I'm about to run the encounter, where upon travelling to a small village because villagers spotted a tunnel when doing maintenance on the local well, the adventurers find that it isn't a tunnel at all, but a 5' grotto that looks like it could be a tunnel entrance. A bit of a letdown for the PC's.
Nevertheless, upon arriving to town they learn that there is not just one wedding, but three; and as a part of the celebrations, there are various contests, including a hastily arranged wrestling contest that will consist primarily for the locals and those who have traveled to attending the wedding. This is an opportunity for players to use the Combat Maneuvers to win a contest, a little money, and maybe a sash or medal.
Afterwards, there will be a series of boxing matches (non-lethal damage) where a local cleric will 'heal' all non-lethal damage between rounds by channeling positive energy. A monk will be the judge (and no monks are allowed in this tournament, for obvious reasons). The two PC's I expect to participate are an L2 Fighter (2-weapon fighter), and an L4 Bard. No magic assistance is allowed, and it will be an elimination ladder format.
I'm planning on tweaking the combat rules so that I can run the wrestling matches for the fun of the players.
A wrestler has a choice of 4 primary actions at the start of the match:
1. Demoralize (Intimidate)
2. Feint (Bluff)
3. Ready an action (can be bypassed if feint is successfully used by the opponent).
4. Take an action (move & standard) (initiate a grapple or trip)
I'm not sure if I should:
1. Simply award a win for the pin
2. Award victory upon pushing opponent outside a circle (pin, followed by a move action and then +4 to attempt by the defender to break the pin when being forced outside the circle using the 'move defender to "Hazardous Location"' rule.)
3. Use a point system: 1 point/Trip, 3 points/Pin
I'm also thinking of putting a time limit on each match of 2 or 3 one minutes matches (10r/turn), or to make each match 30 seconds (5 rounds), but with 3 of these rounds per match.
Any thoughts suggestions?
The parents of the various parties are putting up small purses, with buy-in at 4sp, and winner getting 20GP, 2nd place 5GP, and 3rd place getting double his entry fee. Not much for L2 and L4, but they are visiting a small village.
Honestly I'd go with a point system like your last idea. The others would seem to go far too quickly from a player perspective. First to 10 points wins? Otherwise I'd award a win to someone who can -maintain- a pin for a number of rounds and not just initiaite it, perhaps two ro three rounds. I think you'll find that you won't need time constraints as it will probably go pretty quickly if there are only two contestants. It'll most likely be over before you need a timer :P
I like situations like this where combat manuevers are highlighted so I would definately go with the third option. It might also have the added benefit of getting your players more familiar with them, leading to more use of them in battle.
Generally, the thing to watch out for in these situations is the player realizing that his best tactical option is to bludgeon the opponent unconscious then sit on him for three rounds for the pin.
Alas, the 4th level monk referring the match would not allow bludgeoning as it was "wrestling". The boxing matches came later.
Pinning is usually a count to 3, so three six second rounds were not going to cut it.
Here's what I did, and it worked:
1. Each round had a new initiative.
2. Once pinned, you had one chance to break the pin. If you couldn't break it (3 seconds) you lost.
"Technically" this meant that if you went second on round 1 and then first on round 2, you could get the grapple, then confirm it on the start of the next round, and go for the pin. Of course it didn't happen this way, but it could have.
Players and opponents had
CMB: +3 to +6 range
CMD: 14-19 range
It tended to see-saw back and forth, and a good time was had by all.
Each faced 3-4 opponents, who were a bit less 'heroic' than them, as they weren't PC's, but nevertheless, some matches were easy for the PC's while others were close and 'worrisome'.