8: The Big Festive Game
“I’ve never actually been in a snowball fight.”
“Really?”
“I don’t even know the rules. Is there like a point system or is it... to the death?”
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Taking part in (or watching) a major sporting event as part of the season.
A less immediately relevant sibling to playing tabletop games around Christmas, and an encouragement to get some exercise slightly brisker than going for a walk after Christmas lunch.
Scottish examples include the Kirkwall Ba Game where an entire town divides into two teams for an ancestor of football, and the Loony Dook swimming in the Firth of Forth on New Year’s Day. Similar events happen all over, and it goes back a long way, to traditions like tournaments around Christmas, referenced in Sir Gawain And The Green Knight.
The player characters might take part themselves, happily or otherwise. They might be proud to join a tournament, or unable to avoid getting dragged in to a Ba Game.
Maybe they play against a rival group of NPCs. “Death to the opposition!”
Perhaps being annual and high-profile it becomes a Big Game and gets fiercely competitive.
Or perhaps the reverse. The most famous impromptu football game ever held around this time was in the Christmas Truce.
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