Got an idea for the start of a D&D campaign but, since I'm a terrible DM and will never use it, I'll just write it here:
The party arrives to the tavern, as they do. Inside there is just chaos, it's an all-out bar brawl, chairs flying, tables turned, a whole mess. On the second floor mezzanine there's all the people who aren't taking part in the fight. Some are cowering in the corner, some are watching the chaos below, some are even betting.
A random member of the party has to roll a Dex save to avoid getting conked by a flying mug of ale. Whether they escape to the mezzanine or start throwing punches is up to them.
Back to the first floor, there's a band on a small stage in the corner, seemingly unbothered, timing their merry music to the ebb and flow of the fight.
With a decent enough perception, PCs may notice a group of kobolds in little server uniforms scuttling around towards the various customers whom are already laying on the floor.
With an even better perception, PC's find out that those kobolds aren't looting, they're checking for injuries. Whenever they find someone who looks particularly beat up, they carry them on a blanket as an improvised stretcher and take them through the nearest secret door or trapdoor. Those seem to be hidden all around the room.
When the fight abates or there are very few left standing, the room starts filling with a mist that knocks everyone unconscious. The same kobold servers manually take care of those immune to the mist with a swift chair to the head.
Any still-awake PC will then watch the entire floor of the bar light up with a teleportation circle and everyone inside it is poofed away.
The party wakes up long-rested in what seems to be a beach. A brightly-dressed kobold is there to congratulate them on earning their place as a competing team in Lord Vyrnabent's Yearly Island Tournament, where teams of the best fighters in the land go up against each other for marvelous and legendary prizes!
The rest is essentially a mix of Survivor and American Gladiator, but in teams.
Turns out this is the product of a bored, filthy-rich noble who did all this for two reasons:
- fun.
-profit. He needs competent adventurers to find an important item for him but is tired of all the people he's sent for it failing, so he modeled the obstacles in the island as theme park versions of the dangers surrounding the mcguffin. If a team manages to conquer them all, they might have a chance at surviving the actual thing.
