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View Full Version : Hobgoblin Highland Games help needed.



VariaVespasa
2007-02-02, 02:33 AM
I'm having some severe writers block and could use some help. The situation-

There is a hobgoblin-dominated area in my campaign world. One of the lairs in this area (a deep, dark, occasionally mystical forest in a terrain/climate similar to northern germany) has become vacant. A council and contest has been called wherein various applicants may compete among themselves in a traditional style for the right to found a new tribe and move into the lair. The contestants are all various non-chiefs of tribes around the forest who think thier prospects for advancement are better doing this than staying back at their old tribes, supported by whatever small followings they have. A certain minimum-sized following (larger than any contestant currently has) is required to be accepted as the new chief once the meeting is concluded, but most of the contestants expect to be able to meet that requirement by negotiating with the retinues of losers after the personal competitions are concluded.

The PCs, none of whom are goblinoid, have encountered this gathering, and, after finding out whats going on, 2 or 3 of them have decided that they might be interested in competing. This is permitted by the rules, and they do in fact have about 30 assorted hobgoblin prisoners ("rescued" slaves and some of the slavers) with them (they were on the way to certain friendly authorities to Gitmo them for in-campaign reasons) that could serve as the core of a new tribe. They would still need to negotiate for more followers to make the required minimum, but they have a decent core.

Aaaaanyways, to cut to the chase:- while it seems to me it should be easy, I am finding myself totally blocked on what the competitions should be, and how to run them, so suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is a 1.0 campaign with elements of 2.0, but suggestions from any edition would be helpful. As I said, its a deep dark forest setting, currently covered with melting snow in early march. There are some areas of mystical power/effects in the forest of currently undetermined nature, except that one is some variant of love spring. One or more of these sites could be involved if desired. Two of the characters that might enter are highly forest oriented (a druid and a ranger variant). I dont want them to have an insurmountable advantage over other players because of it over the entire scope of the competitions. Some form of endurance contest would be in order, and of course some personal combat, but thats as far as I can get before my brain shorts out and I just stare blankly at the wall drooling slightly. Help!

Thomas
2007-02-02, 02:39 AM
Throwing a lot of stuff, obviously. Axes (accuracy), javelins (distance), rocks (strength), goblins (strength), corpses (strength), bigger rocks (more strength)... maybe pulling trees (or saplings, anyway) up from the ground.

If your hobgoblins are big on dance and music, that, too.

Edit: Competitive javelin-throwing. That is, two guys face off and throw javelins at each other...

Possibly a kind of biathlon - competitors run or skulk in a certain area of the forest, throwing javelins or axes at each other...

Fizban
2007-02-02, 02:57 AM
Oh heck there's lethal and non-lethal unarmed and armed combat, accuracy contests (ranged attack rolls against small targets, stationary or moving), throwing distance (combo dex and str checks), grappling (# of rounds of pin?), endurance (straight running, leads to con checks+ endurance feat), climbing, footraces (equal speeds compare dex checks), swimming, escaping (whos the best houdini?), and crafting (who can fletch the most arrows in a minute?).

Then you can make it interesing, tree chopping, gladitorial monster combat, test of endure the weird magical effect, some sort of in game tactical wargame involving knowledge [military], good ol' labyrinths, and etc.

And of course you can put any or all of the above together into a marathon.