There are lots of reasons to use gardens in your game settings. In many societies a private garden was symbolic of wealth, and more than one clandestine meeting takes place among the fountains and statuary of an opulent garden space. The garden adds beauty to a scene, whether the mood is joyous, dark, or maddening.

Because of the wide variety of gardens and possible situations, we’ll keep it more or less in a chronological order. Use one adventure hook or combine several to add beauty to your game settings.

Imperial Gardens and Living Zoos

It was pretty common in ancient times for rulers to collect living plant and animal specimens from the places they conquered, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t introduce this concept to any game universe you play in. Use in places where the ruler of the country is the richest, most opulent person.

• The PCs are hired to take out an evil emperor. The best way to avoid being seen is to sneak through the Imperial garden, running the risk of meeting up with some plants and animals the PCs may have never heard of before.
• The PCs are hired to take out an assassin before he or she reaches the Emperor. Or any sort of fight breaks out and spreads to the gardens. It is one thing to meet a foe in a bejeweled garden or a moonlit hedge maze and quite another to have giant man-eating plants and screaming carnivorous peacocks at your back.
• In worlds with multiple sentient species, the group is hired to save a relative or comrade that a conqueror put in his living zoo. Or the PCs are put in the living zoo.
• The PCs meet the rulers of the lands in the Imperial Gardens. The visual of the garden can help the PCs read this Emperor’s intentions better. Perhaps the Emperor is lying on a divan, with servants waiting on him hand and foot as the Emperor sniffs a freshly cut rare flower. Or the PCs are led to the Emperor and their first view is of a man in all his robes working the dirt around the roots of a bush with no mind to his appearance.

Cults

The Hashashim of Persia utilized gardens as a way to instill loyalty in their followers. According to Marco Polo, these assassins would drug up initiates and take them to a pristine paradise garden, where they were told they would spend the eternal afterlife should they perform their duties to the cult and god. In worlds where magic is prevalent, this concept could be taken a few steps further, actually bringing forth a “deity” to command the initiates.

• As a background detail, any cult the PCs meet could use this tactic, making them harder to win against, since religious fervor drives the combatants.
• The PCs are initiated into a cult on their world using these tactics. They may have to save against whether or not they are duped by the experience.
• The PCs have been sent to investigate a group of assassins and eventually learn about this duplicity. The PCs could reveal the falsehoods to the members or not.
• It’s not a trick, especially in other worlds where deities are more forthcoming. The garden may be real or not, but the cult initiates, once drugged on something, enter the garden and meet with a real deity-type. Or a demon that convinces them all that it is a deity and sends them forth to assassinate just for the fun of it.

Monasteries, Abbeys, Priories

In any setting where there are religious groups that isolate themselves from the rest of the world, you are going to get monastic-type gardens. As studiers of the fruit of the earth, regardless of the deity involved, behind the cloistered walls is a wealth of plants to sustain members and possibly heal the sick and wounded. In most cases, however, the monasteries owned plenty of land with their own peasant villages and towns. No land was wasted, with the cemetery doing double-duty as the orchard and the latrines placed near the vegetable beds. Larger monasteries were famous for their alcoholic beverages and much of the land was dedicated to barley or grapes. Besides the entirely useful infirmary and vegetable gardens, a visitor could find a cloister garden, either of a beautiful lawn or simple shrubs and flowers, used exclusively for spiritual contemplation.

• Only one monastery in the region has the cure for a specific disease and the PCs need to get there to retrieve it. The monastery may not be welcoming of mixed groups, certain genders, or magic-using individuals.
• The PCs request hospitality from the monastery, which barters their food, medicine, or beds for some quick gardening labor from the PCs. While there, they are treated to the stark beauty of monastic life.
• Someone or something is destroying the gardens of the monastery and they send someone out to help them. It could be as mundane as a band of brigands or as complex as an ancient sleeping entity whose lands the monastery encroaches on.
• In some realms, the monastery may actually be the evil power of the land. They claim the property of their neighbors as their god’s property, slowly building an ecclesiastical empire, or, to be completely out there, the monks use the blood of heretics to feed their land.

Witches and their Gardens

An experienced person can tell a lot about the inhabitants of an abode by what is grown in the garden. Certain plants, such as mandrake, belladonna, and foxglove, can clue the astute observer to the presence of a witch. In certain eras, the growth of these plants could be as damning as actual evidence of spellwork. Any character who lives in an era where superstitions run high will be able to identify some of these plants on sight.

• Witches can always be hired for divinations, speaking to the dead, curses, or specialized healing. In earthly settings, the witch is merely a healer (if good) or poisoner (if bad). In magic settings, the witch can be a frightening visage with a cauldron of body parts and a wrack of potions for sale or trade. Some witches may feel the need to test possible consumers. Or the witch may desire a specific currently unattainable ingredient to grow in her conservatory and sends the PCs off to get it.
• The PCs come across a village with a “burn the witch” agenda. The “witch” in question was picked up because livestock or people are falling ill, dying, disappearing, or showing up mutilated. An investigation revealed belladonna, mandrake, or other suspicious herb growing in her garden. It could be the witch is a midwife who has this herb available for uterine contractions and pain. It could be that the flora in question was planted on her property by a real evil witch who is causing all the trouble. He or she could be a real witch who is being blackmailed to produce potions for a town official with revenge on the brain.
• In high fantasy settings, the plants in a witch’s garden could be far from mundane. Attack plants, killer poisons, and magic herbs that can destroy or explode may make visiting the witch fatal, even just to retrieve some information.
• The witch’s garden could be one small stop in a much longer investigation. Perhaps the local leader up and married some unlikely candidate and is acting hopelessly in love with him or her. PCs asked to check it out may find themselves approaching a witch about love potions.

Romantic and Clandestine Trysts

Some time after people could garden for pleasure and beauty instead of food and survival, gardens became known as places to meet secret lovers, companions, or business partners. Although factual meetings are few, medieval literature swears that lovers met in the gardens all the time. Same with spies and plotters against the “fill in the blank.” So, prepare for the clandestine. European-style gardens were very plain or filled with religious and heraldic symbolism until the introduction of the Renaissance.

• Obviously, the PCs could be told to meet a contact in a garden. As communal gardens and public parks weren’t around until late, the PCs would likely have to be guests of a high-ranking official in whatever setting is available. If the setting allows for public parks, they run the risk of anybody getting the message or overhearing them. For really sneaky GMs, this could be made exponentially more difficult by just giving clues as to where the PCs need to go.
• The PCs need to intercept a message. Once the Renaissance hit in force, gardens became filled with statuary, pools, and hedges difficult to navigate freely. Add in a working fountain and the discussion between two plotters may become nearly impossible to overhear.
• The PCs happen to overhear a conversation or a tryst that ends up coming back to haunt them. Maybe it’s a plot to kill the king. Maybe they don’t even LIKE the king. Maybe they don’t see who is talking. I used this once; PCs got thrown back in time to the day of the French Revolution. They overhear a conversation at the Versailles—the woman was the person responsible for purchasing and stealing the infamous necklace for an innocent Marie Antoinette. In my version, the lady was actually from the PCs’ future and she was passing the necklace to an ally posing as her husband. They hid the necklace under a stone in the patio planning on returning that night. The PCs had a chance to steal the necklace before it was sent off to England to get chopped up.
• The PCs have to prevent a romantic tryst from occurring. The king’s daughter is wooed by a gentleman of the court who plans to scandalize the king. Or maybe one of the PCs is stepping in to catch a wayward husband/wife in the act.

Death in the Garden

While actual evidence of real murders happening in medieval gardens is not seen, I’m sure they happened. Lord Darnley, Mary Queen of Scots’ husband, was strangled in his garden, but only after his house blew up with him still inside it. Most situations involving killings in the gardens are found in fictional mysteries and fantasy. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them; certainly gardens are a great place to kill lots of people! Or so I’ve heard. Even better, burying them in a garden; after all, roses got to grow ... .

• A disturbed druid-type person is a serial killer feeding corpses to his garden to have the best garden ever! Even the local ruler is intrigued and planning a visit. The disturbed person could decide that the ruler’s blood would be incredibly rich fertilizer. Perhaps the garden is more than it seems as vines and flowers writhe around the druid and attack!
• A body is found with yew berries in its hand—seems logical since only the red fleshy part of a yew is remotely edible; the seeds and green arils an kill in seconds. However, further investigate would yield the person has a background in herbalism and would know better… further investigation reveals the person was killed by a different poison or even a blow to the head. In a modern-day era game, the person would have a toxicology report state the same, so not as punchy, but any number of accidents can occur in a modern garden… lots of implements to fall on or in ... .
• A good any-era scenario has a caretaker find a body/skeleton on the garden grounds, leading to an investigation to piece together. Or perhaps a spirit starts bugging people looking for revenge/peace.
• The characters somehow intercept a plot to kill a higher-up. Using the garden styles discussed previously, the GM could provide simple clues that the PCs must piece together in time. “When the lion roars at tea time” could easily be an attack near lion statuary at 2:00 PM. Or whenever tea usually is.

Flower Mania

The tulip craze that erupted in the 1630s was amazing for one important reason: Tulips are useless as anything other than pretty. First noted in the East, its region quickly included North Africa and Asia as well as Western Europe. Some visitors to the East took notice of them and they thought the flowers were neat. It became the first must-have collectible.

In 1623, a single tulip bulb could reach as much as a thousand Dutch florins. By 1635, a sale of 40 bulbs for 100,000 florins was recorded. A single bulb of the Semper Augustus went for 6,000 florins. By 1636, tulips were traded on the stock exchanges of numerous Dutch towns and cities. People were selling or trading their possessions to get into the tulip market. People were stealing them out of other peoples’ gardens.

It was a mess.

Some traders sold tulip bulbs before they were planted or seen. This phenomenon was dubbed windhandel, or "wind trade", and took place mostly in the taverns of small towns using an arcane slate system to indicate bids. A state edict made that trade illegal by refusing to enforce the contracts, but this didn’t stop the buyers and sellers.

In February 1637 tulip traders could no longer get inflated prices for their bulbs and began to sell. The bubble burst. People began to suspect that the demand for tulips could not last and panic spread. Some were left holding contracts to purchase tulips at prices ten times greater than those on the open market.

To play it out in an RPG, a more “fashionable” city or country gets the idea that a rare breed of flower becomes the “in” thing. It can either be a useless flower, like the tulip, or an important culinary or medicinal herb or even a drug that is only potent when fresh requiring live plants in transport. The PCs can be a part of it in a number of ways.

• They could get hired on in the retrieval and transport of said live plant. Maybe the plant has special care instructions that must be followed to the letter or the whole shipment is lost. The PCs have to watch out for thieves both on and off the ship as well as possibly murder as the competition gets tight. Perhaps the PCs have an opportunity to sabotage another buyer.
• Once planted, a wealthy collector may hire the PCs to guard the new specimens until they are rooted. Or the PCs are hired to steal it from someone else.
• If the plant is also used for drug purposes, the inclusion of the plant in a garden may be illegal, adding all sorts of fun in smuggling it into the country. The law may get involved anyway with all the sneaking around.
• In a long-term game scenario, the PCs could become traders in the unique commodity, going so far as to be a part of the dirty little taverns’ secret stock market. Even more interesting is that the PCs walk into one of these taverns and see the sneaky proceedings only to find that it’s all about flowers.

Other Quicky Plot Additions

Gardeners: The rich empires of the ancient world probably used servants to tend their gardens and elevated them to higher positions as they showed talent. The Monks assigned their tasks amongst themselves and only hired outside help to take in the crops. The concept of garden design did not hit its stride until the Spanish brought the Islamic designs into Europe. The gardener can be the PCs’ friend or foe, and a professional gardener will generally be a “he” in Earth’s history, at least until the 1700s. The gardener can also be a clue, and will know the comings and goings of just about everyone on the grounds.

Science/Apothecary Gardens: By the late 1600s in England, scientists were creating gardens of their own with the purpose of training apprentices in the identification of plants. A garden such as this may be useful to bring a new species that a party needs identified (“I dunno, it just scratched me…is it poisonous?”) or make for an interesting background for an NPC.

Miniature Landscapes and Feng Shui: Out in the East, building gardens became an art, especially landscapes in miniature. These recreations of natural scenery included cliffs, beaches, waterfalls, and islands, as well as forests and miniature temples. A garden such as this would be a great way to clue a group of PCs in to the location of some legendary creature or treasure. In the Muromachi period of Japan (1392 to1490) the poor were suffering from garden overload as shoguns and wealthy citizens would cripple the lower-class as they strove for the perfect landscape. Wars were fought and temples plundered. This obsession by a region’s rich could also stymie the PCs as they try to keep polite and calm in an otherwise ridiculous situation.

Next Up: Plants and Warfare