Carnival games

[LordDeath666]

I'm starting a pathfinder campaign where the players start the campaign in the middle of a festival being throw celebrating the victory of a decades long war. I have a couple of games but need help coming up with more. The more the merrier.

[Malphegor]

First one that comes to mind is Pin the Eye of the Beholder! You must try to hit this wooden beholder's ( a wooden pedal powered sphere with moving 'tentacles' erratically dancing around its surface at high speed) eyes with a throwing knife! The winner gets a cuddly toy or a fish in a bag!

(to rig it have the throwing knives be magnetised and always hit the metal rods in the tentacles unless the person achieves a critical)

[TheCount]

I always thought the "ring the bell" game was iconic carnival game.

There could be the apple fishing as well as the catch the oily pigh/something else thought the latter one requires some space.

and i was beaten to it, but games like knife/circle throwing are nice as well.

hm...rope pulling?

and who would forget dancing? i mean, sure, it wont need to be a game/race/championship but dance is part of most celebrations!

oh! cooking/eating challanges!

[Seerow]

They're not really carnival games, but I would recommend taking a look at the Rushlight Tournament at the start of part 5 of Kingmaker. It features a number of minigames players can participate in, from drunken jousting, to archery, to a boasting contest. If that sort of thing works for you, I created one to toss in to give my throwing weapon specialist something to do "Extreme Juggling"

[BowStreetRunner]

One game I am aware was actually used in some medieval carnivals involved putting two people on some sort of balance beam - often just a log or some planks - with quarterstaves. Goal would be to knock each other off - balance checks, trip attacks, bull rushes would all be relevant.

You might also find Hurling, Skittles, Horseshoes, Hammer Toss, archery, dice games, races (foot races, horse races, and even things like racing frogs or something else), wrestling...

[jk7275]

Dungeon magazine had something called Challenge OF champions. It was basically problem solving scenarios and the players compete against other teams

It is something that can fit what you are doing

[LordDeath666]

Which magazine

[Hackulator]

Pin the sword in the defeated enemy!

[huginn]

Which magazine

Dungeon magazine

http://www.purpleworm.org/tools/DungeonMagazineIndex.htm is an index of first 85 issues

Look for the ones called CHALLENGE OF CHAMPIONS. They can be part of some fare/festival/carnival

[Stoic]

Challenge of Champions : Dungeon #58

Challenge of Champions II: Dungeon #69

Challenge of Champions III: Dungeon #80

Challenge of Champions IV: Dungeon #91

Challenge of Champions V: Dungeon #108

Challenge of Champions VI: Dungeon #138




If at some point you decide to also do a winter festival, there are some ideas in this thread.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?486590-Village-winter-festival-ideas

[The Kool]

Oh, I've run festivals before! In addition to tournaments and carnival games, I like to offer contests. Here's a few things I've used and seen used:

A boxing ring! Straightforward unarmed combat challenge taking all comers, when the players arrive they can challenge the champion of the moment. (When I ran this, the PC was a monk and took him down fast. Boasted of his prowess to the crowd, had another PC throw a bag-of-tricks lion at him. Took it out with one punch. Went on to found Lion Fight Club.)

A small arena where the contestants are challenged to place a gnome on top of a pole. Only thing is, the gnome is currently parading around on the shoulders of a half-orc. The caveat is issued that no one should be injured, the pole is 15ft tall (but consider 20ft for higher level party) and big enough to support climbing/balancing on it with no issues, the contestants will be rated on speed and style.

Magic contest: There's a bucket on a table in front of the contestant and a well 20ft away. The challenge is to fill the bucket with water and have it on the table. Pretty much anything goes, but contestants are rated on effectiveness (fill/spill/speed), style, and use of magic (so just walking over would probably get you 0 in style and use of magic, along with boos from the crowd).

If there's perform skills in the party, mention other bards wandering around or sitting on corners (perhaps do this anyway). Might inspire them to roll for a street performance, something they almost never get to do.

[master4sword]

One of the things I had in my current campaign's festival was a guy on a street corner running a shell game (his Sleight of Hand vs the player's Perception), though I also made the prize some low-value trinket rather than making it a way to double his silver pieces.

I also had a fortune teller. She was pretty much the only game or attraction at the festival that was visited by every party member. (Probably helps that some of her fortunes gave re-rolls, though some of them also came with temporary penalties on certain saves.)