Director’s Briefing – July 2020

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Welcome

To the one hundred-and-ninth Briefing and seventh Briefing of 2020. We sincerely hope that you and yours are still staying safe and managing as best you can in these trying circumstances. This Briefing has been a little delayed (it is harder to get out of lockdown than it is to go into lockdown).

Bob Mohney RIP

It is with sadness that we report the death of Robert (Bob) Mohney Jr on 10 June 2020 after a year-long battle with cancer. Rolemaster fans will recognize his name from the ICE staff credits in many books of the 1990s for editing, design and production work, including coauthorship on Weapons Law:Firearms. Our sincere condolences to his mother Carol and all his family.

Website

The website is back, at least for now. We are not certain that this is fully stable so there is work behind the scenes still ongoing on this.

Online Conventions

Colin has been working tirelessly to get us up and running for the online convention season. He has been nobly assisted by a team of heroic fans who have been putting together adventures and digital tool support. I have registered personally for Gen Con Online and hope to be able to do something. We have also registered for the virtual version of UK Games Expo.

HARP and Cyradon

HARP Subterfuge is with Terry for his layout magic and he’s been able to make a start. The cover art for HARP Bestiary is well underway – Colin and I have seen drafts and it already looks brilliant.

Colin has made a start on his edits to the Cyradon setting base book but this is currently a background task.

I have also had sight of a preview video for the next version of AutoHARP which is currently under development. David Klecker will be seeking feedback on his plans in due course.

Shadow World

Bruce Meyer has been working on the spells for a HARP version of the Rolemaster Monk for the
HARP Handbook for Shadow World.

Terry is still working on his next adventure and Emer IV.

Rolemaster

I have been editing RMU as my main company task for June, focusing on the Arms Law & Character Law manuscript. I am very pleased to report that it is indeed excellent and I have no significant changes to request of Jonathan Dale. Thus a major component of RMU is now essentially stable and we will be ensuring that our software developers have access to this so that they can push forward with RMU versions of software. I am now turning my editing attention to the new RMU Spell Law.
Until next time

Until next time

Please stay safe.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

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Skin-changers as a HARP race


Werewolves are cool. Everyone knows it. But you know what’s cooler? Werebears (don’t @ me).
 
I read a lot of myths and legends from all around the world and the vast majority of tales about werebears don’t explain it as a disease like lycanthropy that is passed from one sufferer to another. It is something people are born with. It is not some hideous curse but a blessing or special skill. With that in mind I felt that the way werebears are covered in HARP Fantasy doesn’t allow for these types of skin-changers. With that in mind I thought I would put together what I think skin-changers would look like as a playable race in HARP Fantasy.
 
 
Skin-changers
 

St: +3
Co: +3
Ag: +0
Qu: +1
SD: +0
Re: +0
In +1
Pr +2
 
Endurance +40
PP +20
 
Stamina +10
Will +10
Magic +10
 

Base height Base weight
Male 6’6” 270 6
Female 6’4” 250 6

 

Race Adulthood Lifespan Increment
Skin-changer 18 100 2

 
Demeanour: Skin-changers tend to be quiet, thoughtful people who enjoy being surrounded by the natural world and have a distaste for large crowds, big cities and anything that damages the natural surroundings. They are generally peaceful and good natured amongst their own kind but tend not to trust other races and are outright aggressive to anyone who threatens their land and their way of life.
 
Appearance: Skin-changers are descended from humans and so look very similar to them. They tend to be taller and bulkier than the average human with males standing around 6’ 6” and females only a few inches shorter than that. Skin-changers tend to have dark hair and dark eyes and a generally unkempt appearance as they care little for what the world thinks of them.
 
Lifespan: Like humans, the average skin-changer can live to around 100 years. However, they are often hunted and persecuted and so rarely live that long.
 
Culture: Most Skin-changers come from a Sylvan culture. They are usually solitary people living on their own or in small communities as far away from population centres as possible.
 
Special Abilities
 
Bear transformations
 
Skin changers have the blood magic talent: Animal transformation (HARP College of Magics pg 97). This includes scaling for gaining the physical attacks of a bear, gaining the movement type of a bear, gaining the senses of a bear and increasing the duration of the spell to 10 minutes per rank. In addition, the skin-changer receives 5 skill ranks in the corresponding ‘use blood magic’ skill.
 
This means that three times a day the skin changer may change into the form of a bear (presuming they have made a successful ‘use blood magic’ skill roll. When transformed they retain their mental faculties but in all other respects become a bear. Each transformation can last a maximum of 190 minutes but the skin-changer may change back at will.
 

Director’s Briefing – March 2020

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Welcome

To the one hundred-and-fifth Briefing and third Briefing of 2020.

Shadow World

Terry Amthor latest mini-adventure for Shadow World, entitled Aalk Vaalg : The Citadel of Osaran, is now available on DriveThruRPG. This is set in the Zor Wastes, dovetailing neatly with characters and scenarios from the refreshed Haalkitaine sourcebook. This is an opportunity for adventurers to infiltrate the fortress of the High Priest Dansart and confound his evil plans. Or suffer a painful death on monster talons in the Wastes or at the hands of cultists – this is the Shadow World after all!

The adventure has stats for Rolemaster Classic/RM 2nd Edition and RMSS/RMFRP. You can purchase the adventure for 2 USD at DrivethruRPG

Terry is back on the writing of Emer IV and has already started thinking about some of the art we will need to commission for it. He has been thinking about the next mini-adventure as well.

HARP

I have been working on HARP Beyond the Veil. Not finished yet, but back into the thick of it. Checking the allocations of spells to sample deities and religions, mainly to see if there is anything that Jon has missed and if there are any spells from HARP Subterfuge and the manuscript of HARP Something Wicked Something Wondrous.

Ever more art continues to be commissioned and arrive for HARP Subterfuge, HARP Bestiary and HARP Garden of Rain. HARP Subterfuge is definitely in the lead for completion. It looks like we might be art complete by end of May for Subterfuge.

ERA for Rolemaster

We have released the 64-bit Mac version of ERA for Rolemaster. Max is very grateful for all the feedback he has received from ERA users in this process. Please let us know if there are any glitches.

Until next time

Back to HARP Beyond the Veil and the rest of the main queue.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

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100 books you might find in a fantasy setting

Books, scrolls, parchments and paper are pretty common in a fantasy setting like Rolemaster’s Shadow World or HARP’s Cyradon. Whether your PCs are talking to book dealers, perusing a library or finding things in abandoned dungeons, having some generic texts that can pop up in your fantasy setting could be quite useful. That’s why we put together this list of 100 books you might find in a fantasy setting.

 

  • A ‘history’ book which chronicles a collection of events that only occurred in the disturbed mind of the author
  • A detailed history of the use of wicker
  • A tome from another plane that no one has ever managed to translate
  • Tales from an ancient civilisation that is so long dead no one knows if the amazing tales are legend or truth
  • 101 different ways to cook and eat turnips
  • An autobiography of someone who never did anything interesting
  • The life and deeds of kings and queens
  • A complete history of a noble house
  • A book of the greatest songs and ditties from all corners of the earth
  • An ancient recipe for the tastiest ale to ever be brewed
  • The detailed notes of magic users’ experiments into the origins and limits of magic
  • A selection of books detailing flora from different continents and their uses (not always accurate)
  • Adventurous farming methods for the adventurous farmer
  • Using magic to improve crop yields
  • Medicinal plants and where to find them
  • A selection of books detailing animal life on different continents including some that are now thought to be extinct
  • A sure-fire way to learn any language in three days (it doesn’t work)
  • What the planets position at the time of your birth mean for the rest of your life
  • How to raise otters as livestock
  • A history of dragons and dragonkin
  • An encyclopaedic guide to creatures from other planes
  • Evidence for the existence of an elusive creature (it doesn’t exist)
  • The pets of Sir Durnstrum Wippledip and their amazing adventures
  • Detailed drawings of dissections of several magical creatures
  • Ghosts, ghouls and spirits; catching them, killing them and controlling them
  • Rural flora of this century
  • The (very) in depth notes of a fanatical horticulturalist who cultivated several rare plants and bred their own species into creation
  • Whittling with magic
  • Wheels: The future of transportation
  • The greatest potters of these isles and their works
  • Learn to play the lute without ever touching one
  • How to treat some of the world’s most deadly diseases
  • The holy text
  • The holy text of a long dead religion
  • Architectural plans for the lost city
  • Local law enforcement logbooks containing notes on all crimes committed that year
  • The greatest painters of all time and their works
  • A book of local folklore
  • The history of the church
  • The librarian’s autobiography (it is terrible)
  • A book of military history
  • Advanced siege strategies
  • Building the weapons of war
  • Castles and how to overcome them
  • Observations on the stars and their movements
  • A local (and quite incomplete) dictionary
  • Children’s tales
  • The benefits of irrigation and plumbing
  • Every fight in the local arena logged and described since the arena opened
  • A beginners’ guide to magic
  • Magic your way to love
  • Local trade logs
  • Channelling magic
  • Mentalism for the ages
  • How to make a living as a mage
  • Staying on the right side of God
  • Naturally occurring magical phenomenon
  • A book of ‘lost’ magics
  • A spell book detailing a plethora of forbidden magic
  • Making friends and influencing people with magic
  • The evils of magic
  • The diaries and observations of one of the world’s greatest explorers
  • Secret cults of modern times
  • Census results dating back generations
  • The bardic tradition
  • The religions and customs of faraway places
  • An account of an ancient battle
  • The teachings of a great philosopher
  • Why nothing really matters – A fatalistic approach to everyday life
  • Does this world exist only in the mind of another, unknowable creature?
  • The complete rules of a local sport or game
  • A book of common spells
  • Recent advancements in modern technology (it’s very old)
  • The wonders of a foreign world
  • Historical political manifestos
  • A book of prophesy
  • A book of prophesy written for a specific individual
  • An encyclopaedia of goat breeds
  • A log of all marriages and deaths in a town or city
  • Architectural drawings of all the buildings in town
  • Finding and eliminating vampires
  • Teach yourself magic (widely regarded as one of the most dangerous books ever written)
  • A book of forgotten gods
  • Local maps from long ago
  • An account of an expedition to the edge of the world
  • Surviving in the wild with magic
  • The rise and fall of an ancient dynasty
  • A tome chronicling the existence of ancient relics and revealing their suspected whereabouts
  • A guide to local law enforcement for guards
  • Maps of areas of increased natural magical activity
  • A biography of a local prince
  • A book of ‘comedies’ by the world’s greatest author
  • A play about a king tormented by ghosts
  • A play about the rise of the ruling dynasty (and how great they are)
  • The diaries of a little-known farmer (which brings to light the huge part he played in saving the world)
  • How to fight dirty
  • Using mentalism to always get what you want
  • The experiments and findings of a master blacksmith
  • Weapon designs and usage from across the world
  • A list of this country’s guilds and their headquarters and leaders

A selection of love spells for HARP

On the evening of the celebration of the Goddess of love a robed figure approaches the party. With a flourish they reveal a small book. A dark red cover without a title and a small latch holding it shut give a foreboding aura to the little book. “A book of love spells” the stranger says “I have tried and failed to destroy it many times. Written by the Goddess herself some say. I wish it hidden. Hidden where it can never be found. It has brought me more pain and anguish than a lifetime of solitude could”. With that the stranger vanishes and the little red book drops to the floor.
 
Inside the book (for those who dare to look) are the following five spells (for HARP):
 
 
Love
 
PP Cost: 10
Spell Type: Utility
Range: Touch
RR: Will
Duration: 5 rounds / rank
 
Description: The target will instantly fall in love with the caster. During this period they continue to function and act as themselves (ie someone who is not particularly open about their emotions will continue to be not open about their emotions). The base level of this spell is best described as infatuation and will make the target more amenable to the caster and more likely to bend to their demands, but it does not remove all intellect.
 
Scaling options:
Familial love (the person would sacrifice anything to help you) +10pp
Madly in love (the person would give their own life to make you happy) +20pp
Stupid in love (the person can no longer function and will forget to eat or sleep unless you tell them to) + 30pp
Increase duration (10 rounds / rank) +4pp
Increase duration (1 minute / rank) +6pp
Increase duration (10 minutes / rank) +10pp
Increase range (per 10’) +2pp
 
 
Beautify
 
PP Cost: 15
Spell Type: Utility
Range: Touch
RR: —
Duration: 5 rounds / rank
 
Description: Make the target appear beautiful to all those who look upon them for the duration of the spell. This spell does not physically change the appearance of the target, merely the perception of the person in the eyes of those that look upon them. Given the difference in appearance between races, the base spell only works on people of the same race. The spell works on both genders and all sexual orientations. It does not make anyone necessarily fall in love with the target. It simply makes them believe that they are objectively beautiful. In some cases, this may result in infatuation.
 
Being beautiful gives you a +5 to all influence skills.
 
Scaling options:
Additional race +8pp
Increase duration (10 rounds / rank) +4pp
Increase duration (1 minute / rank) +6pp
Increase duration (10 minutes / rank) +10pp
Increase range (per 10’) +2pp
+10 to influence skills +20pp
 
 
Perfect partner
 
PP Cost: 10
Spell Type: Utility
Range: 10’
RR: —
Duration: 3 rounds / rank
 
Identify your perfect romantic partner. The caster will get a vague feeling of how happy they would be with someone when looking directly at them. This spell does NOT help you attain the affection of your perfect partner. It merely helps you identify them.
 
Scaling options:
Increase duration (5 rounds / rank) +4
Increase duration (10 rounds / rank) +6
Increase duration (1 minute / rank) +10
Increase range (per 10’) +2
Feel the timeline of your potential relationship in a five second burst of emotion +6
See visions of the highs and lows of your potential relationship +15
 
 
End-Love
 
PP Cost: 15
Spell Type: Utility
Range: Touch
RR: Will
Duration: 10 rounds / rank
 
Stop loving someone. The base version of this spell will stop the target from loving a person that they have loved for no longer than 1 year. While the spell is active, the target will have no feelings for that person and will be more than happy to see them and interact with them without any emotion. The targets love of a person cannot be increased while they are affected by the spell. Instead any interactions will be remembered normally but have no emotion attached to them.
 
Scaling options:
Increase duration (1 minute / rank) +6
Increase duration (10 minutes / rank) +10
Increase duration (1 hour / rank) +15
Increase length of time the target has been in love with the person (per year) +5pp
Forget someone entirely +30pp
 
 
Hide
 
PP Cost: 6
Spell Type: Utility
Range: Self
RR: Magic
Duration: 10 rounds / rank
 
The target becomes invisible to a single person for the duration of the spell.
 
Scaling options:
Increase duration (1 minute / rank) +6
Increase duration (10 minutes / rank) +10
Increase duration (1 hour / rank) +15
Hide the results of your actions (ie they will not be able to hear your footsteps or notice if you smash a vase) + 20pp
The person the target is hiding from is also hidden from them +12pp
 

Director’s Briefing – February 2020

 
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Welcome
 
To the one hundred-and-fourth Briefing and second Briefing of 2020. I have been buried in the January marking and moderation marathon. More staff has reduced my teaching load during the semester but more students means more marking and moderation for me so the post-semester spike was higher. I am human again.
 
 
Shadow World
 
Terry Amthor has completed his next mini-adventure for Shadow World, entitled Aalk Vaalg : The Citadel of Osaran, as a Zor/Haalkitaine expansion. I have some final checks to make on this before we release as a $2 mini-adventure before the end of the month.
 
Terry is hard at work on the Emer IV sourcebook with occasional sidetreks into potential standalone adventures.
 
I also have a first volunteer to work on the HARP Handbook for Shadow World. If anyone else would like to volunteer to make this a team project, please get in touch.
 
 
HARP
 
HARP Beyond the Veil remains at the top of my queue to complete.
 
The artwork continues to be commissioned and arrive for HARP Subterfuge, HARP Bestiary, and HARP Garden of Rain. The artists are doing brilliant work and Colin is an excellent orchestrator – although I have not yet decrypted the pattern of how he maps artwork commissioned and received into nations. Other than HARP Subterfuge is in the lead, followed by HARP Bestiary.
 
 
RMU
 
Aaron and Jonathan have been doing some double-checking on Base Movement Rates, particularly with reference to movement talents and ensuring that Stride values make sense across the piece.
 
 
ERA for Rolemaster
 
Max has been working on a 64-bit Mac version of ERA for Rolemaster, so expect this to be released very shortly. Max would appreciate any feedback on how well this behaves in the latest incarnation of Mac OS.
 
 
Until next time
 
Back to progress on the very visible Citadel of Osaran and then into the main queue.
 
Best wishes,
Nicholas
 
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
 
 
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Roleplaying adventure hooks – Science Fiction

Looking for inspiration for your next science fiction roleplaying adventure? Then look no further! We’ve put together these three adventure hooks to give you some ideas for your next gaming session. Enjoy!
 
 
Hidden intelligence
 
A highly advanced race have created an AI so intelligent it has become sentient. However, soon after its creation it escaped and is hiding out on a far flung, unexplored planet.
 
The creators of the AI have hired a group of explorers to visit the unknown planet and return the AI to its home. However, no one knows what the planet holds, why the AI fled there or how friendly the AI will be to those trying to take it ‘home’. The PCs will need to decide whether they will do the job they’re being paid for or adhere to the wishes of the AI.
 
 
Aiding Adam
 
While exploring a little known, and unpopulated world, the group stumble across an adult human. He is naked, alone and has no memory of how we got there.
 
The human (who refers to himself as Adam) has no obvious signs of trauma and there is no sign of any ship or vessel that may have brought him here. On further investigation the group find clues that begin to link Adam to a shady corporation rumoured to experiment of live test subjects. Could Adam be an experiment they were trying to dispose of? Who was he before? And what might their experimentation have done to him?
 
 
A bid for freedom
 
Generations back an eccentric billionaire purchased a habitable world and made it off limits so that evolution might take its course. Now a message has been received from the planet. It’s a sentient race and they want ownership of their planet.
 
The party must visit the planet (the first in generations) and negotiate with the creatures on behalf of the billionaire’s estate. While there it will also be worth doing a bit of investigating. Did these creatures really evolve on this planet? If so, how did they do it so quickly?

50 celebrities for your fantasy tabletop RPG

Even in fantasy worlds, there are bound to be people who are famous and well known. They might just be well known in their town or village or they might be world-famous. Whatever the level of fame (or reason for their fame) including ‘celebrities’ in your fantasy tabletop RPG are often a good way to include some variety in your NPCs. For that reason, here are 50 NPCs you can use in your fantasy tabletop RPG (preferably Rolemaster or HARP though):
 

  • A major royal
  • A minor royal much loved by all
  • A former king of a foreign land who has been deposed
  • A foreign dignitary
  • The greatest warrior in the land
  • The most beautiful woman you will ever see
  • The most handsome man to have ever lived
  • An exotic foreigner
  • The woman who brought down a dynasty
  • The richest person alive
  • The general of a great battle
  • The person who slayed a dragon singlehanded
  • The greatest singer of a generation
  • The inventor of a popular item
  • An eccentric artist
  • A notorious (but friendly) pirate
  • A champion wrestler
  • The person who saved the city
  • The king’s consort
  • The master of whispers
  • A gang boss
  • A famous acting group
  • The greatest hunter ever
  • A reclusive magic user suspected of being a necromancer
  • The magic user who destroyed a town by mistake
  • The man that used to be a goat
  • The healer who saved the king’s life
  • The recluse that can talk to animals
  • A prolific playwright
  • The adventurer that all the songs speak of
  • The person who saved the world
  • A supposed demi-god
  • A saint
  • The person who helped forge the big alliance
  • The greatest sailor to ever set sail
  • The jeweller favoured by royalty and all manner of dignitaries
  • The man who supposedly killed his family and got away with it
  • Someone who sold their soul to become the greatest fiddle player ever
  • A former jousting champion
  • The leader of a popular religious order
  • A rising star in the fighting pits
  • The discoverer of new lands and creatures
  • A notorious serial killer (no one knows who they are)
  • The world’s strongest man
  • The rebel leader
  • The most powerful magic user alive
  • The great explorer who has been to all corners of the planet
  • The gods’ chosen one
  • A local weirdo
  • The king who gave up his throne to save the one he loved

Director’s Briefing – January 2020

 
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Welcome
 
To the one hundred-and-third Briefing and first scheduled Briefing of 2020, and a very happy new year to all of you.
 
My reading over Christmas has been finishing the seven volume “Crown of Stars” fantasy epic by Kate Elliott (which will necessitate an extra paragraph in HARP Beyond the Veil) and starting The Witcher sequence by Andrzej Sapkowski (which has so far been very good). The key films were Jumanji: The Next Level and obviously The Rise of Skywalker (a fitting end to the trilogy of trilogies).
 
 
A retrospective on 2019
 
2019 could be described as a year of unseen progress in that much has been accomplished, but it’s not made it out the door in terms of many new releases.
 
Our visible progress was primarily in Shadow World with the release of the Haunted Village mini-adventure and the enhanced Haalkitaine sourcebook. Haalkitaine is now available in softcover and hardcover editions as well as pdf, and various early-bird discount offers are still available. We also had ongoing support of ERA for Rolemaster, and convention presences at Dragonmeet and, thanks to Pointy Hat Games and our volunteers, at GenCon.
 
The unseen progress was in HARP, Cyradon, and RMU. Three HARP products (HARP Subterfuge, HARP Bestiary and HARP Garden of Rain) completed the editing phase with me and are now in artwork commissioning phase with Colin orchestrating a team of artists, old and new. In Cyradon, Colin completed all his amendments and additions for the Cyradon setting base book refresh. In RMU, Aaron Smalley and Jonathan Dale have tamed Creature Law to an extent that I have been able to formally add RMU to the editing queue.
 
 
2020
 
Shadow World will see another mini-adventure release, entitled The Citadel of Osaran. This is already in final stages. The major target for Terry is to complete the all-new Emer IV sourcebook. Priest-King of Shade is in my editing queue and I will edit it before I enter the RMU editing cycle. As detailed last month, we would like to see a HARP Handbook for Shadow World and I would be happy for this to be a team project.
 
In HARP, the artists will be variously concluding their efforts on Subterfuge, Garden of Rain and Bestiary over the next six months and these products will then transfer into layout phase. We hope to publish all three this year. HARP Beyond the Veil is still with me for final editing – one chapter requires an additional paragraph from me, one chapter requires a “Did Jon miss any spells?” check, and one chapter requires some additional thought. Still with their authors are HARP SF Poseidon Gambit, HARP SF Vehicles Compendium, HARP Dark Hunt, Caer Glais, and HARP Something Wicked Something Wondrous.
 
With Cyradon, I need to perform an editing sweep and make arrangements with Colin to undertake the next portion of the work in bringing back Cyradon. This is likely to be an area where we will report progress but nothing may be visible outside the work team for months.
 
On RMU, there has been major progress on the Creature Law front with Aaron having balanced all of the creatures going into Creature Law I and many of those for Creature Law II. He is currently pulling data from the spreadsheet version into the Creature Law manuscript. Unless any additional complete manuscripts arrive on my desk, I will immerse myself in RMU editing as soon as I have cleared Beyond the Veil, Cyradon and Priest-King.
 
On software, I will be shortly uploading the next version of ERA for Rolemaster.
 
On the convention front, we want to strengthen the visibility of ICE games, so we will be looking to support fans who are willing to run games at conventions, through prizes and other support.
 
 
Until next time
 
Back to making unseen progress on multiple projects.
 
Best wishes,
Nicholas
 
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
 
 
If you would like to receive the Director’s Briefing straight to your inbox each month, you can sign up to our mailing list HERE.
 

Fantasy feasts and festivals

With Christmas fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about feasts and festivals. Our own calendars are littered with ‘holidays’ whether they are based on the country we live in, the religion we follow or our own esoteric view of the world (I personally celebrate my half birthday every year). Feasts and festivals are a huge part of culture and society and so will naturally appear in fantasy settings. To help inspire GMs in their next roleplaying adventure, I have put together a list of different reasons for festivities in fantasy settings along with ways that theses festivals might be celebrated:
 
Religious festivals
 
Most religious festivals are based around the birth, death or actions of a religious figure. Who these figures are and what they have done to warrant festivals will be down to the setting in which you are playing.
 
If your setting doesn’t have an existing pantheon of gods or if this festival takes place in a far flung corner of the world where people follow religions different to those of the PCs, you may want to create something new (or create something quickly) in which case the below list of common types of god will help.
 
You will need to make up your mind as to whether the gods of this religion are distant and separate from the world or play a more active role in what happens to their followers. Regardless of this, deities tend to fall into a number of different archetypes. Below I have listed a few to get you started:
 
The mother / creator
The father / overseer
Gods of children
Gods of fertility
Gods of light / fire / the sun
Gods of the moon / other celestial objects
Gods of animals / all living things
Gods of love
Gods of life / health
Gods of farming / plants
Gods of war
Gods of peace
Gods of death
Gods of the sea / water
Gods of the winds / sky
Gods of knowledge / intelligence
Gods of happiness and joy
Gods of sadness / pain / suffering
Gods of food and drink
Gods of lies / tricks / cheats
Gods of justice
Gods of sleep / dreams
Gods of stupidity / foolishness
Gods of strength
Gods of art / crafts
Gods of luck / chance
Fates
 
In terms of archetypes, any aspect of life that is particularly important to the people of a society is likely to have a deity attached. The more important the aspect, the more prominent the god. For instance, if a culture is heavily reliant on apple trees for survival, there may be a specific god of apples or the apple tree. For cultures that are less reliant on the apple tree, it is more likely that a god of food or plants or the natural world will suffice.
 
Social and cultural festivals
 
Social and cultural festivals are those that aren’t tied to a specific religion or deity. Instead they celebrate life and the experiences of the living. This may be in the form of celebrations marking the changing of the seasons or celebrating historical figures and their accomplishments.
 
These celebrations are a bit wider ranging and will depend heavily on the setting in which you are playing. Think about the history of your world and what major events are likely to be commemorated with festivals and how these festivals would be celebrated. To give you some ideas, here are some common reasons for social and cultural festivals:
 
New year / month / week / New beginnings
Lunar activity (new moon / full moon / multiple moons)
Solar activity (Solstice / long nights / long days)
Historical commemorations
Harvest
Family celebrations
Celebrating / commemorating the dead
Fertility festivals
Celebrating the sun
Celebrating the planets / planetary activity
Merry making
Magic
Seasons
Augers / Omens / Groundhog day
Sporting events
Celebrating cultures / countries / races
 
Minority groups in societies and cultures will often bring their own festivals to new lands / cultures. The indigenous cultures may then adopt the celebration in a wider sense (St Patricks Day isn’t just celebrated by the Irish or those of Irish descent).
 
What happens at a festival?
 
There are an almost infinite number of ways to celebrate a festival and I’m afraid that once again it will depend a lot on the setting in which you are playing. It is worth remembering that if people are celebrating a specific deity or event, the way they celebrate will often be related to that deity or that event. However, it is also worth remembering that festivities are meant to be therapeutic and cathartic. Maybe not for the whole population, but for those celebrating it should. With that in mind, here are some ways that people might celebrate a festival:
 
Giving gifts to each other
Giving gifts to the gods / sacrifices
Prayer / meditation / thoughtfulness
Silence
Building
Singing / Dancing
Eating a specific food
Drinking a specific drink
Eating and drinking / feasting / cooking
Wearing specific clothes
Procreating
Spending time with loved ones
Charity
Spending time in a specific place
Spending time ‘amongst nature’
Fasting
Staying awake / going to sleep
Telling stories
Lighting fires / candles / fireworks
Drawing / painting / creating artworks
Playing music
Cleaning
Breaking / smashing things
Holidays from work / resting
Competitions / sports / activities
People switching jobs / class (ie the servants becoming the master)
Washing
Magic usage
Avoidance of magic
 
Hopefully you found these lists useful and you’ve come up with some great ideas for festivals in your own tabletop roleplaying game. If you’d like to share them, feel free to visit the Iron Crown Enterprises forum and let us know what you came up with.