S3E8 Bringing Holidays to RPGs

On Episode 8, the holidays of the real world inspire a discussion of bringing holidays and special events to our game worlds. We also talk about geek Christmas trees, Seeing Eye puppies, our continued exploration of cyberpunk, and Netflix’s new Wednesday series.

The Geek Tree

• This year, it’s all about Star Wars.

The All-Seeing Eye

• Ken’s sixth Seeing Eye puppy is coming.
• He arrives December 27.
• We’re taking guesses for the name.

The Library

• David really want to read Count Zero, the follow up to Neuromancer and Book 2 in William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy but it’s on hold at the library.

The Streaming Theatre

• Wednesday series on Netflix
• A fun horror/comedy series that expands the Addams Family.

Main topic: Bringing Holidays to RPGs

• Why?
  • A reason to bring your fantasy community together.
  • Builds out the history (on this day, we remember the heroic sacrifices of X, the founding of y)
    • Gives a way for players to learn about the history of the world without it being a lore dump
  • Provides a dramatic backdrop for the adventure (the heist occurred during the 6th Day of Yuletide)
  • If you are running a West Marches style game, it’s a good excuse to get everyone together and have a good time outside of the game, but with the pretext of the game.
• World of Greyhawk Holidays
  • Greyhawk’s calendar has four holiday weeks (Brewfest, Growfest, Needfest, Richfest)
    • Various holy days for deities happen throughout the gear
    • Midsummer’s Day, at the mid point of Richfest, is holy to Pelor, a god of sun and healing.
    • The Greyhawk Calendar
• Book of the Righteous
  • Green Ronin – The Book of the Righteous (5E Hardback) – Green Ronin Online Store
• It’s not just fantasy…
  • Cyberpunk RED
    • Still have the normal Earth holidays
    • Commemorating days such as the nuclear detonation of Arasaka Tower
    • Marketing events that happen on made-up holidays
• Secular Holidays
  • The Big Game
  • NASCAR Races
• Tools we like
  • Campaign Calendar generator
  • Weather Generators + Holidays
    • Greyhawk
    • Forgotten Realms
  • Godchecker
    • An index of 4,000+ deities and spirts
  • Night City weather (PDF) for Cyberpunk RED

Feedback

Thanks for listening. If you have feedback, we love feedback. You can send it to us at podcast@lairofsecrets.com or via Twitter @lairofsecrets. We stream this live on Twitch if you want to get your fix of things early and unedited. You can also visit lairofsecrets.com and leave us some feedback, topic ideas, or your own thoughts on what we’ve talked about. We’re also @lairofsecrets@dice.camp on Mastodon.

Featured Image Meta

Cover art for Green Ronin’s Book of Righteousness.

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