RotRL Burnt Offerings - Festival Games Feedback

[Gyrfalcon]

I'm setting up a forum game playing Rise of the Runelords, and I've been looking around for ideas for festival games to run for the first part of the module.

The party will consist of four characters, only one is confirmed, a gunslinger. The rest of the party is tentatively an Oracle, a Wizard or Sorcerer, and some form of Kineticist.

I've found some ideas already for some general games, but I also wanted to come up with a few of my own and was looking for feedback if the mechanics and challenges looked fun and were appropriate for a level 1 character. So far, I only have one worked out fully, and the others are ideas that need to be fleshed out.

Shooting booth

- guns have no misfire chance, but are -4 to hit without gun proficiency
Max 5 range increments, -2 to hit per range increment
Resolve against touch in first range increment

Shooting gun: 1d4, range 10'
Special: DC15 perception check to notice that powder charge is light. +4 bonus to notice if proficient with guns after first shot
DC15 sleight of hand to swap powder with own if appropriate

If using light powder charge, resolve against target AC within first 10', -1 to hit extra (-3 total) for each range increment.

Jared, the owner boasts that he's the best shot in town, and that if someone can hit all three targets, he'll shoot a round against him, and if they win he'll give them his prized gun, Wilhelmina.

Targets are crude goblin cutouts with scavenged armor.
Round 1: 10', target AC12, touch AC11
Round 2: 20', target AC12, touch AC11
Round 3: 30', target AC13, touch AC11

First two targets are in padded armor, last in leather.

Challenge round: Jared and contestant each fire at a target 20' away three times - attack rolls are added together, and the highest wins.

If Jared loses, he is remorseful and offers his proceeds for the day instead of the gun, begging to keep it. If questioned, he named it after his late wife, a fellow adventurer before she was killed fighting the local goblins.

If gun taken, Jared hands it over and shutters the booth for the rest of the event, and later dies during the attack, unable to protect himself.

If offer taken, winner gains 100g, Jered survives the attack and kills two goblins looting his booth, though one gets away and joins the pyros with an armful of guns that it uses and drops.

Grand prize: gun or 100g
1st place: 10 specialty rounds or 20g
2nd place: 10g
3rd place: 1g

Entry: 5s

Bell ringing competition - strength check or sunder attempt?

Staged fighting match - using performance combat rules.

Greased pig game
- short chase sequence and CMD grapple check against small pig with +2 bonus. Character has 10 turns to catch the pig, winner is the one who does so the fastest.

[Starbuck_II]

I like the shooting booth idea.

Here are mine:
1) Goblin Toss by Jodar Provolost: older, balding Varisian man with black hair, a thick black mustache, and a sizeable paunch. He is a mediocre carpenter, but is considered one of the best hunters in Sandpoint. Jodar is friendly, with lots of bad jokes, and particularly likes telling tall tales of his encounters with the Sandpoint Devil.
"Three Goblins have found their way into your house and are tearing it up! Toss them into the fireplace before they can destroy everything."
This game is a simple bean bag toss set up in the middle of Sandpoint’s market square. A board with a row of three holes is set up 10 feet from a throwing line. The closest hole is the largest and the farthest hole is the smallest. There are buckets of beanbags sewn to look like goblins by each of the three stations, and each bean bag has a goblin name printed on it.

Rules: Dex + Bab (basically a normal ranged attack, you are treated as proficient in the bean bags) vs AC 15 (women use 2nd farthest at AC 12; children use closest at AC 10).
You get three bean bags.
Making one shot gets you a small trinket.
Two shots wins a small bag of jerky.
Three wins the pie.

2) a mat has been set down by one of the local monastics, Sabyl Sorn. In between demonstrations of concentration and physical prowess (balancing straight up and down on one hand, for example), she teaches various stretching techniques designed to loosen muscles after hard labor. She also has a standing challenge: Anyone willing to engage her in non-lethal combat can attempt to land a single blow upon her person. The one succeeding will gain access to the House of Blue Stone's library and meditation floor for one week of the winner's choosing. She is charging takers one silver piece for the chance to try, and while many stalwart townsfolk have attempted, she has denied all takers so far.
rules: The goal is to land a single touch attack on Sabyl, no spells allowed, and weapons only if used to deal non-lethal damage. Roll initiative and 5 attack rolls. Roll initiative and 5 attack rolls for Sabyl. Whoever lands a blow first, wins (initiative matters to some degree).
She will attack normal AC to make things fair (she allows you to target touch because she thinks herself untouchable).

[Arc_knight25]

I like the shooting booth idea.

2) a mat has been set down by one of the local monastics, Sabyl Sorn. In between demonstrations of concentration and physical prowess (balancing straight up and down on one hand, for example), she teaches various stretching techniques designed to loosen muscles after hard labor. She also has a standing challenge: Anyone willing to engage her in non-lethal combat can attempt to land a single blow upon her person. The one succeeding will gain access to the House of Blue Stone's library and meditation floor for one week of the winner's choosing. She is charging takers one silver piece for the chance to try, and while many stalwart townsfolk have attempted, she has denied all takers so far.
rules: The goal is to land a single touch attack on Sabyl, no spells allowed, and weapons only if used to deal non-lethal damage. Roll initiative and 5 attack rolls. Roll initiative and 5 attack rolls for Sabyl. Whoever lands a blow first, wins (initiative matters to some degree).
She will attack normal AC to make things fair (she allows you to target touch because she thinks herself untouchable).

This. This I wish I had known when I started my RotRL campaign over a year ago. For there is a character that is still insistent upon getting into her library and reading all that he can. Gives me an idea for when the characters get some more down time though. We are currently in Chapter 4 I believe. Just beginning trek to Turtle Ferry.

[Elder_Basilisk]

It depends on your group, but I hate the obligatory "festival" mini-games in nearly every context I've had to deal with them. They're just a gigantic timewaste that says, "your characters are having fun at the fair when....." The games are not involved enough to be tactically interesting in their own right and they are generally solo so every minute they go on, one player is involved and the other three are twiddling their thumbs. They also have no narrative significance. Did you win and get the four foot teddy bear (which is, by the way, annoyingly anachronistic)? Or did you lose and go home emptyhanded? Either way, it doesn't matter.

If you must describe it at all, I'd narrative free-form it: just ask each player for a 10-20 second description of what their character is doing and how they are enjoying the fair. Or roll a single die and be done with it. But for the love of all that is holy, don't drag it out with involved rules and scorekeeping. Get it over with as quickly as possible.

[Starbuck_II]

I like the challenge/flavor idea (win something cool), but I can see your point regarding the mini-games.

In my current RoRL, my DM did give us free rein to describe, but set some ideas.

All around you the dozens of booths open for business. Carnival games like beanbag tosses, milk-bottle-knockdown, fire building contests, Melalon's acid shoot (courtesy of Mr. Aliver "Pillbug" Podiker, the local alchemist), bowling, strength contests, horse shoes, sack races, 3 legged races, candle art, and delicious treats of every sort. The Carpenter's Guild has even set up some miniature catapults to fire rocks at silent images conjured by the eccentric Vorvashali Voon with his wand. And its all free!

[Gyrfalcon]

Thanks for the feedback and the game idea. In regards to the festival games, I agree in a face to face group that they would be annoying. However, since this is a play by post game, it all naturally moves slower, and I can respond to each person 'at the same time', as it were.

My goal is to let the players get to know the town and major NPCs a little, have a chance to naturally bump into each other a bit, and maybe win a few minor rewards. It will also be an opportunity to try out a few mechanics such as chase sequences and performance combat that we haven't played with yet in our other games.

[Nibbens]

Here's a thought:

Pick your PC that you think Shayless is going to attach them selves to, and have her dance with one of them - pull them into a jig while a fiddler is playing in the town square - there's plenty of people dancing, so the PCs are none the wiser. Just make sure you describe her red hair, so it rings a bell later on.

[Gyrfalcon]

That... is a great idea. Either it leads in naturally to later events, or it rules out someone for when she fixates on a partymember later. Thanks! I'll definately be using that.