Drinking Contests

[jayoungr]

Anyone know good rules for a drinking contest in 5E?

I used the one below once, but it's more about speed. Curious if anyone knows other ways of modeling it.

Drinking Contest:
No puking!
You must finish the most Ale you can in 30 seconds, or drink all 10 Beers.
1 beer/round Con DC 10, +2 every subsequent round
2 Beer/Round Con DC 12, +3 Every Subsequent round
3 Beer/Round Con DC 15, +4 Every Subsequent Round

If you switch # of beers you drink each round, keep the modifiers stacking, but add on from the base DC, Example Below.

If you drink 3 beers the first round, then 1 the next, you'll make a DC of 14(+4 from your previous round then
10 from the base difficulty) Then the third round will be DC of 16, because the +2 from drinking one beer/round., Then you drink 2 beers for the 4th rounnd
Making a DC of 20 (12 for the base, 4th round so +4(1st Round),+2(2nd Rd),+2(3rd RD))

 

[iserith]

The one you posted is basically an exercise in random number generation that I would not find very fun. If it's all just dice rolling, then there's no actual decisions being made. Some fictional context and your overall goal with regard to the play experience would be helpful in coming up with something that'll work with your scenario.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Why not use an actual drinking game. I like the game 3-man. (it takes 20-40 mins to play)

Start the game by choosing the 3-man.

The first player on the left of the 3-man Rolls 2d6. Any time a 3 gets rolled (in combination or multiple 3s), the 3-man drinks.

- If you roll doubles, the roller assigns that many drinks to whomever the choose (so if you roll double-6s, you can assign 6 drinks. If you roll double 3s, you assign 3 and the 3-man drinks twice)

- If you roll a 5, the person on the left of the roller drinks. If you roll an 11, the person on the right drinks.

- If you don't roll doubles, a 3, a 5 or an 11, the dice gets passed to the next player on the left.

-play continues around the table until it gets to the 3-man. When the 3-man finishes his(or her) turn, she picks a stupid rule (like no saying the word 'is', or needing to cluck like a chicken every time you take a drink). She picks a new 3-man and play restarts to the left of the new 3-man. If you break the new special rule, you drink.

How to make this a D&D drinking game? You can only handle a number of drinks equal to your CON score. If you drink one more than that, you are out.

Edit: NOTE: when assigning drinks for doubles, you can assign ALL drinks to one player. (in case you want to focus on the character with the highest CON)

Edit 2: I'm pretty sure this is the best drinking game ever...but I can't remember.

 

[jayoungr]

The one you posted is basically an exercise in random number generation that I would not find very fun. If it's all just dice rolling, then there's no actual decisions being made.

The decision points come in choosing how many drinks to attempt per round--how far you want to push your luck. You can go slowly in hopes of being the last man standing after the others have eliminated themselves by barfing, or you can push it in hopes of being able to hold it all down. (The one time I ran it, no one made it to the end without barfing, so we had to say the one who drank the most was the winner.)

Why not use an actual drinking game.

Unfortunately, I'm going to be running this for a table that includes players as young as 12, so that's a nonstarter. (Oddly enough, the 12-year-olds are probably the most excited about having their characters drink. Hmmm...)

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I'm not sure if you read my whole post but, I don’t mean that you should actually drink. You play the drinking game I suggested and instead of taking shots, you lose HPs. You only have as many hps as your Constitution score. The nice thing about it is it is a dice game that lets you make decisions about how to allocate drinks. It’s actually quite fun.

I would never recommend playing this game for real for D&D. (Even for adults) Everyone would be completely hammered within a half-hour and your rp session would be wash.

 

[Umbran]

Define "good".

For example, if I am having one PC face off agianst one NPC, anything particularly complicated, or that will take up a whole lot of time focusing on how many vodka shots one player makes while the others sit on their hands waiting for their compatriot to become staggeringly drunk would not be "good". We wouldn't want to make one person the focus of the action for an entire minigame, basically.

I might be tempted to say it is a game of Death Saves. If you stabilize before the other person, you win. If either misses three saves before stabilizing, they lose. This can lead to both losing - so, both contestants passed out on the table, with no clear winner, which is a bit of a trope for these things.

 

[The Big BZ]

There's a really cool drinking competition with an eating competition and test of strength etc in DDAL05-10 Giant Diplomacy! Worth a look.

 

[Guest 6801328]

I'm waiting for those who think that you should have to voice act your social encounters, and that the DM should reward mechanical bonuses for doing it well, to chime in and say that drinking contests are especially easy to roleplay, provided you have enough alcohol on hand.

 

[Herosmith14]

There's a really cool drinking competition with an eating competition and test of strength etc in DDAL05-10 Giant Diplomacy! Worth a look.

Yes, I recommend that, even though my barbarian somehow managed to fail that miserably...

 

[77IM]

- Opposed Constitution saving throws vs. poisoned. Each represents several rounds of drinks (it's kind of abstract).
- If you lose, you become poisoned. 3 losses and you pass out, and lose the contest. (If you engage in multiple contests, track losses between contests. Reduce losses by 1 during a short rest; eliminate all losses during a long rest. You remain poisoned for as long as you have at least 1 loss. You remain passed out for 1 hour, and reduce your losses by 1 when you wake up.)
- On a tie, you both lose the contest and become poisoned and suffer a loss! It's possible (though highly unlikely) for both participants to pass out at the same time, resulting in a draw.
- NO CHEATING! Magic and magic items count as cheating. (It should be easier for the audience to notice cheaters than it is for the participants; this gives the other PCs something to do while the contest is happening.)

So there you go. A quick and easy set of opposed rolls. The interesting decisions involved are:
1. Do you even engage in the drinking contest in the first place? Victory will probably leave you poisoned for quite some time.
2. Do you cheat? (SPOILER ALERT: If the PCs don't cheat, have the NPCs cheat!)