Giving XP for contest at a tournament

[Elthbert]

My players are going to be involved in a tournament. Assuming none of them do anything stupid there should not be any combat, there obviously will be roleplaying but I would like to award exxperiance for the various contest.

Since there is little threat of death in the joust or th foot melee I am thinking about 1/2 or 1/3rd xp for those encounters. But what about rewards for other contest, like the archery contest, etc, should thier be an xp award for winning those events? Since i plan to roleplay these events out it seems likethere should be some reward from an xp point of view.

Ideas on how to scale these?

[Tharg The Pirate King]

Xp reward for encounters yes (1/3rd is what I would choose since no threat of death). and then Ad Hoc xp for roleplaying character.

as for money, set up an entrance fee and and then caclulate the amount of players and NPC's that are there. then have them win the pot.. say split the pot 60/25/15 that way there is more competition to be top 3. Also maby a non monitary award like fame and reconition that gives bonuses to diplomacy checks in area and with merchants for winning (fame goes along way) the many 3.5 city guides have similar. (also there was dragon magazine that went over gladitorial events) that had some great rules on competitions and rewards even those that incule fame.. After a while the player could even get reconzed by a noble or lord for other missions etc...

of course there is always sore lossers.. this can create events that occur after game when others show up because they lost money etc.. or want to try to beat the character for fame of saying they kicked their butts

[EWHM]

The old companion set had rules for Xp during tournaments. You might check that one out. It also had a lot of rules and information about the various events that usually were involved.

[TheRedArmy]

3.5 covered this before - one of the "Complete" books.

For tournament events which are non-lethal against a single competitor at a time, award 1/2 the normal XP for the opponent's CR.

For events which have more than 2 competitors at a time (like an Archery Contest would), award 1/2 the normal XP for the highest CR opponent.

Awards for roleplaying are always Ad-Hoc, but I would make them kinda small - promoting role-playing is good, but not everyone is there for the role-playing, and I refuse to judge how one plays Pathfinder.

One thing you could consider is something in the same "Complete" book - The Alabastor Cup. Of course, you can name it what you want. It involves a cup for each competitor (to keep track of score) and a beautiful maiden who deposits coins for doing well in competitions - 3 for first-place, 2 for second, 1 for third, and you lose half of your coins if you place last.

Basically there are several competitions, such as an obstacle course, archery contest, wrestling, etc. The morning of the second day of the competition, the competitors all compete in a hunt, and then on that night, there is a great banquet, where the lady says "Impress me", and she awards coins at her discretion. On the final day, there is a final, important event (such as a duel) that's worth double coins. At the end of the tournament, the winner gets the Alabastor Cup, and almost certainly the attention of the lady.

For the party, you should include events that everyone has a decent chance to succeed at, and one that each PC can specialize in - obstacles for the acrobat rouge, duel for the fighter, etc.

[KaeYoss]

I wouldn't award any XP at all. But then again, I tossed XP out altogether, so my players don't get XP for anything. ;-P

I would go somewhere between half and full. Maybe 3/4. Or actually full. Depends on how often this happens.

If it's an actual contest (and not just an excuse to get XP, or sparring matches), for actual stakes, I would totally see giving them full XP. You don't just improve when your ass is on the line, after all, and in a contest that is about something big and that you really want to win, you also get the adrenaline rush you get in a mortal combat. Oh, sorry, kombat. Kan't write it with a c if you use mortal as adjektive.

[Tharg The Pirate King]

TheRedArmy wrote:

Awards for roleplaying are always Ad-Hoc, but I would make them kinda small - promoting role-playing is good, but not everyone is there for the role-playing, and I refuse to judge how one plays Pathfinder.

For the party, you should include events that everyone has a decent chance to succeed at, and one that each PC can specialize in - obstacles for the acrobat rouge, duel for the fighter, etc.

I like the last part with having areas where everyone can be succesful and where some can be even more so. Casters have battles of intilect and magic (spell duals). This is always a great experience.

But I really think that people who come to a game but are not interested in Role-playing really need to look at the name of the genre, RPG= role playing game. But im a stickler for the old 2e where most games are 80%roleplay and only 20%rollplay.

I would make the exp awarded from roleplay almost double what teh players will get from actual melee or rolls. the more the players are involved in the game the more fun they should have. And players who dont get into the game and the events is missing out on this fun and should not get exp just for sitting back and rolling a dice everytime he lifts his head from the PSP/DS or Magic game he is playing on sideline. (personal experience here sorry for rant)

[Elthbert]

Well my events are not much of a problem, my party is entirely martial, no one wanted to play a primary spell caster. the only one who might be a little left out is the rogue, and even she can be involved with the foot melee(there are no rules restricting cooperation) plus I have some encounters during the fair she should be important during.

There are lots of books with tournement rules in them, and I have picked them over and am using some from Tournements and Fairs, and the jousting from the complete cavalier, along with a few others here and there but none of those tend to have sugestions for how to award xp.

I totally forgot aboutthe old companion set having any rules on tourneys I'll look that up.

I am leaning towards 1/3rd for combat since I plan to go with the Complete Cavalier's jousting which only does lethal damage on a crit, and use that rule ( they are using blunted weapons) for the foot melee too.

The actual prizes I have already worked out, and are often items as well as money. And yes there is an entry fee for every event. But excepting the Joust, for which they have to post the value of their armour and horse (or risk losing their armour and horse) and also has a sizable entry fee, it isn't that much.

What 3. 5 city guide would ya'll recommend.

[Elthbert]

Also I tend to give group Xp, many of these events are only directed towards one or two players, but if I give only individual xp to them then it seems to be punishing the players who chose to play different characters. So it seems like all the P should go in the pot and be divided. would everyone here agree?

[Tharg The Pirate King]

Dragon Magazine #303 and Dungeon Magazine #96 would be a huge benefit to you, they give details on everything including concepts like fame and infamy. As for books that dealt with city information I can swear one does by I cant think of one off the top of my head.

[Elthbert]

I thank you.... any other imput would be appreciated

[Edinoiz]

If you happen to have access to Ultimate Combat there are rules there for both Duels and Performance Combat, two things that I think might fit in on this case. Performance combat could look a bit brutal for the tournament at first glance but some slight alterations here and there should solve that.

[Elthbert]

Edinoiz wrote:

If you happen to have access to Ultimate Combat there are rules there for both Duels and Performance Combat, two things that I think might fit in on this case. Performance combat could look a bit brutal for the tournament at first glance but some slight alterations here and there should solve that.

Thank you