So I've got 5 PC's (wizard, druid, ranger, fighter, oracle)
and about 15 other NPC's (a mixed bag of farmers/commoners, merchants, and some rowdy class lvl'd fighters) in a typical Bar. One of the bigger fighters will kick off the fight by trying to grab a girl, and for a while be a 2 sided fight (between everyone and those fighters), before devolving into punches everywhere...
My question is, how do I make that combat fun for everybody? Are there better ways to do this? Suggestions on fun details or game mechanic's I can add?
Heck, I'll even take stories of your own bar room adventures, simply as useful inspiration.
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In my opinion, the best fun you'll have doing this is with the liberal application of combat maneuvers, improvised weapons, untrained unarmed attacks, and nonlethal damage rules.
Dirty tricks, grapples, trips, disarms, overruns, bull rushes - you definitely don't have to (or even want to) make this a lethal combat encounter.
Let patrons (and players) provoke attacks of opportunity. As long as everyone is doing things nonlethally, the worst outcome is going to be a night in the drunk tank. That knowledge in and of itself can be very liberating as a player to know that there aren't any serious consequences, so they can afford to do silly things.