NPC Wizard I'm cooking up is a professor at a university studying the bio-mechanics of extinct species.  He spends a lot of time hiding the fact he plays with Necromancy to do it. 

Okay, now that I'm dragging myself out of the insanity of the past week, I can put a little more thought into this. . .

I'm meeting with my players soon to design characters and our local city, but I still want this on the side to toss them into it. I have a few hooks/themes/etc sitting around in my notebook (been away from computers when not on the clock; life tends to do that), and I'm hoping to type them into a City Creation sheet and post it here if people are interested.

Since there are apparently some members of this forum that have experienced these kinds of events, I was wondering if they could offer some insight:

1) Tournaments. I've always liked the idea of having certain party members getting dragged into an event against their will ("We need one more, and you look like a strong enough man!") or for a higher goal ("We need to win enough to be sure to remove our foes from the competition!"). I'm thinking of using this as an in-game reason to give the Wrestling-based character an Item of Power (mentioned in another thread; an item won by defeating a Fae), as a progression of an NPC (give the mortal vanilla knight a cursed sword presented by the nobility, which contains a darker personality; think Demonic Co-Pilot and possibly "Beast Change"), or just as a red herring. I know many of these things are simply staged by the actors themselves at the faires, but what about SCA events that people have been a part of?

2) Staged Events. Just how "staged" are these things? Do they always follow a set plot, akin to wrestling entertainment, or are there actually chances of things changing mid-show? How do the people behind the show react when something goes against the set plan? Just curious, as I'm tempted to toss the entire Faire into the Nevernever for one story, and there is still that King of the Night thing going on as well, and let's face it: I don't think either of those would be easy to cover up.



3) The Supernatural. Besides my "be reminded of the time in which they lived" idea, what other thoughts do you have on this? Do you think my concepts are skewed due to lack of hands-on experience and a love of high-fantasy, or do you think the ideas are reasonably spot-on for an event like this in the Dresdenverse?


Again, just fishing for ideas, and hopefully will start plugging out that Threats/Themes sheet here at work today ^^;

Thanks again for everything!

1.  Tournaments at SCA events are scheduled, but NEVER staged.  Awards are decided by groups and given, but other than set methods of presenting such awards (formal presentation) the rest is up to the one making the presentation.  One thing worth noting, is SCA weapons are NOT designed for real use.  Light fighting (rapier) is using fencing style blades and all weapons in heavy fighting are more like a club than a real weapon in terms of effectiveness of design.  (SCA sword is rattan wrapped in tape attached to a hilt that must be designed in a manner that is legal for safety reasons).  That being said, it's not unrealistic for real weapons to be awarded as prizes for tournaments and such, it's just not used on the battlefield.

2. As before, SCA combat is not staged, unless it's something being explicitly done to be staged, typically as entertainment for one of the Royalty. No direct experience working a Renfair, but the staged/scripted feel was one of the aspects about it that put me off compared to the SCA.  Friends that have worked them have said the staff much preferred the staged/scripted setup as then everyone knew how to react.  A Renfair is designed to be a show.  An SCA event isn't really.  It's also pretty much unheard of to have non-participants at an SCA event, rather than just some of the locals plus the cast participating.

3.  I think this is something that could be quite interesting.  A couple people I mentioned it to said the idea of having something supernatural going on in the background with one of these events is quite plausible.  (We mostly discussed Pennsic, as that's the only one of the larger SCA wars we'd all been to)  Most thought SCA was better due to the lack of it being scripted.

For location look to Pennsic.  SCA is going to be a more interesting choice than a Renaissance Faire (speaking as one who's done both). 

http://www.pennsicwar.org/

That site will get you basic info.  It's a major event and been running for nearly 40 years.  More than 10000 people from all over the world attending, with traditions from multiple SCA Kingdoms as well as a couple organizations that follow similar rules and function as allies in the battles throughout the week.  It's a great time and takes place over two weeks giving you a lot of time to work with.