Poweet's Midsummer Special Event Plan
-
The player characters (free to choose any) are invited to celebrate some kind of special day at Bezentil.
It can either start directly there, or have them go there through a caravan.Once present at Bezentil, they proceed through four different activities.
-
Feast
The players sit upon a table. They are given foods. At some point, the festivity organizer attempts to do a fancy magic trick, but it goes horribly awry. A big enemy, appears, who is based on some kind of food (such as a roast chicken monster or something). The enemy will first communicate with the players. The players can either decide to solve the conundrum with words or with violence. Once that is through, the next activity starts. -
The sauna
The people go to sauna. (This is the reason it is set in Bezentil) Once inside the sauna, they will have to succeed in different rolls, or they will be uncomfortable. There is also a possibility to engage in small talk with the organizer. Organizer will later try to make a magic trick again, which ends up in steam mephits they have to fight. At some point, after the fight, the organizer will mention about a magical portal to the next activity, which is... -
The lake
People get to swim in a lake, to freshen up. Initially, they will be allowed to play a bit, with the activity. At some point after they get back to the shore, some water-related enemies appear (whatever I decide to bring at the moment). After they defeat it, they can enter a portal back to Bezentil, which leads to... -
The Bonfire
There is a big unlit bonfire, which the players can help light up. After the fire is lit up, they can enjoy the fire... That is, until our organizer tries a magic trick one last time, and ends up summoning fire elementals... And after the small ones, a big boss one comes. After this is done, the festival has ended.
Around the end bit, there will be a NPC, who talks about wanting to destroy Oscura. Whether or not this NPC will destroy Oscura in our lore or not, will be a group decision.
-
-
@caoimh Okay. No Oscura bit.
-
I like the added motivation for the organizer NPC, making him a bit of an underdog type will probably help the PCs come around to his side despite the various hiccups that are going to occur along the way. Perhaps consider hinting that he was run out of some big city like Suzail or Waterdeep after a previous event didn't go well, to get him some extra sympathy & also set the stakes that he's got a lot riding on this event.
On the point about Oscura, I would avoid making any mention of it - we haven't really decided what to do with it from a server direction perspective just yet, so I think from a plot perspective it is better to keep it out of the players' narrative awareness as much as possible until we know where we're going with it.
-
@poweet Played right, if the organizer is trying to get himself hired by Peltarch/Norwick/Moonreach, that could make for a real nice emotional hook! It would make that NPC less disposable too, though of course, the PCs may still answer "no" on the recommendation.
-
@its_a_fire I think I'll make it so that the organizer is trying to create a big successful party, in order to make himself worthy to organize a bigger party for a big city. The happening will revolve in him trying to run the thing, maybe not too confidently, and trying to get good reviews from the characters. All the magical things will be because he will have doubts about his success, thus he goes desperate.
Perhaps I'll have an ending, where he will apologise for it, and players have a possibility to ask for funds.
I'll likely make the transitions to different activities, more like, the organizer is asking them to go there, but the actual movement will only happen when they agree.
As for the links, I put some notes down, in case I decide to look on the articles on my tablet or not. I will not promise.
-
@flom To be honest. It was not supposed to be a climax/ending. It was just supposed to be a potential foreshadowing.
-
I understand that the real-life holiday was the motivation, but we (the players) will not be attending a festival. We'll be playing a game, and my questions were about making the game more enjoyable. Justin Alexander has some advice on these types of scenarios that might help?
-
@poweet said in Poweet's Midsummer Special Event Plan:
Around the end bit, there will be a NPC, who talks about wanting to destroy Oscura. Whether or not this NPC will destroy Oscura in our lore or not, will be a group decision.
I'm not 100% sure about this climax/ending. You might want to consider one that maps unto the former steps or the celebration theme.
-
- I may have been thinking some PCs are quite inclined to go. "Ooh, a celebration". Maybe there might be social pressure towards friends from those PCs.
- The reason it is a sequence, is because I was thinking of some kind of midsummer's eve celebration (of a friend group). Although, it might not be in that order. The feast could be before the bonfire too. The swimming part is because people who can swim, might go swimming from the sauna. (And then go back to sauna). And people take a shower after the sauna anyway.
- The reason there isn't a climax of any sort, is probably because it's more of a "celebration". Like, a holiday celebration event. People are celebrating Midsummer's Eve this friday in Finland. The actual midsummer day is saturday. I'm under the impression Swedes might celebrate Midsummer too, not saying for 100 % if on eve or day.
-
Since Pow told me to use the forum, here I am. Reposted from Discord.
It seems like a nice, light, NPC-makes-a-lot-mistakes frame for a holiday one-shot! A couple of interrelated points on the structure:
- You say the PCs are invited to Bezentil, but is there any enticement to go? A specific competition or prize, a famous performer....? Just a little something to motivate them in character with collectible items or promises of RP. Maybe even consider more than one reason.
- This is presented here as a sequence of events, which doesn't leave much room for PCs to affect what happens next. Maybe these scenarios could be options? If they're options, you can then be loosey-goosey with some details of what happens where. If the PCs have to go to the feast first and have to go to the sauna second, the players will sense it and consequently be less invested in the outcome.
- The sequence here doesn't seem to lead to much of a climax. Just some thoughts to hopefully inspire you here: If the PCs only succeed at 2/4 of the options, what do they miss? If they investigate the organizer and his magical sources, what do they learn? If they only use violence or never use violence, is anything different? Ideally the climax would be tied not only to their choices but to their motivation for going somehow, but not every session has to be so neatly wrapped up.
I don't necessarily need to see the answers---and some may depend on which characters show up---but these are things to think about.
