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Dire Roc
2016-07-03, 06:52 PM
For the setting for my next campaign I have a country with two arcane universities. As is likely to happen when two educational institutions are near one another they have a massive sports rivalry. Wearing the wrong color in some places might get you a bad look and people who can attend games of... um... this is the part I need help with. What kinds of sports might wizards compete in?

For what it matters the system is Pathfinder but I'm pretty happy to look into adapting anything.

Madbox
2016-07-03, 09:42 PM
Wizard equivalent of track and field. Who can levitate the most weight? Who can run fastest with a self-applied haste? Who can summon the most recent impressive monster? Who can make the hottest or biggest fireball?

Erth16
2016-07-03, 10:13 PM
Salmon Whacking. You can fill in the rest.

BlueHerring
2016-07-03, 10:45 PM
Ultimate Magic Missile. It's exactly like Ultimate Frisbee, but you can only tag with Magic Missile.

ImNotTrevor
2016-07-03, 10:59 PM
Bear Blasting
Quantum Whatball
Fire-rugby

REALITYDOME (Lightning always happens when this game is mentioned, and it is properly pronounced by yelling it.)


Third Level Abyssal Harmonic Strip-Chess-Roulette-Poker-Rummy-squared

Âmesang
2016-07-03, 11:05 PM
X-Treme™ Chess

Madbox
2016-07-04, 01:47 AM
Wizard triathlon: flying, swimming (after ploymorphing into a fish), and burrowing through solid stone.

If we're talking old school wizards, eskrima would work. Fighting with sticks, knives, and bare hands is useful when you only get one spell per day.

hymer
2016-07-04, 02:31 AM
Since Ridcully took over, the wizards of UU generally compete on who can eat the most, the fastest, without getting indigestion, who recovers fastest from indigestion, who can balance the most cheese on one cheese tray, and so on.
They also play football.

Jay R
2016-07-04, 12:04 PM
Nobody's suggested quidditch yet? I'm surprised.

You can also do an equivalent to robot wars with summoning or conjuration, if you have spells that let you design your own monster.

Agrippa
2016-07-04, 03:07 PM
Levitating 3D chess for one. Wizards are supposed be smart (and hopefully wise) and chess is a thinking person's game. That and chess technically is considered a sport.

Bulhakov
2016-07-04, 07:09 PM
I assume the sports need to be relatively casualty-free, but exciting for spectators, so my first thoughts were:

Robot boxing
University student clubs prep golems/constructs in various size/weight categories. An undead construct could be a surprise controversial entry.

3D soccer/basketball, with all participants flying, and the ball is handled with telekinesis

Magic missile clay pidgeon shooting. Catapults launch several dozens of clay ball targets and a wizard attempts to shoot down the largest number of them.

Artisitic competition for the best large-scale illusion.

Illusion-enhanced traditional sports, such as fencing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leOP7rWwBpw

Pugwampy
2016-07-04, 07:14 PM
Spelling Bee contests.

Jay R
2016-07-04, 09:54 PM
Remember that we aren't merely talking about games and sports that wizards would play, but ones which fans would get excited about watching, sufficiently to develop into hooliganism.

I don't think either chess or spelling bees generate that level of excitement in their fans.

ImNotTrevor
2016-07-05, 01:17 AM
Hence why
REALITYDOME
is obviously the best choice. It's really vague, and to the non-magical it's probably something like a competitive LSD trip. To the magically inclined it's a bit too quantum and fourth dimensional to explain, but endlessly exciting.

"When Dean Scrabbles made that illusory sidepass through the straits of madness and totally tricked their Flumper into tackling the concept of Abstract thought? Pure genius."

But then again it depends how serious this setting is. I'm imagining it's not particularly serious since we're talking about the least athletic fantasy people doing an athletic event.

Dire Roc
2016-07-05, 02:51 AM
Hence why
REALITYDOME
is obviously the best choice. It's really vague, and to the non-magical it's probably something like a competitive LSD trip. To the magically inclined it's a bit too quantum and fourth dimensional to explain, but endlessly exciting.

"When Dean Scrabbles made that illusory sidepass through the straits of madness and totally tricked their Flumper into tackling the concept of Abstract thought? Pure genius."

But then again it depends how serious this setting is. I'm imagining it's not particularly serious since we're talking about the least athletic fantasy people doing an athletic event.

Well it developed from trying to put together some cultural quirks for the regions of my setting. I'll probably pick one or two ideas I really like from this thread and then have the others be more minor competitions. Given the schools will have a policy of taking anyone with the talent/will/ability to learn, I'm even thinking of the bards having a secondary competition in the vein of Eurovision.

TeChameleon
2016-07-05, 03:26 AM
Cantripping: Teams of students compete to see who can be the first to convince a panel of judges that they're experiencing an LSD flashback using only Prestigidation. Obviously, you'd need the local equivalent of ex-Hippies for the judging panel, but I'm sure you can find some way around that.

Given that the audience could see the 'trips' as well, it could make for some rather... interesting... viewing.

Competitive Scry-'n'-Die: Each Uni sends in a team of combat-oriented mages to race to take out a lich (the same one every year, much to said lich's considerable irritation) using classic scry-'n'-die tactics. The teams' own scrying can be fed back to the 'stadium' crystals, making jumbotron viewing for the audience.

Combat, tension, pyrotechnics, and armchair strategizing; I can see it being a popular spectator sport.

Armoured Cavalry: Competitive Barding (WAH-wah...) could become incredibly vicious thanks to two simple factors: Vote-determined winners... and Mass Charm Person. I can see it becoming utterly huge just because the two schools would go absolutely berserk trying to top one another; magic-fueled pyrotechnics, sabotage, summons...

Eurovision with magic wouldn't exactly be a tough sell for viewability :smalltongue:

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-07-05, 03:49 AM
Nobody's suggested quidditch yet? I'm surprised.

You can also do an equivalent to robot wars with summoning or conjuration, if you have spells that let you design your own monster.

I'm surprised no one's suggested Iron Mage yet - they must have rebuilt the arena by now after V accidentally blew it up in OOPC. :smallamused:

Borrowing from one of the classic Judge Dredd stories - Supersurf. Mages on Floating Discs navigating a multi-stage course of various hazards. Maybe with sections where they're allowed to open fire on each other.

Cernor
2016-07-05, 04:20 AM
I quite like the idea of magical obstacle courses: there are enough TV shows in that genre (even if I can't recall the names of any of them off the top of my head) to easily come up with obstacles the contestants would face, but with MAGIC! For example, instead of trying to jump across a series of giant beach balls floating in a pond, they'd have to climb up a series of giant beach balls levitating above a pool of conjured custard! While it isn't directly competitive (the winner would be the one who could complete it in the lowest overall time), it would probably be a blast for the crowd. Who doesn't like seeing snooty wizards covered in custard?

Pugwampy
2016-07-05, 07:16 AM
I don't think either chess or spelling bees generate that level of excitement in their fans.

What kind arcane fan does not enjoy seeing their Mage all stars practice their spelling ? :smalltongue:


If i was bored peasant I am sure I would pay a good silver coin to see Manshoon summon a pit fiend from the nine hells to slowly flay Amlaruil Moonflower . Just saying....

Fable Wright
2016-07-05, 07:32 AM
Gwent, Magic: the Gathering, and other such competitive card games. These are smart people thinking tactically using a limited number of cards in their repertoire, and they can practice pretty well without burning through all their spell slots. Perfect for Wizards who burn out their spells for classes and homework. And seriously, those kinds tournaments find surprisingly large numbers of spectators if they can see what's happening; the South Park episode on it was barely an exaggeration. Probably best for a side event rather than main spectator sport, though.

Alternatively, for the Artificer's college, ZenSpec: The sport where you try to get the most amazing effects possible with the least amount of magic involved. Put those Arcana checks and tool proficiencies to work, because last year Morgrave U managed to pull off a fully functional prismatic Homunculus in under an hour with two cantrips and a UMD check. Sigil Prep wasn't too far behind, though, with a pyrotechnics display that opened a Gate to the plane of fire with only a second level slot. Who knows what the teams might bring this year?

Final Hyena
2016-07-05, 09:36 AM
Spelling Bee contests.
B-E-E
Wouldn't that get boring? Or is it that you have to make it into a sort of bee rap?
The difficulty is what other ingredients are you allowed in your wrap?


I don't think spelling bees generate that level of excitement in their fans.
I've never seen a spelling... bee, that would excite me!


For "serious" ideas;

competitive firework displays, because showing off your displays in a manner the whole city can see is crucial to know who's got the most game!
Kaiju battles, each team combines together in a ritual to summon and control a kaiju before they fight fight fight!
Competitive eating/drinking (cake/beer), you know why (also think of the sabotage!).

Âmesang
2016-07-05, 09:39 AM
Come to think of it… how %#$@'d up would Calvinball (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Calvinball) become if magic were involved?

LooseCannoneer
2016-07-05, 12:42 PM
Come to think of it… how %#$@'d up would Calvinball (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Calvinball) become if magic were involved?

I believe the universities banned it after the incident with the Balor and the ring gates.

Dire Roc
2016-07-05, 07:39 PM
How about Magic Missile fencing? Each wizard is only allowed to cast Magic Missile and Shield. The sports' first tactical revolution occurred after a wizard realized that counterspelling was technically allowed. It was played to unconsciousness until the False Life doping scandals of '62, nowadays its a fixed number of hits. If both casters run out of spell slots its a draw.

Mando Knight
2016-07-05, 10:05 PM
Gwent, Magic: the Gathering, and other such competitive card games. These are smart people thinking tactically using a limited number of cards in their repertoire, and they can practice pretty well without burning through all their spell slots. Perfect for Wizards who burn out their spells for classes and homework. And seriously, those kinds tournaments find surprisingly large numbers of spectators if they can see what's happening; the South Park episode on it was barely an exaggeration. Probably best for a side event rather than main spectator sport, though.

Set up some illusions to make the playing field come to life, add a dash of colorful characters like "The Dragonmaster" and "The King of Games" and you've got yourself a franchise.

TeChameleon
2016-07-06, 01:58 AM
Set up some illusions to make the playing field come to life, add a dash of colorful characters like "The Dragonmaster" and "The King of Games" and you've got yourself a franchise.

...

Now this is a story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R4URbkSgIg) all about how
my life got flipped, turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
just sit down, James
I'll tell you how I became
the undisputed King of Card Games.

In northeastern Africa, born and raised
in the palace was where I spent most of my days
chilling out max and relaxin' all the while
or playing some card games right beside the Nile
When a couple of guys, who were up to no good
starting making trouble in my neighborhood!
I got in one little fight and the gods got scared
they said "You're moving in
with Yugi and his Grandpa downstairs!"

I wound up in Japan, and things were less clear
like I couldn't kill folks for losing card games here!
If anything, I could say that this place is lame
but I thought, "Nah, forget it, I'll play some card games!"

I bought card game booster packs, seven or eight,
and I yelled at the old man "Yo, Homes, smell ya later!"
Looked at my kingdom, I was finally there
to sit on my throne with my ridiculous hair.

2D8HP
2016-07-06, 02:19 AM
The last fantasy novel I read was
"A Gathering of Shadows" (http://www.tor.com/2015/09/28/excerpts-a-gathering-of-shadows-ve-schwab/), which is a sequel to:
"A Darker Shade of Magic" (http://www.tor.com/2015/01/21/a-darker-shade-of-magic-excerpt-v-e-schwab/)
Featured joust/sports magical "duels" and was AWESOME! I really can't describe it very well because:
1) I don't want to spoil it.
and
2) I'm not a good enough writer to do it justice.
But seriously, go to your library and check it out.
Simply BADASS! (in a good way). Also had pirates!
:biggrin:

Hamste
2016-07-06, 10:59 AM
How about Magic Missile fencing? Each wizard is only allowed to cast Magic Missile and Shield. The sports' first tactical revolution occurred after a wizard realized that counterspelling was technically allowed. It was played to unconsciousness until the False Life doping scandals of '62, nowadays its a fixed number of hits. If both casters run out of spell slots its a draw.

Wouldn't that be really boring to watch though? There would be several minutes of them just standing there watching each other if they used shield. The use of counterspelling might be interesting though the person with the most spells should consistently win. I have to say though, I really like that sorcerers would have the natural advantage in the fencing competition. Have the sorcerers be the jocks who got in for their spell slots but take all the easy classes like theory of magic and counterspelling 101 as they are not actually expected to learn more spells beyond the ones they know.

Dire Roc
2016-07-06, 02:24 PM
Wouldn't that be really boring to watch though? There would be several minutes of them just standing there watching each other if they used shield. The use of counterspelling might be interesting though the person with the most spells should consistently win. I have to say though, I really like that sorcerers would have the natural advantage in the fencing competition. Have the sorcerers be the jocks who got in for their spell slots but take all the easy classes like theory of magic and counterspelling 101 as they are not actually expected to learn more spells beyond the ones they know.

Hm, maybe a lesser Shield variant with a shorter duration? But the idea of sorcerer jocks is very appealing.

KillianHawkeye
2016-07-08, 01:25 PM
Probably any of the events from the old "American Gladiators" television show. You can modify many of them to be simple player vs player competitions (rather than player vs gladiator), and for the rest... maybe replace the gladiators with golems?

In a similar vein, magical versions of obstacle course-based shows (like Wipeout and Ninja Warrior) would surely be even more interesting when you add magic.

For a more team-based sport, you could adapt the Blitzball mini-game from Final Fantasy 10 (basically underwater rugby, but you could easily make a flying version of it instead).

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-07-10, 07:21 AM
Force hover-board racing (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?458771-Fantasy-Sports) using the floating disk spell and some kind of wind spell or a downward slope. The disk can't move faster than your normal speed, but caught in a storm or falling downhill you normally move quite fast right?

Alternatively, just use some sort of pre-enchanted boards/brooms/something.

nedz
2016-07-10, 01:23 PM
I take it we are not actually doing numbers ?

- Chess Boxing

- Illusionary Dancing (An art-sport, sort of like Ice Dancing or Gymnastics)

- BASE Feather falling - cast the spell as late as possible

- Explosive Runes Roulette - variant of Russian Roulette

zeek0
2016-07-10, 01:57 PM
Applied Battle Magic. See HPMoR for reference.

Basically, like the battle games in Ender's Game. Make up some projectile sleep spell, and otherwise restrict certain magics. It has all the greatness of real sports - teams, action, and winners/losers.

Balmas
2016-07-10, 03:13 PM
Duel monsters.

Each wizard has an agreed number of spells to cast, with an agree maximum level. Each wizard summons something to fight for them in an arena and, after a number of rounds to cast their buff spells, the two conjured beasties fight it out. The point is not to beat your opponent's monster, but to put on a show; the monster that gets cheered the most wins. So you might have one wizard go for the "Look what I can do" route and Gate in a Pit Fiend, but lose to the wizard who had the balls to summon a celestial goblin and buff him to high hell and back.

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-07-10, 03:17 PM
In less civilized wizard societies the wizards (or druids of course) change themselves into the monsters and battle it out mano a mano (or womano, as the case may be).

Brings back memories of an RP setting I was ones involved in preparing that never got off the ground. A large "totally not Australia" continent or even world with a Mad Max 2/3 (and probably 4, haven't seen it yet) level of technology and filled with monsters, mostly dinosaurs and other extinct stuff. Some human individuals can record these creatures using either some sort of remote control/walkie talkie like device or a more mystical jewelry looking artifact and change into them later. The recording is inscribed into their DNA, taking their device does not transfer the creature stored, it merely stops them from using it (or from recording new creatures, not sure how it would have turned out). These talents can be used in regulated battles, but the fun starts when using them illegally outside of that context. If a morpher fights switches the creature recorded in their DNA too often they can start taking on more and more monstrous properties even in their human shape. Good times, good times...

nedz
2016-07-10, 03:24 PM
- Bigby's Arm Wrestling

Pex
2016-07-10, 11:46 PM
Bring A Dumb Jock Party

See who can bring the dumbest yet strongest warrior to the party. Restrictions: Cannot be a barbarian. Must be a standard PC race but not a half-orc.
Charm Person or Domination allowed, but tiebreaker goes to the one not charmed followed by race in the following order: Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Human, Halfling, Gnome.

Feeblemind, ability drain, etc. is automatic disqualification. The warrior must be naturally dumb. Dumbness is not measured by ability score but by the warrior's deeds and/or sayings.

Madbox
2016-07-11, 02:41 AM
Magic Fairs. Like Science Fairs, but with magic. Forget the baking soda volcano, try a real one!

Rugby, but with magic. Hold Person counts as a tackle. Mage Hand for interceptions. Misty Stepping or other teleportation to reach the goal is allowed, but reduces the points earned. Haste/Slow is allowed. Web, Grease, Stone Shape, etc are allowed, but after each down the referee wizards reset the playing field. Polymorph is allowed, but there is a restricted list of what forms may be used, and no lethal attacks while transformed. Magic Missile is the only spell that is capable of directly killing someone allowed, but with the expectation that everyone is going to prepare Shield knowing that. I could see the player numbers getting ridiculous with this sport, as spells would get burned through so quickly.

Winter_Wolf
2016-07-11, 09:37 PM
Illegal summoned monster fights. Like illegal animal fights, but summons. Aside from the wanton cruelty of summoning creatures to try to kill each other for sport, there's the risk of collateral damage and losing control of the monster. Imagine the fools bringing ancient dragons and elder elementals and they get free.