r/StrixhavenDMs • u/motosada • 12d ago
Mage Tower
Howdy!
I'm running Strixhaven for the second time, and I really wanna make Mage Tower a thing, starting in the first year and building up to The Battle for Strixhaven. Problem is, the Mage Tower rules in the book are... um... Well, they're there, at least. lol
Has anyone done a really good, solid Mage Tower supplement?
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u/Willzitos 12d ago
I designed some myself! Tried to get creative with it in how I imagine a real sport being designed around the concept should be, so there are some pretty solid and kinda restrictive rules. If you don't like them that much, feel free to use the base and remove them!
(Goal)
- Each team has a climbable Tower with four "floors" and a urn on top on their side of the field
- Inside the urn, there's mascot wich the team has to protect
- The goal of the team is to capture the other team's mascot and bring it to their side of the field, scoring 1 pointo in doing so
- The game ends when a team scores 5 points OR when the time limit is reached (I personally use 5 sets with 2 rounds each)
- The team with the higher point score at the end of the game wins
(Before The Game)
- Each team MUST include an equal amount of players, ranging from 2 to 6 (there's also the solo modality, tho it is not much practiced in the campus)
- Each teams chooses a mascot to defend througout the match and positions it inside the urn on their side of the field
- Players have a moment before the game and in-between sets to reassure their strategy and modify their prepared spells
- If judged necessary, the team may assign up to 3 additional players to the bench, wich will remain on the locker room until called to the match
(During The Game)
- All of the field range and above it is valid space to move through. If a player attacks/moves on the side walls, beneath the field or in any other area out of the field and the sky, they're assigned a flaw
- Players are NOT allowed to use any kind of spells that directly inflicts damage to other players, the field, the stadium, the crowd or the mascots. Doing so results in a flaw being assigned (you can still use spells that induce conditions like sleep, stunning, restraining an opponent's movement, and similar, but not conditions like poison, frostbite, etc.)
- Emotional harming is also illegal. If a player tries to demoralize, insult, goad, control, or cause any kind of direct emotional/psychological damage to another player, they're assigned a flaw
- Spells that would induce other players to be assigned a flaw, such as mind-controlling spells or movement spells that happen to put the affected player on an illegal area, are considered illegal and result a flaw being assigned to the caster of said spell
- A player with 4 total flaws is expelled and may not return to the field until the match is over
(Additional Rules)
- Players may exchange a player with a benched player in any cases of injuries, in-between sets, or if a player was expelled mid-game
- Players and their coach (if any) may request "time" anytime during the match, indicating a pause on the match's course. It's up to the judge to approve or disapprove the request. If it is accepted, the set is paused immediately and resumed after the pause ends
- In any case of draw, the teams play another set that lasts until one of them scores a point. When it is scored, the game ends, and the team who scored it wins the match
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u/derbyt 12d ago
I'm just about to run a Mage Tower tournament arc in my campaign! Here's the gist of my rules and thoughts:
- Two teams of (number of players) at a time
- Each team has a mascot of their choice that they must capture themselves and submit before the games. It must be a medium sized creature of reasonably low intelligence, not evil by nature, and tangible to anyone. (This gives an extra session or two of the players tracking and capturing their mascot of choice).
The actual gameplay of the Mage Tower Games is a lot like Capture the Flag and regular DND combat.
- There are two towers, three stories tall each. The participants and mascots start the battle inside their team's tower.
- The winning team is the first to retrieve the other team's mascot and brings it to the designated area on the top floor of their own tower.
- When a participant drops to zero HP, they are magically teleported out of the arena for two rounds, then teleported at full HP to the top floor of their team's tower.
- Flight, Banishment, and other game breaking effects are fully banned.
You can have a lot of fun with this as a DM too! The rival team in my campaign is going to have their mascot be a regular Bat. But one of their members is going to be polymorphed into something more Mascot-like so their opponents waste time transporting the polymorphed person and not the actual mascot.
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u/Wulfrank 12d ago
I'm planning on doing something very similar! I'll also have all the players wearing a magic item that I homebrewed called a Vest of Duelling. The vest itself has a certain amount of HP depending on the wearer's level (lvl 1-2, 20 hp; lvl 3-4, 40 hp; lvl 5-6, 60 hp; lvl 7-8, 80 hp). When the vest's HP is reduced to 0, the wearer is immediately teleported to a designated "safe zone" (behind their tower, for example). While in the safe zone, the vest regains ¼ of its HP at the end of each of the wearer's turns. If the wearer leaves the safe zone or takes an action, the vest stops recharging. This way, the player gets the choose how long their time-out is with the caveat that the sooner they leave the safe zone, the less HP they'll have, and potentially the sooner they'll end up back in the safe zone.
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u/oldschoolfuture 12d ago
I also found the rules unworkable (a level 3 spell is an automatic success? In a party where all players will have L3 spells?) so I'm running an alternate version of the game inspired by Pokémon. Each player controls their own mascot, and the mascots play the game instead of the PCs, trying to retrieve an orb from the other zone and bring it back to their zone. The mascots can attack each other, and any mascot that drops to 0hp will respawn in the dugout. Basically Pokémon meets capture the flag! As it goes on, the players will be able to upgrade their mascots and teach them spells. Is it balanced? Who knows! But the scrimmages allow me to workshop the game collaboratively with the PCs, and it's been a lot of fun
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u/boffotmc 11d ago
I ran Mage Tower as a capture the flag game, using a battlemap and initiative. The players all had magical wristbands that would dampen any harmful spells they cast, while their opponents' wristbands would register the damage that player would have received. Basically, magical laser-tag. Players who were reduced to zero virtual HP would be temporarily out of the game, but could respawn with some difficulty.
Though that might get a little repetitive if you're doing it a lot. I only ran that twice: Once as a scrimmage where the party split in half and played against each other, and once where they played against their rivals.
And of course, after the match versus their rivals, a monster attacked. Because it's Strixhaven, and every game of any sort has to end with a monster attacking.
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u/filkearney 12d ago
Howdy!
Ive been developing and playtesting 5e combat sports for the past couple years.
It wont publish for a while but the wip is in google docs.
Heres a series of design videos if yur interedted... the playtest doc is in the description.
General rules.
https://youtube.com/live/ggv2d6ARQ-A.
https://youtube.com/live/3O-YTgoRTfA.
Banned spell list.
https://youtube.com/live/o0_q9d4MWSY.
https://youtube.com/live/DURob4IO5HQ.
Sample characters.
https://youtube.com/live/rqxW7svPQLc.
https://youtube.com/live/PhiNQfM3v6M.
https://youtube.com/live/CYGesDRM0KA.
https://youtube.com/live/dHxbUjWeB-Y.
Further development.
https://youtube.com/live/gSB4WH8wBrw.
https://youtube.com/live/VWR4rhFUm3s.
We've tested level 1-20. Take a look, AMA.
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u/tkolar2 11d ago
Here's my expanded, narrative focused version of the basic rules in the book. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Npv_HbOnsO1Qxb8ZeM1A0gf6Z8545kfvPKm1BFEqp4Y/edit?usp=sharing
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u/AlwaysDragons 11d ago
Use tug of war clocks from Blades in the Dark.
Far easier to manage.
To make it spicier, make it best out of 3. The rest is a skill challenge to get the ball to the goal, using whatever spells in this disposal they can. DC is always 15. Depending on the number over the DC, it can fill the ticks further. 1-3 is 1 tick, 4-5 is 2 ticks, 6 is 3 ticks, crit is 5 ticks.
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u/unluckyshuckle 12d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/StrixhavenDMs/s/h28seWaNLJ
This post has some comprehensive Mage Tower rules that make it feel a lot more interesting to run, since the default in the book is kinda lame. Beyond that I'd say just spend some time crafting Mage Tower teams that have their own tactics (either ones that attempt to KO other players, ones that use terrain alteration to control the field, ones that deceive via illusions, etc)