Playing hockey in DnD

[Goonalan]

Skill challenge for each period to overhear the other teams tactics, develop own tactics- say 8 maximum checks each success giving team an auto success or +2/5/whatever to a check. Give the oppo 3 or 4 of these to spend- depending on how hard you want to make it.

Get map and turn it into squares, 10 rounds per period.

Face off- opposed skill check.

Roll Init- Players can act on thie init or delay till anytime below as per usual.

All players have IR to tackle.

Move= Move (no skill check) AoO as per normal.
Minor= Aim (+2 To Hit) or Poke (-2 to oppo) or Buff (+2 to defences) or something else.
Attack= either Poke, Hook, Slash, Boarding (or other nasty- generally To Hit vs Reflex, or Fort a little damage and maybe an effect, especially for a crit); or Pass (To Hit AC 10/20/whatever +2/5/whatever for every oppo in corridor burst 1 between players) or Score- To Hit vs Keepers To Hit (Plus as above for corridor when passing).

Then build up from there incorporating at least one of each character classes traits- Paladin Marking (+2 To Hit Marked, Auto shift and attack in Close Burst 2 say).

No penalties to move with puck.

That kind of thing.

Thirty minutes and it'd be cracked...

The game would/should take a session to play out- possibly an hour for each period, I'd definitely give players a 10 second decide what you're going to do window then start dropping their Init for the rest of the Period.

Poke holes or build from here.

Hmm now for a league.

Cheers PR

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Why not use Blood bowl and make some changes?

This or some variation there of if it is simulation you are after, if it is just a narrative then skill challange is the way to go.

 

[Lanefan]

Being Canadian, and with our games' pantheon having a homebrew Dwarven deity* whose primary spheres are beer and hockey, we have of course already done this.

But to nowhere *near* the extent that's being proposed here.

The farthest we ever took it was vaguely figuring out who was on each team (Part Orcs make great defensemen, in case it ever matters), after which we just somewhat randomly determined who won and by what score. Much more important was determining who won the fights and whether anyone got hurt either during the fights or the actual game.

* - a temple to said deity consisted of a full-size rink with seats, along with at least one pub and an on-site brewery. Any Cleric actually able to build one of these received a special 2nd-level spell "Ceremony: Freeze" to keep the rink frozen. I know this because one of my characters built the first one.

Lan-"I lived in that temple for a while, but they never got me on the ice"-efan

 

[Celebrim]

At 6 seconds a round, a hockey game is 600 rounds.

And how many video game versions of sports require you to play the full time of the real games?

I think you can easily abstract the hockey down to a useful number of rounds and still capture the feel of a full game, maybe 10-20 rounds per period as you suggest, depending on how interested you think your players will be and how much time you want to devote to the contest.

 

[Markn]

I'd make it a skill challenge incorporating skills to equate to that players style of play. Athletics to body check, acrobatics for a great rush up the ice, that sort of thing. Basically the check simulates a key moment in the game. You could even string together several challenges - one for each period if your players are into it.

Hope that helps - and oh yeah - Go Canada go!

 

[roguerouge]

Hm. It looks like if I go simulation with this, we're going to have to have it be a "first team to three goals" kind of thing...

 

[awesomeocalypse]

In 4e, I'd probably just run it as a skill challenge with athletics, acrobatics, intimidate and insight as the primary skills.

 

[jmucchiello]

At 6 seconds a round, a hockey game is 600 rounds.

And how many video game versions of sports require you to play the full time of the real games?

*head shake* That was meant to be funny. I didn't think the was necessary.

 

[Celebrim]

*head shake* That was meant to be funny. I didn't think the was necessary.

Dude. Autistic? I have a hard enough time knowing when something is supposed to be funny when you say it to my face and chuckle. I had to read a book to even learn what a smile was and what it was for.

 

[Wik]

Oh, HELL YES.

I've been wondering about sports in my own campaign world - because every culture has them, and I think they're often overlooked (possibly because the stereotypical gamer isn't usually sports-inclined?).

Here would be a quick idea for how to do a hockey game in any D&D rule system - make each team count as a single player. Each team has an AC of 10, an attack bonus of +0, and does 1d6 damage - they have 10 hit points. Every 10 hit points of damage, a goal is scored. Each team gets three attacks per period.

Now, here's where we make things fun. Each forward adds to the attack rating of the character - from +0 to +3. And also to the damage - some will just do no extra damage, some an extra d4, and some will go as high as a d8 or d10. When a "hit" is scored, roll three dice - the best three dice you have. Odds are, some characters will have high attack rolls, but low damage, and vice versa - in other words, some are playmakers (high attacks), while others are snipers (high damage) - remember, you have to beat the hit points of the goalie in a single damage roll.

The defence, of course, modifies the AC of the "team". Some will provide a simple bonus ranging from +1 to +3, while others will have a lower AC bonus, but might provide an attack bonus or even an extra damage die (offensive defensemen, like, say, Mike Green).

And the goalies provide extra hit points - ranging from +1 to +4 - keep the numbers relatively low. After all, you have to beat this number in one damage roll.

You can even get a bit more complex - you could force line changes (remember, the average player is only on the ice for 45 seconds at a time), add in enforcers (i.e. goons), and so on. You could have an endurance system, where each round drains a random amount of "energy", and players that reach 0 can no longer contribute (requiring players to rotate their roster a bit, rather than just depending on their main people - plus, this leads to matching the other guy's line change).

Trick is, once you get down to it, this would be a rather simple thing to do. If you start adding in a few "powers" to each team, little tricks that everyone in the team knows, you can make the game a little bit less of a "I miss, you hit" sort of deal - powers like "Umbrella Offence" (extra attack and damage, but lower defence and goalie hit points on the next attack against you), "Stalling the Clock" (higher defence, but you lose your last attack, and "Pulling the Goalie" (Extra player on the ice, but you only have 1 hit point on the next attack against you). Things like that.

Finally, you could add in a crowd mechanic, but that might just get a bit too simulationist, even for a guy such as myself.