So, I am making myself a sport for dnd (which is mostly killing but with rules on who you're allowed to kill and when, and there's a ball involved). I have the outline for the rules themselves but when I started writing it up, I realised I had hit a snag when it comes to the size of the pitch.

I have been playing dnd for a short while but still consider myself a novice, and I realised that whilst your average joe will be able to run 30ft. or dash 60ft. (or 25/50 for little folk), I also know that there are a few very fast builds out there which could make the game way too easy by zooming around if the pitch is too small!

So, to summarize point scoring: the pitch is like a rugby pitch but without the goals - touchdown behind the line scores points. The ball is dropped in the middle, and players start in a line 1/4 of the way onto the pitch from their side (or further back). The touchline is the last 15ft. of the pitch, or thereabouts.

So, the minimum distance to pick up the ball and perform a touchdown is about 3/4 of the pitch length. So I need that distance to be further than what you would expect to be the "normal" maximum distance for a move. Not expending spell slots or ki points, just for running flat out and using innate abilities. I believe the Tabaxi is 30+30+30 for this, so perhaps making the pitch 150ft. would be a good option?

Obviously some speed-built characters can run helluva quick, so I can't plan it around them. I just want to make sure that your average fast character doesn't make the game excessively easy/boring. Although I expect they will only run into enemy territory without support once, as it's not a good place to be!

So, please can you give me some idea of what an average speed-built character might be capable of every single turn?

Thanks!

Thanks for the input!

I think that the logical approach to this is to make handling the ball class as a bonus action - so anything you want to do with it (pick it up, touch it down) is a bonus action and then throwing or kicking is a full action. That should keep people from sprint-by scoring on turn 1!

With that in mind, I'm thinking 200ft is a good length for the pitch, by 100ft. wide. A rugby pitch is around 300ft. long and is pretty massive.

So a tabaxi rogue could feasibly sprint from one end of the pitch almost to the other, but it's 2 turns of normal movement for them to traverse it. Misty step and such could prove clever plays as well...

A lot is going to depend on the rules and the options players have. At minimum I'd expect running straight for the end zone with the ball to be very hard or outright impossible, due to opposing players running interference. It's going to be just as important deciding how wide the pitch will be and how many players will be on a team, for instance, since that'll determine how dense of a defensive line will be possible and how much lateral movement a player might be expected to have to make with the ball. There's the rugby vs American football dichotomy (no forward passes vs forward passing possibly with limited eligible receivers). Is passing allowed, or only handoffs? Is running with the ball allowed or not? There are a lot of ways to affect the impact of having a high movement speed.

So the rules I am thinking for the game (which I hope will make it more dnd like and less minigame like!) are along the lines of:

• The ball drops into the middle of the pitch, and the teams scramble to get it
• Teams are armed and armoured, and there is a powerful referee figure (probably a construct) which enforces the rules. They can be distracted if players wish to cheat.
• Goal is basically get the ball to the opposing touchline and touch it down. throwing and kicking the ball is al fine, and the pitch has walls so the ball can bounce back in - no offside rules for everyone to get confused about!
• Attacking anyone is against the rules unless either of you have the ball or you're attacking someone in the scoring quarters of the pitch. The whole middle of the pitch is "safe" unless one of you has the ball.
• I am thinking of adding a "marking" rule, where you can use an action to mark a target, and then move up to half your movement during their turn to try and block their passage.

No doubt I'll need more, but that's the current thought!