Subathon penalties and challenges

They give viewers a way to act on the stream other than adding time, and they create the unexpected moments a long stream needs.

The best penalties are short, safe and funny to watch, and you agree to them in advance rather than in the heat of the night.

A few classics to adapt to your channel:

• Play with a handicap for ten minutes: inverted controls, no HUD, one hand.
• Speak with an accent, or only in questions, for a set time.
• Wear a costume chosen by the chat.
• Taste something the chat picked, within limits you set.
• Switch to a game you are bad at for a round.
• Remove a few minutes from the timer, when the chat votes for it.

Write the rules before you start and pin them in the chat:

• Nothing that puts your health, your safety or your equipment at risk.
• Nothing that breaks the platform's rules.
• A maximum per hour, so penalties stay a treat rather than a punishment.
• The right to say no, for you and your guests, without discussion.

Put challenges behind goals: each goal reached unlocks one, shown with its own overlay and public page. A Stream Boss can also bring a challenge when it falls.

For time penalties, your moderators can remove time from the chat with a command such as !timer -10m, within the maximum you set. Every command is logged on the Chat commands page.