Attrition Arm Wrestling
Rules • DnD 5e
Attrition Arm Wrestling
Arm wrestling is usually the first minigame a player would experience in a TTRPG. While this rule is designed for D&D 5e, you can use this for any system as long as skills and action economy is respected.
Basic Rules
When two creatures agree to an arm wrestle, both creature lock their hands and try to push each other's arm to the ground. There are 5 states to the battle. This can be mirrored for 2 opposing players.
- Player Winning
- Player Progress
- Neutral
- Player Receding
- Player Losing
The match starts position 3 (Neutral). Both creatures must make a series of opposed checks to progress. On a success, the state progresses. On a failure, the state regresses. However, if the result is the same, no progress is made. The following are the checks made at different stages of the match:
| Round | Check | Description |
| 1 - 3 | Strength (Athletics) | This depicts the creatures wrestling at their full potential and using pure strength |
| 4 - 6 | Constitution | This depicts the two creatures wearing each other out and having to rely on their stamina |
| 7 - 9 | Wisdom saving throw | This depicts two exhausted creatures that is only pushing forward with the resilience of their minds |
| 10 | Golden Roll d20 + Match State |
This is an all or nothing moment where both the creatures bet everything into one final push |
Extreme Arm Wrestling
Most competitions will only allow characters to wrestle with pure strength and do not allow any interruption. However, there are rumours of an illegal arm wrestling ring where competitors are allowed to do anything to win.
Action Economy
Similar to normal D&D 5e, on each round of Extreme Arm Wresling, you will have an action and a bonus action. You need to spend an action to attempt to push the opposition down. If you do not do so but the opponent still spends the action, the opponent automatically progresses to the next state. However, this frees your action to perform other actions. This also works the other way round. Spells that causes the enemy to lose actions is very useful in this case.
Dealing Damage
If you deal damage to the creature, they must make concertration check as if holding a spell. On a failure, they make their next check with disadvantage.
Forced Movement
Most competition do not allow you to forcefully move your opponent with spells like Thunderwave. But for games that do, the defender can make a reactionary Strength (Athletics) check against the attacker's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to hold on. On an equal or higher, the defender succeeds and drags the attacker along. If the defender is moved more than 5ft away from the attacker, they lose.
