Great Coast Games: Overview

First played in the year 608 of the Age of Dragon Fire, the Great Coast Games is a two-month long competition held between every major power in the Green Coast. Excepting the hobgoblin empire, every city-state and nation send representatives to win glory, prestige, and more than a little bragging rights for their homeland. The first Great Coast Games were held between Chor Kolav, Glastig, Argoport, and the Aetherian Kingdom, after an age of war.



In the four centuries since it's founding, more events have been added, from the six of the original games to the thirty events of the modern games. As events have been added, the duration of the Games has also expanded for obvious reasons. A week long competition has turned into a three month long festival with daily events.

Events are broken into three categories: athletic, martial, and mental. Most events fall into either athletic or martial, though two of the events at the first Games would now be classified as mental: Swords & Shields and Long-Hand-Draw.

The athletic events are: Barrel Roll, Bronc Riding (saddled and bareback), Deep Dive, Horse Racing, Log Race, Long Jump, Long Swim Race, Marathon, Oar Race, Rock Climbing, Short Foot-Race, and Short Swim Race.

All but one of athletic events are some form of race. The most debatable events the be labeled as a race are Bronc Riding and Barrel Roll, where the goal is to obtain the longest time on whatever the competitor is riding (foul tempered horses and barrels respectively. The only event not to be a race, Deep Dive, has the competitors swim as far down on one breath of air as they can and has several judges with rings of waterbreathing underwater so that the depth that the competitors swim to is accurately reported.

The martial events are: Archery, Barrel Racing, Boxing, Chaotic Melee, Conjuration Duel, Fencing, Javelin Throw, Jousting, Mage Duel, Phalanx Rush, Rope-War, and Wrestling.

Most of the martial events are self explanatory, though the Mage Duel forbids the use of summoning. Barrel Racing and Jousting are the only martial events that utilize horses, the former derived from cavalry scouts carrying messages avoiding combatants trying to stop them while Jousting has been a part of tournaments ever since plate armor was developed. The Phalanx Rush consists of teams of five with shields slamming into each other to try to force the other team past their starting point. The Chaotic Melee is the shortest of the martial competitions, all the competitors are thrown into an arena with dulled weapons and the last one standing wins.

The mental events are: Alchemical Brew, Enchantment Weave, Long-Hand-Draw, Scrap Forge, and Swords & Shields.

Swords & Shields is a board game played on a 10x10 board with a total of 20 pieces, 18 swords and 2 shields. Long-Hand-Draw is a card game frequently played in gambling dens and is known by essentially everyone in the Green Coast, even the hobgoblins. The last three events follow the same basic format, the competitors are broken into groups of four, given several materials and specific criteria, and have to make something out of it. As the event goes on, competitors are eliminated and the ones that remain are regrouped and the process repeats until only one remains.

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