Mini Games!

[Erebus]

One of the techniques used in Final Fantasy to create a feeling you are in a different culture is the introduction of 'mini-games' played by many of the populace.

Have you ever used mini-games in your campaign and what ideas do you have for such games?

[Iain]

In some of my cultures people play nim quite a lot (in the way that people might play dice or cards). My players have got involved with games of this on occasion. Another game whichI am bringing in that people (usually the richer ones - merchants, nobles etc) play is gess, a weird chess/go variant I found out about recently.

[MoonHunter]

The only game I know of which specifically has mini-games is Element Master (two editions and I think long out of print... pity it was a good game).  It involved the use of D4s on a triangle board.  It was an interesting little bar game (which was its in game purpose).  

Oops. I forgot.  Fvlminata : Armed With Lightning RPG
A Roman Empire RPG (alternate history sort of). It uses roman dice. We would call them D8. They also give examples of how the Roman's use their dice.

Deadlands has poker, but that is more of a genre thing.  Castle Falkenstein had Whisk (a fun game, but after a hand or three gets old).  The cards are part of the resolution system, so it is only natural that they get pulled into other uses. (If your players are making card houses, you are obviously doing something wrong.)

[Pieh]

For some odd reason my PCs all have a passion for killing or injuring Kobolds. So over time a few mini-games has risen and are used in most of our campains, they include: A Kobold Throwing Range (we used strength and ranged modifiers to figure out distance), Target Practice (yell "pull" and a heavily armoured Kobold is launched by you, see how many you can hit in a row), Kobold Racing, Charm the Kobold, Hide the Kobold's Shovel (putting it in an extradimensional space is cheating) and a few others that are either not worth mentioning or innapropriate for the forums. Other games we play are The Reincarnate Game, Summoning Battles, we even had a Triathalon once...

Thats about all i can think of at the moment, have a peachy day.

[sniperspy]

Whenever I want to introduce a new scenario or super-powerful monster, sometimes I'll let a minigame be found in whatever city the PC's happen to be wandering through.

I use this to help them gain certain buffs like temporary strength or magic upgrades, or even a special item or two I know they are most likely going to be in desperate need of soon.

Also, I use these to help my PC's recover after a really unfortunatle battle or campaign, instead of just kindof implying they are healed and leave it at that!

These games seem to be similar to Pieh's in terms of how they are run, so i can't elaborate any in that aspect, sorry!