gladiators in the arena
last night I did some historical research on wikipedia
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
apparently the Colosseum was built AFTER Nero died on land that he had taken from the people to turn into a lake. so in a correction to my previous post, neither Nero nor Caligula used the Colosseum for staging military battles and gladitorial contests. and it appears that Christians weren't thrown to the lions there either.
Colosseum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
however the romans did do some pretty amazing things, as i had learned during my Latin class in high school.
1) they filled it with water and staged naval battles
2) Emperor Trajan staged 123 days of contests involving 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals
3) for theatrical performances, convicts who were given life sentences would be the "actors" put to death via methods as per the myths that were performed (set on fire, beheaded, etc)
4) somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 people would fill the
Amphitheatrum Flavium. that's a huge crowd to control.
I'm expecting to stage a few "rounds". It will start off slowly, one pc vs. a lightweight, then doubling up, then throw in some animals and beasts. For our story, the pc's don't necessarily want to be in the arena, and they've been coerced to participate. For the final or next-to-final battle, I think throwing in a rust monster and some kind of other monster that dazes or immobilizes would make it more exciting. The emperor is "crazy", but crazy like a fox; he knows that since a lot of people paid good money to come to the show, he's going to give them their money's worth. The trick is to make each mini battle not take too long or be too complex, so that by the final ruckus the players will be a little spent but still have the capacity to battle.
**
as for the tavern, there will be NPCs who are trying to stay out of the fray (waitstaff, the barkeep's daughters). then there may be a few who are trying to get the place back under control (bartender, cook). players will be warned that they may not want to use lethal methods of protecting themselves and others. and improvised weapons are obviously part of the fun (chairs, tables, silverware, beer steins, stemware)