Harvest Festival

When Greenery Is More Than Scenery

by Michele Armellini

Good game world designers always state that at a low technology level, the exalted knight would simply starve were it not for the nine peasants tilling the lands to feed him. At higher tech levels, the proportion may be reversed and a farmer's life may be less brutish, but the fact remains that nobody usually wants to roleplay boring farm life. But agricultural activities can actually be an interesting, and even exciting, element in adventures, with the added bonus that the players won't expect it. Sometimes, even the usual crops can make for adventure stuff -- and some crops (and wild plants) are just, well, unusual. This article presents a few ideas for making the harvest festival the place to be, and shows that sometimes a vegetable might become an adventure seed (pun intended!).

As a warning, since agriculture usually is what keeps the game society fed, introducing unusual plants, plant magic, or cultivation methods may well have unforeseen long-term effects on the game world's economy! Dealing with this is out of the scope of this article. If the GM doesn't want to deal with these potential complications, but he'd still like an agricultural MacGuffin, a limiting factor should be added. Maybe the new plant can grow only within a small environment, for instance.

A Rustic Life

While "straight" peasants are probably unsuitable as PCs, bringing adventurers into contact with the farmers might be . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.

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Article publication date: December 19, 2003

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