So! I'm looking if anyone has any ideas for some fun in-game activities for dnd, I have my players going through a jokers castle and every room is somewhat of a puzzle or fun activity, I have a make shift game of battleship (but the players are the ships and take up a certain amount of tiles based on their character height/size.) as well as catching a greasy miniature dragon. these are examples of what I mean by "mini" games so if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear!
‘Trebuchet’ from Critical Role simple enough. A character throws a sandbag backwards over their head and tries to land in a basket, making a dexterity check with disadvantage.
If you want to make it fun, it’s all about using ability checks in weird ways.
I'm all about this and i look forward to reading the suggestions other people use. There are all kinds of little gambling mini-games that can be found on the internet. I think dasmon said, ability checks, especially contested ones, are a good way of letting characters do the things they are good at.
I think the most effective games are the ones with the fewest/simplest rules and the clearest desired result.
I've recently made a little harvest festival corn maze game, without it being 'a maze'. It's some skill challenges, the result of which determines how much 'time' it's taken you to get through, with a puzzle in the middle, followed by a small magical trick, and enough interest to have the players either racing a record time, just trying to get within the time to win a prize, or racing one another.
The players have 10 minutes to get to the centre of the maze, collect the ceramic hen, and return it to the maze's proprietor. While they could choose to use their skills/spells how they chose, there were set ability challenges that I could provide them if they didn't suggest anything on their own.
They use athletics to move quickly (and to try to divert the difficult terrain from the muddy and old stalk littered ground), Survival to find the best path through, they paused the skill challenges to complete a logic puzzle to figure out which path to take in a fork in the road, complete a perception challenge to find the ceramic hen in piles of red fabric leaves, and then-- When they touched the hen -- magic brought it to life, and it tried to escape them! My party chose to use magic to catch it, but they could have done a group skill challenge Handle Animal, trying to corner it, too. Once captured, the hen becomes ceramic again, and the party has to make an Intelligence check to recall by memory the route back out of the maze.
There were different skill check 'ranges' for each check, and depending on what range they fell in they added a different amount of time to how long the maze took them.
The 'record' was 8 minutes and 45 seconds, the party in question got 9 minutes and 30 seconds, so they won a prize (a handful of raspberries), but were disappointed they didn't 'win'. It was pretty fun!
Oh boy, this reminded me. I made billiards for a session as well, though the players ended up not going to it, so it'll pop up the next time they go to a tavern. :P
Billiards (Skill Challenge Competition) - First Team to 8 Successes Wins
Break - Whoever performs the break makes a Dexterity (Athletics) check, DC12 to sink 1 ball.
Each Shot - Intelligence (Sleight of Hand) or straight Dexterity -- DC11 to sink 1 ball, +1 additional ball for every 3 points the result is above the DC.
A critical fail sinks a ball of the opponent's type.
Each ball that is sunk for your team increases the static DC by +1. (eg the 8-ball is DC18)
You can make a trick-shot with a Dexterity (Performance) check, increasing the DC by +2. On a success, your opponent has Disadvantage on their next turn.
On a trick-shot failure, roll 1d8-x where x is how many balls the opponent has left. On a result of 1 or lower, an opponent's ball is sunk.
A critical failure on a trick-shot, sinks the 8-ball, if sinking the 8-ball causes a loss.
I like the idea of mini games in D&D, it's a fun way for characters to spend time outside of just combat and you can go meta with games within games.
Wizkids have a release of three dragon ante that has special rules if you are playing within a campaign.
It's fun to think of ideas for tavern or parlor games and the billiards one has some thought into it.
I had one that is basically beer pong
Everyone starts off rolling a d8 and adding CON modifier. This number is your sobriety, at zero you pass out.
Next you roll a d20 DEX (athletics) check DC 10 if you pass you go again but this time have to beat your last number or meet it if 20.
If you make it once you don't have to drink. If you make it twice you make another player drink.
They drink and roll d20 CON. They beat 11 they are good, if not they take away one sobriety point. Points left from total increases DC save for drinking eg. 6/6 is full so DC 11 to beat, 6/12 is half so DC 15. So a player who ended up with a 1 won't have the increase ever but as soon as they go below DC 11 they are out.
When first round is over the DC for the DEX (athletics) is +1 and this continues until DC is 18
Last person still conscious is winner. All players make con checks the next morning for drunkenness.
Other idea for mini games are special patrons. This patron believes in the gods of fate and the world is their will and design. When you play a game with them the DM will offer 4 games for you to play with the DM or the table. These games are:
Arm wrestle
Coin Knuckle Roll
Mills
Liar's Dice
Each game is tied to a stat, STR, DEX, INT, CHA. Only one person can win the game. The winner gets advantages on those checks for the next 24 hours in game. These games are real not pretend. When you do arm wrestle you arm wrestle the DM. If another person wants to arm wrestle you arm wrestle them and then the winner arm wrestles the DM.
Coin roll goes back and forth starting with players and ending with DM. If you perform the flourish you're still in. When you drop the coin you are out. If DM drops the coin and you are still in you win if no one else is in or the other person in drops the coin.
Mills is full game of Mills or 9 man Morris played between 1 player and DM. Diagonal movement is allowed but flight is not. When you have 2 left, can't make a mill or out of legal moves you lose and the opponent wins.
Liar's Dice is plays until one player runs out of dice, the hand with most dice wins. If two are tied they roll their hands and play continues until next person loses a die in a bid then you have winner. 2 ones are wild and can be added to any value of dice in the pool. 3 or more ones is bust, if a bust is revealed in a call the game ends with no winners. You can say there is a bust anytime someone wants to make a call so they change their mind, but if there isn't one you are out. So why make the bluff if either way you lose? Because if they don't call they raise the pool and you can call them and if you didn't have a bust you would still be in.
Max players with DM is 3 total.
Winning a game that player has advantage on that check and saves for next 24 hours in game. Only one fortuitous game can be played. Win or lose the patron disappears and returns at the DMs discretion.
I've used a "Don't Break the Ice" game multiple times to represent an icy battlefield. Players caught on quick when their goblin opponents started attacking specific sections of ice.
Three-Dragon Ante is often played in-world by characters.
I've seen 'Minesweeper' scenarios used in a few different adventures.
I love handing out puzzles boxes and such to players
I just made an eating contest mini game. You have nine items each one representing a CON DC of even numbers 4-20. Each DC is tied to an item of food. The player and an opponent each take turns selecting items to eat, which is represented by making a CON skill check. If you pass the check you have eaten the food and gain points equal to its DC. If you fail you gain none.
However! After you successfully eat one of the dishes you add half of its DC to the next item of food. So if you ate a whole chicken (DC 16) then try to eat an ear of corn (DC 4) the new DC is 12, but you still only gain 4 points.
The goal of this game is to have players strategize what food they eat in what order.
We just play tested Snooker and it went well. You throw 2d20. One for WIS (representing how you choose the right ball to hit), and one for slight of hand.
There are six red balls and four colored balls, each giving different number of points. You have to hit red first, then color, then red etc. The game ends after all red balls are down, the player with higher score wins.
Red – 1 point ( DC 21 to score) Brown – 3 point (DC 29 to score) Blue – 4 point (DC 31) Pink – 5 point (DC 33) Black – 6 point (DC 35)
You can throw an additional d20 INT, and choose to give advantage or disadvantage for the next turn (in order to place the balls in a good or bad position). It is important to take the decision and make a throw before you hit the balls,this way you risk giving advantage to the other player if you miss.
DC 15 - D4 disadvantage/advantage DC 17 - D6 disadvantage/advantage DC 19 - D8 disadvantage/advantage DC 21 - D10 disadvantage/advantage DC 23+ - D12 disadvantage/advantage
Your set of rules is the best I've found so far on D&D Billiards! Thanks! I think I will add a coin flip after sinking the first shot to determine stripes or solids, and keep a list of what balls are on the table still to make it feel more interactive/realistc! XD
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Guiding Goddess to the Squid Squad | An elegant fool from a more civilized age | She/Her/Dungeon Master "I have an intelligence of six. I know what I'm doing.”
Have someone in a bar play a roleplay game (D&D) with them. D&D inside D&D.
This recently happened in my Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus game because:
The Elfsong tavern battlemat supplied by beadleandgrimms.com illustrates the upstairs gaming tables in minute detail.
One of these tables was of course set up for an RPG, which one of my player noticed... and *really* wanted to play in (run by one of the main NPC's).
That's hilarious. How did that end up working out?
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Guiding Goddess to the Squid Squad | An elegant fool from a more civilized age | She/Her/Dungeon Master "I have an intelligence of six. I know what I'm doing.”
The Elfsong tavern battlemat supplied by beadleandgrimms.com illustrates the upstairs gaming tables in minute detail.
One of these tables was of course set up for an RPG, which one of my player noticed... and *really* wanted to play in (run by one of the main NPC's).
That's hilarious. How did that end up working out?
I had a copy of Dwellings and Driveways, so I used this to describe a futuristic setting for their game. However, the Gamemaster NPC was attacked by pirates before the PC's character could level up.
On the podcast How Friends Roll they did capture the flag, where there is an area that is split into two different sides. Each side has an equal number of players, and each side has an item that cannot be out of the sun for more than a minute before teleporting to the center area (that way a caster can't just magic it into the ground and hide it). Each player also wears a jersey that signifies what team they are on (these jerseys can't be taken off until the game is over). The jerseys also have one hp, and one they loose that hp then the wearer is teleported into the other team's jail (this is any damage to the wearer and the jersey isn't destroyed and is worn on top of any armor). If a person goes into the other team's jail while there is one or more of their team mates in the jail then all of their teamates and them have a free trip back to their side. The game is won when a team retrieves their opponent's flag/item and brings it to their side. Another thing worth noting is that the jails are anti-magic zones, the flags/items also prevent the person carrying it from attacking.
Once again I would like to state that I did not come up with this idea, and it was used with very low level players (level 3 or 4 if I am remembering correctly), so there wasn't anything crazy that happened with it.
If you are looking for pve games these are some I’ve used.
Capture the flag: To capture a flag which hasn’t been picked up it takes a free action to grab it. If someone else is in possession of the flag two players make a contested athletics check to keep it or take it from someone else. If you are hit with an attack in around your movement is halved on the next round (it may be halved multiple times). You must plant the flag at your starting position which takes an action.
Domination: Capture one of several key areas by being the only one there for two full rounds with no one within 5 feet of the area. Players may shove or use spells that push to keep people away from the area. If you fall unconscious by damage you are magically teleported to your starting position at half health. If you fall unconscious again only 1/4 of your health is restored. Etc. The team with the most locations captured at the end of a set number of rounds will win.
Unseen Servant: All participants start at the exterior of a maze and must grab the McGuffin at the centre. There are low CR creatures at various points in the maze. If a creature detects a player it will relentlessly hunt the player down. Many of these low CR creatures may be able to inflict different conditions upon the players. This may include poisoned, stunned knocking them prone etc. The game ends when the first player is able to bring the McGuffin back to their starting position.
Not quite my own idea, but, a room full of jars. Each one has a chance to spawn an enemy, loot, or nothing. Had a list of 20 possibilities. Roll d20 as each one is broken. Hilarity ensues. Especially when several people decide to go hog wild at the same time and spawn 4 bats, 3 rats, and a mouse. Nat 1 always rolls a mouse.
I have a few mini-games queued up for beginners and town encounters. They're also just fun to do as an out-of-campaign table game. If playing out of a campaign, just use a d20 for checks. Weiner Arena's table can be altered to whatever you want your players to face off against. Also, the stats are completely made up.
VolleyBall Match
2 Teams (max 6) face off in a volleyball match.
Roll initiative to serve first.
Turn mechanics
Serve: STR DC 10 to make it over the net
Set-up: assist from teammate 2x/return with increasing difficulty. First set-up: DC 13. Second set-up: DC 15. Can use DEX or Acrobatics.
Return: Starts at DC 5 (+1 for every successful return between points). Use DEX or Athletics Checks.
Spike: ONLY if successfully set-up 2x by team. Returning player can attempt to make a STR DC 15 check to spike the ball over the net. Opposing team must use a set-up action to make a DEX DC 15 to recover the ball.
Scoring: Ball touches the ground on opponent’s side of the net.
Take turns serving and returning until only one team is left standing. Failing to return/recover disqualifies (or damages) the player.
Optional Features:
Higher Stakes: Ball is explosive. Failing to return/recover a ball successfully results in 1d6 force dmg. (Amt may increase based on players’ levels).
Alter result: Players may roll checks before the match to gain advantages for themselves or apply disadvantages to their opponents to help sway the outcome. (Pure luck checks if being played out of campaign.)
Advantages: DC16
Big Stretch (-1 to all first set-up DCs)
Clarity (guaranteed first spike score)
Coach (pep talk from ?, +1 to spike STR checks)
Disadvantages: DC16
Charlie Horse (+1 to all first set-up DCs)
Fly in the eye (opponent’s first spike fails, regular return)
Taunt (player makes sick burn, -1 for spike recoveries)
Weiner Arena Mechanics
Two wieners face off in a head-to-head fight to the death.
Ring Master will choose the combatants by rolling a d20 twice.
Players are given 10 gp to wager on the winner. Place bet before battle begins.
Play out combat until one combatant remains. Combatant will the least amount of gp from bets gets initiative advantage.
Pay out patrons. Money is doubled if they bet on the winner. Money goes to the house otherwise. Players may not have less than one coin.
Repeat. Winner (healed) vs next combatant until only one winner remains on the table.
Player with the most amount of coins wins.
Optional Features:
Alter result: Players may roll persuasion checks before the battle to purchase advantages/disadvantages to help sway the outcome. Cost is doubled and persuasion checks get more difficult with each alteration. (Persuade referee or ring master)
Cost: 5gp, 10gp, 20gp, 40gp, 80gp
Persuasion: DC10, DC12, DC14, DC16, DC18
Advantages:
Go Juice (chugs aluminum can, +2 to hit)
Pep Talk (from player, +2 AC)
Insult (Yo’ mama joke from opponent by player, +1 dmg)
Get loose (shoulder rub, +1d6 starting hp)
False Start (guaranteed first swing and a hit)
Disadvantages:
Allergies (sneezes a lot, -2 to hit)
Stubbed toe (-2 AC)
Food poisoning (weakness, -1 damage)
Splinter (-1d6 starting hp)
Trip (falls into ring taking 1d6 dmg)
Battle Royale: Multiple combatants enter the ring and fight until one stands.
Players choose a weiner and will command them to fight for the duration of the battle. Must bet on themselves.
Team Deathmatch: Multiple combatants enter the ring in even teams of 2 or 3. Last team standing wins.
Combatants can be commanded by players.
Weiner Arena
D20
D20 + mod.
Damage
Combatant
Hit Points
AC
To Hit Bonus
Hit
1
Diseased Rat
22
11
5
(2) 1d4+1
2
Fancy Rat
16
13
3
(5) 1d8 + 1
3
Albino Dwarf
20
13
1
(4) 1d8
4
Pixie
18
14
2
(6) 1d6 + 3
5
Gum Gum Golem
21
12
3
(5) 1d6 + 2
6
Gingerbread Man
23
11
2
(5) 1d6 + 2
7
Child Skeleton
17
14
4
(4) 1d6 + 1
8
Boar
24
11
5
(2) 1d4+2
9
Tiny Moose
28
10
2
(5) 1d10
10
Gelatinous Cube
26
10
1
(7) 1d8 + 3
11
Weird Crab
22
12
2
(6) 1d8 + 2
12
Above-average Bat
17
15
3
(5) 1d6 + 2
13
Goblin
21
13
3
(3) 1d6
14
Camel
19
14
2
(2) 1d4 + 2
15
Young Ent
22
13
1
(6) 1d6 + 3
16
Steve
18
12
3
(4) 1d8
17
Hairy Imp
23
11
5
(5) 1d4 + 3
18
Snakey Snake
28
10
4
(6) 1d8 +2
19
Half-Zombie
26
11
2
(5) 1d10
20
Flying Sword
16
15
3
(5) 1d8 + 1
5 Dice and a Cup
Physical dice game.
Player rolls 5d6. Player gets to keep what they like & rolls the remaining dice.
Repeat reroll & collect gp based on final results. See table below.
Optional Features:
Higher Stakes: Player can roll a Sleight of Hand check to flip (reroll one die). DC 15. If failed, dealer will take double their wager. Player must roll Persuasion to try to play again.
Empty pockets: Dealer may have only a set amount of money that they may use to pay out players. After x amount has been received by players, they decline to play again. (Prevents players from grinding for gp.)
5 Dice and a Cup
Roll 3x. Keep what you like. Reroll what you don't.
throwing a Nut (or whatever is at hand) at cups in row 1-4 by rolling ranged attacks for improvised weapons (no proficiency bonus).
Row 1 (1 cup) AC 12
Row 2 (2 cups) AC 14
Row 3 (3 cups) AC 16
Row 4 (4 cups) AC 18
Played in teams of two (npc opponents roughly match pcs) members taking turns, or 1 vs 1, the players have to call the row they want to hit, prior to rolling their attack - failing its AC is a miss. If they hit, the opponent has to empty that cup getting a -1 on his next attack roll, stacking with every cup they drink. You win if your opponent had to empty all their cups before you do.
Miner's rules: The cups contain booze instead of ale, with a -2 malus to attack rolls for every cup. If players reach -10 they have to make a con save every round before throwing, else they pass out.
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So! I'm looking if anyone has any ideas for some fun in-game activities for dnd, I have my players going through a jokers castle and every room is somewhat of a puzzle or fun activity, I have a make shift game of battleship (but the players are the ships and take up a certain amount of tiles based on their character height/size.) as well as catching a greasy miniature dragon. these are examples of what I mean by "mini" games so if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear!
‘Trebuchet’ from Critical Role simple enough. A character throws a sandbag backwards over their head and tries to land in a basket, making a dexterity check with disadvantage.
If you want to make it fun, it’s all about using ability checks in weird ways.
I'm all about this and i look forward to reading the suggestions other people use. There are all kinds of little gambling mini-games that can be found on the internet. I think dasmon said, ability checks, especially contested ones, are a good way of letting characters do the things they are good at.
I think the most effective games are the ones with the fewest/simplest rules and the clearest desired result.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I've recently made a little harvest festival corn maze game, without it being 'a maze'. It's some skill challenges, the result of which determines how much 'time' it's taken you to get through, with a puzzle in the middle, followed by a small magical trick, and enough interest to have the players either racing a record time, just trying to get within the time to win a prize, or racing one another.
The players have 10 minutes to get to the centre of the maze, collect the ceramic hen, and return it to the maze's proprietor. While they could choose to use their skills/spells how they chose, there were set ability challenges that I could provide them if they didn't suggest anything on their own.
They use athletics to move quickly (and to try to divert the difficult terrain from the muddy and old stalk littered ground), Survival to find the best path through, they paused the skill challenges to complete a logic puzzle to figure out which path to take in a fork in the road, complete a perception challenge to find the ceramic hen in piles of red fabric leaves, and then-- When they touched the hen -- magic brought it to life, and it tried to escape them! My party chose to use magic to catch it, but they could have done a group skill challenge Handle Animal, trying to corner it, too. Once captured, the hen becomes ceramic again, and the party has to make an Intelligence check to recall by memory the route back out of the maze.
There were different skill check 'ranges' for each check, and depending on what range they fell in they added a different amount of time to how long the maze took them.
The 'record' was 8 minutes and 45 seconds, the party in question got 9 minutes and 30 seconds, so they won a prize (a handful of raspberries), but were disappointed they didn't 'win'. It was pretty fun!
Oh boy, this reminded me. I made billiards for a session as well, though the players ended up not going to it, so it'll pop up the next time they go to a tavern. :P
Billiards (Skill Challenge Competition) - First Team to 8 Successes Wins
I like the idea of mini games in D&D, it's a fun way for characters to spend time outside of just combat and you can go meta with games within games.
Wizkids have a release of three dragon ante that has special rules if you are playing within a campaign.
It's fun to think of ideas for tavern or parlor games and the billiards one has some thought into it.
I had one that is basically beer pong
Everyone starts off rolling a d8 and adding CON modifier. This number is your sobriety, at zero you pass out.
Next you roll a d20 DEX (athletics) check DC 10 if you pass you go again but this time have to beat your last number or meet it if 20.
If you make it once you don't have to drink. If you make it twice you make another player drink.
They drink and roll d20 CON. They beat 11 they are good, if not they take away one sobriety point. Points left from total increases DC save for drinking eg. 6/6 is full so DC 11 to beat, 6/12 is half so DC 15. So a player who ended up with a 1 won't have the increase ever but as soon as they go below DC 11 they are out.
When first round is over the DC for the DEX (athletics) is +1 and this continues until DC is 18
Last person still conscious is winner. All players make con checks the next morning for drunkenness.
Other idea for mini games are special patrons. This patron believes in the gods of fate and the world is their will and design. When you play a game with them the DM will offer 4 games for you to play with the DM or the table. These games are:
Arm wrestle
Coin Knuckle Roll
Mills
Liar's Dice
Each game is tied to a stat, STR, DEX, INT, CHA. Only one person can win the game. The winner gets advantages on those checks for the next 24 hours in game. These games are real not pretend. When you do arm wrestle you arm wrestle the DM. If another person wants to arm wrestle you arm wrestle them and then the winner arm wrestles the DM.
Coin roll goes back and forth starting with players and ending with DM. If you perform the flourish you're still in. When you drop the coin you are out. If DM drops the coin and you are still in you win if no one else is in or the other person in drops the coin.
Mills is full game of Mills or 9 man Morris played between 1 player and DM. Diagonal movement is allowed but flight is not. When you have 2 left, can't make a mill or out of legal moves you lose and the opponent wins.
Liar's Dice is plays until one player runs out of dice, the hand with most dice wins. If two are tied they roll their hands and play continues until next person loses a die in a bid then you have winner. 2 ones are wild and can be added to any value of dice in the pool. 3 or more ones is bust, if a bust is revealed in a call the game ends with no winners. You can say there is a bust anytime someone wants to make a call so they change their mind, but if there isn't one you are out. So why make the bluff if either way you lose? Because if they don't call they raise the pool and you can call them and if you didn't have a bust you would still be in.
Max players with DM is 3 total.
Winning a game that player has advantage on that check and saves for next 24 hours in game. Only one fortuitous game can be played. Win or lose the patron disappears and returns at the DMs discretion.
I just made an eating contest mini game. You have nine items each one representing a CON DC of even numbers 4-20. Each DC is tied to an item of food. The player and an opponent each take turns selecting items to eat, which is represented by making a CON skill check. If you pass the check you have eaten the food and gain points equal to its DC. If you fail you gain none.
However! After you successfully eat one of the dishes you add half of its DC to the next item of food. So if you ate a whole chicken (DC 16) then try to eat an ear of corn (DC 4) the new DC is 12, but you still only gain 4 points.
The goal of this game is to have players strategize what food they eat in what order.
We just play tested Snooker and it went well. You throw 2d20. One for WIS (representing how you choose the right ball to hit), and one for slight of hand.
There are six red balls and four colored balls, each giving different number of points. You have to hit red first, then color, then red etc. The game ends after all red balls are down, the player with higher score wins.
Red – 1 point ( DC 21 to score)
Brown – 3 point (DC 29 to score)
Blue – 4 point (DC 31)
Pink – 5 point (DC 33)
Black – 6 point (DC 35)
You can throw an additional d20 INT, and choose to give advantage or disadvantage for the next turn (in order to place the balls in a good or bad position). It is important to take the decision and make a throw before you hit the balls,this way you risk giving advantage to the other player if you miss.
DC 15 - D4 disadvantage/advantage
DC 17 - D6 disadvantage/advantage
DC 19 - D8 disadvantage/advantage
DC 21 - D10 disadvantage/advantage
DC 23+ - D12 disadvantage/advantage
Have someone in a bar play a roleplay game (D&D) with them. D&D inside D&D.
This recently happened in my Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus game because:
This forum has other ideas.
Not all those who wander are lost.
Check out my Monsters, Magic Items, and Spells. (These are all links.)
Your set of rules is the best I've found so far on D&D Billiards! Thanks! I think I will add a coin flip after sinking the first shot to determine stripes or solids, and keep a list of what balls are on the table still to make it feel more interactive/realistc! XD
Guiding Goddess to the Squid Squad | An elegant fool from a more civilized age | She/Her/Dungeon Master
"I have an intelligence of six. I know what I'm doing.”
That's hilarious. How did that end up working out?
Guiding Goddess to the Squid Squad | An elegant fool from a more civilized age | She/Her/Dungeon Master
"I have an intelligence of six. I know what I'm doing.”
I had a copy of Dwellings and Driveways, so I used this to describe a futuristic setting for their game. However, the Gamemaster NPC was attacked by pirates before the PC's character could level up.
On the podcast How Friends Roll they did capture the flag, where there is an area that is split into two different sides. Each side has an equal number of players, and each side has an item that cannot be out of the sun for more than a minute before teleporting to the center area (that way a caster can't just magic it into the ground and hide it). Each player also wears a jersey that signifies what team they are on (these jerseys can't be taken off until the game is over). The jerseys also have one hp, and one they loose that hp then the wearer is teleported into the other team's jail (this is any damage to the wearer and the jersey isn't destroyed and is worn on top of any armor). If a person goes into the other team's jail while there is one or more of their team mates in the jail then all of their teamates and them have a free trip back to their side. The game is won when a team retrieves their opponent's flag/item and brings it to their side. Another thing worth noting is that the jails are anti-magic zones, the flags/items also prevent the person carrying it from attacking.
Once again I would like to state that I did not come up with this idea, and it was used with very low level players (level 3 or 4 if I am remembering correctly), so there wasn't anything crazy that happened with it.
(Here is a url to the podcast's webpage if you want to check it out for yourself: https://darkmorepodcasts.com/how-friends-roll )
If you are looking for pve games these are some I’ve used.
Capture the flag: To capture a flag which hasn’t been picked up it takes a free action to grab it. If someone else is in possession of the flag two players make a contested athletics check to keep it or take it from someone else. If you are hit with an attack in around your movement is halved on the next round (it may be halved multiple times). You must plant the flag at your starting position which takes an action.
Domination: Capture one of several key areas by being the only one there for two full rounds with no one within 5 feet of the area. Players may shove or use spells that push to keep people away from the area. If you fall unconscious by damage you are magically teleported to your starting position at half health. If you fall unconscious again only 1/4 of your health is restored. Etc. The team with the most locations captured at the end of a set number of rounds will win.
Unseen Servant: All participants start at the exterior of a maze and must grab the McGuffin at the centre. There are low CR creatures at various points in the maze. If a creature detects a player it will relentlessly hunt the player down. Many of these low CR creatures may be able to inflict different conditions upon the players. This may include poisoned, stunned knocking them prone etc. The game ends when the first player is able to bring the McGuffin back to their starting position.
Not quite my own idea, but, a room full of jars. Each one has a chance to spawn an enemy, loot, or nothing. Had a list of 20 possibilities. Roll d20 as each one is broken. Hilarity ensues. Especially when several people decide to go hog wild at the same time and spawn 4 bats, 3 rats, and a mouse. Nat 1 always rolls a mouse.
I have a few mini-games queued up for beginners and town encounters. They're also just fun to do as an out-of-campaign table game. If playing out of a campaign, just use a d20 for checks. Weiner Arena's table can be altered to whatever you want your players to face off against. Also, the stats are completely made up.
VolleyBall Match
Optional Features:
Weiner Arena Mechanics
Optional Features:
Weiner Arena
D20
D20 + mod.
Damage
Combatant
Hit Points
AC
To Hit Bonus
Hit
1
Diseased Rat
22
11
5
(2) 1d4+1
2
Fancy Rat
16
13
3
(5) 1d8 + 1
3
Albino Dwarf
20
13
1
(4) 1d8
4
Pixie
18
14
2
(6) 1d6 + 3
5
Gum Gum Golem
21
12
3
(5) 1d6 + 2
6
Gingerbread Man
23
11
2
(5) 1d6 + 2
7
Child Skeleton
17
14
4
(4) 1d6 + 1
8
Boar
24
11
5
(2) 1d4+2
9
Tiny Moose
28
10
2
(5) 1d10
10
Gelatinous Cube
26
10
1
(7) 1d8 + 3
11
Weird Crab
22
12
2
(6) 1d8 + 2
12
Above-average Bat
17
15
3
(5) 1d6 + 2
13
Goblin
21
13
3
(3) 1d6
14
Camel
19
14
2
(2) 1d4 + 2
15
Young Ent
22
13
1
(6) 1d6 + 3
16
Steve
18
12
3
(4) 1d8
17
Hairy Imp
23
11
5
(5) 1d4 + 3
18
Snakey Snake
28
10
4
(6) 1d8 +2
19
Half-Zombie
26
11
2
(5) 1d10
20
Flying Sword
16
15
3
(5) 1d8 + 1
5 Dice and a Cup
Optional Features:
5 Dice and a Cup
Roll 3x. Keep what you like. Reroll what you don't.
15 gold buy-in.
Sequences
Scoring
Yahoo!
100 gp
LG. Straight (5)
65 gp
SM. Straight (4)
50 gp
Full House
35 gp
4 of a kind
25 gp
3 of a kind
15 gp
Pair
5 gp
Dwarven Ale Pong
throwing a Nut (or whatever is at hand) at cups in row 1-4 by rolling ranged attacks for improvised weapons (no proficiency bonus).
Played in teams of two (npc opponents roughly match pcs) members taking turns, or 1 vs 1, the players have to call the row they want to hit, prior to rolling their attack - failing its AC is a miss. If they hit, the opponent has to empty that cup getting a -1 on his next attack roll, stacking with every cup they drink. You win if your opponent had to empty all their cups before you do.
Miner's rules: The cups contain booze instead of ale, with a -2 malus to attack rolls for every cup. If players reach -10 they have to make a con save every round before throwing, else they pass out.