|
Up until about 2 minutes ago, I intended to make this month's column
about religion. But then, it struck me that considering the season we're
just coming out of, maybe we're all in a good mindset to come up with
some holidays. Preferably some where it's perfectly acceptable to send
your in-laws gift certificates instead of trying to shop for and ship gifts
when you don't have a freaking car!
Oh, wait, I'm sorry, this isn't an opinion column.
Role playing games seem to be sadly lacking in holidays. It's strange
when you think about it, because people like holidays... Religions have
feasts dedicated to their god(s), people celebrate historical victories, and
then there's always those that just mark transitions from one season to
another. Not only are holidays a part of just about any culture (Jehovah's
Witnesses excluded, but I don't think they count as an entire culture
anyway), they're also a good plot device for a role playing game.
But, let me say, they shouldn't only be used as a plot device. While
holidays rarely show up in RPGs, they do show up in fantasy novels...
Usually to end up being some important part of the story. It can be fun to
use a big festival as the setting for a murder mystery or some such, but
don't limit it to that. Holidays can also be a good time to let the
characters have some down time and let the players goof off. Just picture
your average dwarf at a festival dedicated to the local wine god... Your
players will be rolling on the floor at his antics, and you'll be able to
sit back and plot while they amuse themselves.
In searching for inspiration for holidays for your world, you need look no
further than your calander. Look at the holidays listed and think about
where they came from... If you have a bible handy, you can see where
most of the Jewish holidays (excluding Chanukkah, and the Holocaust
Memorial Day, which I can't remember the Hebrew spelling of) come
from. You can see the holidays being handed straight down by God, and
this method works very well in role playing games.
On a tangent here, even if you don't want to make your gods clearly real,
you can still have holidays that seem to be handed down from the gods,
or at least dedicated to them... This would be more along the lines of the
Greek holidays, which were dedicated to the Gods, rather than
commemorating a certain deed done by the Gods.
Back to looking at the origins. I'm going to skip Christian holidays, as
that's just another opinion rant. Instead, let's look at good ol' American
holidays (insert country of choice if you're not in America, I'm sure every
country has some of this type). Many of these are fairly recent, so it's
easy to see where they came from. They were instituted by people, to
remember and/or celebrate a particular day, event, or group of people.
This is the kind of holiday you will want for a country that isn't
particularly religious, though even religious countries have some, too
(whether or not America counts as a religious country is a moot point
here, we're talking about fiction). To develop these holidays, you may
want to come up with a bit of history first, that way there are events to
celebrate. Victories in war and the winning of independance are always
popular. But don't forget days of rememberance for defeats and other sad
events.
Holidays celebrating parents or children or whatnot are an option, as
while they are boring, they do make it look a little more like a real
culture. These holidays won't have much effect on your role playing game or
book, unless of course Gragthog the fighter really has to get home to
Mom on Mother's Day, even if he has to fight a whole army of orcs to
get there!
Lastly (because I don't know much about them, and my expert on them
isn't on-line at the moment), we have Pagan holidays, which are very
good to base your fantasy holidays on. Celebrations of the turnings of
the season and phases of the moon and such have been around for a
long time. These are best for a society that is very nature-oriented, and
also some cultures heavily steeped in magic.
So, you've made a list of holidays... I bet you think you're all done, don't
you? Ha! You poor fool! You've forgotten that we have traditional things
that we do on our holidays, and so must the culture that you're working
on? Since I plan on writing a whole column on this subject some day
(and also touching down on traditions regarding marriage, birth,
coronation, etc), we'll just go over the basics now.
Once again, look at our holidays for inspiration. What do people do on
holidays? Eat! (except on those nasty fasting holidays... yuck! No
offense to people who fast, I'd just pass out if I tried it) Of course,
there's also giving of gifts (as we all remember from this season....), lighting
candles, and for the religious sort, praying and singing hymns. Other
possibilities are sacrifices, pilgrimages, parades, plays (good for
commemorative holidays, see Sleeping Dragons for an example of this), bazaars, and lots of rampant
drinking.
For some real fun, quickly make up an important gift giving holiday and
watch your characters scramble around trying to find gifts for each
other.... In the middle of the wilderness! "A dead squirrel... why... you
shouldn't have!"
Disclaimer: AJ is still not an expert. Feel free to disregard her advice.
|