R&R
What kind of druidcraft can get a pumpkin to grow like that? Also, does Magus have to flash people to put on that shirt-mask? Also-also, storing spiders for the holidays is a brilliant way to solve the perpetual giant-rats-in-the-cellar problem that most fantasy settings seem to have. It may be frivolous nonsense to worry about any of the above when major plot points are in the offing. But then again, it’s almost as if there’s more fun stuff going on in the world than any single threat.
This just happened in my E6-West-Marches-PF1e-Hex-Crawl-in-the-Weird-West campaign. Our heroic homesteaders had just survived a descent into the depths below. A network of teleportation circles known as The Fateways had been opened. My gunslinger/inquisitor had been knighted, visited by a vision of her goddess, and charged with putting a stop to the setting’s evil dwarven railroad barons. Epic events were afoot! Daring action was required! We went to a corn maze!
It’s not just Handbook-World getting ready for the spooky season. While Inquisitor and Magus are busy with spider decor, the inhabitants of Hold the Sun are prepping for harvest time. The festival grounds of our sleepy little western town are full of tents and artisans and pumpkin vines. Ring toss and test-your-strength hammers and dance floors are all set up. The local mages are busy enchanting our aforementioned corn maze, and bonfires fill the air will a pleasant wood smoke. You see, carnival sessions don’t care about world-shaking events. They just happen anyway.
My point is simply that verisimilitude demands more than staying on theme. Sure there are armies marching, dark lords stirring, and revelations being unveiled. But that isn’t the only thing going on in the background of your setting. Common folk and kings alike have different things to worry about than your heroes, and it is occasionally good practice to give them the spotlight. That’s for the simple reason that worlds need breathing room. If it’s only ever THE QUEST, even the most epic of storylines can begin to feel claustrophobic, reducing a rich tapestry to a single thread. Giving those other elements their fair share of attention is far from frivolous. It is necessary for the health and well-being of a living world.
Therefore! For today’s discussion, what do you say we brainstorm a few “meanwhile scenarios?” The party are concerned about ____, but the NPCs are busy with ____ instead. Whether the first blank is full of wizards or peasants or courtesans, and whether the second blank is full of sorcerer’s apprentice SATs or small-town elections or half off low-cut corset sales, tell us what the rest of your setting is worried about down in the comments!
I predict a ‘Joey Tribbiani and the turkey’ gag. Or Magus fighting the vampire apocalypse with it still on because nobody can stop her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJMbxiLGdoE
Magus’s ‘Boo-bies’ outfit is a genius intimidation tool, she just has to threaten to flash them and banish anyone in panel distance to the Other Handbook.
The high-tech, internet-capable and L33T culture of the Techno-Vamps is NOT ready for the chaos/memes Magus is going to inflict on their society.
Word travels fast, it seems. When’d team Bounty Hunter get a hold of the impending vampire apocalypse news?
Laurel was worried this would be unclear. In my head canon, Inventor warned everyone they could at that mixer:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/data-dump
Not everyone took them seriously.
While the party is concerned about the dragon terrorizing the countryside, the NPCs in the town are busy placing bets on the ongoing marriage annulment proceedings. Unfortunately for the party, one of them is one of the people getting their marriage annulled—and two of the others are attempting to place bets (and getting their gold stolen).
In our pirate themed game, we effectively WERE the NPCs / below-deck crew of a ship. A joke was made on just how rat/spider infested the ship bilge was due to how often we rolled the duty to get rid of them, to the point of having a portal to the rat dimension.
Now that we’re owners/officers of a ship and crew of our pwn, our DM commented that our new ship is even MORE rat/spider infested than the last one. I imagine our NPCs are not happy about that.
I predict Woolantula going Solid Snake mode with that spider storage box. Or developing another phobia.
One of my favorite “time out” scenarios is introducing the party to Paul. Paul went on a strange trip in Haight Ashbury back in the 60’s and hasn’t come out of it yet.
Paul is the literal god of the fairy dragons, which are in both my fantasy and science fiction homebrews. He’s got a lovely cottage by a quiet stream, a garden full of “interesting” (as in everything is a hallucinogen) plants and an entourage of 8 elder fairy dragons that take care of him. He has no internal concept of time, so he just thinks he’s still crashed at his pad in SF and having a great trip.
The fairy dragons are convinced they are the product of Paul’s imagination and if he ever comes down from his trip, they’ll all disappear. So their complete concentration is keeping him happy and high. I’ve introduced him to three different parties and got three totally different reactions.
First party spent the whole gaming session bullshitting with Paul and seeing how many apple pies (enlarged by the party magic user) the fairy dragons could eat (a lot!) They left a bunch of fairy dragons in food comas and Paul invited them back anytime.
Second party spent a couple hours trying to distract the dragons and steal stuff from the garden. I finally had the fairy dragons breath on them and transport them away. They are NOT welcome back.
Third party did a dine and dash. Stayed just long enough to get fed, realize that they weren’t going to get anything from Paul or the dragons and left in a huff.
Paul and my “beggar” racoon are some of my favorite things to throw at a party to see what their reactions are going to be :). You’d be amazed how many people just can’t handle a bit of humor in the game.
Were the three parties played by (more or less) the same set of real-life players, or did each set meet Paul for the first time?
I have a box of spiders in my desk drawer at work… I guess it’s almost time to bring them out for Halloween…
As to the blanks, it’s kind of the opposite for us in our current campaign. The PCs are concerned about running our tavern, while everyone else seems to be concerned with the monster of the week… and how to make it our problem. It’s not easy being a small business owner / adventurer sometimes.
The party are concerned about running our new TaverInn, but the NPCs are busy with… honestly we just don’t care, more management of our business!
But the NPCs aren’t coming to your inn if they are concerned with ____.
The NPCs are concerned about all the monsters running amok that the PCs aren’t dealing with.
Ooh! So many options! Among my favorites:
-) A wizard and her illusionist housemate chose their next dungeon the way you or I might pick a vacation resort. “Look, this one gets a ‘two-skull’ rating, and we can safely swim in the lake during daylight hours!”
-) Said wizard passed on a RP session in order to do a solo-dungeon. The rest of the party attended a Summer Festival and shopped for secondhand books to donate to their collegium’s library. Fun was had. Pancakes were eaten. Joke’s on wizard– the rummage sale was the hook for Candlekeep Mysteries, and now she has NO idea what the provenance of any of these ‘curious tomes’ they’ve found actually is, since she wasn’t there to ask the important questions.
-) In a hometown superheroes campaign, the PCs repeatedly made minor public appearances, but passed on representing their sponsoring organization during the city’s holiday parades. One hero (the speedster, the youngest) openly expressed his regrets about this until FINALLY the rest of the team relented. Of course, by then the heroes had made super-enemies, and two groups of them (the speedster’s nemeses, ironically) decided to crash the festivities (after some wholesome fun was had).
-) Lastly, another DM threw our group of fantasy murder-hobos (on their way from saving an island from sea-devils to stopping the literal apocalypse) directly into the path of an uncanny carnival. While the stakes were very real for the PCs, as we finally left, loaded with cotton candy, prizes, and magical tattoos (just before the sunrise deadline) all the carnies lined up and waved good-bye …even the ones we’d fought and killed earlier.
The party are concerned about _anything dangerous, really_, but the NPCs are busy with _the local sports championship (their team has a 15% chance of winning this year!)_
Nice 😀
Handbook of Heroes – Dawnguard 😀
*Dawngourd
I am actually in this situation. The characters are concerned about saving the world from the villain who is currently summoning an ancient evil pyramid in a bid to rise to godhood. An action that will call in every other powerful being in the realm (And a fair amount of other villains) to it, like a moth to a flame. So the party is preparing themselves for the battle royale that is about to ensure.
Meanwhile the NPCs closets to the party are currently busy trying to survive in the sunken temple, where the party last left them to quickly chase after the villain (It hadn´t sunk yet when the party left). Trying to survive their own underwater adventure until they can rest, get their own spell slots back and teleport out of there.
A third of the world is currently very worried about the giant demon invasion that suddenly appeared and the giant hobgoblin invasion that they knew had been brewing for quite some time. Luckily those two forces are just as much trouble for each other as they are for everyone else. Through the coming Mind Flayer invasion might upset this balance (The players might have told the Mind Flayers about the whole Godhood Pyramid thing, before they escaped them)… Should also mention that the players caused said giant demon invasion, due to irresponsible pet ownership.
An other third of the world is currently trying to deal with the zombie apocalypse, the civil war caused by the zombie apocalypse and the fiery chaos left after the party upset an ancient dragon queen and bailed (After they also accidentally caused a zombie apocalypse). As well as dealing with a the ancient and giant formless being slowly eating the world, as it spreads from one of the former great capitals of the world (The party accidentally released it. Independently of causing the zombie apocalypse). At least the hobgoblin invasion of this realm have been mostly stopped by said Zombie Apocalypse, Dragon Queen Rampage and Giant-Formless-Being-Slowly-Eating-the-World.
The last third of the world are kinda worried about why they are constantly getting bad omens when trying to read the future, but that is not going to stop them from holding their yearly dinosaur boat race, where people race boats against other people riding dinosaurs. After which they are going to have the big carnival to honor the ancestors. The harvest have also been great, so thats nice. Overall peaceful times. It is also the only part of the world my players haven´t visited.