Twice a year, the D&D group I run has a dedicated PvP session completely outside our ongoing campaign where the players get to fight each other and death doesn’t count. Normally we don’t allow any player-against-player action in our regular campaign, but during these special games, we get some pizza and pop and have a session dedicated to bashing in each other’s skulls instead doing that to the orcs and ogres in fantasy land.
In this article, I’m going to share some of the PvP scenarios and special rules we use to make these occasional player-versus-player sessions a total blast. The players have a ton of fun, and if you’re interested in having a dedicated PvP game at your table, I hope this article gives you some cool ideas.
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Is PvP Right for Your D&D Group?
PvP in D&D is a bit different than regular play, and the DM guides and player handbooks don’t really cover it much, if at all. Some tables allow it during regular game play, but I think that’s pretty rare. Most groups ban player-against-player hostility outright as does ours.
PvP is all about what each character can do to the other characters, so this is highly tactical play with none of the usual adventure plot hooks or NPCs and such.
To start, you’ll likely need a battle mat and some minis. I suppose you could do this entirely in your head, what’s commonly called “theater of the mind,” but because so much of PvP is highly tactical, it’s a lot easier to visualize what’s happening if you have a battle mat and miniatures.
Next, how many players will be participating? PvP scenarios can change a lot if you have six or more players than if you only have three or even two. Some of the scenarios I’ll describe in this article work best with larger groups while others are best suited to a smaller number of players.
PvP-specific Table Rules
Let’s begin with some ground rules. These are entirely up to you, but these are what we’ve done at our table. First, we don’t allow Inspiration rolls. There might be some situations where advantage or disadvantage come up, but we ignore Inspiration entirely.
Second, think about equal hit points and think about how you want to handle characters of different levels. A 6th level wizard versus a 2nd level barbarian is not a fair fight. At our table, we artificially set every character’s hit points to be the same, typically 30. You can optionally adjust the number of spells casters have available based on what the party’s average level is. This takes just a few minutes to adjust before play starts.
Some additional PvP-specific table rules include death at zero hit points. This kind of combat play is very fast-action, so you don’t want to waste a bunch of time rolling death saves.
When you hit zero hit points, you’re dead.
An alternative is that when a character dies, they get one respawn a round or two later in the same spot or at some random location, and you can even decide that, although alive, they only have one hit point. This can really add some fun pressure to the game.
Next, I like to set up my battle mat so it has grid coordinates down two sides, with letters across the short axis and numbers down the long axis. This way if we run any scenarios where invisibility is possible, the players with invisible characters can write their coordinates on a piece of paper and pass it to me in secret.
Finally, and this is entirely your choice, but you can choose not to use initiative, so that all actions take place simultaneously each round. This can lead to two characters killing each other at the same time, which is pretty hilarious. Or, you can have initiative be solely based on random dice rolls without DEX bonuses, which is what we usually use. Experiment and see what the group thinks and turns out to be the most fun.
PvP Scenarios
Here are some scenarios we’ve used. I’ll indicate if any are best suited to small or larger groups.
Battle Royale
The classic is Battle Royale … with cheese. This is essentially everyone against everyone and the last one alive wins. You can spruce this up by introducing different terrain features on your battle mat, whether you just draw them with a dry erase marker, or by placing physical blocks or other objects on the arena. Battle Royale scenarios tend to work better with groups of four or more players, but I’ve got some other ideas I’ll mention later in this article that make it fun for smaller groups.
Capture the Flag
Another classic is Capture the Flag. This is best for four or more players. Put a line down the center to separate the battle mat into halves, then draw some rooms or corridors or other features on the mat of relatively equal complexity per side. Split the group of players into equal groups, and let them choose where to place their flag on their side of the map. I use a token or a coin.
The goal is standard: each side tries to reach the other team’s flag, and once touched, carry it back to their own flag position without dying. If a character dies while carrying the flag, the flag is dropped in that square ready to be picked up by any other character. The dead character then respawns back at their own home position, or they are eliminated from the field of play. Your choice. This one can take a while if you allow respawning, but it’s still a lot of fun.
More PvP Scenarios
Here’s one idea I’ve done that’s fun in a surprising way. It’s Battle Royale but nobody starts with any weapons or magic items. Instead, those items are placed in various locations around the map by the DM and can be used by any class. I like two variations of this. First, you indicate locations where an item is placed but you don’t indicate what that item is. It could be a bow, a battle axe, or it could be a wand of Magic Missiles. Also, for magic items, you don’t indicate what the magic is, beyond just stating it’s a wand, and they don’t discover what it does until they actually pick it up. If you go this route, don’t enforce class restrictions by item type.
If your group of players have a lot of casters, you can have wizard duels. Give melee class types wands that mimic spells, so they can participate, too. If your players are heavy on the melee side, let your casters use weapons. You get the point.
Yet More PvP Scenarios
Here are four scenarios you can use with groups of just three or four players. The first is Fox and Hounds. Randomly select who’s the Fox. Optionally, every two or three rounds, you can have who’s the Fox rotate to the next player going clockwise around the table until they are killed. When the Fox dies, they become a Hound for the rest of the game. The last player not to be killed wins. This is best if your arena has physical terrain features where tactical positioning can help the Fox evade the Hounds.
A modifier you can add to just about any scenario is what I call the short-range shoot-out. You set all ranged attacks, spells and movements to 30 feet. This one adds a positional tactics element to the action.
I call this next scenario idea “Buffs Abound”. The players start at a single spot in the center of the mat. You place 3 buff tokens equidistant away from them, such as points on a triangle. It’s best if they’re on the other side of some obstacles. Use the same range limits in the Short Range Shoot-out of 30 feet for ranged attacks, spells, and movement per round. The buff tokens you place are:
- Double damage for 2 rounds
- Double hit points for 2 rounds
- Double movement and range for 2 rounds
I use colored tokens to indicate which one’s which: red for double damage, white for double hit points, and green for double movement and range. When buffs expire, they are placed in new, randomly chosen locations. If a character carrying a buff dies, the buff either respawns a round later in that same spot, or it immediately respawns in some new, randomly selected location.
Triple Trouble
The final scenario is called Triple Trouble. It’s battle Royale but adds monsters to the mix. This one is my personal favorite to run as the DM. You can put buffs in the arena, but I recommend not imposing range limits. You start by placing the characters in the center of the arena and designate that they can’t attack each other until round two. Around the edge of the arena you place monsters of different types, the same number as there are players. I like to match the challenge rating of the monsters to the average level of the characters.
My suggestion is to use monsters that don’t have spells or magic abilities, but they can have ranged melee attacks like a manticore’s thrown tail spikes. The monsters I like are ogres, owlbears, and manticores. When in doubt, make sure the monster hit points are relatively the same as the party’s average.
Player Responses to Dedicated PvP Games
When we have our dedicated PvP session twice a year, we usually make it through three or four scenarios during a two-hour game. One thing I’ve noticed is that players develop a keen awareness of the relative strengths and weaknesses each other’s character has that they didn’t really notice before during regular campaign play. I think this is because they don’t pay as much attention to that rogue’s sneak attack or the wizard’s sleep spell until it’s directed at them. I find that very interesting.
Another thing I’ve noticed, at least with the players in my teens group, is that nobody takes it personally. They’re highly competitive, but they are really good sports about it because they know it doesn’t count, it’s not personal, and when we have a regular play session the next time, that other player is now on their side against the party’s common enemy.
