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D&D Ideas — Tournaments

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is the tournaments, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of tournaments we’ve got a contest of the ages to watch for: in one corner it’s your desire for unique, evocative magic items you’ll be as thrilled to present to characters as they’ll be to discover. In the other corner Nerdarchy’s Deluxe Box Set of 250 Tarot Sized Magic Item Cards for the world’s greatest roleplaying game! You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Divine through your third eye the week that was! New spells to acquire knowledge, new draconic monsters and a new place to learn about all of ’em plus new live chats with industry pros and creative folks and live gameplay round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

I love this topic. Tournaments are a great way to show off lore and worldbuilding in your 5E D&D campaigns in an interactive way. The very name of a tournament could hint at lore and history in your world. Is it the anniversary of a coronation, war or trade agreement? This is only one way to utilize tournaments.

Another way is skill challenges and minigames. These provide opportunities to use more skills and tool proficiencies in the game. Tournaments including events like archery, melee and jousting are standard tropes. Dart, dagger and axe throwing are all great contests to add to a tournament.

Don’t forget wrestling, including arm wrestling and events from the Olympics, strongman competitions and Highland games. In fantasy worlds there might be wizard duels or sports involving magic. Think Quidditch from Harry Potter. These contests would be a great place for judicious use of Acrobatics, Athletics, and Sleight of Hand.

Champions of these tournaments might receive prestige, gold, magic items, magical or divine boons, titles or lands.

We’ve got introducing lore, adding mini-games and skill challenges but there are more ways to use tournaments. One could make a great backdrop to an adventure. Anything from the trophy being stolen to the attendees getting sick could be plot hooks. Perhaps political intrigue takes place at these events. Backroom deals made under the cover of these occasions comes to mind especially if there is tension between different factions or domains.

During these events a truce might be formed and it’s the only time diplomacy between different nations even has a chance. It might be the player’s job to help facilitate or hinder these clandestine meetings.

From Ted’s Head

When I think about tournaments, typically I think about combat. Knights with swords or armored horsemen with jousting lances parade through my mind. Tournaments evoke images of parties and celebrations. Often tournaments are held in honor of a royal event or something good for a culture, civilization or society.

When it comes to 5E D&D we’re free to consider a world of magic. While the previous line of thinking deals with or takes inspiration from history. This of course does not have any magical precedent. In a place full of magic it makes perfect sense there would be a magical tournament.

When I think about the structure of a tournament, it is much like a combat and we have very specific combat rules. Both sides agree whether or not to use lethal force at the start of the fight and let the dice tell the tale. Pretty easy. But when we consider magic that is a whole different situation.

I look to Monster of the Week for this kind of inspiration. We recently finished playing a MotW campaign, which has a skill called Use Magic. The game allows each individual player to determine how they want to Use Magic should they be so inclined to do so. Taking this layer of player agency, which I just love, and running with it, what if we used the Arcana skill in lieu of combat roles to impress judges or the audience with our magic? Instead of beating the other down with a weapon what if we dazzled onlookers with displays of complex magic?

A simple skill roll can’t encompass an entire tournament for sure so we’ve got to expand. For starters we need to set the scene. Maybe in your world the use of such magic is only possible in certain areas. Maybe a magic ritual performed by a master mage allows more magic to flow into the area to be manipulated by those learned in the magical arts. Perhaps these types of events can only be held at certain times or certain places or both.

For a rule set, once you have the particulars of where and when figured out, spellcasting characters can participate in the tournament. Nonspellcasters can too but all their checks would be made at disadvantage. Go ahead and try if you like. As with many skill challenges it would be contested by your opponent over three rounds.

Spellcasters use their spellcasting modifier for all checks but must use three different skills of their choice. Typical choices are Arcana, Acrobatics, Performance and Sleight of Hand. If your players come up with a creative way to use another skill then of course allow them to do so. For extra pizzazz allow spellcasters to add spell slots into their roll. They expend them just as if they had cast a spell and each level of spell slot expended adds 1d4 to the roll. Getting 9d4 as a master mage can pretty much secure the round for you even if you roll poorly. But how many people are gonna do this?

Everything else should or can be a standard single or double elimination tournament. Have fun with your magical tournament. It is meant to be fun and allow mages to explore the magic. Are they telling a tale with magic or are they just impressing people with colorful fireworks?

From the Nerditor’s Desk

During the live chat with Nerdarchist Ted the main point I set out to make and illustrate through our conversation is how tournaments are an incredibly useful tool for a 5E D&D Dungeon Master.

Along with all of the insights and ideas shared in Dave and Ted’s editorials this week what makes tournaments so useful is how universally easy it is to incorporate them into pretty much any situation as a framing device. Take an adventure McGuffin whether it’s an object, vital information, a meeting with a hard to reach NPC or whatever and make it the reward for tournament victory and presto! The components need not even be related.

During Ingest Quest 2 one of the most memorable and fun sessions we shared found the culinary adventurers on Gartania, a planet of knights, lords and ladies. The party decided they were going to find the Perfect Match for the planet’s new ruler and staged a game show including tournament elements to do so. The players took the roles of the participants in these events, which turned out really cool. One useful takeaway from this experience is how tournaments create an opportunity to explore other characters. Giving players alternative characters to play. These might be champions or otherwise representatives of their ongoing characters.

A tournament can also be as challenging and even perilous as you want but since events take place in a relatively controlled environment it provides a measure of safety too. You can turn the dial way up on the difficulty — especially as regards combat scenarios — without putting the party’s lives in mortal danger. Presumably tournament events are held where there’s an audience as well as precautions in place in case things get too dangerous or deadly.

On a broad scale something like a tournament also creates an environment for all sorts of activity. The events themselves certainly allow for a limitless range of possibilities to challenge characters. There’s also incredible opportunities for social interaction. Fellow competitors and their hangers on, tournament organizers and promoters, vendors and attendees all await engaged players. Between events who knows what intrigues and situations may arise? Ambitious characters can explore the tournament and its trappings for no end of interesting encounters.

You might construct a tournament designed to give characters a chance for putting their skills and abilities to the test, create opportunities to experience the game through other characters’ eyes or simply incorporate such an event as a backdrop for whatever else is going on. However you choose to present tournaments in your 5E D&D games you’ve got yourself a wonderful framing tool for any kind of story you hope to create together with the rest of the players in your group.

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