RE: Multi-way contests

From: Bruce Ferrie <bruceferrie_at_...>
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 21:11:01 +0100

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Rennell [mailto:steve_at_...]
>
> Last night my players ended up in a 5 way horse race. Lots of
> preparation,
> scoping out the competitors, getting advice... It was quite a
> lot of fun.
>
> What should I have done for the first part?

My thoughts on doing a race, having included one in one of my scenarios and not being too pleased with how it ran, are that you should treat the racecourse itself as an adversary for each competitor.

Let's say that Asborn, Beti & Cernald are racing to the top of Windy Hill.

The participants in the contest are:

1. Asborn
2. Beti
3. Cernald
4. Windy Hill 1 (for Asborn)
5. Windy Hill 2 (for Beti)
6. Windy Hill 3 (for Cernald)

Asborn, Beti & Cernald can make AP bids against "their" hill, to represent their attempts to race to the top. As they make their own hill lose AP, they are getting to the top. Whoever defeats their hill first* has got to the top first.
If they want to play dirty, they can make AP bids against the other competitors in the race. This may or may not bring the wrath of spectators down upon them, depending on how "fair" the race is supposed to be.

Each hill, in its turn, can make AP bids against "its own" competitor. It might have abilities like Steep 17, A Long Way to the Top 5W, Large Muddy Patch 17 to do this. Indeed, each individual competitor might face a slightly different set of abilities. One of the stages for the race might well be scouting out the ground to see which route up the hill is the easiest.

• Two things to bear in mind, here:
  1. If you want to be really fair to all the participants, they should all get an equal number of turns to scale the hill, on the basis that they're all running at the same time. So if, in round 3, Beti goes first and defeats the hill, Asborn and Cernald get their unused action for the round before a winner is declared. Whoever has driven "their" hill to the lowest AP total is the winner.
  2. Alternatively, you might just decide that the person who succeeds first has won. This keeps things simple and is particularly suitable if you're letting the person who makes the biggest AP bid - and, therefore, biggest effort - go first.

Regards,

Bruce