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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7798853" data-attributes="member: 6779196">I don’t think every challenge needs to have high stakes to be entertaining and memorable. If I might tweak the contest at the faire example to more closely match something that happened in actual play:I recently ran the Adventurers League scenario, The Pudding Faire as a one-shot  between campaigns for a group I’m normally a player in, to buy our DM some breathing room to prepare for the next campaign. In this scenario, the PCs are at a faire. There are many events, games, contests, and the like at this faire, many of which have entry fees and prizes. One in particular that the players enjoyed was the Yondalla’s Luck game. Participants can sign up to attempt to run the gamut around the great pudding tent, where a feast is being held throughout the day. Contestants have to jump from table to table and make a full lap around the tent, while avoiding food thrown by other contestants. Anyone who makes the full lap around the tent without falling off the tables has their time recorded on a chalk board, and the person with the best time at the end of the day is crowned the Pudding King and gets the first piece of the Great Pudding, which is ceremonially cut and served at the end of the day to conclude the festivities.There is no entry fee to play this game, but you only get one try. The reward is a meaningless title and the privilege of being the first to eat a Pudding everyone will get to eat. Not to mention, the actual crowning was a scripted event, the players had no real chance of winning. The stakes could not be lower. But everyone wanted to try, because the premise was delightful. One player commented on how cool he thought the mechanic was (it was literally just a series of Acrobatics checks, and the other players could make improvised ranged attack rolls against you to give you disadvantage on your check if they hit.) But it was an entertaining and memorable story nonetheless.Sometimes the consequence of failure really is just that you can’t try again. You’re only allowed one try at Yondalla’s luck. Nothing bad happens if you fail, and the prize for succeeding is mostly just having your success acknowledged. I would argue that the consequences are still meaningful. You fail your attack roll and the person running the gamut will have a better chance of beating your time. You fail your acrobatics check and your run is over. That’s consequence enough to make a fun story.</blockquote>

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