Skip to main content

RPG Sports: Olympics


In a previous post, we took some time to think about adding sports to our tabletop games as a way to have the excitement and fun of combat without the danger. You might bring in something with a team effort, an interestingly-themed skills challenge, or traditional one-on-one “combat” without the risk of character death. Sports are a great way to add a moment of lighthearted fun after serious developments in a campaign. Without the fear of losing their carefully-crafted and developed character, players can test different skills, try their luck, and maybe even win a few minor prizes. With the Paris Olympic Games underway, all of these things come to mind as tabletop inspirations, but what else can we garner from our real world’s major quadrennial sports event to help enhance your games?

Olympic Campaigns

Just having an Olympics (or equivalent) within your gaming world can be a multi-part adventure or even a full campaign, just in itself. Think of all the set-up that goes into the Games in our own world. You have the journey to the event. Training to be the very best, not only better than the competition, but better than all predecessors. Qualifying for the different events. The actual games themselves. Numerous awards to be handed out. Not to mention the potential controversies surrounding each and every one of those. And that's before we even get into building out a setting! While you’re welcome to base yours in the modern version of the Games, there are so many potential places we could take this. You could go with a more historic bent and set things back in the style of the  ancient Greeks, with all of the related trappings. Fantasy Olympics presents a number of challenges (and opportunities) with a wide range of many different kinds of people, plus the possible inclusion of magic and magic items. You could go post-apocalyptic survival-style with rewarding winners and eliminating losers. You could even delve into the realms of sci-fi or space opera - a game of Zero-G Football or Parrises Squares, anyone? You might even have an Olympics that is multiversal, bringing in all sorts of time periods and genres. Your Olympic Games can fit into just about any society imaginable with enough planning and forethought. Don’t let your available time stop you, though, dive right in and build the event together with the players at your table. They’ll be even more invested in the games they helped create, even if their characters aren't participating themselves.

This isn’t just about setting, though, who about the plot? Your tabletop Olympic Games could serve as the backdrop for a heist. A mission to prevent a war that is coalescing. The rivalries and prejudices different factions bring to the games, and all the friction that brings, is bound to provide issues for the players to solve. Corruption to uncover, cheating to discover or deter, and outside threats of all kinds. Your players might be participants, organizers, security, or just there for the show.

It’s Tradition!

There's a wealth of Olympic Tradition that can be used as inspiration for your games. Starting toward the end, there's the victory prize: in our world, medals of gold, silver and bronze metals. In your world? They could be special temporary magic items, a prestigious access pass, or anything, really. It might just be a certain amount of wealth or a bestowed title. Turning to the opening ceremonies, you can let your descriptions run a bit wild. The weirder the better really, but it's best to stick to a theme. Perhaps even letting your players narrate the entrances of people from their character’s homelands... and that brings to mind the idea of national anthems. Do your player (or their homelands), have a particular song or chant that they bring to the game? It might even be something your players adopt to use with their own adventuring party. While we have our own ceremonies, strange as they can sometimes be, yours can be whatever you like... just make sure to include your players.

While you may or may not include the sports themselves in your games for the players to participate in, you can still bring a lot of inspiration from the Olympics into your tabletop sessions. It doesn’t matter if it's a new tradition, a new campaign idea, or some other concept. Trying out those wild new ideas can be half the fun, and provide unique depth, detail, and history to your gaming worlds.. Even if it doesn’t catch on at your regular table, you can still learn something new to put to work in future sessions. You’ve still added something to your world, even when it's only temporary and fleeting. And you can always try again, but maybe wait awhile…how about four years? Until next time, enjoy your dice, the Olympic Games, and the olympic games within your own games. 

- A

Send questions, comments, and fast food Olympic tie-in horror stories to neversaydice20@gmail.com or Tweet us @nevesaydice2.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Devouring "Roll for Sandwich"

Good timezone to Never Say Dice fans, adventures in Aardia, TikTok and beyond. No, I’m not the Roll for Sandwich guy (neither of us is), but if you haven’t heard of him already (or especially if you have), this week I wanted to talk about the TikTok/YouTube show Roll for Sandwich hosted by Jacob Pauwels. The premise is exactly what it sounds like: every episode, the host rolls dice to determine the various items that comprise a sandwich (except when the episode is about s’mores). He assembles the sandwich, then actually eats and critiques his random creation. If it sounds pretty niche to you... it is. You should  probably be both a bit of a foodie and a TTRPG fan in order to truly appreciate both the strange layered creations and the roleplaying references. My eldest son has been so interested in the web series that he decided he wanted to try doing it for himself. So, for the last week of summer this year, we took stock of our cupboards, made our own charts, and proceeded to consume
Read more

An Introduction to Risus

While roaming the internet in the late nineties/early noughties, I came across a TTRPG that was rules-lite and called itself “the anything RPG.” Want to play a high school cheerleader/samurai-in-training part-time goth enthusiast fast food cashier? The hot pink stick figure art glared back at me. Nah, not interested. But I was wrong. The stick figures were actually purple, and Risus is a surprisingly versatile, handy and down right fun TTRPG. I wouldn’t figure that out though till I discovered it again several years later. Even though it was written as a comedy system (and somewhat lighthearted response to GURPS) you really can use it for just about anything: space opera, high fantasy, pulp, vampires,western, any movie setting you could think of...seriously anything. You can read a far more detailed and interesting history in a number of other places should it strike your fancy. It is time for your Risus indoctrination introduction. Risus really is versatile and fairly easy to learn
Read more

The Weather Stone

If the rock is wet, it's raining. If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing. If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining. If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy. If the rock is difficult to see, it is foggy. If the rock is white, it is snowing. If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost. If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost. If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake. If the rock is under water, there is a flood. If the rock is warm, it is sunny. If the rock is missing, there was a tornado (or the Rogue stole it). If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane. If the rock can be felt but not seen, it is night time. If the rock has white splats on it, watch out for birds. If there are two rocks, stop drinking, you are drunk. If the rock is glowing, get to a fallout shelter. Weather Stones have been "prognosticating" the current conditions for as long as…well, probably as long as there have been rocks.
Read more

Willy Wonka - Cartoonish Supervillian or Time Lord?

Every spring, in at least some of the religions practiced in the States, brings yet another holiday full of varied confections: Easter. For some reason, perhaps it’s the candy content or the garish colors associated with the holiday here, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory seems to be the movie that most often comes to my mind. While there are other pieces of media that are more “classically Easter” entries, Willy Wonka just seems to belong here. Perhaps there’s something to those giant eggs, as well. Whatever the reason, it’s in our common consciousness around this time of year, and that has had me thinking about a couple of common internet theories. One common thought is that the titular character Willy Wonka is an incarnation of Doctor Who ’s (only semi-titular) protagonist, the Doctor. The other would have you believe that Willy Wonka is a cartoonish supervillian originating in the DC universe, most likely one of Batman’s adversaries. For this post, let’s go over the arg
Read more