Sports in fantasy games are rarely mentioned outside Games Workshop (they really aren't that applicable to gaming usually), but here's some ideas:

1. Goblin ball. Kick the goblin across the goal line to win! Everyone wears leather armor. Magic and weapons are not allowed. Kicking, punching, and tackling are perfectly fine though. Oh yeah, the goblin gets a dagger.

2. Hold the bridge. Two teams, each in armor and wielding clubs and staves, fight over a bridge. Whoever holds it after 15 minutes is the winner. A popular variant has three teams involved, with one big team in the middle and two smaller teams on each end.

3. Don't Flinch! Spellcasters face off against each other using illusion magic. Whoever steps back loses.

Of course, the winners get money, booze, fame, and girls. Losers also do fairly well, as long as they put up a good match.

I ran our "chase sequence" vehicle playtest rules for ZWEIHÄNDER with one-horse carts racing across the countryside. This, of course, was replete with detritus tossed from the back of the cart, spiked wheels crashing into another, dodging roadside boulders and even a hillside jump over a ravine ala Speed Racer.

"Races" of the Forgotten Realms:

* Waterdhavian Grand Prx
* Shadowdale Winter Derby
* Royal Suzail
* Tour de Cormyr
* Cormanthor-Evereska Elven Relay
...

In RuneQuest there were:

Games of Shield Push - basically two lines of shield walls brought together by opposing sides.
Trollball - American Football played by trolls with the ball a living trollkin.

Perhaps not quite on the same topic as the OP, but one of the best Rifts campaigns I ever did saw the players as part of a barnstorming baseball team that went from town to town, picking up odd jobs along the way to pay for repairs to the team APC.

Do gladiator matches and chariot races count as 'sports'?
My homebrew setting has a big annual race that is open to any sort of mount. The winner is usually due more to behind the scenes skullduggery than actual skill/talent.

In our Warhammer FRP campaign, several of the gangs engage in snotball hooliganism.  (Snotball, without being explicitly stated as such, seems to be a slightly-toned-down Blood Bowl - or a slightly-toned-up rugby.  Only with a trussed-up snotling in place of a ball.)  I've already decided that, should the party attempt to enlist one of the gangs local to them (as they've talked about doing), they're gonna have to beat them in an informal park Snotball match, first (played with Blood Bowl rules and the party's profiles).

Quote from: Zachary The First;624875Perhaps not quite on the same topic as the OP, but one of the best Rifts campaigns I ever did saw the players as part of a barnstorming baseball team that went from town to town, picking up odd jobs along the way to pay for repairs to the team APC.

Cool concept for adventures!  

There are the jousting rules in Chainmail, of course.  So, I imagine a few back in the day included sports in D&D.  I have run jousting tourneys a number of times with rules I tailored for the campaign, and other one-on-one sports like that.  Team sports?  Mounted hunts, like fox hunts, which are sort of team. hmm Others will probably come to mind. Oh yes, polo with enemy heads.

The thing is in fantasy settings its a bit anachronistic to have modern-style sports.  In my Dark Albion material I do describe the ancestor of modern football (soccer for you north americans!), which was an insane free-for all.

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We used to play Duck Golf in our Gloranthan game, at least the trolls did ...

Our favourite game was "Rich Merchants", wherein we wandered around the docks dressed in our finery, talking about our large coin bags, waiting for ruffians to mug us, then we'd give out an extreme and satisfying amount of violence on said ruffians in "self defence".

Quote from: RPGPundit;625393The thing is in fantasy settings its a bit anachronistic to have modern-style sports.  In my Dark Albion material I do describe the ancestor of modern football (soccer for you north americans!), which was an insane free-for all.

Florentine Soccer was hardcore, with dead et al.

There are a large number of sports played throughout the Age of Reason and Enlightenment. Some were even organized into teams by royal house or guild:

• Lacrosse
• Bear and bull baiting
• Stoolball
• Cockfighting
• The infamous "foot list"
• Archery
• Shuttlecock
• Pall Mall (a predecessor to croquet)
• Hawking
• Rounders
• Ten pin bowling (called Skittles I believe)
• Fencing
• Horsemanship
• Tennis
• Lancing
• Shinty (a predecessor to hockey)
• Dancing
• Foot, cart and horse races
• Colf (similar to golf, but with thick clubs)
• Wrestling
• "Parlor" games (backgammon, cribbage, chess)
• Gameball (as Pundit already mentioned, a violent form of football)

Chariot racing was pretty important in the Byzantine Empire. Violence and gamgs surrounding the various racing factions can make for a pretty solid city adventure.

Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDER;625530

• Lacrosse
• Bear and bull baiting
• Stoolball
• Cockfighting
• The infamous "foot list"
• Archery
• Shuttlecock
• Pall Mall (a predecessor to croquet)
• Hawking
• Rounders
• Ten pin bowling (called Skittles I believe)
• Fencing
• Horsemanship
• Tennis
• Lancing
• Shinty (a predecessor to hockey)
• Dancing
• Foot, cart and horse races
• Colf (similar to golf, but with thick clubs)
• Wrestling
• "Parlor" games (backgammon, cribbage, chess)
• Gameball (as Pundit already mentioned, a violent form of football)

I had a lacrosse set-up ready for a certain campaign, but the characters didn't go in that direct.

Now that you mention bull baiting, I had something like the ancient Crete version in one adventure.

I also have had rodeos in games with bull riding and such, since so many games ended up with a old west elements no matter what the setting.

Edit: The lacrosse set-up was to be used in a region peopled by a tribe similar to those in Northeastern Untied States.  Also, I have often wanted to incorporated the Mesoamerican ballgame, sometimes called Ulama in the modern recreation, that was played with a rubber ball. It was often part of a larger ritual.  So, it has interesting potential.

In Arrows of Indra I dedicate a small section to describing the "Kalari Arenas", which are locales used for training warriors, but also for conducting both wrestling matches and formal duels.  These are spectator sports and quite a bit of gambling takes place during either event.

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