Dragonbowl is an adventure by Duncan Rhodes for a 6th-level party, putting the players in an over-the-top blood sport tournament, with a massive cash prize on the line.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of this product.

Story

50 years ago, a powerful gnome wizard who’s only known as the Game Master decided to found a new tournament to indulge his love of games, gold, and gore. While his “Blood Games” instantly became a massive hit, it’s not exactly something the civilised states of Faerun could sponsor, or even tolerate, so the wizard designed and constructed a portable arena that moved around the world, touring different cities every year. Now, Dragonbowl XLIX is taking place in Waterdeep – well, more like under Waterdeep – and it seems to be the biggest and most extravagant yet. Besides the absurd price of 500.000 gold coins, there’s the Dragonbowl Casino, the Dragonbowl Funfair, the ArcTech Expo, the Dragonbowl Airship, and many, many, MANY more things for the masses to spend their money on while they watch the violent spectacle.

Taking place across one week, the players will have the opportunity to engage in a ton of fun stuff – besides the 4-round tournament, there are various ceremonies, festivals, parties, and extra games to take part in. And that’s not all – with such wealth and power on display, there’s lots of intrigue and plotting by more than a dozen different groups who seek to steal, assassinate, heist, kill, thieve, murder, and in general inflict various other synonyms on each other, and the players look like a promising team of patsies/recruits/victims.

When the players win the grand finals, however, it’s not over yet – the Game Master invites them for an exclusive celebratory dinner, but keep in mind – he didn’t get where he is now by willingly parting with his vast wealth, and he might have something more sinister in mind for the winners; something the players should be prepared for, as there are hints throughout the adventure (assuming they dig a little deeper, and don’t just indulge in the spectacle and debauchery) that things aren’t what they seem.

While the “default” location is in Waterdeep, you can conceivably put the Dragonbowl in any city in the Forgotten Realms, or even beyond – Eberron, for example, would be an excellent fit with its pulpy, noir, arcane tech aesthetics. Also keep in mind that, while technically the adventure lasts a week (plus a couple of days, perhaps, if you include preparation and the aftermath) it will take several sessions – this is a 300+page book with a ton of things to do, though you can ignore or cut down on some of the threads to keep it manageable if you want.

Art & Extras

There’s a lot of art throughout the book, including a lot of handouts – posters, flyers, advertisements, and of course, the contract, which the contestants should make sure to read thoroughly before signing. There are also lots of maps, highly detailed and with different versions, as well as a handy combat tracker sheet to make it easy to handle the gladiatorial combat.

There is also a Fantasy Grounds version.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Dragonbowl is a fantastic adventure that promises to be a ton of fun – if your players are looking to spend their gold and spill some blood, they’ll have plenty of opportunities to do both.

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