I'm thinking of a different way to handle feasts. They were such a regular part of life in the Middle (and "Dark") Ages that it seems to me a lost opportunity to only have them as the occasional "set piece" event. So my idea is to roll for a certain number of feast events that the PK will experience throughout the year. Then you roll on a table to determine which feast each one occurs on. See a preliminary list, below. Then you just draw Sir Pramalot's Feast Cards (thanks, SP, for these—they're great!) for each event. I like this because it introduces more variety, randomness and interest without much complexity (a single roll on 1 table). It also allows for unexpected plot developments and extends the courtly experience to allow players more chances to use (and advance) their non-combat skills.

My question is how many feast events should each PK experience, on average, per year? I like curves instead of flat rolls, and I rather like the Idea of adding +1 for every APP point over 15. So...2d3 + APP bonus per year? What feels right?


British Christian Feasts

1. Twelfth Night/Epiphany (January 5-6)
2. Candlemas (Feb. 2)
3. Easter, the greatest feast day of the medieval calendar (it falls between March 22 and April 25)
4. Feast of Whitsun (Pentecost) (ten days after Ascension Day)
5. Festival of St. John the Baptist, aka "Midsummer's Day" (June 14)
6. Michaelmas (the Festival of St. Michael the Archangel (September 29)
7. All Hallow's Eve and All Souls Day or All Hallow's Day (October 31-November 1)
8. Christmas

Roman Catholic Feasts

1. Twelfth Night/Epiphany (January 5-6)
2. Candlemas (Feb. 2)
3. St. Valentine's Day (February 14)
4. Easter (it falls between March 22 and April 25)
5. Lady Day, aka The Feast of the Annunciation (March 25). The year changes on this day.
6. Feast of the Ascension (the Thursday after Rogation Sunday)
7. Whitsun (Pentecost) (ten days after Ascension Day)
8. Festival of St. John the Baptist, aka "Midsummer's Day" (June 14),
9. Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15)
10. Michaelmas (the Festival of St. Michael the Archangel (September 29)
11. All Hallow's Eve and All Souls Day or All Hallow's Day (October 31-November 1)
12. Christmas

Some may be slight anachronistic but that obviously doesn't matter much in a campaign where 1000 years are compressed to 80!


Pagan Feasts

1. Samhain aka Winter Night (October 31/November 1) Pagan New Year
2. Beltane aka May Eve (April 30/May 1)
3. Lughnasadh (pronounced ‘loo’nass’ah’, Celtic) aka Freysfest aka Lammas (August 2-4)
4. Imbolk (pronounced ‘im’olk’, Celtic) aka Oimelc aka Disfest February 1-2
5. Ostara aka The Spring or Vernal Equinox (March 20-21)
6. Summer Solstice aka Midsummer (June 21)
7. Autumn Equinox aka Mabon aka Fallfest aka Harvest Home (September 20-21)
8. Winter Solstice aka Yule aka Midwinter (December 20-21)


Whad'ya think?


T.

That's an interesting concept. I might trial that myself. When do you propose that these events be determined? As part of the Winter phase?

As a whole I tend to run just 1 full feast per year, and some years none at all. I still use my cards (in a slightly less formal manner) thus they can be quite intensive events. Doing that every year can become a tad too repetitive. Your suggestion could be a way to add some variety.

Yeah, I was thinking about when to roll. I guess one could roll, as you say, during the Winter Phase for the upcoming year. That way you could consolidate multiple roll results (you might roll 2-3 Easter events, for example) and reroll ones where you know the PK wound't be participating (during the summer if he's off at war or on errantry). So I think you could roll the number in advance, and the feast at which each occurred and make notes. Then draw cards as you work though the annual timeline. This is just another way of filling in some of the blank spaces in the PKs chronicle.

What do you think is an appropriate number, per year? I'm thinking 2d3, myself.


Thanks!


T.

Again, IMHO and all that...

The first question I'd ask myself is, how many gaming sessions do you use per Campaign year? I do know that some have advocated one-session-per-one-year which also translates to one-adventure-per-one-year. I myself am a slow GM, often taking a few sessions to get through the year, depending how much stuff there is happening.

In any case, it can easily get boring to have 6 feasts in one session. I'd prefer having fewer, more memorable feasts myself: Pentecost feast in Camelot certainly, then a Christmas feast with the liege lord, and perhaps an additional feast if an excuse can be found (squires getting knighted? the liege lord getting married?) or the year has otherwise been slow.

I am also fond of combining feasts with tournaments. Now that I am checking the tournament list in Lordly Domains, I am sure I could fill one year doing nothing else but tournaments and feasts. :P I'd just have to come up with something interesting for the players other than just breaking sticks on shields, though.

Quick reply ......

a) If you are going to give knights with more appearance more feast chances, then should they be available for adventures ? You can't have it both ways as an attractive knight... One is either partying or fighting. The alternative argument is that attractive knights get to do more at feasts: which personally I'm not sure I agree with. I think attractive knights get to do different things at feasts; everybody gets to do something.

b) My game developed into at least two, if not three gaming events per year, one of which was feast territory. Pentecost - because it became the premier tournament and feast event. Be there with your wife in latest fashion or be a nobody! Second I would run some sort of "monster/war bash" to ensure martial skills were kept up to scratch. The Third event would often come from the players saying something along the lines of "I want to do X because of Y" or "I'm getting married, why can't I have a tournament/feast", or "I want to go to Malahaut to do X because of Z NPC".

For me, the problem I see with abstracting out feasts is that it doesn't reward those who choose to play a "courtier" style game/knight.

Chris

What do you think is an appropriate number, per year? I'm thinking 2d3, myself.
That's an average of four events per PK, so somewhere between 10 and 20 events per year for a typical gaming table. For me that's OK if you are making feasts the 'adventure' for a year, but it is too many if this is intended to form part of the typical yearly round.

Using APP to modify the number of events is something I'd steer away from also - I would incline towards high APP permitting a PK to get more juice from these events (ie open up 'advanced' options, negate or mitigate bad outcomes etc) rather than just giving them more spotlight time.

Regards
Luke

For me, it depends upon the phase of the game.

In Uther and Anarchy, it essentially comes down to 3 things: what the nobles are doing (intrigue), what the commoners are doing (folklore), and plots. It is a dark time, there is little time for finer things. (The Saxons are coming! And you want to do what??)

Once Arthur arrives and things settle down, there is much more time for the finer aspects of knighthood to develop - quests, courting, falconry & hunting, tournaments, and so on. The courtier comes into his own and court sessions can become the main part of the session.

This also explains why certain knights who are really good in one phase may not be in another.

Bob Schroeder

Again, IMHO and all that...

The first question I'd ask myself is, how many gaming sessions do you use per Campaign year? I do know that some have advocated one-session-per-one-year which also translates to one-adventure-per-one-year. I myself am a slow GM, often taking a few sessions to get through the year, depending how much stuff there is happening.

I typically take 2-3 sessions to play through a year—but my sessions are short—typically two hours on average.


In any case, it can easily get boring to have 6 feasts in one session. I'd prefer having fewer, more memorable feasts myself: Pentecost feast in Camelot certainly, then a Christmas feast with the liege lord, and perhaps an additional feast if an excuse can be found (squires getting knighted? the liege lord getting married?) or the year has otherwise been slow.

Ah—I haven't made myself very clear here. I'm not thinking off role-playing through six feasts. You could still have the occasional set-piece for that, like the Great Sword Feast, for instance. No, what I have in mind is rolling for a number of feast events per year and then deciding at which feast they occur. So you'd roll 2d3 and get 4 feast events for the year, for example. Then you roll to determine at which feast each occurs—there can be overlap (more than one event per feast) and you might reroll results that indicate a feast during the adventuring season. Then you draw a card for each event. It's just almost like an ongoing "Solo Adventure" that hopefully spins off more plot points and interesting developments—new friends and enemies, smallish character developments, unexpected conflicts. It's just an opportunity to weave a little more social depth into the tale. I think you roll these off in between the Big Events—after the Winter phase before the adventuring season, in between adventures, and after the adventuring season (during the Winter phase). They're like little micro events that can have long-term consequences. They shouldtn't be a big burden from either a Gm preparation or a playing-time standpoint. This is 5-10 minutes during a session.

Hopefully that explains it better.


Best,


T.

Quick reply ......

a) If you are going to give knights with more appearance more feast chances, then should they be available for adventures ? You can't have it both ways as an attractive knight... One is either partying or fighting. The alternative argument is that attractive knights get to do more at feasts: which personally I'm not sure I agree with. I think attractive knights get to do different things at feasts; everybody gets to do something.

Thanks for replying, AD. Yeah, I think you'd have to reroll if a feast falls during the adventuring season—unless a player misses a session, in which case he could do it as part of his makeup work. As for the APP thing—I think the more attractive people (the "beautiful people", if you will) do get to do more in social situations—as much in the real world as in Camelot! Of course, this bit, as much as any of these proposed hour rules are totally optional.


b) My game developed into at least two, if not three gaming events per year, one of which was feast territory. Pentecost - because it became the premier tournament and feast event. Be there with your wife in latest fashion or be a nobody! Second I would run some sort of "monster/war bash" to ensure martial skills were kept up to scratch. The Third event would often come from the players saying something along the lines of "I want to do X because of Y" or "I'm getting married, why can't I have a tournament/feast", or "I want to go to Malahaut to do X because of Z NPC".

For me, the problem I see with abstracting out feasts is that it doesn't reward those who choose to play a "courtier" style game/knight.

I wasn't thinking of it has an alternative to "set-piece" feasts, but in addition to. Maybe if you have one of these in a year, you could reduce the number of rolled feast event to 1d3 (for the other feasts in the year).


Thanks,


T.

What do you think is an appropriate number, per year? I'm thinking 2d3, myself.
That's an average of four events per PK, so somewhere between 10 and 20 events per year for a typical gaming table. For me that's OK if you are making feasts the 'adventure' for a year, but it is too many if this is intended to form part of the typical yearly round.

Thanks, silburnl. See my expanded explanation, above. I intend only 2d3 events for the entire year, so, four, average, per year. Then you determine at which feasts they occur.


Using APP to modify the number of events is something I'd steer away from also - I would incline towards high APP permitting a PK to get more juice from these events (ie open up 'advanced' options, negate or mitigate bad outcomes etc) rather than just giving them more spotlight time.

Yeah, I'm on the fence about that one. See my comments on that above, as well.

Thanks!


T.