Campaign Concept: Friends AND Foes

What Are We Making?

I want to talk about a different kind of campaign, one that would probably be more of a short-form one. This could even work as a one-shot, depending on the scale that you want to play it.

This is a tournament-style campaign that would focus a lot on combat. How any DM wants to interpret that, they have the opportunity to. I want to make a game that allows for adventure, but in a fixed setting - a game where who your friends are is just as important as who your enemies are, especially in that fixed setting.

Although the idea of a "tournament game" isn't new, it is something that's a bit out of my comfort zone. I like to run TTRPG campaigns with a lot of roleplay, more so than combat. I want to try and make a game that's a little different. Let's take a look at some ideas for a game like this.

The Setting

Setting can vary greatly in this kind of game. Medieval fantasy? That works. Sci-fi? Absolutely. You could even go so far as to make this tournament something like a mech battle if you wanted to. Some kind of dystopian setting? Just look at The Hunger Games. I want to focus on the minute details of this setting though, and I think those details depend severely on two things: why are the players here and what are they fighting? 

In terms of why they're here, you have two options: voluntary or involuntary. Did they choose to be here or not? Were they chosen to participate for one reason or another, or was there some kind of sign-up sheet? From here, you can design the other NPCs and the arena itself. As I said, this is a contained setting. In my mind, the game takes place entirely in this arena or colosseum or whatever your "battleground" is. Perhaps you take the Hunger Games route and make this game about survival as well as fighting. Perhaps there are rooms and such under or around the arena. 

Then, of course, there's a roleplay aspect to this. If the other NPCs are also here voluntarily, then they have reasons and motivations. What are they? If they're not, then what happened? Why is everyone here? That goes for the other PCs too! Who's to say that they don't all have different motivations? There's potential for party conflict and/or camaraderie there already.

The fights themselves also have a multitude of different ways in which they can be structured. Much of that depends on the enemy they're facing. The way I see it, there are two options:

- Have the party fight other people / adventuring groups. This might require more work on the part of the DM, especially if you're full-on making PC character sheets for each opponent. That could be a lot. However, it would cause the players to have to think more on their feet and strategize a little harder. I also like this more for the roleplay potential, which I'll touch on a little more later.

- Have the party fight monsters. This would probably be easier to manage, and it could also lead to some really cool scenes and combat sequences.

Obviously, you can also choose to combine the two in some way. Maybe they start with monsters and work up to fighting each other. Both situations, I think, could be really interesting for players and also really fun when you get to higher levels.

From there comes the big question: what's the point? Why are the PCs here? If they volunteered, why? If they didn't, why or why not?

The Plot

I can think of a few motivations for groups of people to want a Roman Colosseum or Hunger Games-esque tournament to occur.

- Over-population. Certain people are just randomly selected and have to fight for their lives because some entity (the government, God, etc.) said so. This tournament is viewed as a necessity. Those who are chosen can't get out of it unless someone else volunteers to take their place.

- Cultural norms. Perhaps this kind of tournament is just... normal... in this particular setting. Maybe it's considered honorable to volunteer or be chosen to participate.

- Entertainment. This is just a ploy to keep the masses in line. Bread and circuses, you know? Think: Ancient Rome. Same concept. This type of tournament would also be public and have an audience. The audience may or may not also have some kind of say in how the game goes. Think: reality TV shows with a voting system that involves the viewers "calling in" or what have you.

I'm sure there are other motivations that you can probably think up too, but these were the first that came to my mind.

Another important aspect to this is: what's the reward if they win? Depending on how deadly you make this for your players, you definitely want a reward that matches the risk. Very few people are going to throw themselves into a tournament with life-or-death stakes for something like fame. Fame would be a good secondary motivator but there has to be something else. Like:

- Money. It works for reality TV, why not here? Why not make it enough money so that the characters and their families could live easy lives?

- Food. This is something that would be important in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian society.

- Someone else's life. What if the characters each had someone very important to them? What if, when they lost, that person died?

- Some kind of magic item. Maybe one that grants something like immortality or a use of the "Wish" spell.

PC death might also be something that the table and DM will have to prepare for if you plan on making this a particularly deadly game. DMs, if this is your plan, make sure your players know that. I'd recommend putting in something like a "merge" plan for the tournament. For example, if the party loses a member in a fight, the player then makes a new PC that was the only survivor of their last fight.

Lastly, I want to discuss more about the roleplay aspect to this game, and specifically why I called this concept "Friends AND Foes." This idea works especially well if the players do fight other people, rather than monsters. Obviously, while in this arena with all these other teams, bonds are inevitably going to be formed. Even if they're loose and there with the knowledge that people could die, they're there. So what happens when the party of PCs return from a victory... to find that the team they'd been friends with was killed? Is there a feud between them and the team that killed their friends? Will they get the chance to settle it in the arena? Better yet - and this is where the title comes in - what happens when the PCs are forced to fight the team or teams they'd been calling their friends? Is there a way out of that? Do you have to fight to the death? If the players kill the NPCs, how does that affect them later?

At that moment, that NPC party is both friend and foe, and that idea, I think, could make for a really great, really thoughtful game in a very combat-heavy setting.