The Games of Kord

[Waldo]

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Hi all,

A while back, I made a throwaway mention of "the Games of Kord" as an
annual event IMC. To my surprise, two PCs immediately seized on this.
Since then, through several weeks of play time and half a year of
campaign time, they've been eagerly anticipating the Games. In fact,
they've got the whole party worked up about it.

So I have to come up with The Games of Kord.

Okay, so, it'll be an Olympics kinda thing. Obvious events:

wrestling
boxing
quarterstaff fighting
light weapon fighting
heavy weapon fighting
a joust?
archery
javelin/spear throwing

caber toss
foot races
horse races?
the Kord-a-thon (race, but includes swimming, a rock climb, etc.)
weightlifting

team tug-of-war?
team greased pole climb

some sort of football/rugby thing
the Great Brawl... something like a King of the Mountain game?

What else?

One issue: in a standard D&D world, monks are at a huge advantage in
these sorts of contests. They'll win all the unarmed combat contests,
and the footraces too. But since there's an alignment mismatch, I'd
think Kord (or his clerics) would prefer games that their people could
win. Not sure how to finesse this.

Another issue: what sorts of prizes? Standard D&D setting, large
city/metropolis.

Suggestions very welcome

thanks,


Waldo

 

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Waldo wrote:
> One issue: in a standard D&D world, monks are at a huge advantage in
> these sorts of contests. They'll win all the unarmed combat
contests,
> and the footraces too. But since there's an alignment mismatch, I'd
> think Kord (or his clerics) would prefer games that their people
could
> win. Not sure how to finesse this.

Easy. Have many (all?) of the races and brawls have rules that encumber
the participants. For example, you'd have to run with a barrel (or a
sack of flour) on your back, or you have to brawl with weights on your
arms and legs. Kord is not about finesse, after all.

Laszlo

 

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Decaying Atheist wrote:
> I honestly think that Kord would be open to rewarding anybody that
could
> beat any of his clerics. Well not rewarding but might show a sign of
respect
> to anybody that could beat his chosen champions, as long as they
offered the
> same respect.

Here's an idea: have the overall winner of the games
get a blessing from Kord that lasts until the next games.
Possible blessings:

A temporary strength point or two.

Loan of an artifact near and dear to Kord's heart, like
a very magical big bludgeoning weapon with a very high
strength requirement that causes lots of fatigue to the
mere mortal who swings it around a lot.

All the children the winner sires while blessed get a
*large* strength bonus when their stats are generated.

+4 on saving throws vs magic that weakens, fatigues
or otherwise prevents the blessed winner from using
his strength.

Regardless, the winner might gain status as "Champion
of the Church of Kord", with free all-expenses paid
tour of Kord churches for the winner and his friends.
Of course, such a famous individual on this tour is
going to get asked for help from all sorts of people
who think that the "strongest guy in the land" is the
best one to fix their particular problem. Hilarity
ensues.

Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet

 

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"Waldo" <peggoliathy@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1112360567.273170.174910@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> A while back, I made a throwaway mention of "the Games of Kord" as an
> annual event IMC. To my surprise, two PCs immediately seized on this.
> Since then, through several weeks of play time and half a year of
> campaign time, they've been eagerly anticipating the Games. In fact,
> they've got the whole party worked up about it.
>
> So I have to come up with The Games of Kord.
>
> Okay, so, it'll be an Olympics kinda thing. Obvious events:
>
> wrestling
> boxing
> quarterstaff fighting
> light weapon fighting
> heavy weapon fighting
> a joust?
> archery
> javelin/spear throwing
>
> caber toss
> foot races
> horse races?
> the Kord-a-thon (race, but includes swimming, a rock climb, etc.)
> weightlifting
>
> team tug-of-war?
> team greased pole climb
>
> some sort of football/rugby thing
> the Great Brawl... something like a King of the Mountain game?
>
> What else?
>
> One issue: in a standard D&D world, monks are at a huge advantage in
> these sorts of contests. They'll win all the unarmed combat contests,
> and the footraces too. But since there's an alignment mismatch, I'd
> think Kord (or his clerics) would prefer games that their people could
> win. Not sure how to finesse this.
>
> Another issue: what sorts of prizes? Standard D&D setting, large
> city/metropolis.
>
> Suggestions very welcome
>
> thanks,
>
>
> Waldo

I honestly think that Kord would be open to rewarding anybody that could
beat any of his clerics. Well not rewarding but might show a sign of respect
to anybody that could beat his chosen champions, as long as they offered the
same respect.

Other suggestions might be:
Arm wrestling

A contest where two people lock up and must remain in the same space for as
long as possible, each exterting in attempts to push the other out of that
spot. Perhaps limiting the test to using either upper body, or lower body
strength.

Best destructive Ability: Think Ice Block breaking, or Log splitting, or
exactly how many tables can Kordite 1 break, compared to Kordite 2, of
course with a single display of power.

Three day great race. Starting in city 1, and ending in city 2. The total
distance to travel (on foot) 10 miles per day (or x amount). Of course the
route would require a journey through a potentially dangerous zone, and
require that all participants carry light loads (No more then water, a bit
of food and perhaps a single weapon), a system to make sure that all
contestants not use magic or other unnatural means of completing the event.
As you mention perhaps the event starts in a desert or the flat plains and
the race lasts until people can reach the large city. To make it even
tougher, apply fatigue rules and require contestants to participate in other
events upon arrival.

 

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Peter Meilinger <mellnger@bu.edu> wrote:
> Waldo <peggoliathy@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Hi all,
>
>>Okay, so, it'll be an Olympics kinda thing. Obvious events:
>
>>javelin/spear throwing
>
> Also discus, hammer and anything else that can possibly
> be thrown.

No archery, though.

>>horse races?
>
> I wouldn't bother with horse races, since it's not the
> athletic ability of the jockey that would prevail.

Use the competitors as the 'horses'. Kind of similar to the truck pulls
you referred to later, but there's time requirements on it. Make sure
the load is great enough that a (typical) monk would be encumbered, but
low enough that someone really strong (but within normal human range...
say about a Str 16 light load?) can handle it.

>>weightlifting
>
> I'd make this like the events on those World's Strongest
> Man competitions - you have to move progressively heavier
> objects from point A to B and whoever does it fastest
> wins.

Makes sense.

> Dead-lift contests would be popular, too, of course.

>>team tug-of-war?
>
> Team and individual would be fun, especially with the
> traditional muddy pool in the middle. You could also do
> one-against-many contests for the really strong folks.

'Exhibition' -- the noncompetitors/commoners could go many to one
against the strong guy.

>>One issue: in a standard D&D world, monks are at a huge advantage in
>>these sorts of contests. They'll win all the unarmed combat contests,
>>and the footraces too. But since there's an alignment mismatch, I'd
>>think Kord (or his clerics) would prefer games that their people could
>>win. Not sure how to finesse this.
>
> As someone else said, anyone who can win would probably be
> respected. A lot of monks might just not want to participate
> in a contest devoted to a god they don't worship, but there's
> no reason they couldn't if they wanted to. You could always
> limit entry to Kord worshippers, but where's the fun in that?

Could put that limitation on, but it doesn't strike me as appropriate.

It depends on your views, of course, but monks are 'typically' into the
self-perfection thing 'for enlightenment'. Using it on frivolous
competition for mundane glory is not in character. Of course, it would
be in character to enter such a competition to measure progress.

> Would the Strength domain ability be kosher, though, even if
> it's one of Kord's domains? I mean, that's essentially Kord
> himself giving certain competitors an advantage. Whether it's
> an unfair advantage depends on your point of view, but it
> would at the very least tend to make things predictable in
> a few events.

Require the event to take more than one round. It might give a benefit
for a brief time, but not enough to matter in the end.

Actually, given that it's a power from the god, at a competition in his
honor, there's a decent chance he'd be 'watching'. It's a frivolous use
of the power and unfair. Not only would most clerics of Kord not want
to cheat *anyway*, those that did could end up punished for it.

> Of course, the Strength ability is only usable once per
> day for one round, so it wouldn't guarantee a win in
> most of the events. In the simple lift-one-weight events,
> though, it's an obvious suspense killer. You could maybe
> have the higher level clerics of Kord put on displays of
> strength to wow the crowds, but have them decline to
> participate in weight-lifting events because of their
> unfair advantage.

That's a possibility too.

>>Another issue: what sorts of prizes? Standard D&D setting, large
>>city/metropolis.
>
> Simple trophies or belts or whatever and bragging rights are
> a big motivator in and of themselves, really. You could always
> add in cash purses or even magic items. Would devotees of Kord
> give out strength-enhancing magic items as prizes, or would
> that be seen as "cheating" or even an insult to the natural
> strength of the participants?

I like the idea of the champion receiving a blessing of some sort, as
described in another message.

As for a strength-enhancing item being an insult, I don't think it would
be, in most cases. Kord *is* the patron of strength, him giving
additional strength to those who earned it is not out of place.


Keith
--
Keith Davies "English is not a language. English is a
keith.davies@kjdavies.org bad habit shared between Norman invaders
keith.davies@gmail.com and Saxon barmaids!"
http://www.kjdavies.org/ -- Frog, IRC, 2005/01/13

 

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Keith Davies wrote:
> Peter Meilinger <mellnger@bu.edu> wrote:

>>Would devotees of Kord
>>give out strength-enhancing magic items as prizes, or would
>>that be seen as "cheating" or even an insult to the natural
>>strength of the participants?
>
>
> I like the idea of the champion receiving a blessing of some sort, as
> described in another message.
>
> As for a strength-enhancing item being an insult, I don't think it would
> be, in most cases. Kord *is* the patron of strength, him giving
> additional strength to those who earned it is not out of place.

Agree. One could even posit that Kord (or, more likely his Priests)
would be of the opinion that the Champion of Kord should be the
strongest wherever he or she goes, and, to that end, grant the Champion
increased Strength to ensure that some wussy follower of Heironius
doesn't turn out to be stronger =)

A suggestion to consider might be that, while the still the reigning
champion, the Champ's strength will always increase to be equal to that
of any being (of the same size category or smaller) for purposes of any
opposed strength check.

Thus, while the Champ would be at LEAST an equal to any other medium
sized grappler, it wouldn't be much help when trying to break a Giant's
headlock.

If you wanted it to be somewhat effective, even when size categories are
taken into account, maybe a decreasing benefit:

Champ is Same size: Divine Bonus of whatever is needed
Champ is Size -1: Divine Bonus of up to +10
Champ is Size -2: Divine Bonus of up to +5

etc. Always with a cap at equality.

Or soemthing.

 

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In article <1112367518.002751.218580@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
<firelock_ny@hotmail.com> wrote:
>All the children the winner sires while blessed get a
>*large* strength bonus when their stats are generated.

In D&D you can't presume the males will do all the winning.
--
"Yo' ideas need to be thinked befo' they are say'd" - Ian Lamb, age 3.5
http://www.cs.queensu.ca/~dalamb/ qucis->cs to reply (it's a long story...)

 

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Keith Davies wrote:
> It depends on your views, of course, but monks are 'typically' into the
> self-perfection thing 'for enlightenment'. Using it on frivolous
> competition for mundane glory is not in character. Of course, it would
> be in character to enter such a competition to measure progress.

Your stereotypical monk is also much more about control than raw power.
So-

throw a standard javelin for distance: nobody interested
throw a 6' long 1.5" diameter javelin make of steel for
distance: monk maybe interested, others definitely
throw a 6' long 1.5" diameter javelin make of steel; every round
the qualifying distance increases by 10 feet and the
target shrinks by 10%: monk very interested, others
maybe not so much


Robert Huff

 

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Waldo wrote:
> Hi all, <snip games of Kord>

Sounds neat. I was just reading the Scavenger Trillogy and there were
a set of games. Wrestling, whatever. The quarterstaff contest was
neat because it was on a plank set several feet above some nasty and
ill placed rocks, so if you fell you landed thud on really
uncomfortable rocks. Pretty cruddy.

They also had a draw speed contest. bascaially, a bunch of guys lines
up and would draw against one another to see who was the fastest. That
might not be a bad idea, though not nessisarily very Kord-like.