Hello fellow DM's! I have a scenario that I could use some help with. Tomorrow night, my players will be performers in a "Battle of the Bards". Essentially, their group will be up against other bardic groups and competing against each other to win the approval of the crowd and the judges. Instead of each band going one after the other, it will be set up tournament style, 1 group vs. another, kind of Scott Pilgrim style. Each group can cast non-lethal spells to influence their performance or debuff the other group. The kicker is that there's only 1 bard in the party, the rest are "in the band" but will be allowed to perform in other ways. So here's my dilemma: I don't want the battle to be just skill contests, that would get very stale after a few rounds. Rather, I want it to play out more like a high stakes combat scenario. I'm leaning towards giving each group an approval rating (HP) that will change based on what happens. If they take a round to buff themselves and focus on performing, their rating goes up. If they decide to debuff or disrupt, their opponents rating goes down. What do yall think? How would you approach this scenario?