Freestyle Friday: Festive Festivals

Hello all and welcome to another Freestyle Friday. It is the start of Memorial Day Weekend in the United States, a day in which we remember those who died in wars in our nation’s past, or even those who simply served. However, unofficially, Memorial Day weekend is a party weekend that kicks off summer here and so I thought I’d give you a couple tables on festivals you could stick into your games.

 

A lot of times, an adventure may center around an event. One of the many types of events that could be would be a festival. Here are 20 ideas for different types of festivals players could encounter and have adventures around in your campaign.

 

  1. Holiday celebrating someone important: such as the birthday of a King or name day of an heir.
  2. holiday festival to local industry: such as a harvest festival in an agricultural community or a holiday commemorating a local guild.
  3. Anniversary day of some major local event.
  4. seasonal holiday
  5. holiday to a particular god
  6. holiday for children.
  7. holiday commemorating a legend or legendary hero/person/monster
  8. day of mourning.
  9. memorial of the dead
  10. holiday whose purpose has been lost to history.
  11. sacrificial or tax day.
  12. day dedicated to a concept such as family or love.
  13. day commemorating a major defeat
  14. day commemorating a major victory.
  15. Racial holiday
  16. gender holiday
  17. day of competitions (athletic or intellectual.)
  18. foolish holiday (where pranks are pulled and stuff such as that.)
  19. day of transition (such as new year)
  20. familial holiday (like Mother’s Day)

 

Those are all ideas for what kind of holiday you could have, but just going to a festival might not be enough to be worthwhile. Here are some things that could happen at one of these holiday festivals that could get an adventure going.

 

  1. prophecy indicates something will happen if particular conditions are met at this festival
  2. prophecy indicates something will happen if conditions are not met at this festival.
  3. attack from within the settlement
  4. attack from outside the settlement.
  5. divine intervention.
  6. planar bleed
  7. outbreak of madness
  8. conspiracy to spread poison
  9. conspiracy to spread disease
  10. kidnapping.
  11. elaborate but dangerous pranks or hoaxes.
  12. threat that might keep the holiday from being celebrated.
  13. Satyr party.
  14. holiday threatens someone else such as good fey or racial minority.
  15. riots.
  16. major theft.
  17. players hired to keep the peace.
  18. doppelganger antics.
  19. disaster such as flood or fire.
  20. players aid in a love affair or family affair.

 

Those are just a few things about festivals and parties you could have your players encounter while you play outside with your grills on Memorial Day. I hope these little suggestions of mine can help you a bit in either giving you something to do or inspiring you to do something else.

 

About the author:

Zachary Ruffing is one of the DMs for “Companions of the Perception Check” and he is running the “Children of Gith” campaign set in the “points of Light” campaign setting. He loves classic lit and bad sci-fi and horror movies. He lives with his rat and 2 dogs. Of all the characters in D&D noxvels, He thinks Havilar from “The Brimstone Angels,” would be the funnest to party with.

About Zachary

Zachary is the original DM for the group but has recently had the pleasure of sharing this role with Kevin. He is a fan of all things Dungeons and Dragons and loves classic lit and bad monster and horror flicks. He is also blind.
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