D&D 5E (2014) Sports in D&D

[JWO]

How would you go about running sports in D&D, possibly involving one or more of the players? I guess it would depend on the type of sport being played so in my case, they'd be playing like a no holds barred, more violent version of rugby.

I don't want it to take much more than about 10-15 minutes, otherwise we'd just play Blood Bowl or something!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Think I would do action and then counter-action with a result equaling an outcome.


Action: run the ball to score.
Counter: tackle the runner.
Low Result - Fail: ball changes hands
High Result - Success: player score
Mixed Result - down but still in control

 

[Riley37]

Some scenarios might involve actions which are resolved by an Athletics check. Sometimes, rugby is a lot like Grappling.

For pushing the limits of modifiers to an Athletics check, see "Vrax the Rock Thrower".
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?395936-Vrax-the-Rock-Thrower

 

[iserith]

I wrote a whole scenario based around a life-or-death game of Ollamalitzli (like soccer/football). It's designed for D&D 4e and is pretty tactical, but you might be able to draw some ideas from it. Check it out: Draj, City of the Moon.

I ran this one-shot five times or so. The players really got into it every time. Some played it more than once.

 

[Zardnaar]

Jousting, archery, various horse riding events, chariot racing were sports before modern team based sports emerged which are really a recent invention. Chariot racing lasted until 1204, jousting made it to the 17th century I think.

 

[jgsugden]

I'd choose mechanics based upon how much time and how critical the 'games' were in the campaign. If this is a crucial event, I'd go into a lot of detail by using a board game or series of in game (in D&D game) challenges to simulate the game. If, however, we just want to establish a victor and move on, I'd make it mostly descriptive and a few rolls. Perhaps describe a close match that all comes down to a pivotal play that the PC needs to make - and then give them an athletics check (with advantage or disadvantage based upon the way the PC describes how they approach the challenge) to see if they pull off the win.

 

[Sunseeker]

Depends, a lot of medieval sports (jousting, pit-fighting, dueling) can be resolved with the existing rules. Other things, like lets say you wanted to play tennis or soccer, I think would be best resolved as either a skill check (which can come in a lot of forms).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Make an Athletics check. If it's a team sport, then all of the players on each side get to make an Athletics check, and add them together.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Cricket.
DEX (Acrobatics) v STR (Athletics) for bowler v batsman.
Bowler scores Natural 20 and Batsman doesn't = bowls him out.
Batsman scores Natural 20 and Bowler doesn't = 6 runs
Both score Natural 20 = no effect, calculate as normal
Both tie = 0 runs
Batsman wins, roll d20 (add +2 if wins by 6 or more, +1 if wins by 4-5):
- 1-2 = caught! out
- 3-8 = 0 runs
- 9-12 = 1 run
- 13-15 = 2 runs
- 16-17 = 3 runs
- 18-19 = 4 runs
- 20 = 6 runs
Bowler wins, roll d20 (add +2 if wins by 6 or more, +1 if wins by 4-5)
- 1 = bye, 4 runs
- 2 = bye, 1 run
- 3-4 = wide, 1 run plus rebowl
- 5-15 = 0 runs
- 16-17 = howzat?! Lbw claim - roll again, 16+, out. Under 16, 0 runs.
- 18 = run out
- 19 = caught
- 20 = clean bowled
Run it as a 20/20 game to limit overs.
Very civilised. Even the orcs would want to play.