While popular medieval pastimes like jousting and archery often feature in campaign settings and adventures, other organized sports barely rate a mention.

Even in fantasy fiction, sports get a short shrift, with a few notable exceptions, such as Quidditch from Harry Potter and Ja’la dh Jin from the Sword of Truth series.

It’s a fun change of pace to get your PCs involved in a game within the game! Players can experience competition without life or death stakes, and GM can set up rivalries and enemies without worrying about whether they’ll be killed by the end of the session. That’s already a win!

Each article in the Sporting Goods series introduces a sport that a GM can incorporate into a fantasy campaign. Given the high fantasy nature of most campaigns, many of these sports have magical or monstrous components. Most are also team-oriented so that a group of PCs can participate (perhaps with some persuasion or modification).

Dungeon Chase

Dungeon delving becomes a spectator sport in Dungeon Chase!

History of Dungeon Chase

Sebastian Voldare was the baron of a small township built around the entrance to a large dungeon. For centuries, the people profited immensely from the money adventurers would spend in town as they entered and left the dungeon. However, this all changed when an adventuring party finally cleared out the dungeon, emptying it of loot and monsters.

The town languished in poverty for over a decade until Sebastian had a novel idea. What if he stocked the dungeon with fresh monsters and traps and created a game that would not only keep adventurers coming back but also draw crowds to watch the spectacle?

After months of planning and construction, Sebastian finished the dungeon’s renovations and held the first match of what he dubbed, “Dungeon Chase.” He offered a monetary prize to whichever adventuring group could escape the dungeon before its defenders caught them. He set up magical viewing crystals throughout the dungeon so spectators could watch the match.

While the first adventuring party to undertake the Baron’s game failed, the game’s popularity grew exponentially, and official rules were drafted for all future competitions. Since then, the game has slowly spread across many worlds, particularly those featuring extensively looted, safe dungeons.

Playing Area

Dungeon Chase’s playing area is unique in that it is a dungeon specially prepared for the game. While no two dungeons are exactly the same, each must contain a starting location and finishing area for the players and a moderately linear path between the two. This path is lined with traps, obstacles, and monsters for the adventuring party to tackle, and is generally well-lit and clean of detritus so spectators can follow the action clearly.

A typical dungeon contains the following:

• At least three trapped hallways or chambers. Common traps include pit traps, revolving blades, rolling boulders, and poison gas.

• At least two chambers with natural or magical hazards, such as pools of lava, thorny vines, or clouds of wild magic.

• At least four chambers holding low-level monsters such as giant rats, stirges, or zombies. 

At least one chamber with a more powerful boss monster, such as a captured owlbear or minotaur.

Teams

A team consists of four to eight adventurers of various lineages and classes, though larger parties are possible in certain dungeons. Teams are generally low to mid level, though dungeons can been constructed for higher-level participants. 

Up to four teams can participate in a single Dungeon Chase match, depending on the dungeon size. Smaller dungeons might only accommodate one or two groups.

In addition, a chase team selected by spectators or organizers enters the dungeon after the adventuring teams to oppose them. A chase team typically consists of a large group of mercenaries or monsters hired by the Dungeon Chase organizers. Typical chase team members range from berserkers and veterans to hobgoblins and ogres.

Equipment

Adventurers participating in a game of Dungeon Chase can take any equipment they might typically take into a dungeon. The exceptions to this rule include any magic item or spell that enables the party to teleport great distances, pass through walls, or otherwise circumvent the path through the dungeon. Further, any magic item or spell that might destroy large sections of the dungeon is prohibited.

The other piece of equipment is a wooden chest filled with 100 pounds of rock that the adventurers must transport to the finish line.

Rules

The rules of Dungeon Chase are relatively simple. Groups of adventurers must transport a wooden chest filled with rocks from the starting line and through the dungeon to the finish line. Along the way, they must overcome the dungeon’s obstacles and while a chase team selected by the spectators pursues them. The chase team begins following the competitors between 10 and 30 minutes into a match.

Teams of adventurers may interfere with each other as long as it doesn’t involve damaging or blocking paths through the dungeon. Killing rival competitors is frowned upon, though how deep the frown is depends on the nature of the event, its viewers, and its organizers.   

The game ends once the adventurers are all killed or captured, the chest or its contents are lost or destroyed, or the adventurers succeed in taking the chest across the finish line.

Adventure Hooks

Here are some ways to introduce Dungeon Chase into your campaign:

• The PCs are tasked with clearing out a local dungeon for a powerful merchant guild that wishes to turn the dungeon into the location for a game of Dungeon Chase. The dungeon is the tomb of a powerful death knight and its wight bodyguards.

• The PCs are invited to participate in a Dungeon Chase match with two other adventuring parties. During the match, a secret chamber unknown to the match organizers is discovered by one of the other adventuring parties. They accidentally unleash the terrible hezrou demon sealed within its confines. The organizers pretend that the demon is part of the game and continue the match rather than abandoning it.  

• The PCs collect a purse of 1,000 gp in a game of Dungeon Chase (perhaps from the previous adventure idea) and are targeted by a local thieves’ guild who plan to steal their winnings.

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