Help me instigate a bar fight.

Flipguarder · 19th August 2009, 10:03 AM

I (as DM) would like to encourage a bar fight in Sigil. They are level 10 and I need just a small push to get them to 11. These are the characters:

1. A Human fighter worshiper of Flarghan who is investigating his whereabouts (currently unknown. Seems very hard to offend, and very relaxed.

2. A bullywug monk, who I have decided will be the most out of place of them all. Possible racial tension angle. Has very little connection to his people, however.

3. A Genasi swordmage who acted as a "police officer" in the City of Brass. Also a member of a secret organization devoted to general good. Has too much on his plate for missions and goals. Could feel stressed.

4. A Elf ranger, who is a high ranking member of the feywild guard, a military organization devoted to protecting the feywild from the dangers in the world and vice-versa. Also feeling fairly stressed due to some problems back home.

5. A human Artificer who's really only goal is money, intersting things, and the acquisition of rare alchemical and ritual materials.

Rhun · 19th August 2009, 10:35 PM

Should be simple. Have a drunk accost one of the PCs, blame him for stealing his drink or his woman or just about anything, and when the PC tries to cool things down just have the drunk punch him. Nothing should be easier.

fba827 · 19th August 2009, 10:49 PM

Unless the people at the bar _know_ about their backstories, a bar fight could only happen based on what they see (clothes, equipment, race).

So (figuring they aren't carrying/wearing some offensive material) that pretty much leaves race.

As you walk in, a burly man sitting at the bar with his back turned to you stands up muttering "Phew... what is that wretched smell..." He slowly turns to see you standing in the doorway, "Ah... that explains it..."
He lumbers up towards you, a little swagger in his step brought on my his ale. Bringing his face no more than a few inches away from (pick random PC, possibly the bullywug if they are that rare here) he speaks with the smell of booze all around him, "Unlike you, this place is clean, how about you get your stinky flesh out of here ... " If the PC doesn't leave, he gets more demeaning, implying that the PC's race is meant to do subserviant things like shine his shoes. And so on ...

Theroc · 20th August 2009, 12:07 AM

Have one of the NPC's be part of an Logging operation getting setup to cut down sections of the Feywild(I'm assuming it's a forest, but I know nothing about it).

To get two PC's riled, talk about how many illegal things like extortion, blackmail, and roughing up local authorities to get the operation setup.

If the NPC's are already drunk, they say this too loudly, drawing the potential ire of both the Genasi AND the Ranger.

Dunno how quickly those two would be to respond, but the police officer type might try to interrogate them, and being a Genasi(aren't they part elemental? Wouldn't this be a racial angle too?), they just tell the Genasi to get lost, throwing in an insult about his race too.

Nebten · 20th August 2009, 12:16 AM

Let's look at history for some of the classic set ups to a bar fight:

He doesn't like you.
Luke: Sorry.
Dr. Evazan: I don't like you either. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence on twelve [planes].
Luke: I'll be careful.
Dr. Evazan: You'll be dead!

Dannyalcatraz · 20th August 2009, 02:11 AM

Have someone walk into the bar with a knife and a bag of flour.

He uses the knife to cut open the bag of flour, which he then swings in such a way as to eject the flour in all directions, giving everyone a good coating...

and he yells "Hey, UGLY!" at nobody knows whom.

That should do it.
(It worked pretty well for a barbarian aardvark of some reknown...)

fba827 · 20th August 2009, 02:25 AM

Thief: someone tries to pickpocket an easily angered PC

Mistaken identity: One of the PCs is mistaken for someone else (it can be something mundane "hey, you're the guy that slept with my wife!" or more fantastic "hey, you're the guy who slayed the dragon... i'll whoop you to prove i'm the biggest baddest around here") or, used in conjection with the thief idea, if the pc lets the theif go, maybe someone watching sees the pc holding the theif's arm thinking that the PC is picking on the little kid.

Accident: Someone drunk bumps in to the least-agile PC. Have that PC make an acrobatics/dexterity check to keep his balance. If he fails (presumably so since you're targetting the least agile one) have him topple in to a big drunk guy who ends up dropping his drunk on to another guy. This causes drunk guy to get mad at PC, and now-wet guy to get mad at the drunk guy. I see shoving goign on real soon, and chairs and bottles being used as improvised weapons ...

anyway, just random ideas off the top of my head. lots of other (if not better) ideas already mentioned by others above!

Infiniti2000 · 21st August 2009, 07:22 AM

Another real easy one occurs if you can entice one of the players into a friendly gambling game. Make sure the PC wins somehow and then, of course, accuse him of cheating. Enticing them to gamble might even be easier if you can throw a plot hook onto it, perhaps along the lines of "yeah, I'll tell you what you want to know...over a couple games of craps." That may even make it seem less random and not railroaded.

Quartz · 21st August 2009, 08:36 AM

Why make the PCs the targets? How about having a bar-fight erupt and the PCs can choose to get involved or not as they wish. Then use their behaviour as a plot hook for the next adventure. "I've been told how well you handled yourselves..."

Flipguarder · 21st August 2009, 08:50 AM

I love the replies to this thread.

"A big burly guy says he doesn't like you and pushes." lacks the realism and engrossing kind of scenario building I normally like to use in my campaign. So far I really like fba827's and Theroc's ideas.

Thanks for the ideas all, more would be very welcome.

artmarks7 · 21st August 2009, 05:29 PM

And in a normal bar a group of tenth level characters will mop up 'normal' people without breaking a sweat. To create a challenge you pretty much have to bring in another group with the morals of scum, more than willing to pick a fight. Say a band of successful brigands with levels and covering the magical basics, an anti-party made to waylay and rob groups fo travelers like the party.

If it's a fight in a city with any rules, weapons shouldn't be drawn for a barfight and having the bartender bellow a reminder/threat at the begining of a fight should be reasonable. Once you take favored weapons out of a fight, you may find the 1d3 fist to be a really slow fighting method. You should use rules for using leathal weapons safely, flat of blade at -4 for subdual damge. I'd have the bartender also bellow "fight, make room!" and the crowd will grab tables to move so the fight and audience area are clearly defined, then you don't have to worry stats for patrons and only for your premade anti-party. Given the monk, you have to have an anti monk or he will mop up any fist fight, and a mage for a brigand might be really skilled in counterspell tactics or loaded up with hieghtened sleep spells.

You don't want it too easy, you don't want it too chaotic to keep track of everything, and you don't want it too slow due to reduced damage against high hit points or such an overwhelming number the fight is more an endurance test than a real fight.

What are is the law in that city for fighting, weapons, etc.? If it makes a difference then you could try other things that happen in a bar for minor RP xp, like gambling, darts, arm wrestling, tale telling, singing, etc. There are lots of rules out there for some simple skill challanges like that. Hell, skill challenge picking up the bar wench and make the PC explain exactly what he learned by next morning, breifly, should be worth a laugh and some xp. Gambling could help relieve them of some extra cash, rules on beer for a bar fight might help bring the player's fighting skill down for the fight or for skill challenges, and making a player entertain everyone for a minute of air guitar lipsinking should be worth a few hundred xp

It's up to you, what matters most to you, what sounds right, what seems like the work you want to put into this.

lectric · 21st August 2009, 06:14 PM

Here's a pretty amusing how-to on starting a bar fight.

(How to Start And Enjoy A Bar Fight (or did someone say Uptowner?) « Mr Ernest Bazanye

Just make one NPC the instigator, another the target, and one of the PC's the "some other guy".

lectric · 21st August 2009, 06:48 PM

double double post post

Flipguarder · 23rd August 2009, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by artmarks7

And in a normal bar a group of tenth level characters will mop up 'normal' people without breaking a sweat. To create a challenge you pretty much have to bring in another group with the morals of scum, more than willing to pick a fight. Say a band of successful brigands with levels and covering the magical basics, an anti-party made to waylay and rob groups fo travelers like the party.

If it's a fight in a city with any rules, weapons shouldn't be drawn for a barfight and having the bartender bellow a reminder/threat at the begining of a fight should be reasonable. Once you take favored weapons out of a fight, you may find the 1d3 fist to be a really slow fighting method. You should use rules for using leathal weapons safely, flat of blade at -4 for subdual damge. I'd have the bartender also bellow "fight, make room!" and the crowd will grab tables to move so the fight and audience area are clearly defined, then you don't have to worry stats for patrons and only for your premade anti-party. Given the monk, you have to have an anti monk or he will mop up any fist fight, and a mage for a brigand might be really skilled in counterspell tactics or loaded up with hieghtened sleep spells.

You don't want it too easy, you don't want it too chaotic to keep track of everything, and you don't want it too slow due to reduced damage against high hit points or such an overwhelming number the fight is more an endurance test than a real fight.

What are is the law in that city for fighting, weapons, etc.? If it makes a difference then you could try other things that happen in a bar for minor RP xp, like gambling, darts, arm wrestling, tale telling, singing, etc. There are lots of rules out there for some simple skill challanges like that. Hell, skill challenge picking up the bar wench and make the PC explain exactly what he learned by next morning, breifly, should be worth a laugh and some xp. Gambling could help relieve them of some extra cash, rules on beer for a bar fight might help bring the player's fighting skill down for the fight or for skill challenges, and making a player entertain everyone for a minute of air guitar lipsinking should be worth a few hundred xp

It's up to you, what matters most to you, what sounds right, what seems like the work you want to put into this.

Yeah, I don't really care if they mop the floor with the enemies, that's not a huge issue.

However I did say it's in Sigil (the city of doors). If you don't know what that is, then yeah you aren't going to get it, but all of your questions are solved if you have the MotP.

Being that it's in Sigil, I don't think I need a huge pretense for a few level 10 guys being in there.

SolosAddie · 27th August 2009, 07:16 PM

perhaps, a different group could start a fight, with some of their members using the fight as a cover to jump the bartender, grab the cash box and leave. The PCs could notice this and intervene

Flipguarder · 28th August 2009, 11:31 AM

So this is what I ended up doing.

I had the Pc's be directed to a bar by their "boss" for information regarding where they could get enchantments done (the organization's regular enchanter had gone missing a few weeks before). They entered the low-life bar and got some drinks. They heard screams, but everyone else in the bar seemed to not care. Then they saw a pain devil come out of one of the rooms and come downstairs. When they attempted to stealthily go upstairs and find out what the noise was about (the pain devil was drinking at the bar). They found that there was one door where a faint "whipping" sound was occruing.

Long story short, the room the pain devil was coming out of held a girl strapped to a torture device who seemed to be enjoying the pain. But it was too late, and the pain devil and a few of his buddies attacked the party.

What actually had happened was that these girls who were being tortured had sold their souls long ago to a powerful devil, and now where being used as "training" for the pain devils. They also had some sort of enchantment placed on them, so that they were made to occasionally "enjoy" the pain. This was just a trick to convince the onlookers that these girls were just super-freaky.