Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 serkai Jan 19, 2011 7:44:50	Hi there. This'll mark my first post here on the forums, and since I'm rather forgetful about communities like this, I believe my posts will come rarely. Sorry about that. So, the reason I'm typing this post is because I'm leading a D&D4 campaign (homemade, more or less) and I've run into somewhat of a deadlock. The players have reached an old arena town famous for it's tournaments, and so I asked the players what kind of tourneys they'd like to have. Naturally, combat was among the answers I got, but so was dancing as well. So there's my problem, the dance tournament. To keep it simple, I'm thinking of using a one-shot tournament, where the participants use a single skill-challange to impress a group of independent judges who then give a score depending on the result of the skill-challange... The problem is that I don't really know what skills to use , nor the difficulty or complexity of the skill-challange. If anyone has any ideas, please do feel free to reply. Any help is appreciated.
#2 Enlightened1 Jan 20, 2011 0:17:28	Here's a few off the top of my shiny head... -- Dance marathon. Last couple standing wins. Obviously, Endurance is a primary skill; perhaps Diplomacy to encourage the partner, even Heal for awareness of how to deal with fatigue, cramps, etc. Underhanded means to win might include Intimidation or Bluff to fool other couples into thinking you're less tired than you are so they give up. -- Ballroom dance: a panel of judges watch as one or more couples at a time dance for style. Athletics, Acrobatics, Endurance, Diplomacy/Bluff (to add that extra flair) could all be useful here. -- Dance-Off. Solo performances, to 'bust yer moves' before judges or the crowd. Athletics, Acrobatics, Endurance, even Stealth (to pull off surprise moves, use a prop like a baton or a hat). -- Culture Dance. Perform the traditional dance of your homeland, or of other places you know well; think of line dances. All the usual physical skills, plus History to remember the steps and origin; the contest might include giving a brief talk on the place of the dance in the original culture (yes, you could try Bluffing through this too!). A variant of this could be using Religion to do a sort of litiurgical dance, expressing the presence and worship of the gods through dance. -- Ballet. With a strong focus on Acrobatics, but using it to tell a story, usually with a group. All kinds of skills could play in this, from athletics and acrobatics to History and Diplomacy to organize the group, Thievery and Nature to arrange costumes and props, on and on. Another thought: consider the Olympics - floor exercises, rhythmic gymnastics, ice dancing(!), other ice-skating events, even synchronized swimming. Should be some inspriation there for imagery and organization (including dealing with chicanery among the judges). A dance tournament could include any or all of the above, or just be a series of a single kind of dancing (re: Dancing With The Stars!).
#3 serkai Mar 10, 2011 4:48:23	Hi again, and thank you for the kind reply. I know my reply is late, but I did warn about that in the previous post. I used a combination of the Ballroom Dance and Cultural Dance in the tournament, with Acrobatics and Athletics being the main foruc of the challange, closly followed by history and religion for knowledge on how to perform the dance of their homeland. I also added arcana and bluff to as minor skills used to influence the judges (with dire consequences if failed), and all in all, the players seemed to enjoy themselves.