A Mad Lib For Random Festivals
Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0990
Festivals create awesome backdrops for encounters. The crowds, the noise, the events…the chaos!
Imagine chase scenes, competitions and games, exotic foods and drinks, and strange customs and rituals.
All kinds of great gaming could dwell within the Festival of Blessed Sword, Brave Light Days, and the Festival of the Corpulent Eye.
I subscribe to a great new gaming newsletter produced by my friend, Daniel Hodges of Hazard Games. He sent out a cool festival generator and has given me permission to share it with you.
Here’s how his festival generator works:
The Festival of the [Descriptor] [Subject] which culminates with the villagers [Activity] a/an/the [Object].
Descriptor (d20)
- Oaken
- Tattooed
- Blessed
- Cheerful
- Corpulent
- Verdent
- Merry
- Changing
- Flowered
- Tame
- Brave
- Silver
- Handsome
- Beautiful
- Lazy
- Painted
- Innocent
- Dying
- Baleful
- Charred
Subject (d20)
- Fruit
- Chain
- Set
- Robes
- Lanterns
- Book
- Eye
- Stag
- Sword
- Shield
- Light
- Darkness
- Tree
- Circle
- Corpse
- Crucible
- Hammer
- Rooster
- Mead
- Hound
Activity (Good: d20; Sinister: d12+8)
- making offerings to
- drink to
- painting
- dancing with
- crafting
- singing (of)
- setting adrift
- parading
- eating
- banishing
- burying
- burning
- branding
- disfiguring
- quartering
- sacrificing
- dragging
- drowning
- hanging the entrails of
- flaying
Object (Good: d20; Sinister: d12+8)
- holy/spiritual place
- relic
- the dead
- god
- valuables
- book
- flowers/herbs
- relic
- story
- bull
- horse
- effigy
- holy person
- most handsome villager
- most beautiful villager
- stranger
- young boy
- young girl
- youngest villager
- oldest villager
If you want a friendly, happy festival, roll the “Good” configuration for Activity and Object.
If you’d like something a little more dark or mysterious, use the “Sinister” configuration.
Here’s an example from Daniel:
The Festival of the Silver Stag
A “good” festival roll yields 12, 8, 4, and 16. This would read:
The festival of the Silver Stag which culminates with the villagers dancing with a stranger.
This configuration suggests to me, a festival designed to bring people together for the purposes of coupling to renewing the populace as well as forging bonds between villages.
The “Silver Stag” is composed of the oldest married couple from each of the two villages. They are chosen for this as they, presumably, have some expertise in the area of successful marriages.
Together they make matches between people from their villages and make adjustments based upon how the couples interact at the nightly dances.
The titular Silver Stag could be a reference to a constellation that appears in the sky at that time of year and is only visible for a week, disappearing on the last day of the festival.
This configuration could create a story of intrigue based around someone trying to influence The Silver Stag. Maybe the villages are almost at war and the festival is tense or even violent. Or, what if The Silver Stag pairs up the adventurers?
Daniel also co-founded the IntrigueCon gaming convention here in Edmonton. If you are in the area during the next one, I hope to see you there!