Topic: Adventure ideas for a nomadic culture

[gandalf970]

We are starting a small in scope nomadic campaign.  No magic, very low fantasy.  Basic premise is they are following a herding animal that provides the sustenance for the clan.  There are dire animals and a few Shanka (First Law Trilogy), but I was hoping to get some help from the community on ideas to throw at the group.

Thanks in advance.

[gog]

Elder/Leader dies, and the succession race

Traditional route blocked, need to find new way around

Meet a stranger - who are they where are they from

[Amano]

Shanka ambush (treachery afoot).
Ancient tomb or ruins (loot, equipment)
Nine fingered man! No, sorry. Nemesis (antipathy with BBEG)
Diseased herd mystery (poisoned by BBEG).
Wrongly accused and banished.
Outback survival (dire animals).
Raided by rival clan (save the day, become heroes, reveal BBEG).
Murder BBEG and his minions.
SAND WORMS! Great big Cthonian sand worms, like in the movie tremors.

[Majyk]

Easy ones, are contests/rituals amongst those that are aging out of being a young adult and proving themselves with (insert drinking/stamina/strength/agility) contests or feats of great skill.

[gandalf970]

Shanka ambush (treachery afoot).
Ancient tomb or ruins (loot, equipment)
Nine fingered man! No, sorry. Nemesis (antipathy with BBEG)
Diseased herd mystery (poisoned by BBEG).
Wrongly accused and banished.
Outback survival (dire animals).
Raided by rival clan (save the day, become heroes, reveal BBEG).
Murder BBEG and his minions.
SAND WORMS! Great big Cthonian sand worms, like in the movie tremors.

What would Nine Fingers look like in Rolemaster?  I don't think Frenzy does enough for him, some type of possession would provide it.

[jdale]

Interactions with other tribes/clans. Could be friendly trade, could be competition for resources, could be outright warfare. An initial meeting could be high tension if they don't know which of those is most likely. Perhaps they need to put on a show of strength (bluffing?) in order to dissuade the other tribe from hostility -- a tribe might choose to trade with tribes it sees as equal, but drive off or demand tribute from a tribe it sees as weaker. The other tribe might be doing the same, what happens if the PCs discover the other tribe is actually much, much weaker than it appears? E.g. numbers are lower, chieftain is sick, etc.

Rites might be required at sacred locations to ensure favorable weather, fertility of the herds, etc. Those locations may be difficult to access. One might be defiled. It needs purification or the herd is endangered, but they also need to find out who did it and why. Was it a competing tribe? Someone within the tribe who hopes to weaken and replace the chieftain or shaman? Someone cast out of the tribe who holds a grudge?

It's probably worthwhile to establish some adjacent tribes, think of them essentially as characters with their own personalities. You might have members of the PC's tribe from other tribes, maybe they married in, or were banished by another tribe and accepted (with some suspicion and distrust?) in the PC tribe.

[Jengada]

Jdale's suggestions are all good ones. I've run a low-magic campaign in a nomadic setting, off and on for about 30 years, and adventures are definitely a challenge if you don't want to just run constant 'tribal conflict' scenarios. Here are some of the things that have proven popular with players:
Horse thieves: someone is stealing horses or other livestock, and the party is asked to investigate, or has some of their own stolen. It turns out that it's not just a local problem and it's an organized band of thieves. Scale as fits the power of the party.

Romeo and Juliet: Arranged marriages and marriages for political alliance were common in nomadic cultures. You can do a straight R&J scenario of lovers whose tribes/clans are rivals, or you can flip it and have two clans trying to arrange a marriage but the bride or groom refuses and flees. Either you have interclan combat and drag the party in one way or another, or you have a pursuit to find a reluctant bride/groom. Lots of opportunities for noncombat roleplay.
Natural extremes: Drought, flood, prairie fire, snowstorm - take your pick. They all have a big impact on nomadic life. I just played out a "natural" disaster in my campaign, with a wave destroying the fishing district in the city, and the players said it was one of the best sessions they've ever had, trying to figure out what they could do when there's no attackable enemy, no one you can talk to or influence. Can you safely get the livestock to new food? Do natural predators lose their food supply and get bold enough to come attack herds?
I also have one animal species that goes through population explosions every several years, in various regions. At that time, they become aggressive and start destroying the livestock herds. Adventures could range from protecting the herds, to actively going into the lair of the creatures to clear them out.

Remember, Chinggis Khaan started creating his empire by fighting, conquering, and allying with neighboring tribes. They were always at war, and there's no limit to the plot lines you can draw out of that kind of environment if you want a lot of battle and diplomacy. The  2007 movie Mongol can give you some inspiration (and an awesome soundtrack to drop in the background of your sessions.)

[Jengada]

Another one I forgot, is looking for artifacts from old battles or previous cultures. I had an adventure where my party heard rumors that the site of a(n) historic battle had been found. They began a race to find the armor, arms, etc. that were expected to be there. Other parties were looking too, of course, so there were opportunities for lots of negotiation and fighting, depending on how you want to set it up. In my campaign, I use settings like this to drop magic items into a world where there's little magic, but the stories say that long ago there were great mages. Similarly, iron is rare in this part of my world and so finding metal items is a big treasure win.

[jdale]

Along those lines, meteoric iron is usable before a culture can handle smelting iron. A meteorite also could have religious or magical implications.