Day 29 Prompt: Labor
Week 5 Prompt: Emotion
Weekday Prompt: Works Hard
While its not Labor Day on the calendar, we are using Labor as the prompt for Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge. Since Labor Day is approaching here in the United States, it reminded me of some research I’ve done in the past that is now bubbling back to the surface.
In our modern era, one of the tropes that gets a chuckle (and it’s funny because it’s true) is an out-of-touch corporate upper management throwing a pizza party for their employees thinking that will resolve any grievances they have. There is an equivalent of that in medieval times, but on a grander scale. The upper class and royalty would hold lots of holidays, feasts and festivals that helped maintain social cohesion while also providing a break from labor. Most of the time these were centered around the harvest, community pride, competitive events, culture and traditions or had religious significance. Sometimes specialized food, or costumes, would be involved. What it all came down to is that it provided a break for those who did the labor. A lot of labor compared to the modern world we live in now.
In the worldbuilding for a fantasy campaign for Dungeons and Dragons, Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics or any others, there should be lots of these traditional festivals and holidays for the people who provide that labor. This gives the gamemaster plenty of opportunity for roleplaying opportunities.
A Day for the Guilds. I really wish I could remember which RPG book I read this in, but a concept that each guild had their own day to celebrate. Their shops would be closed on that day in honor of the festival and hold a grand feast. No two guilds could have their events on the same day. But it could throw a monkey-wrench in the works for the players. They arrive at the Grand City of Roses only to discover that all the blacksmiths are celebrating Fire and Hammer Day. They wouldn’t be able to get their armor repaired for a day or two because of the backlog. The shipwright’s guild is on a cruise, the baking guild is on a fast, members of the town guard are milking the cows because the farmers guild is observing a day of rest.
Some of these festivals deal with warding off spirits or providing tributes to their ancestors. This could lead to minor issues like; Where is the costume the mayor is required to wear to honor the first mayor of the city? The sweet biscuits are being made, but they must be served with the flowers of the pika plant otherwise we will have a poor harvest this fall. The bard required to write the new song of devotion is not feeling inspired and left and hasn’t returned yet. We don’t have enough camphor wood for the 47 bonfires honoring St. Lethek.
Now where do some of these holidays and festivals come from. For some of these, the answer is older festivals that were altered for the current time frame. I remember watching a documentary on the history of Christmas, and that famous holiday went through a lot of changes. Religions had pulled a lot from pagan rituals such as roman Saturnalia and Norse Yule. The farther back you go, the less that my readers might recognize. Christmas was even banned in Plymouth colonial times by Puritan leaders. Well what type of roleplaying scenarios could come up from a strict sect wanting to “return to old times”. Or if an older sacred text showing a different way to celebrate a holiday was found by the adventurers? What would they do with the scrolls? When certain powers discovered that they had this information, what steps would they take to maintain the status quo?
Now in my current Castles and Crusades campaign, I’m keeping the world building down to a minimum in certain sections. At session zero, I explained that I didn’t want to build everything and then discovered that I only used 5% of that effort. The players got to name the towns and kingdoms that the characters came from. They got to name the gods that were part of the pantheon of this world. And I’m going to let them name the festivals, feasts and celebrations held by the aristocrats and laborers in this game world. I’ll have to ask them what they would like to celebrate.
What celebration would you like to see in a fantasy RPG? Is it based on a real event or something that you created on your own? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.
