Sports in Eberron

[der_kluge]

Oh give me a break. The rules of Quidditch are quite lame. If you liken Quidditch to soccer (which basically it is, except on brooms), then the typical games sees 2 or 3 goals per side. I don't remember ever watching a soccer game in my lifetime that had 16 goals goals scored total, let alone by one side.

If you were going to implement something like Quidditch, I would make it deadlier - like add in air elementals into the mix to spice things up a bit, and remove the whole golden snitch crap.

 

[Vaxalon]

Personally, I think we should look to the time period that Eberron is supposed to match for ideas about sports.

Eberron is clearly supposed to be somewhat noir-ish.

Popular sports in 1925 included:

Baseball, Hockey, Tennis, Horse racing, Boxing and Football.

Personally, I like the idea of a quidditch-like flying sport. It has a lot of good elements... speed, agility, skill, and violence.

 

[Macbeth]

Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I could see a rugby-style sport, with special rules on warforged participation (or lack thereof).

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Eberron isn't prohibition America in 1922. It would be weird to have something like baseball or hockey in there. But if you want to draw the comparison, horse-racing was incredibly popular around that time period. Perhaps Umber Hulk racing, or something like that.

I don't like the idea of a warforged-based sport. Why would anyone build the warforged to play in rugby games when they needed every single soldier they could find for the Last War? It doesn't make sense.

It would be cool to see a game like this springing up though. It'd have to be new, perhaps only a year old, and rapidly gaining popularity. Very gladiatorial, and a good way for disillusioned warforged to "continue" the last war.

 

[Ferret]

What about something like LaCrosse but on the backs of warforged?

 

[Macbeth]

I was actually thinking more along the lines of Warforged being prohibited from participating... see somebodies comment about running into a lamp post, earlier in this thread.

 

[ragboy]

Baseball

This can be exciting with all the various skill and ability checks involved.

Hockey,

Robots on Ice.

Horse racing

Hippogriff Racing

Boxing

Rock-em Sock-em Robots

Football.

There was a great video game in the 80's where robots played football against each other. The interesting thing was that the ball exploded if you didn't get a first down. If your robot got too beat up, it exploded. Etc. I like the idea of two artificer "owners" building (literally) a team of specialized constructs and playing metaphorical game of territory control ala the Last War on a field of green. With an exploding ball...

 

[ragboy]

I don't like the idea of a warforged-based sport. Why would anyone build the warforged to play in rugby games when they needed every single soldier they could find for the Last War? It doesn't make sense.

This is a good way to put those unneeded soldiers to good use. Perhaps those that aren't as "sentient" as others.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh give me a break. The rules of Quidditch are quite lame. If you liken Quidditch to soccer (which basically it is, except on brooms), then the typical games sees 2 or 3 goals per side. I don't remember ever watching a soccer game in my lifetime that had 16 goals goals scored total, let alone by one side.

So your analogy doesn't work -- in the novels, the sides in heated matches have scored more than 16 goals total. In fact, as I recall, there IS an instance in which the snitch is caught by the side that did it still loses.

Creating analogies to argue works only if the analogy is accurate.

The quidditch field is larger than a soccer field, especially once you add in the Z-axis. Getting past a defender to have a shot on the goal is a common opportunity, and logically so.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

While it's not a modern sport, and may not have been a "sport" in the modern sense of the wrod at all, I think something like the Mayan ball games would work quite well in Eberron. Having just been to a Mayan site in Belize with 3 ball courts, the concept works quite well in a fantasy setting. More ritual than sport, with great prestige going to the winners.The current theory is that slaves and war captives were used in the games, and the games themselves were used to re-enact great battlefield victories. The Winning team's captain would be sacrificed, as winning the game was thought to bring perfection, making him worthy of the gods.

Some more info here: http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/chichen/eg_chichen_ballcourt1b.html