Saturday, 20 December 2025

The why of festivals

You're approaching a town and you can hear music and laughter coming from around the bend. You've had the good luck of stumbling onto a local festival in progress.

Your pockets are jingling with coins - or else maybe you're broken and need to check the notice board for tavern keepers who want someone to kill the rats in their cellar. Either way, everyone's having a good time so you may as well join in.

It's a (1d6):

  1. harvest festival.
  2. commemoration of a famous historical event.
  3. religious holiday.
  4. trade fair.
  5. guild day.
  6. seasonal celebration.

You can smell the:

  1. pork pies
  2. sausages
  3. pastries
  4. raisin buns
  5. candied fruits
  6. peaches in sweet syrup

and there's flowing:

  1. beer.
  2. mulled ale.
  3. black stout.
  4. wine.
  5. cider.
  6. applejack.

The crowd are being entertained by:

  1. wandering stilt-walkers
  2. capering clowns
  3. jugglers
  4. performing minstrels
  5. story-tellers
  6. tumblers
and:

  1. a game of ring-toss.
  2. a wife-carrying race.
  3. wrestling.
  4. bobbing for apples.
  5. a gurning contest (pulling grotesque faces).
  6. a slippery pole race.

Beyond that is a stage where:

  1. the mayor or headman is giving a speech
  2. a priest is offering a blessing for all present
  3. a history is being recited
  4. a traditional song is being sung
  5. children are reciting a teaching poem
  6. an ancestral hero's armour and weapons are on display

but afterwards:

  1. contest winners will be announced.
  2. play actors will put on a performance.
  3. a band will set up.
  4. an effigy will be burned on a bonfire.
  5. there will be dancing.
  6. there's a scavenger hunt.



(Thanks to Spwack of the Slight Adjustments blog for the generator code.)

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