One thing many DMs may overlook when creating scenarios for Dungeons & Dragons is festivals. An important aspect of most cultures is celebrating things: seasons, culture-specific holidays, and celebrations of things that are cherished and cherished.
D&D has been around for a long time, so they've been thinking about this for a long time, so they offer quite a few festivities that can add to the story or adapt to the world. Some of these have sufficiently interesting premises to warrant an entire campaign. Even if it's just a small campaign or an additional arc within the overall narrative.
Fleetwake
For some sea adventures
Let's start with something simple. Fleetswake is a festival centered in Waterdeep that honors the gods associated with the sea. There are festivals, shipwrights' balls, and races.
The concept is simple, but adding balls to the story is a great scenario for key moments in the story. But more importantly, having players take over ships for racing is a unique thing to do within the campaign. This could make for a fun side quest.
race of eight winds
take it to the sky
Leaving Faerun for a moment, Eberron has the Race of Eight Winds. This is another fun opportunity to add racing for your players with a special type of encounter.
However, since all vehicles are made up of flying creatures, this takes place in the sky, not in the water. You can also attack using a bow or a mount, but your options (within the rules) are limited.
wonders day
In the case of Artificer Mayhem
Back in Waterdeep, the Day of Wonders is a day when artisans, mainly followers of Gond, show off new technological inventions to the city, many of which are untested or still incomplete.
With that in mind, messing with these inventions can make for some interesting shenanigans. Or you can create an entire plot where someone, your villain, takes complete control of everything for his evil plot or steals a very dangerous invention, among other plot points.
feast of the moon
Embrace the past
This is simpler, but has the potential to create great storytelling and narrative connections. Basically, it is a day to honor the dead and share their stories, but rather than an event focused on mourning, it focuses on their heroism and celebrates who they were.
If a particular story is relevant to yours, not only is this easy fodder for organic explanations, but it can also create a hook, such as a spirit returning to relive its story, or someone (the villain) using this information to uncover a mystery and use it for their own evil deeds.
Bright Sword
Waterdeep loves festivals.
Once again in Waterdeep, Brightswords is a more militarized holiday featuring parades, staged battles, and tests of people's skills and strength.
This holiday is perfect for direct combat within the game, but since you're in a controlled space, you don't have to worry about dying. Players can fight other participants and can use it in a scenario where they are introduced to BBEGs and get a glimpse of their powers by having them fight against overpowered characters, but without dying during these unfair fights.
Liar's Night
Become anyone
Daarken's Scarecrow
Liars' Night is a day when people pretend to be something they are not. Through costumes, illusions or transformations, you mask yourself, and your actions have no effect on you because your identity is hidden.
That leads people to do stupid things, from pranks to actual crimes, making this festival a strange mix of Halloween and the Purge. This scenario is perfect for instances where unexpected mayhem breaks out during the game, and is ideal for mystery campaigns as enemies can do their thing without being identified.
midsummer night
very Shakespearean
If your players enjoy risky adventures, this vacation might appeal to them. Here, love and decadence are celebrated in an open and engaging way, and people's fantasies run wild.
There is also a tradition where single women go into the woods and potential suitors go to 'hunt' them. Yes. It's really strange. You can tweak this to have a single PC pursue a potential romance, or, if the party is okay with the PCs romancing each other, play a little and have them hunt each other down.
It can also add unexpected hazards to the woods. To maintain the Shakespearean aesthetic, we recommend a few fairies.
founding festival
Celebrate the beginning
The Founding Festival is a wonderful, simple feast where nobles from each family gather to celebrate the founding of their great city, and many festivals are held throughout the region.
So what's strange? Well, the city is Menzoberranzan and we are talking about Drow houses. Even the Drow are afraid to treat strangers rudely on this day, as it is believed that Lolth herself walks through the city in disguise to judge people.
- original release date
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1974
- number of players
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2+
- length per game
-
It lasts from 60 minutes to several hours.
- Age Recommendations
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Ages 12 and above (young children can also play and enjoy)
- franchise name
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dungeons and dragons
- publisher
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Wizard of the Coast
