Wanted to get a little bit of input and some other ideas on a storyline I have coming up. The party I have is about to head to a gathering of these 5 clans of different barbarian tribes, one of which one of the players comes from. As part of his development I want him to have to like earn the respect, or honor, from these clans. However, lately this campaign has been fairly combat heavy because of some of the decisions that they players have made-and although they love combat I dont want to just have this be a slog through kicking a bunch of barbarian tribal warrior's asses.
So, the idea I had was that this was going to be kind of a mix between a medieval tournament and like a viking gathering or the such. So there will be a series of competitions or 'games' or such that the players have to go through in order to succeed, maybe they have to win like 5 out of 8 or something like that, allowing them to choose which they get involved in.
In addition to ideas for this competitions I was trying to figure out some more interesting mechanics on how to execute them. For instance, if archery was a competition I dont want it to be just rolling attack dice, etc, like they are in combat anyways.
I would love to hear what ideas people have! The contests I kind of thought of so far was maybe a monster hunt (so there could be a more traditional combat against maybe a monster they wouldn't normally face in the campaign), an archery competition, maybe a wrestling contest, stuff like that.
Without knowing much about your setting, I would ask about what sets each of these tribes apart.
Where do they normally reside? Any environmental hazards that are significant to their culture?
What is their system of leadership? "Might Makes Right", Patriarchy, Matriarchy, Reincarnation?
What are their rites of passage?
Do they have oracles, priests, or other spiritual leaders?
Maybe one tribe lives in frigid wastes and their "challenge" is simply to wander into the savage tundra and survive for a week with no magical equipment. Maybe they need to simply sit and talk with the spiritual leader who judges their wisdom, leadership, and other ineffable qualities. Maybe one tribe has deep respect for animals, and their mission is for your Barbarian to tame a unique monstrosity instead of killing it.
Some of these tasks might lead to their own rewards, such as keeping the tamed creature as a mount.
Pretty much anything that is a carnival or tournament competition is going to boil down to rolls, which can be plenty of fun, but the more intrigue you pack between rolls, the less obvious it will be.
That's a fun idea, I love having my players come across village festivals and strange games of chance. Basically I have them try and roll a straight on 4 six sided dice, a 1,2,3,4, or 2,3,4,5 type deal as a way to shortcut the mechanics but keep the fun, so to speak. I've also had them play Hi/Lo with dice against various opponents. Hi/Lo is just before you roll 2d6 you declare if you're going to try and roll high or low, and your opponent tries to do better than your roll. So if you declare, High, and roll a 4, then your opponent rolls a 10, then you owe him the difference in gp, so you'd owe 6 gp then. Ties are a repeat.
You could have the tribes have team contests in sports like lacrosse, which would have tactics for Insight or Perception checks, passes as missile weapon attacks, and athletics checks to avoid being knocked down or off the field. If players were interested I'd go further in depth on it, have them talk strategy, have a rectangular area marked off for movement, that sort of thing. Sometimes people aren't into team sports though.
Arm wrestling would be an Athletics check, but instead of the traditional type of Arm Wrestling have it be without a table. So Dexterity could also be applicable, and if your opponent is a Monk, they get their proficiency bonus and wisdom bonus too.
Caber Tossing would likely just be a strength check, so not too much excitement there. I'd use the Caber Toss as a way to build tension between the PC's and the Obvious Opposition.
How about instead of killing some wild animal, the Tribesman has to capture one instead? Or bring back the young of an animal, like say a young Gryphon or Manticore.
Playing Jokes. Tribesmen have a sense of humor and especially bold, or inventive practical jokes can increase the standing of a warrior, tribe or family. Have a rival Tribe steal the PC's tent while they sleep, or put ants in their bedroll, or geese in their tent. Jokes without a lot of material or personal damage can be funny, without making anyone lose honor or face unless they want to be a jerk. Which again, is a good way to get the players agency to cause a chain reaction and thus an adventure.
Endurance Tests, Two Large Stones are roughly seven feet apart, two tribesmen sit down back to back between the stones, each one pushes a stone while trying to push the other person towards their stone. Whoever manages to push the other person into their stone, wins. Athletics Str, Athletics Con, maybe even Athletics Int if you can figure a way to rope a dope your opponent into making a mistake.
Boxing! hand to hand, nonlethal combat. This one is pretty easy to run, but make sure to fudge a few rolls so that the PC's aren't sure they're going to win.
That's a few ideas I had, I hope your game goes well!
Why not fit the tasks around your players and then work out why the culture would have that sort of contest.
i.e in your party you have a sneaky rogue, a powerful barbarian, a wizard that thinks he is a genius & sword bard
So you have a test of strength, a test of brains a duel & a stealth challenge.
orchestrate reasons for the players to lean in to what they are good at. Not saying make it easy but give them the chance to shine. Rather than 4-5 versions of combat challenge.
I'm assuming you already have each of the tribes fleshed out, at least in your head. I'd key different tasks to the sorts of things the tribes value. If one is more archery, then they have the archery contest sort of thing.
But if you really want to open it up, I'd say have some of the tribes value non-combat. Or maybe this particular gathering is where the tribes get together to test themselves in ways besides fighting. Like one of the tribes values the wilderness, and are more impressed by someone's knowledge of nature, so they make people go gather the ingredients for some kind of ritual drink they all take (Nature checks, probably a few of them). Maybe one tribe is more mystical, so they make people lick a frog and go on a vision quest (Wisdom save. If they fail, there's no effect. If they succeed, you hand them a pre-written paper explaining their vision, tailored to each PC). One tribe has a white stag as their spirit animal, so participants need to track (survival), but not kill, the animal, and retrieve a tuft of its fur -- which it only leaves behind for those deemed worthy. Heck, maybe one is intellectual, and they have a chess tournament. Or one believes strongly in luck, so they roll dice or otherwise gamble -- things that let those random tool proficiencies from character backgrounds be useful.
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Hey all,
Wanted to get a little bit of input and some other ideas on a storyline I have coming up. The party I have is about to head to a gathering of these 5 clans of different barbarian tribes, one of which one of the players comes from. As part of his development I want him to have to like earn the respect, or honor, from these clans. However, lately this campaign has been fairly combat heavy because of some of the decisions that they players have made-and although they love combat I dont want to just have this be a slog through kicking a bunch of barbarian tribal warrior's asses.
So, the idea I had was that this was going to be kind of a mix between a medieval tournament and like a viking gathering or the such. So there will be a series of competitions or 'games' or such that the players have to go through in order to succeed, maybe they have to win like 5 out of 8 or something like that, allowing them to choose which they get involved in.
In addition to ideas for this competitions I was trying to figure out some more interesting mechanics on how to execute them. For instance, if archery was a competition I dont want it to be just rolling attack dice, etc, like they are in combat anyways.
I would love to hear what ideas people have! The contests I kind of thought of so far was maybe a monster hunt (so there could be a more traditional combat against maybe a monster they wouldn't normally face in the campaign), an archery competition, maybe a wrestling contest, stuff like that.
Thank you!
Without knowing much about your setting, I would ask about what sets each of these tribes apart.
Where do they normally reside? Any environmental hazards that are significant to their culture?
What is their system of leadership? "Might Makes Right", Patriarchy, Matriarchy, Reincarnation?
What are their rites of passage?
Do they have oracles, priests, or other spiritual leaders?
Maybe one tribe lives in frigid wastes and their "challenge" is simply to wander into the savage tundra and survive for a week with no magical equipment.
Maybe they need to simply sit and talk with the spiritual leader who judges their wisdom, leadership, and other ineffable qualities.
Maybe one tribe has deep respect for animals, and their mission is for your Barbarian to tame a unique monstrosity instead of killing it.
Some of these tasks might lead to their own rewards, such as keeping the tamed creature as a mount.
Pretty much anything that is a carnival or tournament competition is going to boil down to rolls, which can be plenty of fun, but the more intrigue you pack between rolls, the less obvious it will be.
That's a fun idea, I love having my players come across village festivals and strange games of chance. Basically I have them try and roll a straight on 4 six sided dice, a 1,2,3,4, or 2,3,4,5 type deal as a way to shortcut the mechanics but keep the fun, so to speak. I've also had them play Hi/Lo with dice against various opponents. Hi/Lo is just before you roll 2d6 you declare if you're going to try and roll high or low, and your opponent tries to do better than your roll. So if you declare, High, and roll a 4, then your opponent rolls a 10, then you owe him the difference in gp, so you'd owe 6 gp then. Ties are a repeat.
You could have the tribes have team contests in sports like lacrosse, which would have tactics for Insight or Perception checks, passes as missile weapon attacks, and athletics checks to avoid being knocked down or off the field. If players were interested I'd go further in depth on it, have them talk strategy, have a rectangular area marked off for movement, that sort of thing. Sometimes people aren't into team sports though.
Arm wrestling would be an Athletics check, but instead of the traditional type of Arm Wrestling have it be without a table. So Dexterity could also be applicable, and if your opponent is a Monk, they get their proficiency bonus and wisdom bonus too.
Caber Tossing would likely just be a strength check, so not too much excitement there. I'd use the Caber Toss as a way to build tension between the PC's and the Obvious Opposition.
How about instead of killing some wild animal, the Tribesman has to capture one instead? Or bring back the young of an animal, like say a young Gryphon or Manticore.
Playing Jokes. Tribesmen have a sense of humor and especially bold, or inventive practical jokes can increase the standing of a warrior, tribe or family. Have a rival Tribe steal the PC's tent while they sleep, or put ants in their bedroll, or geese in their tent. Jokes without a lot of material or personal damage can be funny, without making anyone lose honor or face unless they want to be a jerk. Which again, is a good way to get the players agency to cause a chain reaction and thus an adventure.
Endurance Tests, Two Large Stones are roughly seven feet apart, two tribesmen sit down back to back between the stones, each one pushes a stone while trying to push the other person towards their stone. Whoever manages to push the other person into their stone, wins. Athletics Str, Athletics Con, maybe even Athletics Int if you can figure a way to rope a dope your opponent into making a mistake.
Boxing! hand to hand, nonlethal combat. This one is pretty easy to run, but make sure to fudge a few rolls so that the PC's aren't sure they're going to win.
That's a few ideas I had, I hope your game goes well!
Why not fit the tasks around your players and then work out why the culture would have that sort of contest.
i.e in your party you have a sneaky rogue, a powerful barbarian, a wizard that thinks he is a genius & sword bard
So you have a test of strength, a test of brains a duel & a stealth challenge.
orchestrate reasons for the players to lean in to what they are good at. Not saying make it easy but give them the chance to shine. Rather than 4-5 versions of combat challenge.
I'm assuming you already have each of the tribes fleshed out, at least in your head. I'd key different tasks to the sorts of things the tribes value. If one is more archery, then they have the archery contest sort of thing.
But if you really want to open it up, I'd say have some of the tribes value non-combat. Or maybe this particular gathering is where the tribes get together to test themselves in ways besides fighting. Like one of the tribes values the wilderness, and are more impressed by someone's knowledge of nature, so they make people go gather the ingredients for some kind of ritual drink they all take (Nature checks, probably a few of them). Maybe one tribe is more mystical, so they make people lick a frog and go on a vision quest (Wisdom save. If they fail, there's no effect. If they succeed, you hand them a pre-written paper explaining their vision, tailored to each PC). One tribe has a white stag as their spirit animal, so participants need to track (survival), but not kill, the animal, and retrieve a tuft of its fur -- which it only leaves behind for those deemed worthy. Heck, maybe one is intellectual, and they have a chess tournament. Or one believes strongly in luck, so they roll dice or otherwise gamble -- things that let those random tool proficiencies from character backgrounds be useful.