Barbarian wilderness adventures

[Yora]

I am preparing a new campaign and I really would love to make something with lots of barbarians, amazons, shamans, and witches, with nasty demons, giant insects and reptiles, and particularly lots of snakes! Volcanoes, skulls, golden idols, all that kind of good stuff.

The thing is, I can't really think of any good adventures that a group of barbarian heroes in a barbarian wilderness would go on. While the wandering adventures that deal with the monster problems of farming villages is a well enough established idea, I just don't see that translating to barbarian tribes, who usually come more with associations of being insular and not wanting strangers poking into their business. And I think most clans would have mighty warriors like the PCs themselves, at least for much of the early parts of the PCs career. Clans that can't fend for themselves in a world where the presence of monsters is normal just don't really make sense.
One option is to make the PCs all warriors of one tribe, but then they are pretty much locked into one place and obligated to follow the leadership of their chief and shaman, which doesn't quite work for the ideal of the mighty warrior either. (I guess they could became the chief and his companions eventually, but that seems like a distant goal for most campaigns.)

Any ideas or suggestions how this could be approached?
Is there any existing RPG material for that style to recommend?

[Altheus]

I'd call a group of barbarian heroes wandering in the wilderness a horde. They don't do the same things as civilized people.

Raid the cattle of a rival tribe, this could be a traditional thing where you only use clubs to cut down on deaths.

Find the town of soft civilized men and take from it what you wish, arson at the end is optional.

Your chieftan is marrying a woman from another tribe, but she is a witch following something that isn't allowed, stop the wedding somehow.

Gather support for your own move on the chieftan position.

Hunt something very dangerous and exotic for a feast.

Find an enemy of your tribe, crush them, see them driven before you, hear the lamentations of the women.

[Morgaln]

Having the players be all warriors from the same tribe absolutely works. Werewolf:The Apocalypse basically does that with players being members of a specific sept and it works well as long as you take some effort to flesh out the tribe. Altheus listed a few options for plots; most of them can also be reversed, i. e. have enemy tribes do it to the players and their people.
If you don't like them being locked in one place, make it a nomadic tribe. That way, you can introduce new places to explore, new enemies to discover and also have scouting ahead as additional challenges. Some of the supplements for "Das Schwarze Auge" focusing on the northern people (especially Nivesen and Norbarden, but also the Orcs) could be helpful in getting ideas here, although the setting is probably not quite sword&sorcery enough to use it directly.

Another option would be to have the player characters deliberately be tribeless in an area controlled by various tribes. The game could then focus on them trying to survive in an area where they are not welcome and considered a threat by the locals. The players would have various options to survive: steal what they need, try to forage for food in areas held by hostiles or explore ancient ruins to find treasure so they can buy what they need. The tribes having mighty warriors themselves would be helpful to you here since they keep the players from just taking over a clan.

[Kol Korran]

Hey Yora. Some ideas:
1- The PCs tribe suffered a catastrophe. Either most of it's people got killed, or their tribal lands made inhabitable, or they suffer a curse, or perhaps suffer a great shame due to some (supernatural?) crime... In any case, the tribe is in dissaray, it's leadership gone/ dysfinctional/ depressed/ crazy, or something of that sort. The tribe has to keep on the move, suffers many problems, both from outer threats and inner turmoil, and the PCs try to keep things together, and hopefully improve the state of the tribe.

2- A nomadic tribe indeed. Possibly one of herder, or hunters, who follow grazing grounds/ prey migrations. Or they could be merchants/ other service providers (such as spiritual guidance or other mystic/ shamanistic traditions & secrets). Thus the tribe never stays put. Simple, but still somewhat confined to the tribe and its movements.

3- Ritual of passage to adulthood: At a certain age, young tribe members are sent for a period of time (several months? 1-3 years?) out into the world, to fend for themselves, learn to rely on each other, hone their skills, and bring back something of worth to the tribe, in order to be considered full fledged adults. (Though this may sound harsh/ extreme, this is a real world "coming of age" test. I've seen it in my travels in East Africa on some remote tribes, and met such groups). The PCs are a small tight group, who can rely only on themselves. Can they survive? Can they flourish? Can they bring something of great value back to the tribe, and earn their place?

4- Though each tribe holds their own lands, have their own traditions which may often differ, most tribes in the region do share some common traidion/ belief, and rever a certain place as sacred. A special grove, an old ancient grave yard, an ancient temple for the great spirits, or whatever... The place is also home to great shamans/ elders/ the joined council, of specific wise men/ women, who both guard the sacred place, and provide guidance/ spiritual services/ possibly a tribunal for disputes between tribes.

But, each tribe needs to help support the sacred place and it's residents. This is partly by offerings (livestock, precious metals and such) and of able bodied young tribal members, who function as the place guardians, and as sacred agents for the elders council, on matters of grave importance.

The PCs can come from various tribes, and must now serve the elders for a period of time. This can lead them to many strange quests, and also get them involved in tribal politics (perhaps not all tribes like the council, or how it settles disputes).

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Yora
One option is to make the PCs all warriors of one tribe, but then they are pretty much locked into one place and obligated to follow the leadership of their chief and shaman, which doesn't quite work for the ideal of the mighty warrior either.

A warrior and his closest friends who, in a moment of crisis, supported each other rather than obeying their chief’s edicts, and were exiled as a result. Maybe they want to prove themselves worthy of re-acceptance, or maybe they want to strike out on their own.


Originally Posted by Yora
Any ideas or suggestions how this could be approached?

Building on the last idea: a blood feud within the tribe has led to a cycle of killing which threatens to engulf their people. Guided by the shaman (who has his own political agenda), the chief blames and exiles one clan, requiring them to flee or be driven out.

The PCs are some of the clan’s strongest warriors, who need to protect their weaker kinfolk from the hazards of the vast wilderness as well as from harassing attacks by their former kinsmen in the tribe, who are pursuing them both to ensure they remain in exile as well as to take further vengeance however they can.

Thus the PCs need to scout and explore the way ahead, fend off attacks from other tribes and monstrous creatures, and fight or elude their former chief’s warriors and the shaman’s own agents as well.

.

[Yora]

Being send on a long quest sounds like a pretty good idea. It fits the general environment to have people send on long and dangerous journeys to return with something rare and important. And with little to guide their search at the start, it can easily turn into a long meandering journey.
Though for practical reasons, it's probably a good idea to make the primary quest not the sole or even primary focus of the campaign, since you rarely know at the start for how long the campaign will actually continue to get played.

Something other that someone told me was to consider larger alliances of various tribes. These were typical things in many tribal societies, and with those you can have kind of similar structures to kingdoms with multiple baronies. The various chiefs might be allies against a common outside foe because they share a similar culture, but that doesn't have to make them friends. And even if chiefs are all for a close alliance, individual clans within the larger tribes might have their own feuds, complicating things for their superiors. There's certainly space for a political layer, and then you can add shamans and druids on top of that, which might have their own alliances and conflicts among each other that are separate from tribal politics.

[Lacco]

I am preparing a new campaign and I really would love to make something with lots of barbarians, amazons, shamans, and witches, with nasty demons, giant insects and reptiles, and particularly lots of snakes! Volcanoes, skulls, golden idols, all that kind of good stuff.

Sounds pretty good!

Let's see...


The thing is, I can't really think of any good adventures that a group of barbarian heroes in a barbarian wilderness would go on. While the wandering adventures that deal with the monster problems of farming villages is a well enough established idea, I just don't see that translating to barbarian tribes, who usually come more with associations of being insular and not wanting strangers poking into their business.

Raiding.
Trade.
Pilgrimages.
Allies.
Hunting.
Artifact hunting.
Resource claims.
Conquest.
Revenge.
Defence.
...

While barbarian tribes are insular, there is never just one tribe. Neighboring tribes, villages, settlements - they provide opportunity. Are they rich? Raid them. Are they poor? Conquer them. Did they slight you? Revenge it is.

You raid some neighbors, drive away their cattle.
They try the same. You defend.
Few people are killed. You send messengers to your allies to join you on war path.
They betray you. You fight your way to freedom.
You send messengers to find new allies. They require a token of friendship.
You go hunting for artifact. You fight off others that seek it.
Your former allies bring gifts because they need your help in new war. Do you trust them?
You join forces with their enemies, to destroy them. You claim part of their lands.
You defend the land and send a trade caravan to other neighbors. You defend the caravan.
The neighbors require you make a common pilgrimage to Temple of Four Winds before you trade. You protect the pilgrims.
The temple requires you to pass a quest from gods before you are allowed in. You need to send a small party to hunt down the Pale Bear.

...and guess who does this?

See, the good thing about clans is that they are relatively small. The stories are personal. As inspiration, think King of the Dragon Pass game:

A beautiful young woman from your clan has been approached by neighboring clan's warrior - actually the son of the clan leader. He courted her and she fell in love with him, but he has suddenly broken off the attachment. There are several ways how to look at the situation: the PCs can be sent to investigate what happened, or just to punish him for breaking off the attachment. He may be innocent - their clan seer could have been beind the broken attachment, or his father or he decided to pursue a different lady. Also, what happens if she becomes pregnant? The PCs may be sent to persuade his father to force him into marriage, and alliance with your clan, or just to punish the transgression.

There are lots of very personal stories that can be done. But this needs to be something the players are interested in: if they want to see the clan flourish, or just want to see it burn - whatever. But they need to care about it.


One option is to make the PCs all warriors of one tribe, but then they are pretty much locked into one place and obligated to follow the leadership of their chief and shaman, which doesn't quite work for the ideal of the mighty warrior either. (I guess they could became the chief and his companions eventually, but that seems like a distant goal for most campaigns.)

If they are PCs, they are most probably one of the best warriors - or even the best. That means they can be the leader's advisors, raid leaders or war party leaders - so they may act with some independence.

Also, having to work with or intrigue against other advisors can be fun. Just make sure to include several different character types as other adisors (the "let's live in peace with nature and neighbors" healer, the grognard-type "war was fun then!", the trickster...). Oftentimes, the other advisors will end at impasse unless the PCs intervene or make a decisive voice: not all clans had dictatorship. The wisest clan leaders listened to their advisors as they represented the voice of the people.


Any ideas or suggestions how this could be approached?
Is there any existing RPG material for that style to recommend?

RPG material... not so sure. I can recommend King of the Dragon Pass (PC game, rather old; a newer version is also available as Six Ages: Ride With the Wind), it has a lot of neat ideas.

Also, check out Quiet Year - it is focused on communities and has very simple, but interesting mechanic for base-building, that could be used here too. You decide on a project and people work on it. You could add some gate-keeping mechanic (e.g. you need to have abundance of certain resource before you can finish the project, or perform some actions...), but the start a project/discover something new mechanic is sufficient for this level. See what you think about it.

From my point of view, you should have - during one play month - a single event that occurs semi-randomly, at least one big "action" by the players (decided by the clan advisors), one by PCs and events that happen as response to previous decisions.

[Dr paradox]

Interesting setup! Here's some ideas...

For novice adventurers...

Another youth of the village has stolen an item of sentimental value to an elder and plans to bring it to a rival tribe in exchange for prestige he feels he's been cheated of. Track him down, catch him, and take back the item.
A reward has been set for the youths that can tame and bring back an especially fine and fierce horse that has arrived with the seasonal herds. On arrival, they find that goblins are laying snares to kill the horses for their meat.
A mountain lion has been stalking a little respected community within the tribe, robbing them of what little livestock they have. The adventurers are the only ones who prove sympathetic to their plight, and they may discover why the rest of the tribe treats them so coldly.
The heroes are chosen to accompany a veteran warrior of the tribe to a diplomatic meeting, only for the conference to be interrupted by an attack from a third party. With their sponsor dead or wounded, they have to trek through hostile ground to make sure the truth of the attack is known and the fragile alliance survives.
The adventurers discover a small cadre of "civilized" bounty hunters looking to collect on a price the nearest baron has placed on their people.
A seasonal ritual quest is upon the tribe - a journey up a perilous river canyon to an underground shrine. To the frustration of most of the village, the soothsayer has selected the novice adventurers, though most believe the task is too dangerous or two much of an honor to place in the hands of such greenhorns.
The village kook has got it into her head to raft down an especially treacherous stretch of river in order to find a shortcut to another tribe that supposedly dwells in the swamps beyond. Most think her crazy for wanting to try it, but she offers a fine reward if the adventurers will help her. All sorts of things might await in the swamps - they're so inconvenient to reach that the tribe hasn't been there in living memory.


For established adventurers...

A wizard has trekked his way out into the wilds with a band of mercenaries, and has established a base around a megalithic site that, forgotten folklore holds, is the prison of a terrible evil. A local shaman, ignored by the tribal elders, begs for the party to intervene.
A band of thieves from a rival tribe has started setting fires to cover their livestock thefts - the players are charged with tracking them to their hideout and putting a stop to this recklessness.
A star falls from the sky. Some days later, a small band of happless scholars happen by your village, looking for guides that can help them find the fallen star. If the adventurers need no such prompting, then the civilized folk become rivals in the race for the star.
Goblins have arrived in force, and have begun to lay the foundations for a fortress several days distant from the village. Another tribe calls for aid: some of their people have been taken in raids, used as hostages and slave labor. The players' tribe either sends the adventurers so as not to weaken the village's defense in case of attack, or refuses to send help for fear of antagonizing the newcomers, forcing the players to follow their own conscience.
An old woman is convinced that a curse is laid upon her, and its source has to do with some even which happened in her youth - she begs the party to help her in venturing up a deadly mountain in search of the sister she left for dead forty winters past.
Outcasts from several tribes have banded together under the leadership of a witch-priestess, for whom they conduct profane murderous and cannibalistic rites. They hope to draw upon the power of a new and terrible god from beyond the heavens, but they have so far kept enough to themselves that the tribes haven't mounted real efforts against them.
A dreadful winter has descended, and the party is charged with delivering aid between several allied villages. Little to they realize that the source of this epic blizzard is a frost giant and his pack of ice wolves, who are bent on plunging the region back into the icy solitude of the elder days. If the climate doesn't allow for a winter, make it raging fires that have choked the skies with smoke and fouled the streams with char, as masterminded by a fire giant and his hellhounds.


For expert adventurers, just about any threat to the tribe would be a reasonable hook once you don't need to think of reasons for anyone else to take care of it. Maybe I'll come back with a batch of ideas for those, but for now I'm too sleepy.

[Yora]

Lot's of good suggestions to consider.

I think another way in which a barbarian campaign would be different from a typical Fantasyland campaign is not just the what characters do in adventures, but also how the world impacts how things are being done. I think most settings focus primarily on cities and kingdoms, but what about worlds in which these are almost nonexisting?

I think the main thing might be that everything about society is much smaller. This means that the PCs will be much more visible. They stand out more, because there are fewer people like them, and their presence and actions will be more widely and better known because word doesn't have to spread as far to reach basically everyone. Distances between villages might be greater, but with fewer settlements in the network, there is less gossip to overshadow stories of their actions. So I would say barbarian heroes are much more likely to be recognized by people when they come to a new place, or while wandering around in a place they are currently staying in. When they arrive somewhere, word will spread quickly among the locals.
It can also mean that the elites of society become much more accessible to the PCs. With societies being smaller, the people at the top are closer to the people at the bottom. And at the same time, the PCs being more visible and their reputation being more prominent, leaders will hear about their arrival immediately and are likely to know who they are.

It probably could be quite fun to treat all PCs as VIPs pretty much everywhere, just on the base that they are PCs.

With smaller communities, there would also be less infrastructure to deal with commercial travelers. PCs coming to a village would stay there as guests, not visitors. Either they get invited to stay at the house of a higher up, or they are clearly not welcome by the village leaders who want them to leave. That probably would mean quite a difference in how villages are set up when preparing adventures. Unless it's really just a place where the players resupply and stay for one night before being on their way, you need to have a couple of NPCs with some background and personality.
Red Tide has a system to generate those quickly, and there's a version for that in Worlds without Number as well (which has a free version).

[Mendicant]

I think the smaller scale of communities/bigger impact of reputation is a really rich vein to mine. You mentioned earlier that tribes and clans would have their own heroic champions: what happens when the PCs are a big enough deal that a clan chief *does* pass over her less capable champion, who might easily be a blood relative too?

Reputation management in general could be a big deal. Just because you're not doing court intrigues doesn't mean there can't be serious social p's and q's that need to be minded: not letting insults stand, being open handed with followers and hosts, guest rights and guest obligations etc. might all be critical.

Kind of connected to that and that there aren't inns and taverns, a barbarian society might have a gift economy: wealth, such as it is, is much lower and much more social and reputational. Warriors and adventurers might carry a good deal of gold on them in the form of rings, torcs etc, but people don't have money per se most of the time. Instead you trade favors and gifts, which to my mind seems like an almost endless source of adventure fodder.

[Duff]

Most things which can happen to [random village the party visit], can also happen to [place where the tribe have camped].
Goblins raiding the village = there's a goblin band in the caves near the camp. Go and retrieve the stolen cattle/children. Bonus heroism because you have to go underground. Added motivation because you know those children.

As noted, you can probably get a lot of mileage from a smallish cast of NPCs, social standing is more important than life itself (at least for some of the NPCs, maybe some of the PCs as well).

There's often annual markets, fairs and festivals where nomads gather with with people they don't normally travel with or at towns and cities on the edge of the nomad's lands. These are big deals with weddings, alliances, feuds and trade all going on.
Maybe for best effect, have a few months of "nomad play", so adventures which emphasise that way of life before the first visit to a town with their annual "Cattle Fair", which the tribe attends to buy and sell stock. The tribe are allowed into town in groups of up to 5* and only one group is allowed through the gates every 5 minutes. This way as you describe the town it should feel like a real contrast to the campaign so far.

* or whatever works to include the party plus any NPCs you want with them

[Calthropstu]

Level 1 pcs are going on their first RAIDING PARTY. The goal of the raiding party is to ttake a sizeable grain shipment going to a nearby city. Those so called civilized folk built their road on OUR land and that means that grain is ours by RIGHT.

After the raid, the group is harrassed by a passing druid because he sees one of the raiders shoot and kill a wolf as it was running away.

Finally, a rival tribe tries to steal your freshly stolen wheat. Defend your stolen wagon!

Hooray, you're back at your main camp. There is song and dance celebrating your success. But a good barbarian's work is never done.

Time to secure some MEAT. And not just any meat will do, oh no. The chief has his eye on having some DIRE BOAR. Luckily, a group of them has been spotted nearby.

The challenges a barbarian tribe can face are virtually limitless.

[Doomwolf]

Another option to expand the player pool would be to have a character who is some sort of outsider - maybe he's exiled from another tribe and has thrown himself under your protection, or he's an escaped slave, or he's from more civilized lands and got lost/captured/enslaved/shipwrecked/etc and is trying to both survive and get home (NB - this would be a good way to introduce someone with abilities/technological knowledge that barbarians might not otherwise have).

For some ideas on how to do the 'lost explorer', read up on Narvaez Expedition - basically, most the Spanish expedition died, but four were able to walk/sail from Florida to Mexico over the span of eight years, some of which they spent as captives of various native American peoples. Atleast one of them was used by his captors as a trader between different groups, as he was obviously a different outsider and as a more 'neutral' party could sometimes go to other villages without as much risk of being killed on sight (NB - this is an extreme simplification of a book I read on the subject some years ago, but should be all you need if you want the inspiration).

NB - my post count isn't high enough to add wikipedia links :(

Adventure ideas - not sure if already mentioned, but you could have them sent on a quest inspired by a vision that the tribal shaman had.

Also, what kind of barbarian world are you building? Are they nomads? Subsistence farmers? Something else? What kind of climate?

[Leonard Robel]

I've always felt uncomfortable with too big of scenarios, so I try to shrink them to a point I can relate with. The way Robert E. Howard handled it was generally that Conan (and maybe his crew) was all that was left after some huge battle or an expedition that went wrong. Or if he was part of a great war, he was compelled to meet directly with the leader of the enemy, by challenge or tricks or magic.

[Altheus]

One more thought has occured, but it will require a player with a bit of initiative.

If you have such a player, make them an outcast in some fashion and the rest of the party with him.

Then you have a Ghengis Khan situation, and the possibility of that player taking over every tribe, getting enough support and momentum behind them they will then be a horde, then they can attack and possibly conquer the civilized lands.

"The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters."