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Hey everyone!
In a thread recently the conversation of Golarion Olympics got discussed, and I thought it might be fun to think of events that would be thematically appropriate given the context of Pathfinder 2E as a system.
I kind of imagined each "event" being supernatural in some regard, and more than likely, each one sponsored by a specific member of the primary Pantheon of Golarion's Inner Sea Region:
Abadar - ???
Asmodeus - ???
Calistria - Hide the Queen on steroids? Some kind of Feint trial?
Cayden Cailean - Drinking Contest
Desna - Falling with Style/High Jump/"Reach for the stars"
Erastil - Archery!
Gorum - Boulder Smashing competition
Gozreh - A swim across dangerous tides?
Iomedae - Climbing out of a pit with slicked sides to represent her climb out
of Cheliax (only actual one I think sorta works)
Irori - A task of to test both mental and physical perfection
Lamashtu - ???
Nethys - Casting trial? Where a simple tasks are given that must be accomplished with only the spells you have (more than one way to "beat" the trial).
Norgorber - A fierce game of hide and seek!
Pharasma - Some kind of trial based on how well you can "predict" outcomes or use predictions to win?
Rovagug - Banned for being uncool
Sarenrae - ???
Shelyn - Music/Art show!
Torag - Random weapon/armor forging contest?
Urgathoa - Poison drinking contest!
Zon-Kuthon - Wild Boar catching contest with the Boar labeled "Rovagug"
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I'm sure there are better or more appropriate versions for each deity, I'm actually a bit of a noob on Golarion lore in some regards.
What about you? What do you think would be fun at the "Golarion Olympics" deity based or otherwise? How would you structure rules for the challenges?
Abadar is the main sponsor of the event of course, all the products come from Abadar Merchants.
Asmodeus - Debate contest.
Abadar is the main sponsor of the event of course, all the products come from Abadar Merchants.
That's hilarious.
Asmodeus - Debate contest.
HA! I can't help but imagine a Devil constructing a scenario that's morally ambiguous that Champions are left kinda dizzy!
"The Ultimate Question" type of thing.
Sarenrae encourages skill with the sword in her followers, who also enjoy dancing. A sword-dancing contest would be appropriate.
I consider the Ruby Phoenix tournament to be a version of Golarion Olympics, personally.
Sarenrae encourages skill with the sword in her followers, who also enjoy dancing. A sword-dancing contest would be appropriate.
I consider the Ruby Phoenix tournament to be a version of Golarion Olympics, personally.
The Challenge of Earth and Sky seems loosely inspired as well.
And honestly, the Test of the Starstone is also in that vein too right?
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Thrune would have Halfling Tossing competitions.
Am I correct in assuming that normal (non-magical) people wouldn't have to compete with spellcasters? That only seems fair in most cases (e.g how can a normal person beat a 100 yard dash against a wizard who can just dimension door to the finish line there in 4 seconds?)
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Am I correct in assuming that normal (non-magical) people wouldn't have to compete with spellcasters? That only seems fair in most cases (e.g how can a normal person beat a 100 yard dash against a wizard who can just dimension door to the finish line there in 4 seconds?)
I think it would depend on who set the challenge and the rules.
Like if it was irori, one would assume magic is totally off limits since that’s not an exemplification of bodily perfection.
“Can’t use magic” is a perfectly fine limitation to make, but I’d tend to go with something like “you can never leave the water once you enter the tide” where teleportation isn’t allowed by extension but neither is flying or avoiding swimming in any capacity.
At least that’s how I’d imagine it.
Heck it’s kinda funny to imagine how the rules for such an event would evolve over time. The actual olympics outlaws moves and such all the time (albeit sometimes for the safety of the competitors). Even some moves are named after the people who did them have been banned from competitive play (gymnastics comes to mind).
But much like the swimming event in Harry Potter Goblet of Fire, I think in order to encourage those from all walks of life to participate allowing more than one way to skin a cat when possible sounds more fun but ultimately it comes down to I think how the judges or even the gods or their respective churches would feel about it.
Torag would probably hate someone wishing the perfectly crafted weapon into existence to win a forging contest, as it inherently violates the inherent part of the competition: dedication to the craft and showing a love for it. A rule that limits what you can use to craft the thing (a single iron hammer, forge, and cast) fosters the spirit of the competition and also outlaws most cheese like wishing for a good forge.
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As for the Dawnflower's "sport" specifically, I'm so there with the sword-dancing! I grew up watching ceilidh dancing so it was my first thought, especially given that "Dervish Dance" was sort of their thing in PF1.
The Shelynite coordinated gymnastics/pole team would be stunning as well, of course, though the Zon-Kuthon challengers would just... Nobody really wants to see that, do they?.
I could see spell-duelling being a thing too, not in the classic sense but in a more Olympic Fencing-style points-based sport combat. The Irori contingent would whinge about the sportification of martial arts but the Irori contingent also have some newfound hit points to spare so they can shut their chiseled jawlines.
Speaking of chiseled, I'm not sure that Gorumites would settle for rock-smashing when there's RASSLIN' TA BE DONE. No-holds-barred Pankration between the Gorumites and Irorans and Kurgessites would be a spectacle and a half, I'll say. Tusk-covers on, of course; nothing that can nick an artery is permissible, even if there ARE some healers on standby.
And I've not even MENTIONED goblinball! It's a standard ball-through-the-goal game... except the ball is an opposing player's giant balloon head! Still attached, of course; we don't want a repeat of the wronski incident of '68 now do we?
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Am I correct in assuming that normal (non-magical) people wouldn't have to compete with spellcasters? That only seems fair in most cases (e.g how can a normal person beat a 100 yard dash against a wizard who can just dimension door to the finish line there in 4 seconds?)I think it would depend on who set the challenge and the rules.
Like if it was irori, one would assume magic is totally off limits since that’s not an exemplification of bodily perfection.
“Can’t use magic” is a perfectly fine limitation to make, but I’d tend to go with something like “you can never leave the water once you enter the tide” where teleportation isn’t allowed by extension but neither is flying or avoiding swimming in any capacity.
At least that’s how I’d imagine it.
Heck it’s kinda funny to imagine how the rules for such an event would evolve over time. The actual olympics outlaws moves and such all the time (albeit sometimes for the safety of the competitors). Even some moves are named after the people who did them have been banned from competitive play (gymnastics comes to mind).
But much like the swimming event in Harry Potter Goblet of Fire, I think in order to encourage those from all walks of life to participate allowing more than one way to skin a cat when possible sounds more fun but ultimately it comes down to I think how the judges or even the gods or their respective churches would feel about it.
Torag would probably hate someone wishing the perfectly crafted weapon into existence to win a forging contest, as it inherently violates the inherent part of the competition: dedication to the craft and showing a love for it. A rule that limits what you can use to craft the thing (a single iron hammer, forge, and cast) fosters the spirit of the competition and also outlaws most cheese like wishing for a good forge.
I would assume the rules for every competition would (mostly) explicitly state magic is forbidden and that you must actually do the thing the competition is designed to test. Like if it's a competition to see who is the fastest swimmer, teleporting to the end would disqualify you.
Of course, people would probably try to cheat anyways but we have doping scandals in real life so....same same.
Racial ability score modifications, base speeds, etc make this an organisational nightmare.
If you wanted just a single event for everyone, you'd probably end up with a mess like sailing races, where they have a winner based on shortest time (which no-one really cares about), and a winner based on time multipled by some balance factor created by evil wizards in a sealed tower (which everyone cares about, but no-one agrees that the wizards have the right formula). In the end you end up having events for only one class of boat, and you're now you're back to 300 events.
edit: Yes, you can win your class, but that limits you to creating events that are suitable for multiple classes.
Eh, or not.
Personally I wouldn't account for the differing abilities of various races. So what if race A is faster or race B is stronger. Monks get speed bonuses, and barbarian get strength bonuses (well they did in 1st edition anyways). You don't divide down that deep.
So monks win the foot races typically, watch out for the centaurs, and especially that one centaur monk.
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Racial ability score modifications, base speeds, etc make this an organisational nightmare.
If you wanted just a single event for everyone, you'd probably end up with a mess like sailing races, where they have a winner based on shortest time (which no-one really cares about), and a winner based on time multipled by some balance factor created by evil wizards in a sealed tower (which everyone cares about, but no-one agrees that the wizards have the right formula). In the end you end up having events for only one class of boat, and you're now you're back to 300 events.
edit: Yes, you can win your class, but that limits you to creating events that are suitable for multiple classes.
Or you could handle it like, say, Para-alpine skiing (and presumably other para-sports), where you have three categories for different kinds of impairments, being "standing", "sit-skiing" and "vision impaired". I suppose it's much the same, as there is indeed some dark-magic-calculation modifying the scores based on an individual's level of impairment within those categories, often based on very complex individual impairments, but it all seems to work out in the end. In this case, of course, instead of impairments we're talking about ancestry differences, which tbh have a way smaller range of variance and should be way easier to calculate (if even necessary within-category) given that most will have similar numbers of limbs. Movement speed aside, most single stats will be within everyone's top range and, frankly, when it's the only possible way to run competition, people might just end up dealing. It helps that human versatility probably keeps elvish dominance to the sprints alone, and that's forgetting all the full-armour events that no-doubt happen.
In any case, it shouldn't be framed as multiple winners per-event; I think it works best if there's only one per category, they don't compare categories, and obvs only run competition once everyone agrees on the broad modifiers for physiology. Speaking of broad, Dwarves probably do have to be in a category of their own for most forms of direct physical confrontation since there's nothing else with such a "rock with legs" physiology. The same goes for Goblins, since there's nothing really made of the same stuff as a Goblin, and also they keep running off with the fire.
Okay, so, now I like to think that the "running with the torch" ceremony is actually "dismayed priestess running after the on-fire torch goblin with a bucket".
Also, there's an exclusive Shoony-Ysoki find-the-buried-treasure event. I have decided this and it is true and I will make puppy-dog eyes at anyone who disagrees.
(Also, Claxon makes a good point, though athletes tend to optimise enough that such extreme physiological differences will result in one entire ancestry taking gold in one event if there's not some categorisation. We divide between male and female events irl for a reason. Even if that's sometimes clumsily done.)