Topic: Barbarian ideas

[gandalf970]

I am having a blast with the barbarian clan campaign I am running.  My party is in charge of a clan and are ruling a valley with a bunch of clans and are having a blast.

The lastest event has me asking some questions and in need of some ideas.  They recently took in some refugees from a military oppressed region.  They have a different culture and wanted some ideas for plots and adventures.  Thanks in advance.

[jdale]

Refugees entering the region from another culture? Just read the news, plenty of adventure seeds there....

Too many refugees, not enough supplies. How do they deal with the shortfall?

Refugees know about some hidden resources (treasure, food, artifact?), if the players are able to get to it.

One of the refugees is a wanted outlaw and people will come hunting them. Maybe it's justifiable, maybe not. Alternately, some members of the clan come to believe that, but it's paranoid fear, no one is actually going to come after them.

Not everyone is happy about bringing in the refugees. Some people are trying to make them feel unwelcome or even get them expelled, or catch them breaking some kind of tribal taboo/law/etc.

One of the refugees is a natural leader and wants more say in the clan. They will work to gain more status and try to cast aspersions on existing leaders. Alternately, they work for status but anything that looks bad for the existing clan leaders is purely unintentional, or even just paranoia within the clan.

Cultural or religious differences cause misunderstandings. Doesn't necessarily have to be something that is actually better or worse, just different.

[Fingolfin80]

Some addition to Jdale's very good points:

- are they really refugees? Maybe they are spies sent to divide the clans, maybe they aren't but someone starts to think they are.

- maybe there's something they need to regain control of their own reign. It may be an actual object like an artifact, relic, or symbol of power long lost, but it could be something less tangible, like help to infiltrate their reign and raise the people, orgnize support to rebel groups in the reign or even start a military campaign with the help of the clans.

- things starts to go wrong, like plague or famine, and people starts to blame the refugees (depending on your religious system this could get fanatical nuances, just think about how black plague was handled in Europe in middle ages). They may have brought it, for example some of them was already ill, or maybe someone has a cursed item that's bringing doom upon them. Maybe they are innocent, and someone pulling the strings is using them as a scapegoat.

- Culture and religion, as pointed out by Jdale, are a gold mine here. Maybe the refugees are highly civilized and always treated the clans as barely human. Maybe their religion impose them to treat tribal beliefs as demon worshiping, or at the opposite the clans treats their religion as silly and alien and offensive to their gods. Maybe refugees are citizen or highborn, inept in everything that is needed in a more barbaric environment and they struggle to find a way to be useful to the clans. Keep in mind that these differences can work even if the refugees are less civilized than the clans with few adaptations.

- the refugees brings something new too the clan that starts a change in the power balance among the clans. Depending on the availability of resources in your campaign it can be very different things. If your barbarians are bronze age, maybe they bring the secret of working iron. If they already have iron, maybe they bring steel and so on. Maybe they have better techniques for agriculture, better engineers for tools or architects for buildings and fortifications. If your barbarians dont't use magic, maybe that's what they bring, or better and different ways to practice it. Maybe barbarians didnt have mentalist, or hybrid spell users. One or more of these changes could make one clan more powerful, and this could bring tensions or even open war.

[gandalf970]

Thanks jdale and fingolfin.  These are great ideas and I will include some variations of these to see how my players react.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

You could also throw in a variant of the classical "Romeo and Juliet" love story, between a refugee and a person from (most interestingly) a major "barbarian" family. Heck, you could have one of your PCs to be the one to fall in love! Family, duty, love, honour, pride, social position, all thrown in one big story!
Even better? Make the other side actually be a child of an important member of the oppressing power, the very reason why the refugees had to come!

[gandalf970]

OLF!  I really like the child of the oppressing power!  Then they need to bring war to the barbarians to get them back!  Thanks

[Spectre771]

A plot twist I like to use at times when dealing with new cultures, is the misunderstanding of customs and traditions.  What once group views as a custom/tradition, another culture may view as 'barbaric.'  No pun intended.  One group may worship a certain animal where another needs it for sustenance.  One group may stake a criminal to an anthill for penance, while another views it as inhumane torture (or maybe animal cruelty if they worship ants.) 

Think of the virgin chained to a tree to be sacrificed to the dragon to spare the village.  What would a wandering band of barbarians do if they happened across the chained offering?  Do they leave him/her and save the village or free him/her and risk the destruction of the village.   The victim may or may not tell the truth when questioned.  "My village-folk chained me here as a sacrifice to the dragon!  You have to free me!"

How the two groups choose to deal with the differences can open up dialog or conflict.

[gandalf970]

A follow up to our game last night using the ideas in this thread.  I introduced the cultural differences and dang it if my players were ready and expecting this (which is very surprising for this group, made me proud).  They role-played through the issues the refugees had and found out that the old mayor was a weasel and causing strife.  He took a dirt nap and that caused some others to fall in line.

Then the Chief Sabre, Carl Two Lungs and other Carl Doombringer showed how all would have food, protection and security in the new area.  They built homes, listened to the refugees and shared stories.  Then the Chief does a spectacular success on Public Speaking and follows that up with a Spectacular Success with Leadership and most are enthralled with how he works right beside them. 

Then they start integrating each others culture and another Spectacular Success with Culture Lore.

We really had a fun evening and not one combat other then the old mayor dying.  I introduced a serial killer as a side plot since all of my other machinations were for not.  Also the one of the refugees was a daughter of a really powerful lord and that was discovered.  Now they are preparing for war with the other nation.

Then another Spectacular Success (I made them all change dice at this point  ) in rallying the other clans to their cause and we are set for a great story.

Thank you all for your help.