A question that comes up a lot has to do with something we, as gamers, take for granted. Games. I cannot recall the number of times I have heard the question “how can I give my players games and puzzles they can do in a (insert community)?” The answer is actually pretty simple, especially for those Dungeon Masters who may live in more rural settings. Community fairs and festivals are a great resource for mundane competitions of all kinds. When one takes simple competitions like tests of strength, accuracy and endurance into consideration, the variations become endless. Consider the games presented in any carnival midway, or competitions like those associated with lumberjacks or “mountain men”. You’ll have a WIDE array of games easily replicated in a medieval society.

Better yet, add the cultural flavour of one fantasy race or another, and you’ll have an incredible variety of games any appropriate festival might have. To illustrate this, I will present a festival and game from my own table. Beardtoberfest. This dwarven festival is one celebrating many aspects of dwarven life. Strength, endurance, heavy, savoury foods and of course, ale.

Presenting it in a believable manner only requires the right timing and setting. For my setting, this is one of the many racial harvest festivals. For the dwarves in my setting it’s a way to celebrate “dwarfness” while spreading cultural aspects through healthy competition and good food. Without risking the creation of an entire town for this festival to occur in, let’s have this celebration occur in a tented setting where a group of dwarves have set up around a well-traveled path or road.

Wilderness/open road

Any

The road has been long and boring, but the distant smell of sausages and ale drive the characters forward. Rounding the bend and passing a small copse of trees, several small tents, a few wagons led by donkeys, and a few colourful banners come into view.

Dwarves dressed in strangely colourful garb wander about as they finish setting up tents and securing the donkeys. A few braziers in front of one cart smoke sausages hung with care, while another long cart has an obvious headboard set up with wooden targets made from dials cut from trees. These dials (or crosscuts) have concentric rings painted in bright colours, and carry the marks of many weapon strikes.

One tent has a dwarf erecting a banner showing a beard attached to a rock, and another tent has a massive dwarf loading a pair of matched wooden sleds with many stones.

And yet, one tent has two female dwarves setting out a display of several knitted and woven fake beards made from yarn. There is a wide selection of colours of beards, as well as knitted caps made to look like horned helms. Another is a wagon covered in a hooped tent with barrels, kegs and such in full display. A curved makeshift bar lay at the back of the wagon, manned by a stout dwarf with an inky black beard.

All dwarves present at the fair are hill dwarves, and as such will use the Commoner description (Monster Manual, page 345), but with the hill dwarf racial features and ability score adjustments (Player’s Handbook, page 20). Depending on the player characters’ individual choices, the options are as follows.

A heavy set dwarf with a bright red beard serves these delectable sausages. The sausages cost 1 sp each and are hot, slightly spicy, and very filling. Sjolnir is warm and welcoming. He is a passionate cook with a keen nose and palette for flavours (advantage on smell and taste Perception checks to determine ingredients in recipes).

Two dwarven ladies, a mother and daughter couple, host a colourful tent outside which sits a rack of elaborate woven fake beards in a rainbow of colours. Furthermore, there are several knitted caps fashioned to look like the stereotypical Viking helms in several earth tones mimicing metal. The beards and caps are purely decorative and offer nothing more than a fun fashion statement. The beards and caps are sold separately, and are 5 sp each.

Banu, the mother, has long silver hair tied into several tight braids each ending in a small bronze clasp. She’s firm and aloof, but warms up quickly in the presence of children. Bara is pretty, (Charisma 14) a dreamer and a bit of a romantic. She may be tempted to offer attractive males a lower price on their products, often curtailed by Banu’s firm hand on the deal.

Standing behind a small semi-circular bar attached to the back of a wagon is a hill dwarf with a massive black beard woven into a single large braid clasped in silver decorations. Abraham is the proud purveyor of several ales varying in darkness and strength. He takes great pride in all his work, and will be very vocal in inviting all guests to Beardtoberfest to taste his wares.

Holdrim is a younger dwarf, but nonetheless an ambitious barker and skilled at challenging onlookers to try their best at his game. His shorter but elaborate chestnut brown beard is finely combed and oiled. He will offer a free throw to new players, but will also be wary of those more experienced (advantage on Wisdom (Insight). Here’s the game.

There are two large oaken tree crosscuts, presenting a target approximately 2 feet in diameter. They are painted with concentric rings, with indicators for different point values. It costs 5 sp per play. The contestant can choose which target they want (left or right), and have to best Holdrim in the game. Each play consists of three throws. The point value for each throw is determined by the attack roll for a thrown handaxe, which are supplied by Holdrim. Outside axes are not permitted and are considered cheating. Whoever has the highest total of three throws wins.

Holdrim has played this game many times, and knows the exact distance. Therefore he gains advantage on each roll. Furthermore, he has a 12 Dexterity and proficiency. This gives him +3 on each roll.

Those who best Holdrim will win a thin copper wire woven band worth 1 gp.

Borim Brandwynn runs a stand where the very tolerances of endurance and pain are challenged. Each play costs 1 sp.

There are heavy stones with leather straps attached. Characters are encouraged to test their mettle and attach a strap to their hair (beards preferred, but he’ll understand if those less endowed want to play…even if he has to roll his eyes to allow it). Characters will bend over a stone and Borim will attach a stone to their hair or beard. Then they will stand. For each turn they hold the stone aloft then roll a Constitution saving throw at the beginning of that turn. If they succeed against a DC of 14, they can hold that stone aloft. For each turn they do so, they earn 5 cp. If they can pass 10 full turns, they will win a silver beard comb worth 10 gp instead of the 50 cp (5 sp), as well as Borim’s undying respect.

A massive hill dwarf, Urfin stands out from the rest of the fwarves here. (16 Strength). Urfin’s bald pate is tattooed with tribal symbology indicating allegiance to mountain goats as a totem. He will flex proudly in an attempt to cajole and taunt PCs into competition. He will especially seek out the stronger members of the party, always proud and seeking worthy opponents.

If the a PC accepts his boastful challenges, the game will play out as follows. Each play costs 5 gp.

The objective is to pull their heavy stone sled the farthest. The way this is done is by making Strength checks. Each participant makes 5 Strength checks. The total of those 5 checks determines the result. Whoever has the highest grand total dragged their block over the greatest distance as marked by the white powder stripes. Urfin has been doing this a long time, so he has his technique down. He gains a further +2 on each Strength check. If a character wins the contest, they’ll be awarded double their fee (10 gp).

All contests are meant in the spirit of fun and competition (in some cases). If the DM expects his group might be trouble, feel free to add at least one Guard (Monster Manual, page 347) per PC, but with hill dwarf racial traits and ability score adjustments.

Unless the PCs become violent or otherwise anti-social, there should be no complications outside of a good time. In fact, proper heroic competition may award the PCs with future allies. It’s is fully expected this festival be incorporated into existing towns and villages, and may have several games not so listed above. So long as the them is dwarven, there may well be a mountain dwarf version of the festival above.

It’s doubtful duergar would have such an event, given their dour nature, but since this series is intended to twist expectations, feel free to alter that fact for your own table. No clan names were given for the dwarves to allow for ready insertion into existing political structures, but if one is truly desired, I humbly offer “Ironbeard”.

Did you enjoy this post? Nerdarchy’s awesome volunteer staff of writers and editors do their best to create engaging, useful and fun content to share. If you like what you find here on our site, consider patronizing us in a good way through Patreon.

On top of reaching our goal of paying our writers, pledging gets you exclusive monthly content for your D&D game, opportunities to game with Nerdarchy, access to patron-only channels on our Discord and more.

With your generous support we’ll continue to create quality content between our YouTube channel and blog, invest in equipment to increase recording quality, and eventually create original publications and products to enhance your tabletop role-playing and gaming experience.

Thank you for your consideration and as always, until next time stay nerdy!

[amazon_link asins=’B005MUAHJ2,0374521352,B01CN20CVE’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0b96923b-07f1-11e8-98c3-3fb8cc89753a’]