"Sorry" in advance for my probably unclean English, it is not my first language.
A few days ago I GMed a bar brawl for my buddy who had a foreshadowing of fighting in an interesting bar brawl. I got some inspirations from an old thread here, but also from another forum, searching the web and of course lots of Bud Spencer/Terence hill and similar movies.
The characters were in Aghrapur, gathering informations about lucrative ships to plunder for the Red Brotherhood. They did this in the Flying Tankard, a tavern/inn with a reputation for wild bar brawls - but also with a strict weapon ban (improvised weapons allowed).
Special rules for the brawl
1) Improvised weapons also do only nonlethal damage
2) DR from armor is useless in a brawl
3) Chaos ! There is usually some spontaneous ally around if you want to flank someone, but how long he stays an ally is unpredictable.
Dramatis Personae
PCs
Rodriguez (male Zingaran Thief 3 / Pirate 2)
Nina (female Brythunian Thief 3 / Temptress 2) ... GMPC during the brawl
Kaoklei (male Hyrkanian Nomad 1) ... a new PC / sideckick
NPCs
Olaf the innkeeper (Nordheimer)
3 bouncers (2 Turanian, 1 Shemite)
8 serving wenches / dancers (mainly Hyborean)
A group of western mercenaries (mainly Hyborean)
A group of Turanian caravan guards
A group of Iranistani carpet merchants
A big, bald warrior (Hyperborean) and his rogueish buddy (Khitan)
A shady man (Hyrkanian) accompanied by 2 women (Hyrkanian)
A trio of Turanian dandies
A trio of Turanian musicians
A vague amount of really insignificant extras
Most of the NPCs were 1st or 3rd level, some 5th (the leaders of the guards and the mercenaries, the Hyperborean and his Khitan friend); Olaf was a mighty 8th level barbarian and the tavern girls all 2nd level temptresses (educated, beautiful slave girls are cheap in Aghrapur and Olaf likes waitresses who are both charming and know basic algebra).
The Brawl
It was close to midnight and the tavern was loud and crowded. Young slave girls danced on the stage and for some more silvers on the tables, wearing wisps of silk or less. The serving wenches carried trays of drinks through the crowd, avoiding groping hands as good as they could. The guests ogled the girls, caroused and gambled and had a good time.
Rodriguez gambled with some of the Turanian caravan guards in the upper portion of the tavern (with the front door, the bar and stairs to the guest rooms) while Nina was flirting with two of the Turanian dandies in the lower portion (with the stage). Kaoklei didn't know them yet, he sat at the bar, imbibed a beer and ogled the dancers.
The bar brawl started when Rodriguez was caught cheating with the dice by the Turanians while at the same time Nina realized that one of the dandies poured some knockout drops into her ale while the other tried to distract her.
Two Turanians tried to grab Rodriguez for a third one to thrash him, but he was faster, threw a tankard at the one in front of him and jumped aside. The tankard missed but hit someone else in a private niche under a stair. From that niche erupted the big Hyperborean who rushed into the Turanians, smashing their table in the process so that lots of silver pieces landed on the floor and tumbled through the tavern. The Khitan joined with shrill scream and a flying kick. Apparently the pair thought that one of the Turanians had thrown the tankard which had hit the Khitan on the head. Our pirate hit a Turanian with a bottle but was still in danger of being overwhelmed by the angry caravan guards.
Meanwhile Nina landed an unarmed critical sneak attack on the still flat-footed wannabe date rapist / kidnapper ... the cruel hit into his family jewels wasn't quite enough to knock him out, but he was effectively stunned for so long that he was out of the fight. The other dandy hit her and the last of the trio came from elsewhere to help him. However, he stumbled on his way and pushed a mercenary into a table full of carpet merchants, spilling expensive wine and giving reason reason for more mutual violence. The temptress tried a feint but couldn't land a serious hit on the second dandy.
Kaoklei, as a pennyless greenhorn adventurer, rushed to the tavern floor and gathered up silver pieces. He was not the only one with that idea and began to brawl with a cowardly Turanian, but they didn't manage to hit each other for a while.
Rodriguez hit another Turanian and jumped up the stair but a big Turanian followed and grappled him while a smaller one used the opportunity to kicked him repeatedly. Rodriguez rolled around and the grapplers crashed through the railing and on the floor. He landed on top of the big Turanian who was a bit hurt from the fall - but he was still grappled and kicked. After a while he luckily got help from a buxom Kothic tavern wench (one which he had tried to woo unsuccessfully earlier in the tavern) who used her tray to knock out the kicking Turanian. Finally Rodriguez managed to break the grapple and threw the big Turanian heavily on the railing to the lower portion, an attack which broke his neck.
Nina rather purposefully lost her top ("Lewd Distraction": alternative class feature, Warrior's Compendium) and all the men in her vicinity became a bit less attentive (-2 Defenses). She knocked out the second dandy but the last smashed a chair on her head which knocked her prone. However, some of the Iranistani were also attacking the last dandy. Near her - in the lower portion - a battle raged between mercenaries, merchants and the shady Hyrkanians while on the upper portion more mercenaries fought with the rest of the Turanians and some bouncers.
Kaoklei finally smashed his competition with a chair. He then saw a nude dancing girl being hit by a mercenary (about half of the girls where also were also active in the battle, hitting people with their trays, jumping on their backs, etc) and threw the rest of the broken chair (2 legs) to help her. The first throw missed but the second hit the mercenary in the face, felling him instantly.
Rodriguez still had his hands full with Turanians and was flanked by two of them. He botched an attack and stumbled head first into the cleavage of the tavern wench which earned him a resounding slap. Since she was already reeling from some hits by rude Turanians the pirate spontaneously decided to rescue the damsel in distress. He grabbed her, ran and jumped with her on a chandelier on which the swung above the chaos in the lower portion. There he dropped the wench near Nina and came swinging back to the two Turanians, feinting a flying tackle. But he brought his legs around and finished one with a double kick.
Meanwhile Nina knocked out the last dandy with the help from the merchants and started to help them against the mercenaries. Kaoklei was attacked by a tavern wench that apparently had thought that he had tried hurt the dancing girl. Before he realized that she was a girl he had already hit her with an elbow in the ribs and she went down. He immediately tried to apologize and help her up, so avoiding the wrath of Olaf who just clambered across the counter to join the fight. Most of the people in the upper portion were down but the big Hyperborean still gave two bouncers a run for their money.
The Khitan appeared near Rodriguez and together they flanked and felled the last Turanian. However, just as Rodriguez ran down into the lower portion to help Nina the Kithan came after him with another flying kick. Apparently he had by now realized that it was the pirate who had thrown the tankard. He was a worthy and nimble opponent, but Rodriguez fought dirtier (Improved Feint) and landed a decisive hit after a fierce exchange of blows. Seeing that nobody was attacking him anymore the pirate grabbed a tankard of ale with which he jumped on the stage and raised it to the still playing band.
Nina and Kaoklei were now fighting against the mercenaries. Suddenly one of the Hyrkanian women sneak attacked the nomad but luckily the damage roll was garbage. He knocked her out with one hit and began to wonder why he was suddenly only attacked by women (just a coincidence, I swear). The male Hyrkanian took offense at this sight and made a grave mistake ... he drew his scimitar and advanced on Kaoklei who was barely standing with 1 hp left. By now the other two PCs were down to around 1/3 to 1/4 of their max hp.
Luckily Olaf hit the shady Hyrkanian in the chest with a throwing axe and the man now attacked the barkeeper instead. Kaoklei decided to also draw his shortsword to help Olaf ... helping the tavern staff with weapons when the fight involved weapons seemed safe enough. He and Olaf - who had drawn another axe - killed the man quickly.
The fight was now effectively over. Olaf helped the last bouncer to finish the raging Hyperborean. Of all the guests only the PCs, a merchant and the second Hyrkanian woman where still standing. The wenches collected a reasonable amount of silver from the unconscious people to pay for the smashed furniture and drinking vessels. Two people had died (the shady Hyrkanian and the Turanian who broke his neck in the fight with the pirate) and one of the dandys might have suffered permanent damage in the groin area. Olaf congratulated Rodriguez ("Rarely have I seen such swinging from a chandelier ...") and Nina ("You fought well ... for a woman ...") for their flashy fighting skills.
Nina and Rodriguez left the tavern and return to the small fishing boat with which they and some other pirates arrived in the harbour. But there they just witnessed the death and/or capture of their comrades at the hands of Turanian troops. They overheard that the soldiers where about to start a thorough city-wide search specifically for them (they had already a reputation as dangerous pirate leaders and had killed almost a dozen guards in a tavern in Aghrapur some weeks before) so they decided to leave the city quickly in the direction of the desert ... to the southwest along the Misty Mountains. Near the city gate they encountered Kaoklei who joined them on their journey/escape. My buddy took over GM responsibilities and the real adventure for the evening began.
Even though my GMPC Nina probably knocked more people out I hope that my buddy (who played Rodriguez and Kaoklei, after the GM switch I took over the nomad) had a greater amount of interesting fight scenes.
Whew ! That's all folks. Any comments, own bar brawl stories or also ideas for future bar brawls ?
A few days ago I GMed a bar brawl for my buddy who had a foreshadowing of fighting in an interesting bar brawl. I got some inspirations from an old thread here, but also from another forum, searching the web and of course lots of Bud Spencer/Terence hill and similar movies.
The characters were in Aghrapur, gathering informations about lucrative ships to plunder for the Red Brotherhood. They did this in the Flying Tankard, a tavern/inn with a reputation for wild bar brawls - but also with a strict weapon ban (improvised weapons allowed).
Special rules for the brawl
1) Improvised weapons also do only nonlethal damage
2) DR from armor is useless in a brawl
3) Chaos ! There is usually some spontaneous ally around if you want to flank someone, but how long he stays an ally is unpredictable.
Dramatis Personae
PCs
Rodriguez (male Zingaran Thief 3 / Pirate 2)
Nina (female Brythunian Thief 3 / Temptress 2) ... GMPC during the brawl
Kaoklei (male Hyrkanian Nomad 1) ... a new PC / sideckick
NPCs
Olaf the innkeeper (Nordheimer)
3 bouncers (2 Turanian, 1 Shemite)
8 serving wenches / dancers (mainly Hyborean)
A group of western mercenaries (mainly Hyborean)
A group of Turanian caravan guards
A group of Iranistani carpet merchants
A big, bald warrior (Hyperborean) and his rogueish buddy (Khitan)
A shady man (Hyrkanian) accompanied by 2 women (Hyrkanian)
A trio of Turanian dandies
A trio of Turanian musicians
A vague amount of really insignificant extras
Most of the NPCs were 1st or 3rd level, some 5th (the leaders of the guards and the mercenaries, the Hyperborean and his Khitan friend); Olaf was a mighty 8th level barbarian and the tavern girls all 2nd level temptresses (educated, beautiful slave girls are cheap in Aghrapur and Olaf likes waitresses who are both charming and know basic algebra).
The Brawl
It was close to midnight and the tavern was loud and crowded. Young slave girls danced on the stage and for some more silvers on the tables, wearing wisps of silk or less. The serving wenches carried trays of drinks through the crowd, avoiding groping hands as good as they could. The guests ogled the girls, caroused and gambled and had a good time.
Rodriguez gambled with some of the Turanian caravan guards in the upper portion of the tavern (with the front door, the bar and stairs to the guest rooms) while Nina was flirting with two of the Turanian dandies in the lower portion (with the stage). Kaoklei didn't know them yet, he sat at the bar, imbibed a beer and ogled the dancers.
The bar brawl started when Rodriguez was caught cheating with the dice by the Turanians while at the same time Nina realized that one of the dandies poured some knockout drops into her ale while the other tried to distract her.
Two Turanians tried to grab Rodriguez for a third one to thrash him, but he was faster, threw a tankard at the one in front of him and jumped aside. The tankard missed but hit someone else in a private niche under a stair. From that niche erupted the big Hyperborean who rushed into the Turanians, smashing their table in the process so that lots of silver pieces landed on the floor and tumbled through the tavern. The Khitan joined with shrill scream and a flying kick. Apparently the pair thought that one of the Turanians had thrown the tankard which had hit the Khitan on the head. Our pirate hit a Turanian with a bottle but was still in danger of being overwhelmed by the angry caravan guards.
Meanwhile Nina landed an unarmed critical sneak attack on the still flat-footed wannabe date rapist / kidnapper ... the cruel hit into his family jewels wasn't quite enough to knock him out, but he was effectively stunned for so long that he was out of the fight. The other dandy hit her and the last of the trio came from elsewhere to help him. However, he stumbled on his way and pushed a mercenary into a table full of carpet merchants, spilling expensive wine and giving reason reason for more mutual violence. The temptress tried a feint but couldn't land a serious hit on the second dandy.
Kaoklei, as a pennyless greenhorn adventurer, rushed to the tavern floor and gathered up silver pieces. He was not the only one with that idea and began to brawl with a cowardly Turanian, but they didn't manage to hit each other for a while.
Rodriguez hit another Turanian and jumped up the stair but a big Turanian followed and grappled him while a smaller one used the opportunity to kicked him repeatedly. Rodriguez rolled around and the grapplers crashed through the railing and on the floor. He landed on top of the big Turanian who was a bit hurt from the fall - but he was still grappled and kicked. After a while he luckily got help from a buxom Kothic tavern wench (one which he had tried to woo unsuccessfully earlier in the tavern) who used her tray to knock out the kicking Turanian. Finally Rodriguez managed to break the grapple and threw the big Turanian heavily on the railing to the lower portion, an attack which broke his neck.
Nina rather purposefully lost her top ("Lewd Distraction": alternative class feature, Warrior's Compendium) and all the men in her vicinity became a bit less attentive (-2 Defenses). She knocked out the second dandy but the last smashed a chair on her head which knocked her prone. However, some of the Iranistani were also attacking the last dandy. Near her - in the lower portion - a battle raged between mercenaries, merchants and the shady Hyrkanians while on the upper portion more mercenaries fought with the rest of the Turanians and some bouncers.
Kaoklei finally smashed his competition with a chair. He then saw a nude dancing girl being hit by a mercenary (about half of the girls where also were also active in the battle, hitting people with their trays, jumping on their backs, etc) and threw the rest of the broken chair (2 legs) to help her. The first throw missed but the second hit the mercenary in the face, felling him instantly.
Rodriguez still had his hands full with Turanians and was flanked by two of them. He botched an attack and stumbled head first into the cleavage of the tavern wench which earned him a resounding slap. Since she was already reeling from some hits by rude Turanians the pirate spontaneously decided to rescue the damsel in distress. He grabbed her, ran and jumped with her on a chandelier on which the swung above the chaos in the lower portion. There he dropped the wench near Nina and came swinging back to the two Turanians, feinting a flying tackle. But he brought his legs around and finished one with a double kick.
Meanwhile Nina knocked out the last dandy with the help from the merchants and started to help them against the mercenaries. Kaoklei was attacked by a tavern wench that apparently had thought that he had tried hurt the dancing girl. Before he realized that she was a girl he had already hit her with an elbow in the ribs and she went down. He immediately tried to apologize and help her up, so avoiding the wrath of Olaf who just clambered across the counter to join the fight. Most of the people in the upper portion were down but the big Hyperborean still gave two bouncers a run for their money.
The Khitan appeared near Rodriguez and together they flanked and felled the last Turanian. However, just as Rodriguez ran down into the lower portion to help Nina the Kithan came after him with another flying kick. Apparently he had by now realized that it was the pirate who had thrown the tankard. He was a worthy and nimble opponent, but Rodriguez fought dirtier (Improved Feint) and landed a decisive hit after a fierce exchange of blows. Seeing that nobody was attacking him anymore the pirate grabbed a tankard of ale with which he jumped on the stage and raised it to the still playing band.
Nina and Kaoklei were now fighting against the mercenaries. Suddenly one of the Hyrkanian women sneak attacked the nomad but luckily the damage roll was garbage. He knocked her out with one hit and began to wonder why he was suddenly only attacked by women (just a coincidence, I swear). The male Hyrkanian took offense at this sight and made a grave mistake ... he drew his scimitar and advanced on Kaoklei who was barely standing with 1 hp left. By now the other two PCs were down to around 1/3 to 1/4 of their max hp.
Luckily Olaf hit the shady Hyrkanian in the chest with a throwing axe and the man now attacked the barkeeper instead. Kaoklei decided to also draw his shortsword to help Olaf ... helping the tavern staff with weapons when the fight involved weapons seemed safe enough. He and Olaf - who had drawn another axe - killed the man quickly.
The fight was now effectively over. Olaf helped the last bouncer to finish the raging Hyperborean. Of all the guests only the PCs, a merchant and the second Hyrkanian woman where still standing. The wenches collected a reasonable amount of silver from the unconscious people to pay for the smashed furniture and drinking vessels. Two people had died (the shady Hyrkanian and the Turanian who broke his neck in the fight with the pirate) and one of the dandys might have suffered permanent damage in the groin area. Olaf congratulated Rodriguez ("Rarely have I seen such swinging from a chandelier ...") and Nina ("You fought well ... for a woman ...") for their flashy fighting skills.
Nina and Rodriguez left the tavern and return to the small fishing boat with which they and some other pirates arrived in the harbour. But there they just witnessed the death and/or capture of their comrades at the hands of Turanian troops. They overheard that the soldiers where about to start a thorough city-wide search specifically for them (they had already a reputation as dangerous pirate leaders and had killed almost a dozen guards in a tavern in Aghrapur some weeks before) so they decided to leave the city quickly in the direction of the desert ... to the southwest along the Misty Mountains. Near the city gate they encountered Kaoklei who joined them on their journey/escape. My buddy took over GM responsibilities and the real adventure for the evening began.
Even though my GMPC Nina probably knocked more people out I hope that my buddy (who played Rodriguez and Kaoklei, after the GM switch I took over the nomad) had a greater amount of interesting fight scenes.
Whew ! That's all folks. Any comments, own bar brawl stories or also ideas for future bar brawls ?
