Escapism and Entertainment in Fantasy Settings
We all know about the entertainments of the rich and powerful in the Middle Ages: Jousts and troubadours in the great hall. Too often, however, you can forget the entertainments of the average folk in society, and how they kept themselves occupied in what little free time they had. Let’s take a look at what kinds of ways Medieval society entertained itself, while also incorporating in fantastical elements you’d find in a world inhabited my spellcasting and wyverns.
Contests of Skill: Not usually set up in a formal tournament or anything, people could instead be regularly found testing their skills against one another through wrestling, archery, quarterstaff sparring, or playing Horseshoes. The Middle Ages also had Skittles (a predecessor to ten-pin bowling) and Stoolball, an ancestor to Cricket and Baseball, so finding children and adults throwing balls around and making them vaguely Medieval would work here. For more fantastical elements, you could have apprentice wizards practicing cantrip duels against one another in the street, or in a side-yard beside the wizard’s tower (the wizard has strictly forbidden any 1st level spells). All of these examples could be seen as the PCs make their way through the streets. Old men covered in mud and stripped down to their loinclothes could challenge the barbarian to a wrestling match, or some good-natured blacksmiths could ask the Dwarf to play a game of horseshoes while he waits for his pony to be reshoed.
Board Games: There were actually quite a few board games at the time, including Chess (though various rules changes along the way have altered it; Today’s Chess is a variant called Mad Queen’s Chess), Backgammon (also known as Tables), Nine Men’s Morris, Alquerques (an ancestor to Checkers), Fox & Geese, Shuffleboard, and Knucklebones. You could definitely find these played around the tavern. Along with these, you may also find Three Dragon Ante played, the D&D equivalent of poker, of which there’s an actual card game Wizards has you can pick up to play.
Fairs & Festivals: Many of the things found above could be found at the fair, which would either be created by the village or town it was being held in, or a travelling group who sets up fairs could travel the countryside and set up for a few weeks at a time in a town. You could also incorporate a circus in here, which could include all kinds of mystical creatures such as Owlbears or other dangerous animals. At the fair you could also see spellcasters, monks or fighters displaying their talents. Rogues could perform card tricks. This is also a great opportunity to expose your players to a wide variety of foods from the region. Here you could have the contests of skill found above in a more formalized setting. Perhaps the blacksmith who challenged you to horseshoes enters the tournament to prove his skill. Many festivals are religious in nature (at least, related to something religious), so tying it into a particular holiday is helpful to provide a theme.
Bards & Storytellers: The common folk couldn’t read, so many of the stories they were told would be either passed on through storytelling around the fire, or through professional storytellers such as bards, or through morality plays. Often, groups of performers would travel around and put on plays from the Bible to tell a moral lesson. You could do the same, with a group telling about the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague. You could even play a group of PCs who are part of such a troupe, with a variety of classes used to put on the show in each town.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your own games, and make the world more vibrant and alive.
