Hooks for Low Level Poor Dirty Characters

Well going by your example, the poor can all just be amazingly dense.

Sorry for the shitty non-specific thread.

I'm thinking of doing something plague related, maybe. I like to have my games fantastical but with the medieval aspects played up so it doesn't seem like a pastoral wonderland where everything's fine except monsters.

This will be the final game before the characters become "heroic", so I wanted to have a sort of transitory session and I'm not sure how to pull it off. One of the characters is a veteran of a successful peasant uprising (succesful in that it resulted in a crude constitutional monarchy) with PTSD, another is a street thief, one is an (american indian aesthetic) elf nomad, and the other is a book learned but naive scholar out to learn about the world. System is roughly 5E but very narrative heavy and not using classes at the moment.

The next session will take place in a small city where a massacre equivalent in scale and horror to the rape of nanking happened during the peasant uprising, and the PTSD veteran is making a pilgrimage there for the anniversary to try to somehow atone for his crimes. Recently the kingdom has annexed some pagan, tribalistic Donnaiche tribes and given much of their land away, so there's been an influx of refugees and migrant workers in this city looking for farm work.

Two events coincide with the anniversary of the massacre: one is an effigy burning of the leader of the peasant revolt who oversaw what would (unintentionally and to the leader's great despair) Rape of Merseyshire, including effigy caricatures of the Donnaiche who were united by the leader and a major asset in the revolt's success. The common people of this kingdom (Manchesthin) are furious about the annexation of the Donnaiche and even more furious about them pouring into their city, so violence is already likely as the angry crowds will gather for the effigy burning. However, even worse, this effigy burning for the anniversary also coincides with the Spring Equinox. (1/2)

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>>53481463
The Spring Equinox is a major time of celebration for the Donnaiche, specifically and unfortunately for their two gods that have been banned by the Chestish: the god of the changing seasons (who is also the god of revolt and power change) and the god of fertility and spring growth (who is celebrated with orgies). Despite the ban, the few hundred new Donnaiche refugees will try and practice their rituals in secret. Obviously I'm planning for things to go wrong for them and there to be a pogrom.

So I have a conflict set up, but I hate that this is such straightforward social conflict, but can't seem to get away from that. I'm too materialist and it doesn't make for good tabletop stories I guess kek. I'm thinking maybe in terms of hooks, the characters could try to exploit divides in the guard and upper class of the city to prevent an all out massacre? Of course it would be difficult for them to do that as peasants, so maybe they run into a merchant and do a favor for him and get some nice clothes and fake identities? That would work but it feels kind of like a cop out for finding something that would be interesting for poor unimportant characters in particular. Of course the attempt to come of as truly noble for such poor characters will probably be interesting in itself.

Anyway, sorry for the lazy original post, will only bump a couple more times if there's no interest.

>>53480759
Maybe they just had the opportunity to be heroes and took that opportunity.

>>53480759
Nice idea, my idea would be to use what a higher level party would brush off to 'cut their teeth' so to speak. Try these hooks.

Bandit blockade slows the supplies for the festivities resulting in rising tensions and the poor starving as rationing for the festival continues regardless of the local's lives. The party finds no food to be had, thus they bust break the blockade or starve with the peasants.

If interested, add a political edge as the new local government funds the bandits to strangle dissent with hunger until they deign to feed them in a combo 'false flag/hearts and minds campaign'. Alternatively, the bandits were mercs who fought in the rape looking for their fortune in war but didn't find it and can't get work from the stigma of their actions.

Other hooks include mauled cattle being killed by a grass roots resistance group to sow distrust in the new governing body, funded by an ex-rebel with a stash of money from the rape. A local medicine woman, drawing no political distinction, to be executed by both parties for aiding the other needs extreme proof for the masses to believe she isn't a witch. Or the town racist drunk seems to always have his tab paid off at the tavern for a man with no job and generally hated by all, Where does he get his cash? Spying for a party unknown or a found stash from the sacking of the city perhaps? Surely he won't miss it, or at least no one would miss him.

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>>53480759
>class conflict

This is silly in most campaign settings.
The poor peasants are for the most part uneducated, illiterate, and superstitious.

For the most part they cannot afford the equipment of waging war, ie. swords, crossbows, shields, armor, warhorses, food wagons, etc.

For the most part they are unskilled in the fighting of war, the weapons and techniques of melee or ranged fighting itself, as well as tactics and strategy.

Things which change the balance are generally stigmatized as immoral, such as poison, crossbows, guns, etc.

Religions and other systems typically taught how important loyalty to one's king and country were.

Lastly, many of them know that if they turn in some of these ringleaders, they'll be greatly rewarded, whereas if they try to fight they are likely to be brutally murdered if not worse. So you can't even count on them to act as a cohesive block.

This is not to say that many peasant revolts didn't occur or that a few were even quite successful, just that those typically had causes far outside class conflict. Oftentimes they involved invading nobility from elsewhere, who spoke different languages, had different customs, or practiced different religions. Othertimes crippling taxes, or abuses of power would produce rebellion. Most revolts that involved peasant really involved replacing one noble with a different one.

>>53480759
The king made you nobles.