StarSports!

[DJEternalDarkness]

So this is kind of a thing that I saw someone talking about but all cultures have sports. What sort of sports exist in Starfinder? We know that there are gladiatorial arenas, but what about say rugby, or hockey, or even golf? What sort of sports that only exist in space (zero-g ball?) exist? And what have you come up with?

In my game so far, there is a Vesk who is a reality 3D comabt star and is using their "fame" as a holostar for why they are out adventuring.

[quindraco]

I just assumed the Vesk engaged in ultrachess, featuring live combatants as the pieces.

[pithica42]

I think Chess-Boxing is, and should always be, a thing in any game world. Look it up, it's awesome.

I'm living under the assumption that Goblins have junkcycle races, possibly also with Ysoki and Halflings and others participating in the sport. I expect it's like rally racing, with more frequent accidental explosions and the occasional Molotov cocktail.

There were mentions of e-sports in a few places, so I assume that's a thing. There were also mentions of racing space ships, so that's almost certainly a thing as well.

Eox probably has a very literal version of Survivor.

There is probably a sport like american football, rugby, or australian rules football that involves players in either jet packs or power armor or both. Heck, maybe they also have quidditch with jet packs.

Elves probably have the greatest sports ever, but you can't play because you aren't an elf.

Drow probably have a lethal version of the Bachelorette.

Beyond that, I'd assume that any version of any sport that exists on earth exists in some form there. Any version of any sport that was mentioned in pathfinder likely exists there.

There was a thread in, homebrew about pop-culture, there were a lot of ideas thrown around there you should probably look at.

[Belabras]

Perhaps the Space Olympics?

[golfdeltafoxtrot]

pithica42 wrote:

There is probably a sport like american football, rugby, or australian rules football that involves players in either jet packs or power armor or both.

This is something I've taken and run with for my first Starfinder character. Brutaris is a sport that's been mentioned a couple of times in print, and this is essentially how I see it. One of the characters I'm pondering playing in Dead Suns is a recently retired star of my version of brutaris - an American football/basketball hybrid (a bit like Mantic Games' Dreadball) played in an ever changing hazardous three-dimensional court (like the Danger Room from X-Men).

It's a sport played by agile and well armoured people of all races who manoeuvre around the three-dimensional and constantly reconfiguring court, dodging the laser pulses and the explosive panels, while trying to pass the very dense ball/weapon between themselves to score points through hoops at either end of the court. Imagine handball meets basketball meets arena football while the court and the opposition are trying to paste you.

[FlanGG]

Actually, this is really good question. Wanted to make human soldier with celebrity theme, probably, a champion of some vesk-invented combat sport, either with weapons or without it(Which is quite possible, considering vesk use natural weapons). First one is more like a duel in actively changing arena with traps and alien beasts as additional hazards to track, second is just a hand-to-hand combat with some rules or maybe even without them, though, not lethal one. The key is "Beating those big damn lizards in their own field", and mentioned "ultrachess" may be a good example. Maybe, it is even played with racial teams.

[GM MacShack]

Junk-racing is canonically a thing.

[Black Dow]

Cool thread - few ideas:

- Gladiatorial arena combat with drones - pitting Mechanic handlers against each other - a la Robot Wars type things.

- Bound to be "Running Man" style survival games in Eox.

- Could be as simple as Pankration w/Battle Gloves

I also mused that Brutaris features teams w/ members sporting jet-packs/antigrav gear (or in game conditions), bio/mech augmentations. Wondered if the ball's properties would also change - from heavy and dense, to light and fragile. Add that it contains toxin, flammables or radiation and you make things nastily interesting :)

My bastardised version of the Pact Worlds is drawing heavily from old school 2000AD and there's a bunch of sports stories that can give plenty of inspiration - Aeroball; Inferno; Mean Arena & Deathbowl to name the ones I remember most.

[The Sideromancer]

Black Dow wrote:

I also mused that Brutaris features teams w/ members sporting jet-packs/antigrav gear (or in game conditions), bio/mech augmentations. Wondered if the ball's properties would also change - from heavy and dense, to light and fragile. Add that it contains toxin, flammables or radiation and you make things nastily interesting :)

I am reminded of a certain video game which was 5v5 soccer except full contact, hardened metal ball, out of bounds marked by electric fence (except on the one level where you just fall of the cliff), and map hazards included lava, crushing, and randomly-scattered lasers. And the characters had extra superpowers.

[Claxon]

The first two things that come to mind for me are:

1) Blitzball (from Final Fantasy 10) but without the water
2) The war training game from Ender's Game

[The Cyber Mage]

I feel like "XCrawl - Extreme Dungeon Crawling" has a spot as a sport in Starfinder. Especially since the setting has a history of traditional dungeon crawling that has surely been romanticized.

[BretI]

Unlimited Martial Arts in Zero Gee! Come see the sphere match!

Solar sailing should totally be a thing. For those looking for something more extreme, surfing solar flares.

Some sort of ‘ball’ sport played in a mock-asteroid field. You have to avoid the comets and get your device into their goal. All done in zero-G and three dimensions.

[DJEternalDarkness]

I totally forgot about Dungeon X-Crawl! I'm also thinking about both blood bowl and urban brawl too.

[Metaphysician]

One of my PCs is a Vesk ex-athlete, whose ( unnamed, we suck at names ) sport was basically "Rugby, with no cards and a ball that can explode". It is also canon in my world that Eox is the center of the reality TV industry in the Pact Worlds, this certainly includes some sport/competition based shows.

[The Cyber Mage]

Metaphysician wrote:

One of my PCs is a Vesk ex-athlete, whose ( unnamed, we suck at names ) sport was basically "Rugby, with no cards and a ball that can explode". It is also canon in my world that Eox is the center of the reality TV industry in the Pact Worlds, this certainly includes some sport/competition based shows.

How about Blastball. Simple, evocative, accurate.

We haven't talked about Eoxian sports yet, but we have made Eoxian Screech Metal a music genre. It is made entirely by various sounds of screeching metal. It's not very popular off-world.

[DJEternalDarkness]

man music would be a WHOLE other thread...:)

I mean entertainment in general is something that is overlooked in a vast majority of games.

[pithica42]

Link for other Entertainment Ideas

[DJEternalDarkness]

Pithica42, Thanks!

[Ventnor]

An idea for a sport that I had is Mageball, where the whole idea is that the only way to move the ball around and score points is via the use of magic spells or supernatural abilities.

Including, of course, mind-reading to figure out what strategies the other team is going to use.

[DJEternalDarkness]

Which sounds awesome. Mageball, the ball would way less than 5 pounds.

[Metaphysician]

Probably originating on Castrovel amongst the Lashunta, since every single Lashunta has Mage Hand at will.

[PaladinDemo]

DreadBall
Arena fighting
There's a list in that general category.
Rollerball
Fun fact; According to the original synopsis, we're due to get Rollerball.
Real Steel
subcategory for fighting
Kosho
JUGGER!
Triad
Death Race
Thunderdome
Because we can't get beyond it.
Light Cycle jousting
Blurnsball

[doc chaos]

I bought the Skills challenge book just for sports. Blood bowl is high on my conversion list. Would anyone like to collaborate?

[FirstChAoS]

pact world sports by world.

SUN:

Solar Regata: A race powered only by solar sails and gravity well assists, it starts at the sun, makes it;s way all the way to aucturn, then slingshots it's way back inward.

Sun Surfing:A very dangerous sport which relies heavilly on magic, tech, and sometimes genetic or cyber mods to survive the heat, gravity, and radiation. Basicly it involves an enchanted surf board or sail board that can ride the flares and prominences.

ABALLON:

Fuel Capacity Challenge: Basicly a race which limits the fuel tank size, battery power reserves, and power regen methods. The goal is to make it through the race first and not run out of fuel on the course.

CASTROVELLE:

Psion Challenge: Either the most boring or exciting match on the pact worlds depending on who you ask. if you are lucky a digital display will show the action in a form others can view. If not... welll, you are stuck watching people stare at each other. this game basicly involves pushing a psionic construct through the opponents mental defenses to score a goal. Though originally a Lashuna game, Contrmplatives and Shirren are often seen competing in it now.

Triball: sort of like basketball but with a triangular court, three hoops, and three teams.

ABSALON:

Holo Gladiators: Basicly MMA but with holographic weapons to wear the opponents down before switching to actual hand to hand. This is done for excitement and to reduce lethality by having exhaustion set in before death.

Ghost Level Fishing Derby: Some of Absalon Stations Ghost Levels are flooded. Basicly this derby involves lowering a linve from floor holes in a higher level and trying to hook the biggest monster fish .... or actual monster.

AKITON:

Mountain Marathon: Basicly an uphill race to see who reaches the top of the massive extinct volcano first.

Rat Rod Racing: This was originally an event held to advertize Big Daddy Squeeks vehical modification shop. The lesser events race on city tracks, but the main event races through the desert facing monsters and attacks of all kind. The vehicals are all Big Daddy's creations as you can tell from the large exposed engines that belch out flame and smoke, and the open cockpits which seem too small for their rider and make the rider look too big for his vehical. Big Dady Squeeks attends every race letting his many offspring run his shop. You can recognize him as the fat ysoki with the green dyed fur, bad teeth, ragged ears, and long dangling tongue.

Canyon Climb: Basicly a race to cross a canyon, climbing down one side, up the other, and surviving the monsters within,

LIAVARA:

Wordsmithing: The enigmatic Barathu of Liavara have a way with words that borders between mad and prophetic. They engage in word play trying to come up with the best phrasing. They sometimes travel to triaxus to challenge the whale poets to matches.

BRETHEDA:

Conglomerating: Basicly a challenge between two Barathu teams to assemble objects by joining together into its shape. The best one gets a point, until they get enough points to win.

VERCES:

MotoBall: Arguments abound as to whether to original Vercite Motoball or the Akiton version is better. The Vercite version is played on either the hot or cold side with goals on the opposite side of the city ring. They use aircraft to pick up a metal ball with electromagnetic plates. And must get the ball to the goal while the other players try and take it by using EMP and tractor Beam weapons. The ships are ell constructed with pilot survival and easy repair in mind.

The Akiton version uses either land or hover vehicals with goals plced on either side of a pain, mountain range or other small (well, smaller than half a planet but still huge) geographic feature. They also use actual damaging weapons and more creative ways to move the ball ranging from mechanical catapults to gripping arms.

Other variations have been tried ranging from aballonians playing without vehicals to use of mounted animals on castrovel. But none have eclipsed the main two versions in popularity, even on their home worlds.

Parkour Marathon: A city ring means racing in three directions with difficult to reach checkpoints on the sides of walls.

EOX:

Life and Death Struggle: A match where squads of Elebrians with positive energy weapons head out into the wastes to hunt each other down, scavenge gear, and be the last team standing. The real challenge comes when an item that resurrects the undead returning them to life. Then they have to use the positive energy weapons to heal their now living team mate on a deadly world.

TRIAXUS:

Drakon Trials: A team event where a dragon and his rhyphorian rider must work together. The dragon weaving through obstacles on the course, the rhyphorian grabbing objects needed for victory. Both must work in perfect synergy to score points

APOSTE

Poisoned Pen: A competition where two drow are pitted against each other to defeat their opponent without resorting to violence or direct competition. Through lies, blackmail, secrets, business competition, swaying public opinion, and sometimes slow acting poisons and diseases they score points for each step their opponent falls until they lose their social or economic rank.

AUCTURN

Surgical Spelunking: Basicly an event that involves entering "saves" on Aucturn to remove three growths. The first one to get all three wins. Some believe this event has an alterior motive but whether it is removing disease from aucturn or slowing thr worlds growth is unknown.

skittermander:

Cooperative towers: This game is ranked on cooperation not progress. Basicly two teams of skittermanders must hold each other aloft to form a tower while others give them clothes to wear, objhects to hold without dropping, etc. whoever has a tower last longest by teamwork wins.

[gustavo iglesias]

some kind of ball sport involving zero-g will probably exist too. With jumpjets and similar, trying to score a ball in a basket, goal, ring, or similar target.

[Amaltopek]

There was an earlier suggestion of a sort of in-system rally race where ship crews compete to get from, say, Absalom Station to Castrovel and back as fast as possibly, while avoiding obstacles (placed or otherwise). All the ships would have cameras mounted so the race can be broadcast throughout the Pact Worlds.

The original idea was for Drift racing, but that would pose a lot of challenges for broadcasting.

Gustavo's idea for 0g basketball would fit well in Absalom, where lower-class youth learn the game and can potentially become celebrities with money if they can play well enough.