One thing I loved in our session (and it happened a few more times than in my report) was the event organizer’s power to stop time.

One interesting “reality-show-like” way to use this would be to have the narrator stop the show for a few seconds and have him interrogate the player about how he is feeling at the moment.

I’m often wondering about shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” where the participants are commenting on what is happening right now as if they
weren’t aware of what’s coming next.

A rift in the time-space continuum would work.

Eric Maziades last blog post..Dungeon Reality Show

Having experimented with derision as a price for failure, I can assure you that the desired effect of annoying the Player works. What’s even better is to watch that annoyance turn into smug satisfaction when the character finally succeeds in his task!

I agree, preventing players to have to sit out a competition due to early elimination is desirable. So you could go with the respawn idea; which would mean having a cleric nearby that resurrects fallen characters, or for more fun: a druid to reincarnate fallen characters.

Humiliation is indeed also a good one; we all know for a fact that most PC’s get infuriated when an NPC rips on them, so the commentator could be a particularly vicious individual to ensure that this happens. In the cases of pin-the-horn-on-the tarrasque (love the name!) or capture the flag-golem, you could install some handicap, team-related or not, to ensure that fallen players get back in, but still suffer from their failure. In the end, however, I think the particularly vicious commentator, some laughter at the failing player’s expense, combined with a few snooty remarks and some mocking glances from the GM would be best way to go!

(Or you polymorph into a chicken or frog for a few rounds upon death, which might even be advantageous in some situations)

The Getting out of Debt plot hook is great to catch some storytelling/psychodramatist PC into the whole thing, dragging the whole party behind him/her.

Good stuff!

Similiar is a manga by the same author called Gambling Emperor Zero, which has even weirder games in a competition for 3 trillion yen (this one follows two young prodigies as they compete). Zero is not legally available in english, though I’m sure you could find (and I might be willing to share) some slightly less legitimate means of obtaining it.

They’re both really enjoyable in a kind of camp and ridiculous way.

I seriously think i will build a small delve around this idea.

Kind of thinking Running Man for D&D

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I can already see the titles:
“Who want’s to be an Overlord?”
“Are you smarter than a 5-year old?”
“Deathtraps & Monologues”
“Before I kill you Mr. Bard”

Awesome!

@Flying Dutchman: I really like the idea of “pin the Horn on the Tarrasque’s head!” One of the challenges of creating such scenarios is that I would try to respect the fundamental design choices of D&D 4e and find obstacles that don’t kick a player out of a session for long periods of time.

One of the ideas I had (and a friend reminded me about it yesterday) was to borrow from Japanese TV shows where failure leads to humiliation. This concept could totally work in the description-rich environment of DRS.

@Yan: It really is a rich concept that can borrow from all over the entertainment sphere. It would probably not be good for a long term campaign as the silliness would likely become stale, but as one shots every so often (or Convention games) the concept is a clear winner.

All kind of other things can be done with the concept of show.
Have fan come on the arena/set to touch their idol.
Have crowd cheer or throw stuff.
Have a magical spotlight fall on the set.
You can borrow idea from so many place.

Definitely a dwarf-tossing competition; or bomb-bowling with goblins as pins. Also small fortresses or capture the flag (where the flag is an animated object that will attack you) would be nice. But also a real-life chess game would be kind of funny; only problem with that is that you’ll need a lot of supplementing (N)PC’s, making the rounds long and most likely boring. Or you could chain everyone together and force them through a gauntlet, which is fun because players will have to work together or see their effectivity limited by a number of corpses chained to them. Or climb-the-tarrasque, while numerous smaller creatures (a tarrasque-equivalent of fleas) attempt to thwart the PC’s from planting their flag on the head of the tarrasque (which would be the ultimate goal). Also never underestimate the fun of two ships attacking each other, with climbing the mast, tossing anchors, and boarding the other ship while yelling “arrr”!

Ooh! And for each smaller competition you win, you should be awarded one Retry. A retry should imply that if you come to die, you will be reanimated into a random creature/undead (with a CR up to your level at death) to continue participation. Which is awesome if you become a ghoul or an owlbear, and which sucks if you become a little gnomey.

Basic Concept which could be entertaining here: Imagine this uberpowerful entity being the keeper of a sort of Island of Misfits. You know all of those evil sorcerers, dread warriors, and crafty aristocrats who have disappeared from a million games over the years?

Perhaps they’ve all been collected. This would be a really entertaining game for DMs (or worldbuilders) to be able to do. Imagine that wonderful villain in your setting being transported into a game of death against all of the great villains in the various mythic histories of our world and the thousand settings which exist right now. Let them bring those great villains that they’ve never had a chance to use to the table… to battle against other great villains who have been brought low by various chivalrous shiny-toothed all-do-wells who just had to stop their chances at global domination.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

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