Arena fight - need a mechanic for crowd-pleasing combat bonuses!

[webrunner]

I used two piles of chips for 'crowd favor'. I'd remove them for particularly pitiful shows (making a big show of an attack which then missed totally) and add them for cool moves (the Wizard using prestidigitation, trash talking, critical hits, etc). The fighters gained + to attack rolls equal to how many chips more they had.

- I made it clear that the crowd HATING you was better than the crowd NOT CARING- so "heel" heat added to the same pile as "face" heat.
- Each monster had a different way to add their own chips. One was so over the top that it lost TWO crowd chips if he announced his attacks, gaining one if he hit with an announced attack. Another one played to the crowd, wasting entire turns boastng. Another one merely had showy moves.

Every time I dropped a chip into the player's pile everyone (even those not playing in the current fight) was ecstatic. They really got into it. I think the trick was that it was such a simple mechanic.. the group usually forgot every bonus, but they always included their crowd bonus.

I also had the players come up with optional psudonyms, intro music, and intro descriptions (The Halfling Wizard, for instance, said "She may be small.. but her magic is as big as all of Sharn!", and in round two I added "The Pirate Slayer" as a middle name as she beat the Pirate who was her first round opponent, resulting in a "ooh, I'm a Pirate Slayer now". Another character decided to go by "The Whirlwind of Breland". The big dumb Goliath Vimek called himself Vimek the Vimek, which I made sure to roleplay as confusion from the announcer.)

So that's my advice: make sure any crowd bonus you give is simple to calculate, encourage the spectacle with an announcer, and let the characters act out of character as the characters are now playing characters themselves)

 

[Klaus]

My players stay out, please.

In my Merchant Prince 4e game, the PCs are in a Dragonborn city and about to face off against seven dragonborn gladiators in a vast arena battle. I'd like suggestions on two things, please:

1. I want to give combat buffs or debuffs for actions that play to the crowd, for both the PCs and their foes. Any fun suggestions?

2. The dragonborn foes have the opportunity to customize their half of the arena with pits, traps, moving platforms and the like. Any suggestions? I want cinematic, cool tricks and props that would play well to a bloodthirsty audience.

Thanks!

Run this as a complexity... whatever... skill challenge, where you need 12 successes before 3 failures in the middle of combat.

Every time you bloody an opponent, you gain 1 success.
Every time you kill an opponent, you gain 1 success.
Every time you score a critical hit, you gain 1 success.

Skills:
Intimidate (move; Moderate DC, Easy if you have killed at least one opponent) - You force your opponents to flinch with your savage yell, baging your weapon and shield together.

Bluff (standard; Moderate DC) - You trick your opponent into making a blunder. If you roll against a Hard DC and succeed, the opponent falls prone.

Athletics or Acrobatics (move; Moderate DC) - You leap at your opponent, or otherwise perform a wide maneuver that the crowd can appreciate.

Insight (move; Moderate DC) - +2 on your next Bluff or Intimidate check, doesn't count against the total tally.

Etc.

Success tiers (effects are cumulative):
1 - 3: The crowd is unimpressed.
4 - 6: The crowd is warming up to you. You gain a +2 bonus on your healing surge value.
7 - 9: The crowd takes your side and shout warnings. When you grant combat advantage, enemies don't gain the +2 bonus to attack you.
10-12: The crowd is at your mercy. You score a critical hit on a roll of 19-20.

You can't fail the challenge until you are defeated in combat. Every time you fail at a skill check, your next attack is weakened.

EDIT:

You could apply these mechanics to both sides. The success tiers are determined by subtracting the side with the least successes from the side with the more successes. So if the PCs have 10 successes and the dragonborn have 4, the PCs gain the benefits of 6 successes. This way the fight becomes a battle not only to survive, but also to win the favor of the crowd.

 

[AngryMojo]

Run this as a complexity... whatever... skill challenge, where you need 12 successes before 3 failures in the middle of combat.

Ooh, idea!
Instead of having the successes indicate crowd pleasure, have them indicate the thumbs up/thumbs down response of the emperor. If you've fought well enough or been a good enough performer when you're ready to strike a killing blow, he gives your opponent a thumbs down, giving you permission to strike the deathblow. Otherwise, the gladiator lives to see another day, and possibly becomes a recurring opponent.

 

[Joshua Randall]

There's a 3e-era Dungeon issue with an adventure called Pandemonium in the Veins that has some gladiatorial combat rules.

Naturally, they are for 3e, but I'm sure you could convert them to 4e easily enough.

 

[LostSoul]

You could have something held up by paper supports - some kind of big, towering structure. The dragonborn set fire to it with their breath; it comes tumbling down over a number of rounds, maybe in a random direction.

You could have some kind of electrical device that gets powered with a bolt of lightning. A big fan with blades of doom.

 

[ExploderWizard]

" I wasn't the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me."

Proximo


Give a showmanship bonus to pleasing the crowd in exchange for taking penalties to damage rolls. This can represent the risk of being a flashy combatant and fighting at less than full potential for the sake of the show.

This will make the fight take longer but that is exactly the point and it's what the crowd wants to see!!

The showmanship points can be useful for getting the crowd to aid you during the fight and for influencing favorable reactions from important persons in the crowd in matters other than the immediate conflict.

Hazards:

Lots of good stuff already mentioned. Foot snaring traps beneath the sand that immobilize for a round could be interesting. The trap would then release and reset becoming a visible hazard thereafter. They could get even nastier once they are discovered perhaps doing some damage and ongoing poison once triggered for the 2nd time.

Let us know how this all plays out!

 

[Kzach]

I haven't read through the rest of the thread 'cause I'm too tired so apologies if these have already been thought of... oh... and this should be in House Rules

Whenever a feat affects an attack or other ability used during the encounter, a roar can be heard from the crowd, granting the user a +1 damage bonus on their next attack.

Any immediate reaction or interrupt causes gasps and appreciative nods, granting a +1 to the attack roll of the character's next attack.

Any critical hit appeals to the bloodthirsty nature of the crowd and their roars of approval grant the attacker +5 temporary hit points.

When a PC bloodies an opponent, the crowd's jeering and howls for death act as an intimidate roll, something like just making a saving throw for the combatant, 10 or over, he keeps fighting, 9 or lower he begs for mercy.

Whenever an encounter power is used, the crowd goes wild, cheering for the PC, which grants him a +2 AC bonus until the end of his next turn.

And lastly, whenever a daily power is used, the crowd stands up and howls and starts singing, "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!" Ok, no, but the PC gets to spend a healing surge immediately to heal up their healing surge value.

 

[vagabundo]

Lost Soul's post just reminded me that Dragonborn have a breath weapon (duh)with a variable keyword. Maybe they have setup the arena with different hazards that are keyed to different breath weapons. And their team is hand picked so that they have a Gladiator with

Rainbow-black pools of oil-> Fire -> Roaring walls of flame
Knee deep pools of water -> Lightening -> Works something like bioshock; it amplifies the damage/radius if you are standing in the water.

Acid - Maybe some sort of hemp walkways that the acid will eat through and plunge the PCs to the arena floor (where the oil/water waits..). Or a pit of pellets that dissolve into a noxious cloud.

Cold - makes the area slippy?? dunno

Poison - Maybe some creatures are attracted to the smell of the poison.. Dunno about this one.

 

[Joshua Randall]

There are a series of feats to improve a dragonborn's breath weapon in PH Races: Dragonborn.

The benefits of these feats would be cool things to apply to the dragonborn gladiators. (You don't need to give 'em the feats themselves. 'Cause this is 4e, man.)

 

[Jabba Von Hutt]

I wasn't at GenCon this year but didn't I hear something about playing to the crowd as a component for getting points in the DS Arena competition. Maybe someone who ran or played could elaborate.