Tournament

[Magiblack]

So I'm trying to plan out a Tournament in my upcoming game and I want to make sure that it all works and everyone has something to do. Any ideas or feedback would be helpful. I'm thinking of a mix of skill challenges and encounters. So far this is what I've brainstormed:

Archery Competition (Attack rolls vs Defenses)
Quiz (Arcana, Heal, History, Nature, Religion, Streetwise)
Maze (Dungeoneering or Nature maybe?)
Debate (Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, Perception, knowledge skills)
Group and/or Single Battle
Obstacle Course (Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance)
Murder Mystery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Perception)
Race (I've seen a sample chariot race somewhere)
Magic Duel (Trying to think of an interesting way to do this)
Capture the Flag (Insight, Stealth, Thievery)

Does anyone have any ideas or examples of some of these or ways to implement them that might be useful? Thanks in advance

 

[Nytmare]

I don't know, I've seen a lot of games in lots of systems with tournaments or fairs in them, but they only seem to really work as a background set piece, not something that the players are expected to actively take part in. More often than not, unless the tournament itself is the focus of the game, sessions at festivals seem to be long drawn out affairs where the players are stuck going through the motions until the action starts and the bad guys get around to showing up.

Overall if I ended up with one in my game I'd be hard pressed to expect my players to interact with the games and festivities outside of a simple description as to what it was they were doing.

For the most part a typical bunch of D&D characters are little more than a stack of super powers used to fight lots and lots of things. Putting payers into a series of mini-games where they don't get to use those powers can be kinda frustrating.

All that being said however, this is a smattering of things I might expect to see at a stereo-typical, pseudo-medieval, D&D festival:

Games of Strength - Wrestling, arm wrestling, boxing maybe? Games where you throw heavy things like a caber tosses, or big rocks, or fat halflings.

Martial Tests - Archery, duels, tent-pegging, quintains, jousting, etc. Depending on the kind of society we're talking about, gladiatorial fighting might be keen. People might be up for watching a bunch of armed to the teeth adventurers beating up on a somewhat captive monster.

Magical Competitions - These unfortunately always seem seem kinda lame when you try to hammer a game's "kill the bad guys" magic system into "impress the audience" story telling. I could imagine a "summoned monsters" tournament maybe. I would not suggest the "see who can come up with the most exciting display of cantrips" magical competition I almost always see.

Races - Mounted, or foot races. Steeplechases would be interesting. Depending on the whos, whats, and wheres of the festival, I could imagine some pretty interesting steeple chases. An elven steeple chase might involve firing a bow at a bunch of targets while riding an obstacle course. Dwarves might have a combination steeple chase/drinking contest/wrestling match.
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At least in my mind, a D&D tournament isn't going to be like a modern day Ren Faire where you go and there's a string of booths where you can play a bunch of carnival games.

It's going to be a big party centered around a huge tournament where you go to watch other people compete, not compete yourself. Around the edges there will be friendly competitions and games amidst the citizenry, but nothing outside of what you'd expect at a big party or night at a tavern.

 

[Daern]

Here's a thread I started a while back about jousting. Also Penny Arcade had a similar version a couple weeks ago.

 

[aco175]

I wonder if a system of gambling on the other contestants and not actually being involved in the pie eating contest would be good to use. You maybe get to meet some of the entrants during the first day and shady comes along to set up bets. Shady could be honest and legit or sneaky like in Spider Man where the loophole was he did not last 3 minutes. He could ditch town and need to be hunted down.

I once ran a contest between 3 taverns holding a cooking contest and the party was hired to bring back the main course, I think it was wild boar, but any level appropiate encounter is good, and throw in other parties, sabotague, wandering monsters, kids following the party falling down the well, you get the idea.

I may suggest that you have the big action events where real amounts of play time gets involved in things that the whole party gets to play in. Little things like contests and skill interaction may throw some off if the whole hour is devoted to one character.

 

[Quickleaf]

I was just jotting notes down about the same thing. Great minds.

I'm doing an adventure where the PCs compete in the tournament, but their reason for doing so is to recruit allies against a wicked prince trying to seize power. Interspersed throughout the adventure is a complex social skill challenge where certain minor quests during the tournament count as successes in addition to skills.

Here's one example...

Mead Hall Mystery
Someone stole a barrel of the Baron’s reserve mead, and the Baron has promised to share a bottle with whoever recovers it.
The Facts: Ale-wife had extra-marital relations with the Baron, and he gives her hush money. Cellar-keeper served Baron faithfully for 30 years after Baron saved him from bandits. Porter’s livelihood depends on honest work and his cousin in the guard would turn him in. Ale-wife has alibi – she was serving Baron’s guests. Cellar-keeper is too frail to lift barrels. Porter only had access to the reserve chambers when the mead was brought up to rest of cellars, and all barrels were accounted for then. Visiting merchant was drinking with Baron as they discussed shipping plans for an order of elderberry wine. Guards moved the rest of the reserve mead to the Baron’s treasure vault. Searching cellars reveals a siphon hidden under a flagstone.
The Truth: Ale-wife, cellar-keeper, and porter are in cahoots. Ale-wife got shipping manifest from visiting merchant. Cellar-keeper used siphon to swap reserve mead into different barrels, then disassembled one barrel and burned it. Porter disguised as guard checked one barrel left with reserve mead as convincing bluff. So reserve mead is actually still in cellar about to be stolen from merchant (porter signed on with him) once it is traded as “elderberry wine”.
Reward: +1 action point and +1 success with Baron Lorgan in the skill challenge

 

[eriktheguy]

Looks entertaining. I would try to make it take no more than one session, no more than 3 of the above encounters.

 

[Mengu]

Fairs are fun. We spent almost a whole session at a fair, joining in for various events. You can gamble, you can cheat, you can catch cheaters, it was kind of an "anything goes" fair. Some fun stuff I remember...

During archery contest, the archers were marked not only by their accuracy, but also their prowess and showmanship. Our elf showed off placing two targets at max range, knocked two arrows, and nailed them both with split the tree. He made a few people jealous there, one of them was staring at his bow intensely, we figured out they knew it was magic. We ended up having to keep an eye on them the rest of the time.

As we got to know some of the contestants, we started to get a feel for some of their tactics. There were a pair of twin brothers, who were signed up for running the marathon. Of course my warlord knew what they were up to. I bribed some of the officials to be paired up with one of the twins during an earlier wrestling match. During the match, my elbow slipped and I "accidentally" gave him a shiner. He was pretty mad. I heard his brother pulled out of the marathon later.

There was some gambling, some intrigue, and even some chivalry. We each made some friends, and some enemies. I think what brings such an event to life is not just what mechanics you decide to use for the series of mini skill challenges, but also creating a story out of it, and breathing life into the personalities running and participating in the events.

There was javelin throwing, castle stones (a checkers/chess like game), jousting, heroes challenge (gauntlet), dusk time sneak and tag, and various other games.

In our case, we had a bit more going on with something a lot more serious, a plot to take the duke hostage, and steal all the coin from his keep, as well as all the money from the fair. We had gotten a sniff of the people who could be dealing with such shady ploys, so our experience at the tournament events prepared us for what was to come, who to trust, and who to expect to engage in combat. It was a pretty good beginning to an adventure.