As part of the Worlds to-go! The Elysians Kickstarter I pitched PJ the idea of adding sports inspired by this magical world that is a conjunction of city-states, godly wilderness and island-hopping villagers. The microsetting we’re going for has some ancient Greek and Roman inspiration, flexing into similar tropes taken by the Percy Jackson series, a dash of Narnia without the chivalry and because I’m me dashes of magic in all things.
We’ve released a sample of the sports rules over on Drivethru RPG.
Sports in the 5e, the Fields of Elysia
The project has a few differences from my past writings on sports in D&D.
- Sports on the Fields of Elysia doesn’t use the Tools rule.
- It leans into narrative as mechanics. The concept here is to describe the action your are taking using your specialty (an advanced 5e rule), skill and attribute in unique ways.
- Normally I ignore individual sports as they can typically be done with a one roll roll-off. But Elysia had to have something inspired by the original multi-national sporting competition. So I added the Pentiad.
- As the peoples are emulating the gods (a fun bit of lore I enjoy) there’s no such thing as cheating. Borrowing from The Magicians, I leaned into the concept that the gods have minds beyond people’s minds. Emulating the minds of gods meant no cheating. There’s no cheating! Do whatever you want for victory — that’s what the gods would do. Pursue victory using spells or even attacks. Just don’t kill people.
- Throwing Stars is based off an ancient Roman juggling competition, adding in a dash of mysticism around the creation of constellations and turning it into a team event. Combat juggling is a modern thing that should be captured in this lore too. Throwing Stars takes combat juggling with magic and then instead of awarding points on surviving, awarding points on the artistry of the creation — a divine act.
When Throwing Stars what object or magic will you create to impress the gods?
You can check out Sports on the Fields of Elysia for free for a few days. It’s a proof of concept, not a final rule set. If the Kickstarter continues on its strong path you may seen the final version of the rules, along with two other team sports.
Try out the rules for sports. Tell us what you think.
Full Moon Storytelling 