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.
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.
This is an introduction to the seventh campaign set in the World of the Everflow. The most significant difference between these and the previous campaigns are that the player characters are all members of the Proctors, a group that once completely restricted magic from entering the Land of the Six Kingdoms.
The campaign will start in the city of Ras Rurulit in Daoud shortly after the PCs were dropped off there. They have a safe house. Operating in the city either in hiding or in open defiance of convention will be up to the party.
Your group of Proctors are working together to capture and contain the Book of the Word and the Book of Dance, two groups of Scholars active in southern Daoud. You are authorized to use any measures necessary to control this group. They have been teaching well beyond just a Scholar and two Students – end them.
Background
In the last passing of the Dragon, the fourth moon, the World of Everflow experienced the return of magic, the introduction of goblins with smog teknologies, and empowerment of animal companions. Native to the Lands of the Everflow, the Kin all have animal companions, some learning minor magics. Rarer are those whose companions are empowered.
The fey Ken object to these souls casting spells. Their Proctors crush the spread of magic and seek the Lorebooks from the seventeen schools where spellcraft was trapped. As the Ken invade from the west and the Six Kingdoms’ borders are rewritten, a forgotten peoples float on airxips from the north. The Kon are a smog-punk society with klackety, noisy tek coming from an island of guilds and invention.
Heroes rise with their animal companions joining their journey. From humble beginnings these heroes show the power of fellowship and share knowledge with the greater world.
In this case, the PCs are not heroes. They are not antiheroes. They are the Ken, people of knowledge, hoarding and limiting magic from the common people in the Six Kingdoms.
This map is what the initial intelligence of the Ken thought the Six Kingdoms looked like. It’s quite wrong. Your group of Proctors are in the far south of Daoud, a rough land similar to the non-desert coastal Maghreb.
Grand Conflicts
Proctors versus Scholars
Proctors versus the rare Gobkon in the south
Do the Elder Dragons really know best?
Factions
The Book of the Word – book based spellcasters
The Book of the Song – music based spellcasters
Fleet of the Silent Knight – Daoud’s force responsible for maintaining control of the bay.
Isarnalijik and Isamamimir’s Squadron – the remnants of land forces who insist they are the rightful heir to the desert lands.
Rumors
There are many colleges and universities in the land.
Magistrate Sas Rurulit is the greatest singer in Daoud’s history.
Ishurrumukuf has been taken over by one of the trade guilds of Qin
A great storm is coming from the West.
Facets
The group are a collection of secret agents or special operators. They may act undercover or violently during the mission.
They have one ally to start, Sabrinigha. She runs the safehouse and is a halfling of the born generation slowly discovering spell craft.
The lack of animal companions will be obvious. They’ll need a cover story.
In traditional D&D this mission would be Lawful Evil.
Variant Rules
Ken start with a Feat that grants a 1st level spell such as Magic Initiate.
Short rests are 8 hours. Long rests need sanctuary and 12 hours. This leads to a pace more similar to a novel.
Find Familiar and similar spells are banned from PC knowledge at the start of the game.
50% of Enchantment spells no longer exist. This will not impact your spell choice.
Use point buy or standard array for starting attributes. If you want something random, the redrick roller gives random point buy valid stats.
Start at 7th level because the Proctors are powerful.
There are several custom backgrounds and tools available. We will use cultures, not languages. Each character will start with “Daoud (Common to the area) and Ken” for their cultures. If your PC would have more languages discuss that with the DM.
Each character will start with 500+1d10*25 gold to spend on mundane items or to put in a pouch and use as spending money.
Each character will start with TWO COMMON magic items, plus an Oriq Mask (see Strixhaven) and one RARE item based on the character’s Background and role within the Proctors. That Rare item will have story elements to it, may get stolen. May level up. We’ll see.
Each character must be be a spellcaster, but no Druids or Clerics or Rangers. Proctors serve the Elder Dragons, not gods or nature.
Every character must represent one of the Proctor factions – Seeker, Defender, Striker. The chart below shows a few examples.
Seeker
Defender
Striker
Wizard
Evoker
X
Diviner
X
Abjurer
X
Warlock (dragons)
Archfey
X
Fiend
X
Great Old One
X
Sorcerer
Draconic
X
Wild
X
Rogue
Arcane Trickster
X
Paladin
Ancients
X
Devotion
Monk
Four Elements
X
Fighter
Eldritch Knight
X
X
Bard
Lore
X
X
Valor
X
X
Artificer
Armorer
X
X
X
Artillerist
X
X
Alchemist
X
X
Battle Smith
X
Subclasses in other 5e Wizards of the Coast and Kobold Press books may be used as well.
Driving off into the wilderlands of Oregon my thoughts wandered to the D&D world I’ve created. Creating names for places on the fly is hard. Often people get consumed with making something that feels like Tolkien, Jordan, Weis, Bardugo or other greats. These names are complicated and often involve invented languages.
You don’t need to be so impressive that linguists study you.
Your world will feel alive borrowing from our own world.
These are great names for a fantasy space.
Seven Devils Road and Old Seven Devils Road is perfect for any Dungeons and Dragons game. You don’t need to stretch to far for there to be both an incident that involved seven devils and for the now ruling empire to have a newer, more popular road that carries the same name.
West Beaverhill Road could mean that it is west of Beaverhill. I submit that your fantasy world is more Lewis when you have every cardinal direction have a Beaverhill Road. Each of those is for a different beaverhill. Make those beavers talkative and have them part of the empire to capture some Fillory vibes too.
Whiskey Run Road is just down the way from where we are staying. In my fantasy world that road probably started as a minor trail used by some bootleggers. Now, as they gained power within the realm, thanks to their whiskey runs making money, Whiskey Run Road is the main thoroughfare between the capitol and its not-quite-satellite city. What was once a former smuggler cove is now the headquarters of a major influence on a failing state.
Hidden Canyon Road is something I’m fairly certain I passed by driving to get a cranberry turnover this morning. But my memory of this road is fragile as the road may not exist. The canyon might not exist. I never saw it. In a fantasy world Hidden Canyon Road could be a road, and a bridge, that exists over a fey gulch. There are nights when the gulch exists on most days the hidden canyon and covered bridge is just a normal passage with no need of a bridge at all. But on those nights with a few moons waning the fey canyon is back. Elves and their friends come out of the gulch demanding tax from those who use the bridge.
tl;dr
Take a few road names with you and be ready to create them as fantastic locations using the techniques from SlyFlourish’s Lazy Dungeon Master series. These quite normal names create a world of magic and wonder. Use placenames in reality to inspire your fiction.
Most Dungeons & Dragons settings (Forgotten Realms, Eberron, DragonLance, Midgard, Greyhawk) exist in a similar socio-economic state to the very late Middle Ages through the Victorian period. The commonality of magic, the relative wealth and existence of a middle class, and other indicators compare fairly well to those concepts. There is a certain apocrypha that makes it clear that much of the fantasy we roleplay is not from Arthurian legend, instead there are modern concepts such as trade guilds, inns with more individual rooms rather than sleeping halls, massive sailing ships, some worlds even have printing presses producing newspapers.
Something lacking in almost every world set within that many hundred year period is sports. Almost all sporting events mentioned in the literature are individual in nature, essentially replacing things which were in the original Olympics. This ignores the fact that by the time societies had inns, guilds, papers, etc. they had team sports.
By Unknown author – Pietro di Lorenzo Bini (ed.), Memorie del calcio fiorentino tratte da diverse scritture e dedicate all’altezze serenissime di Ferdinando Principe di Toscana e Violante Beatrice di Baviera, Firenze, Stamperia di S.A.S. alla Condotta [1688], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=864734
A partial list of the team sports from around the globe within the time periods that inspire a majority of D&D fiction includes Town Ball (ball, stick, & safety), Mob Ball (ball, foot, & goal), Lacrosse (ball, stick, & goal), Maya Ballgame (ball, stick/hip, & goal), Polo (ball, stick, horse, & goal), Dakyu (ball, stick, & goal with maybe horses), Buzkashi (animal head, horse, & goal), and others – like the predecessor of hockey.
Fantasy Team Sports
Fantasy literature tends to ignore the element of sports. There are some that exist — from the barely mentioned phandrel (team chasing-and-destination) in the Forgotten Realms to, of course, quidditch, which somehow exists in the real world now. The Magicians has welters, which combines chess with magical violence. Strixhaven, the Magic: the Gathering and D&D setting, has Mage Tower and the single reference to Silk Ball (and a map).
Yes, adventures like Tomb of Annihilation, Rime of the Frostmaiden, and Theros capture individual sports.
But we know that the times upon which our worlds are based have a wonderful glut of sports. At the minimum these should be used to add color and flavor to our worlds. Make them part of festivals. Have a red v blue v green v orange v black phandrel contest that interrupts a chase scene, or maybe even becomes part of it.
Still, there’s more available to make your world live and breathe. Not just the Athlete and Gladiator backgrounds, which are great for a hero that specializes in individual sport. Add team sports to your character’s history.
Sports (type): A 5th Edition Tool
Lean into tools for the mechanics. They are an excellent way to add more story to your backstory. The use and specialization in a specific set of tools tells us much about the artisan, the bard, the entertainer and so many other backgrounds.
Expand on your Athlete by adding Sports (type) as one of their tools. Borrow from what was established by Musical Instrument (shawm, etc) for your model. The specific type of sport is purely a flavor and story element, until it isn’t. Maybe, you’ll find a fun town ball bat, or a ball game stick, or whatever, during your journeys and that may provide a clue as to who was in that space prior – DC YY Intelligence (Investigation) with advantage if you have experience with that or a similar sport, for example.
Bringing sports into your game as a tool expands the tales you can tell. Be Waterdeep’s version of Roy Hobbs, or a Sharn’s version of Mara. Maybe during a chaotic match of mob football between Aviceland and Copperwall in the Foxshaw Field you became a folk hero that repelled a skeleton attack.
Don’t Worry About Mechanics
As always, here at Full Moon Storytelling we’re focused on story rather than mechanics. Using a new Tool isn’t going to change your D&D game’s power level, not even as much as Coffee Gear.
Trying to figure out a winner might be necessary, but not with significant frequency. If you wanted to roleplay actual sports something like Blaseball would be a better than D&D. But, if you need a result and want to use the dice, limit the contest to a single roll for each participant on the team (use party sizes of 3 to 6), and have it opposed by an NPC. Through the description of their primary role within the sport and what that character is attempting have them make a roll Athletics or Acrobatics, assigned to an attribute that most fits their action and with advantage if they character is proficient. Then roll the same for the NPC. Have the first team to 3 successes wins that match.
Most games before the codification of rule and laws (baseball and football/soccer in the mid 19th century) could last from sunrise to sunset. If the players succeed on their first three rolls, consider that a game done by lunch. If it takes five, or more due to a bunch of ties, make it last into twilight.
Do not attempt to get deeper into the mechanics than this. Your session doesn’t need hours dedicated to sport. Instead any match should be a way to access new stories told at the table. Instead of hanging at the bar, or boxing – play some Dakyu. Meet some new NPCs based around that event, then hit the tavern to talk about that day’s new star athlete.
Handy Maps for Play
Two-minute Tabletop’s wonderful map works for many structures. There’s a small stadium with markings for halves that could work for town ball or mob ball that develop into a spectator sport.
Welcome to Connor’s Fantasy Stadium battle map, a field of packed earth ready for a clash of gladiators, athletes, or whatever you imagine!
One gap in the official backgrounds is the trope of innkeeper. So many tales that inspired this game consist of an innkeeper (and we’re keeping that slightly different than barkeep) who exists as an NPC. A related topic, and one I wished to amplify is that version of an innkeeper who plies their trade at a frontier stop or waypoint on a much travelled road. The Caravanserai is meant to capture that individual, and the alternate the urban innkeeper.
Along dusty roads and alpine trails there are forts that operate as a rest stop, place to pickup supplies, maybe an opportunity to trade, and a safe enclosure from the dangers of people and nature. You grew up at one of these caravanserais, or moved there when young, learning the lingua franca and other tongues, picking up on the various cultures that came through the walls to spend a night or a week in your safety.
When bandits attacked you helped to defend the fort, as did everyone within. Some may focus on those tales. Others would focus on the caravans traveling with spices and fabrics from lands that others only think of fanciful stories, but for you are the real origins of people you’ve met. You are worldly, without travelling the world until now. Gifted a family heirloom you are off on a journey away from safety, ready to explore spaces that are no longer fiction.
Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Insight Tool Proficiencies: None Languages: Any two (Thieves Cant included) — as always, using cultures is better Equipment: Abacus, Baton (a club with finesse properties), Bell, Blanket (2), Guestbook, Candles (5), Map Case, Traveler’s Clothes, Ink Pen, Heirloom Spyglass, 5 gp
Feature: Warm Welcome
When you first meet new people they usually assume you are friendly. Your demeanor is such to put them at ease. Those being chased, followed, or otherwise harassed seek you for protection and comfort. For the most part, thinking peoples want to be on your good side because you are known to accept those in need, especially those who can pay.
Characteristics: For now, use those from the Folk Hero or pick & choose your favorites. Whenever my background project sees full publication there will be unique characteristics for each of them and feats, because that’s what 2024’s version of the game will have.
You either worked at an inn owned by others, once owned your own small inn, or have left the inn owned by your family as you head out into the world of adventure. Whether you come from a small town or a metropolis, your experiences are generally urban. You know the temples, libraries, parks, and other civic buildings of the neighborhood as well as someone who works or lives there.
People know your inn as a place for visitors and some locals. They know your for your ability to make friends, for your ready weapon to enforce the peace within your building, a willingness to clean up a mess, and that you always have the right key available.
Changes from Caravanserai
Replace the Animal Handling skill with Persuasion or Intimidation.
Replace the equipment of the Caravanserai with the following.
Equipment: Abacus, Any Simple or Martial Weapon, Bell, Blanket (2), Guestbook, Candles (5), Map Case, Traveler’s Clothes, Towel or Rag, a Key Ring, Ink Pen, 10 gp
This map from Newbie DM inspired the release of these backgrounds. Every innkeeper should have an inn they left when they started out on their adventure. There are many reasons to leave that life, some by choice and others more sinister. When creating an innkeeper or caravanserai have a map of that location, and a story about why you left.
I’ll admit, leading with the Caravanserai is inspired by my studies (Near Eastern Cultures and Civilizations, Arabic), my gaming passion for al-Qadim, and my visits to Palestine, Israel, and Kuwait. Also, there are some unique spaces to fill. The heirloom spyglass is a fun trick of creation. Taking that away from the family adds story. Adding a weapon in which the character may not be proficient is a technique I’ll lean into a bit in the backgrounds project. Certain civilian (aka non-adventuring) roles in a society will have a weapon, but not necessarily be good at using it.
Whether the Silk Road or ancient mountain pass, travel routes have always, in every culture and geography, needed the safe respite away from brigands, bandits, wild animals, and extreme weather. At this locales the caravanserai and/or innkeeper offers a warm smile, food & board, and information all for just a few coins.
Custom Backgrounds for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
