Proffesional (or not) sports in D&D?

[Seharvepernfan]

Earlier today I had an idea for a roguish character who was actually a cop (during the day at least) in a big city, kind of like Sharn if not Sharn. The inspiration for this was Rapture from Bioshock.

That got me thinking, does Sharn or other citites in Eberron have sports? Or even teams who travel to other cities to play?

Regardless, how would you stat the players of a D&D version of football or rugby?

[Slipperychicken]

I'm not sure about Eberron specifically, but sports that were played in the time period usually described in dnd games include primitive soccer, hunting, jousting, racing, gladitorial matches, wrestling, bullfighting, marksmanship contests (archery, javelins, etc.), and the predecessor to American Football (which Wikipedia claims resembled rugby in some ways).


Sharn, City of Towers, under Sporting Events.

"As a metropolis catering to people of all cultures, Sharn hosts all kinds of sports and athletic events."

That line should cover any kind of football, though a brutal exotic game called Hrazhak exists, which seems like rugby on crack. I would imagine a football player would try to get high Str, Con, possibly Dex, be a member of the bigger races, and have BAB or other class features for throwing accurately. Tripping or Grappling feats seem appropriate, given the nature of the sport, and possibly teamwork feats as well. Weapon Focus: (Football)?

[limejuicepowder]

Well the players themselves would probably be commoners, experts, warriors, etc., with exceptional physical stats. Then just make heavy use of grapple rules (I'm really thinking of football at this point). It would very difficult to simulate simultaneous play in a turn based game, however. How does one player intercept another?

Also, unless you wanted to make the athletes higher level (which presents its own problems), PC's kinda screw things up. Imagine a star athlete is presented in-game as a 2rd level warrior. Give him 16 strength and the Imp grapple feat. A level 6 fighter is going to match (or beat, depending on strength) the athlete's grapple check, without even taking imp grapple. It's things like this that make me wish for a leveling system that is more reflective of real life: raising skill with individual abilities as the skills are used, rather then "I kill some monsters and get better at everything."

I don't know if I answered your question, but those are my thoughts.

[Xefas]

Of course D&D has professional sports! Bloodbowl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodbowl), XCrawl (http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html), Xorvintaal; that sort of thing.


It's things like this that make me wish for a leveling system that is more reflective of real life: raising skill with individual abilities as the skills are used, rather then "I kill some monsters and get better at everything."

You could try some Burning Wheel.

[Flickerdart]

Xorvintaal isn't really a sport.

I imagine that gladiatorial fights would be popular.

[Demons_eye]

Shifters have a sport in Races of Eberron.

[Ravens_cry]

If you took out the "Hero gets to win the game!" rule, AKA Golden Snitch, Quidditch might make a fair idea for a sport in a magically rich setting.

[elvengunner69]

I use Arena type fights - unarmed/subdual - use Con for HPs use the Crit Deck even for confirmed criticals as in most cities the sports isn't 'to the death' but accidents can happen.

EDIT: Simple games with balls like Mob Ball would be awesome Town to Town -- huge melee combat between villages :smallbiggrin:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Mobfooty.jpg/250px-Mobfooty.jpg

[Zaq]

There are rules for goatball in Races of Stone.

[arguskos]

There are rules for goatball in Races of Stone.
...is that like American Football, but using a goat in place of the ball? Sounds like the sort of thing that Goliaths might play. :smallbiggrin:

[Ravens_cry]

There's always gnome tossing.:smalltongue:

[Psyren]

There are rules for mageduels in Complete Arcane and... Magic of Faerun? I think. Basically ways to cast a bunch of lethal spells at each other without killing anyone. I think that could be a sport.

[Arkanist]

It could possibly be done using rules that already exist. You could use rules for subduing to represent wrestling and charge rules for tackles like in football. Modifying combat maneuvers seems like the job for this. But of course, I can totally envision a sport done using magic, be it polo riding summoned creatures to some sort of volleyball using fly spells to move around.

[Gettles]

I attempted to make a basketball game, it is very rough and still needs work but I could link it to you what I managed if you like.

[GnomeGninjas]

In a book I read a long time ago there was a game that seemed pretty much like basket ball except the players run along paths divided by tall grass and try to throw the ball through the hoops. I don't think there would be big stadiums for a game like this but I imagine halflings children (do to there like of throwing and athletics) would play something like this. The caravan is parked for the night the halflings go flatten some of the grass in the field set up some hops and throw stuff.

[Zeta Kai]

I made extensive rules for playing baseball (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39392) in D&D 3.5, as well as 3 custom games that are played by the Oaves (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37855): Trundling (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2217900#post2217900), Boasting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2217902#post2217902), & Rock-Toss (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2217905#post2217905).