you open the item....followed a few months later by throwing away whatever was in the box to begin with.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Malar worshippers would have a 'High Hunt' ritual where they would capture a humanoid, then chase him for two days. If he survived he would be freed if not well, use your imagination. Could be used as a one shot to help save someone.
Think of all the various gods who might hold festivals. As mentioned earlier, the harvest may be tied to Chauntea.
Gladiator fights might be held for various reasons, raises morales, creates revenue, allows scouting of good fighters
There maybe a gathering of various trades, craftmen, almost like a convention in todays times. Writers of poems, may gather to read and hear by all kinds of bards. Artificers may gather to try and sell their inventions. Or tie these things to various gods and religions. Milil is god of poetry, Gond is god of craft. Think of the story of robinhood and the king held the competition of archery, and jousting. Tempus is god war.
Smaller towns and villages may hold a day in remembrance of when then town was founded and by who, a hero back in the day who beat the goblins out.
Make our current holidays like Christmas in there. A wizard/artificer goes around leaving toys in a small region. ( Santa is an artificer)
Festivus for the rest of us. A day where people air their grievances of others. If they do not air them out, they believe that they will be cursed
Gyngus Day - a holiday in Buffalo where the girls chase boys with a willow branch and then ask them to the dance (Saidy Hawkins Dance)
Ale Day - drink the ales, maybe different brewers show up with their Ale for a competition. Kind of like, we have BBQ competitions
If a town is know for apple orchards, Apple festival.
Hallow Eve - celebrate the dead and give honor.
Also for a darker idea, you could also include the Purge. Could be a good vent for murderhobo parties.
(for those who don't know, it's one night of the year where you can do anything you want, law doesn't get involved, so lots of murder and robbery. The idea is it gets it all out of peoples systems and then they are good for 364 days!)
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Each of your gods will have their own holy day, either yearly, seasonal or monthly (depending on the nature of the god). Each holy day will be directly relevant to the god.
Some god's will also have their "anti-bad" day, when the god is weakest, and needs extra worship in order for it to survive through that darkest time.
As others have said, this also applies to local, national and international heroes and/or lords.
Holidays will vary by region, race, society, etc. So first, you need to define the major regions of your world, the dominant races within those areas, and the primary driving force of each society. For example, a dwarven area would celebrate holidays like "The Lighting of the Forge" celebrating the time when Moradin first taught the dwarves how to craft with metal. They celebrate by cleaning their forges, lighting them, and caring for their tools. While a halfling society might have a holiday like "The Night of the Fireflies", celebrating the first night of spring when the fireflies come out at twilight. They celebrate by lighting cute little paper lanterns, getting a bit tipsy on wine, and dancing through the forest with the fireflies. Agricultural areas will always have a major holiday around the Harvest. While a fishing town may have a holiday commemorating the time 29 fishermen were killed by that whale. A civilized area will always have a holiday celebrating the King's birthday, or maybe the establishment of the Tablets of Law that govern the kingdom. While a more uncivilized area may have a holiday celebrating the time they broke away from such tyranny.
Celestial and/or atmospheric holidays are also common. Elves may honor the Summer Solstice with dancing and feasting. While the Temple of a deity of death may celebrate the Winter Solstice for being the longest night of the year. An educated society with astronomers may search the night sky looking for signs or omens to try to predict future events. The appearance of a meteor shower within a certain constellation during a certain phase of the moon may result in warnings for all to avoid travel for the next two weeks and for the city's gates to be locked shut. One society may celebrate the arrival of flocks or herds of certain animals along their seasonal migration routes, while another may offer thanks to a Deity thought to embody or represent a particular mountain, or river, or warm water spring.
Gnomes tend to b a very tech-savvy people, with a bit of magic up their sleeve. In the homebrew world I'm working on there's a city with a large gnome population. Every summer they host a festival called "The Monster Parade". Perennial teams of gnomes spend weeks building and decorating floats, with a combination of clockwork animatronics, flower decorations, and prestidigitation. Then, on the day of the big festival, the floats are paraded through town. Crowds of people cheer, and street vendors sell food, and bards play music, and kids run around with firework sparklers, and people cheer for their favorite float. A panel of judges pick a winning float, and for the next year until the next Monster Parade, that team's captain is called The Grand Paladin and is afforded a great amount of respect around the city and performs some ceremonial chores too.
So... start by building the world. Then you'll know what kinds of holidays you'll need. And if you ever need inspiration, just look at all the holidays we have celebrated in our world for the past few thousand years and draw parallels. Have fun!
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.