Mini-Game : Drinking

[Roughtrade]

Was going through old material on Myth Site in preparation for moving and ran across some house rules I had developed for common situations in games which there are no official rules, or for which the rules in place were ones I thought did not work the way I desired.

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Drinking Game

The first Adventure Path for Rise of the Rune Lords (Burnt Offerings) has a drinking contest that they made a single roll of the dice, which I found rather anticlimactic. So I revised it. I believe it could be adapted to similar drinking game situations which might occur.

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Drink a Cup with Nora

The object of the game is to manage to drink a mug of water collected from the fish tank behind the bar. The Fish Tank has a Hagfish in it. The locals know better than to try, but they enjoy watching travelers, sailors and adventures give it a go. Side bets are placed no so much on if someone can finish, but more on how long they keep it down before throwing up. The Hagfish has been open for Ten Years and only Twenty Eight people have ever managed to win.

If a Player Character succeed then the PC will (a) win a pouch of coins. (b) Be allowed to carve her name in the rafter above Norah's Tank. (c) Be very famous for several days. (d) Have a permanent +1 on all social skill checks involving any sailor or fisherman in the world who knows he has managed to drink 'A Cuppa Norah' and keep it down. (Obviously more likely in the region than across the other side of the ocean)

The Pouch starts with Ten Silver. It costs the PC One Silver to make an attempt. At 100 Silver, the Pouch is full. The silver is replaced with 10 gold coins, at which point it costs a Gold Piece to enter. If it fills again then the gold coins are replaced with 10 Platinum at which point it would cost a Platinum to enter.

Note: 10 years x 12 = 120 months. 120/2 = 4 months and change. Averaging one winner every four to four and a half months would mean the Pouch normally contains only silver.

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Roll What Kind of Coin is in the Pouch : 1d2 : 1=Silver Coin : 2=Gold Coin.

Add +1 to this roll during a festival and a result of 3 equals Platinum.

Roll How Many Coins in the Pouch : Utterly Variable. For the Festival at the start of Burnt Offerings, I went with 1d50+65 Silver.
Obviously, if anyone else in the group tries after a PC succeeds, there will be silver coins and not so many.

Success requires multiple Fortitude Checks.

Fortitude Check : CR 15 to manage to first swallow without spitting it out while nearly coughing up a lung at the horrible smell. Allowed one chance to refill and try again without paying entry fee again. Second failure means you have to pay again to make the try.

Fortitude Check : CR 17 to finish the cup in one draught (Not a requirement to win, but points for looking cooler)

Fortitude Check : CR 21 to actually keep it down without throwing up. PC will vomit in 11 rounds minus the amount which they failed the check. Example. PC failed CR by 1, they managed to keep it down for ten rounds. If they fail the check by 5, then they keep it down for six rounds.

Second Try : If a character wishes to try a second time within twenty four hours of a failure, all penalties increase difficulty by +2 as character is fighting against the memory of how bad it was last time.

After That : If a character fails and wishes to continue trying, it's your money and the Hagfish is more than happy to take it. Increase difficulty of all CRs by +1 for each successive try.

If Character waits one week before trying again, all CRs reset to normal value.

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Other Adjustments.

Drink a Cup with Nora was for a game set at First Level.

For higher level games, the GM may wish to adjust the CRs upwards.

[Tecmes]

An issue that pops up in drinking games is that players will claim their PC has more or less ale fortitude depending on their species or background. You might want to account for that ahead! The problem is that most of them will claim a bonus...dwarves... elves... orcs...fighters... clerics of Cayden...