A FRIENDLY COMPETITION aybe in the depths of the Fey Wild or in the magical arts district ofa great city, or the tent ofa travelling salesman, an adventuring party might encounter a jovial gnome advertising a thrilling game of skill where for a small entry fee a group of participants can test their mettle and fight against their closest friends with no consequences at all. Transferring their awareness into adorable wooden toys that battle to the death on a stage of their own creation, they can finally answer the age old ‘question: "Which of us would win ina fight?" Summary In this 25 hour adventure for players of any level the party stumbles onto a travelling stall that advertizes a chance for them to fight eachother with no consequences, Should they accept, the players work together to build a miniature battlemap in a wooden arena on a table, then have their minds transfered into miniature wooden toys of themselves so they can fight eachother to the desth on the stage they built. Who will be the last one standing? paneer nne he WHY USE THIS? Many adventuring parties reach a point in their journey where they think it would be fun to duke it ‘out and see who among them would be the last ‘one standing in a friendly Battle Royale. However some players can have trouble fully engaging, with that premise. Simply saying "this isn't canon” is ‘enough for some, but many need more reassurance that their gentle character would reasonably attack their best friends with a deadly sword. This adventure allows for a PvP Battle Royale to happen within the canon of your adventure in 2 way designed to keep every player involved and ‘engaged all the way to the end even if combat is not their cup of tea, and to make the lack of stakes a clear as possible to everyone. Hopefully with whats provided here, nothing will be able to get in the way of everyone getting to let loose and enjoy some good old PvP chaos! v - = INTRODUCTION ‘During a lll in their adventures, the adventurers come upon a tent witha loud decorative sign that reads "Super Clash of Brotherhood”. A gnome in large hat stands outside shouting ins carnival barker voice to anyone who walks by “Test your mettle, friends! Come in and see how you would fare in pitched battle against your closest compatriots! No chance of injury, some chance of bruised epos and 100% ‘chance of Fun! Upon entering they see another adventuring party standing around a table excitedly looking down into a model wooden collossetm. Inside the collosseum they can see that tiny ‘wooden toy versions of each of the party are battling in the arena. When the final toy shatters its opponent to splinters with miniature punch, a dragonborn standing above the table jumps and cheers while a human barbarian curses in frustration, After the winner is rewarded and the group leaves happy, The gnome, whose name is Skrimblefitz, welcomes the players and begins to explain the game. PHASE 1: BUILD YOUR FIGHTER Scrimblefitz hands each player a blank wooden humanoid ‘mode! with articulated joints, similar to a small artists ‘mannequin. As they hold the toys in their hands, each one magically transforms to reflect aspects of the character: holding them, until each character is holding a whimsical wooden representation of themselves. Players should be encouraged to describe how their miniature doppleganger Tooks, keeping them crude and clearly made of small household materials. For example a napkin as a rogues cloak of elvenkind tin foil plate armor on the paladin, yarn as a wizards curly red hair, a sewing needle asa fghter's sword, and other such cute nonsense. PHASE 2: THE ARENA ‘To make sure the battlefield doesnt benefit any one player more than others, every player has a chance to build the stage together. Scrimblefitz presents several baskets labelled with point values. In each basket are the items and elements the players will use to build the stage. “4 » The stage elements and their point values are completely up to whoever is running the game. If you are playing in person with miniatures feel free to present anything you can find around the house that seers fun to Build with. Prepared Dn terrain pieces work great but also dollhouse pieces, wooden building blocks, LEGO pieces, or anything you can get your hands on might work. Ifyou use a Virtual Tabletop or online battlemap, the elernents should be anything that you have easily find tokens to represent. VeEXAMPLE STAGE ELEMENTS AND THEIR POINT VALUES ‘point — 2 points 3 points 4 points: 5 points 6 points VOx20 wall 10x50 fe Spiked WallTrap Lightning Pitcher of water to pour on the Pitcher af Acid to pour ae ee cet ee eee orc ea ) feet aes) eae 50x50f olson baloon Taltower_ Secret tmp payer wits down Stara ff that Sem arr (2x ates fir har ce hoca onan ettect ed -Te eile prea Tremere damaged nto apolson "ats only when iis triggered) ‘loue) S20 10x50R 20 ftradusfogcloud 109m 1 room furished house walkway walkvay ernie (Popsicle “ulen house sch) (Chestwithay Chest witha 30 ft'squre room Chest with fandom arandom ey uncommon tare item rar em iam Tree Srrallpool 3 30ftpillars Condor of Large mounted balista ofeed song wind Hazarps ASSEMBLING THE STAGE ies etteaeect reneenemret teats Et payee eG ie acne pce et cease ee have (or 2 if you havea big party Or want to ced things eee ere ee ae eee ea movement Iniative Hazards which affect large ateas and taking the at 20 ro, are wiggeted atthe end ofeverycound at inatve 20, and (On their tor in intative each player spends thet pont to Permanent Hazarda which presenta constant elect ce sear Seat ete eee ee eee {continuing trough the order one em aa tne unt all eee Hazagp EXAMPLES a - Permanent Traps Initiative Hazards" Fazarés Ifyou are using a VITItis best to give al players the ability to move the terrain tokens while they are Weighted net that falls Fire wall that bisects Bonfire ate er ecovatd errant era on crentunes beneath ie S8) arrange the tokens in groups according to their Spiked Pit Trap Lightning bolts that Pool or point value next to the rap. Once the stage is cross the Stage in anX river of Complete, lock the positions of the tokens or move acid them to the map layer so they wont interfere with Crossbow trap in a wall Radial blast of psychic Icy floor iheimoyement of players’ character tokens luring * energy form astatue the fight [more than one initiative hazard is placed on the map, —_ only one may be triggered each round Assign values to each option using an appropriate die ifthere are 2 hazards, fip a coin, if 3 roll a d6 and divide by 2, etc... and on initiative 20 uring the fight roll to see which hazard triggers. i Hazard damage should be decided based on your party's average level and the intended difficulty of the battle Use the Improvising Damage tables on 249 of the DMG as a guide but keep in mind that getting killed by a trap ina battle royale is usually Linsatisfying forthe player. Lean toward creating hazards that do small damage and impose conditions and status effects instead, Hazards exist mainly to give players creative ways to use their environment against each other, not as ways for the DM to deal damage —_—_—,Puase 3: Reapy...FIGHT! Once the stage is set and the players are ready explains the rules: When the players inhabit their toys they will have access to their full abilities as if they were fully rested. Meaning players start with full hit points and may prepare new spells and attune to new items. Chests take a bonus action to open and any items gained from chests can be attuned to instantly When a fighter is brought to zero hit points the wooden body will be scattered into inert pieces and the characters ‘mind will return to their body. There are no death saves. + Ifa fighter leaves the arena they will be eliminated the ‘wooden toy will become inert and the characters mind will return to their body + Other than that, Anything Goes! ‘To determine everyone's starting positions, each player rolls ad12 and places their toy sel 10 ft from the outer wall atthe corresponding clock position (I2=straight atthe top, ‘right side, 6=bottom, and s0 on). ‘The players reach in and place their wooden fighters in their starting positions. As soon as the toy's feet touch the ground, the character looks up to see their own god-sized hand retreating into the sky and the battle begins! Roll Initiative! Lostne IsNr THE ENp! Whenever a player is reduced to zero hit points and. eliminated, their wooden toy selfs splintered into pieces and they blink awake in their original body standing over the arena. Skrimblefitz offers condolences but then explains that although they can no longer win, they arent out ofthe game. ‘As the fight goes on, the eliminated characters can use their turn in initiative to add remove, or reposition any piece ofthe stage that is worth up to a number of points equal to the number of rounds they have been eliminated for. For example, on a players first tur after being killed they could place a door in an existing wall on their 4th turn after being killed, they could add another initiative hazard, and if they've been dead for 6 turns they could pour acid on the ‘whole floor, forcing all remaining combatants to scramble for higher ground PHASE 4: HERE IS YOUR WINNER! When only one toy is left standing, that character wins and is, returned to their body while the toy continues to do alittle victory dance. The winner is given their reward (DM's choice) by Skrimblefitz and the party heads off to continue their adventure as Sksimblefitz urges them to return anytime and tty again, ll lt ‘The cost of entry and the reward for the winner is up to the DM, but be careful not to give rewards with any significant mechanical benefits as players might tr to strategize based on which of the party they think needs it the most. When in doubt a good reward is just to let the winner take the toy Version of themselves home with them as atrophy, either as an inert wooden toy, ora lightly magical animated object that can still move around and make gestures. eekY(‘l}@}f}&°QQG..APPENDIX: VARIATIONS PLAYING WITHOUT A DM ‘This adventure is designed such that all elements outside the players control are transparent or randomized, which means that with very small adjustments, itis possible to run this adventure fairly with the DM as one of the combatants, or even with no DM at all making ita useful one-shot for a session when the party's normal DM canit make it but the players want to play anyway. This is recommended only for relatively experienced groups as it requires a lot of trust and, familiarity with the rules, but as long as everyone is working together in good faith to make it work, it can be done with, very little hassle Prayer As DM Ifyou would lke to run this battle royale as a player and make sure that your role as DM doesn't give your character any advantages, simply make these adjustments: * Before the fight begins announce that all saves and ability checks that are called for will have the same DC which, should be equal to 10-+ the party's current proficiency bonus. + Also announce what the damage of all the hazards and, ‘raps will be and what conditions they will impose if activated Once players have been guided through the setup process and battle has begun, you should have very little responsibility as a DM since the only moving parts are the players who can handle themselves. All you should worry about is handling the traps and hazards, and calling for ability checks and saving throws when you see that they are necessary, and roleplaying as Serimblefitz. As long as you are ‘honest with yourself and your party, you make sure any knowledge you have from being DM is proactively shared ‘with everyone, and you defer to party consensus when there are disagreements about rulings, you will be able to participate ina fair fight with a clear conscience. DM-Less GAME In order to play with no DM at al it's possible to treat this document like you would a rulebook fora board game. All players should have access to the adventure text so they ean, refer to them at any time. Someone may take charge of explaining the structure and the rules, guiding everyone through the setup process, but they should not have any ‘control over the game world like a DM. The party can work together to collect the pieces A player can volunteer to roleplay as Skrimblefit or the party can decide to ignore the ‘character and focus on the mechanics of the game. Once battle starts, the game can rely on each players knowledge of, their character sheets and the D&D combat rules to carry you through the fight. When playing the game in this way, use the same adjustments to the rules as with the previous variation, as ‘well asthe following adjustments: + When a combatant attempts an action that seems especially challenging, another player can call for a skill, check. Any other player besides the one attempting the action can then veto that call, and ifno one vetoes the player must make the check with the same DC as all other saves and checks. ‘+ Encourage everyone to visually describe their own actions, including reactions to damage and things outside of their control, as much as possible to make up for the Jack of narration Credit: Sander Goldman