D&D 5E Medieval Tournament ideas

[SheckyS]

Hi folks,

So I am working on an original campaign, and I think I want the campaign to begin with a big tournament. I think it's an interesting way for the players to meet and get to know each other before things get nasty.

I've thought up a bunch of events in which the players might compete. I figure I would charge them an entry fee for each event and then give out prizes. I will create a bunch of NPCs for them to compete against, as well as each other.

Events for fighter-types to compete in are pretty easy. I can have wooden sword fights, unarmed combat, a large melee, archery contests, knife throwing, a foot race, etc.

I even thought about having an original poetry or song competition for the bards.

I will have to work out the details of how each competition works, of course.

But I'm having trouble coming up with events for the magic-users (and possibly Clerics) to compete in. The only thing I've come up with so far is an illusion contest and maybe have some puzzles or games of skill like Dragon Chess.

Anyone got any other ideas? Or know where I can find some idea for some good tournament-style puzzles and games? Riddles?

 

[Morrus]

Look up the book Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns. It's for a previous edition, but very translatable. You can get it as a PDF or softcover.

 

[SheckyS]

Look up the book Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns. It's for a previous edition, but very translatable. You can get it as a PDF or softcover.

You rock! Thanks.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm a big fan of shape-shifting duels, like in The Sword in the Stone, but D&D's magic system really isn't great at duplicating those.

You could try a competition where wizards or clerics have to choose their spells for the day, and then face an array of tests--not just combat, but problem-solving--for which they can only use those spells, whether or not they're well-suited. Or restrict it further, where they can only prepare one spell per school per level, or can only get by on cantrips and 1st-level spells, or what have you.

Extra points for the most creative use of a spell outside its normal expected use.

 

[JohnLynch]

Characters could identify which spell is being cast or the best spell to use to achieve a certain outcome. You can handle that by either player knowledge or character skill. Traditional things include how you do tell if someone invisible is in the room (throw flour into the area and have it outline the person). How do you determine if there's a trap door? (pour water on the ground).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Neil Gaiman had an awesome shapeshifters duel in Sandman, if I recall correctly.

One of the thing I’m thinking about is having a wizards duel where the goal isn’t to damage each other, but to negate the opponent’s spells – so that if they cast burning hands, you might cast ray of frost. If they cast faerie fire, you might cast darkness or invisibility. That sort of thing. Something to challenge their creativity more than spell-slinging.

As far as something specifically for clerics, I could see a similar duel, but with more of an emphasis on demonstrating the strength of one’s deity. For example, a worshiper of Auril might focus on showing how winter overpowers all, while a worshipper of Tymora would show the power of luck and chance.

I'm a big fan of shape-shifting duels, like in The Sword in the Stone, but D&D's magic system really isn't great at duplicating those.

 

[Marandahir]

Big question: how many magic-users exist in your world?

Classed characters tend not to be the assumption in D&D campaigns, but it's possible that they're common in your world.

Also, would a cleric compete in a tournament? 1e and 2e traditions have the Cleric as the Crusader class, the knight of the cross so to speak. You could justify it in that way. But why would they compete with magic necessarily?

A lot of competitions might be skill-based rather than class-feature based. Think a cooking competition, only instead of cooking, Herbalism – who can make the best potion remedies? Or if you have to do a healing-based thing for your clerics/priests, what about a competition about racing around a mock-battlefield trying to identify the injured that are in need of healing? Kinda of like an obstacle course.

 

[SheckyS]

Big question: how many magic-users exist in your world?

Classed characters tend not to be the assumption in D&D campaigns, but it's possible that they're common in your world.

Also, would a cleric compete in a tournament? 1e and 2e traditions have the Cleric as the Crusader class, the knight of the cross so to speak. You could justify it in that way. But why would they compete with magic necessarily?

A lot of competitions might be skill-based rather than class-feature based. Think a cooking competition, only instead of cooking, Herbalism – who can make the best potion remedies? Or if you have to do a healing-based thing for your clerics/priests, what about a competition about racing around a mock-battlefield trying to identify the injured that are in need of healing? Kinda of like an obstacle course.

You make a lot of sense here. I wasn't really thinking of having explicitly class-based contests. It's just that most of the kinds of contests I associate with tournaments are physical, and so I didn't want the mages and clerics in my party to be left out. I was just trying to think of events in which they would have some hope of winning.

There are some good ideas here for contests of magic in general. But even without magic, I realize now that I can have all kinds of skill games like chess and poker. And the "Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns" book that Morrus mentioned is awesome. I will have to work out rules on how to determine who wins, but that's the easy part.

 

[bedir than]

You could do an archery type contest that includes bows, crossbows, slings and spells.

 

[Morrus]

I wrote an article on archery contests in EN5ider. Actually, it's one of the free samples.