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

[Primitive Screwhead]

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?
Thanks!

I was thinking of an issue in my game where I was drawing a blank on ideas for boons from meditation rooms.. I wanted a cool encounter ability for each of the elements that the rooms focus on... and then it struck me like a bolt of lightning from the pure blue sky... character actions drive the story
Why was I trying to come up with a power/ability that may or may not end up being useful in the combat?

So, my final version of the boons are like the Reserve feats from 3.5; each provides a minor benefit and can be expended as a standard action stunt that is flavoured by the element.. but described by the player.

All that to say... use stunts to represent playing to the crowd. Not only does this not limit your players.. but allows the NPCs to do the same back. The stunt would cause loss of favor, measured in hit points. Reaching zero hit points results in the character becoming helpless... at which point the thumbs-up/thumbs-down gives the winning gladiator a chance to coup-de-gras..

So when your player says they are going to intimidate the NPC by turning their back.. they roll a skill check and damage mechanically the same as if they hit the guy with a sword.

If your players are not used to stunting in combat, perhaps the first couple rounds you can have the NPCs unleash some cool actions that are explicitly skill stunts, with heavy hinting that the PC's can do the same.

 

[Taed]

The Free RPG Day Dark Sun adventure _Bloodsand Arena_ has 2 arena battles. In the first, whenever someone bull rushes or otherwise pushes someone into an obstacle that caused damage, they would get +1 speed and +1 to all defences. In the second, whenever someone did a critical hit or did something "cool", they'd get 4 temporary HPs or somesuch.

 

[Nifft]

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?

An opposed skill challenge, with each side trying to get 4 successes over the other side. Keep counting up on both sides. These special rules apply:
- If you score a critical hit, you can trade it for a regular hit plus one success.
- If you roll a natural 20 on the skill challenge, you can also make an attack as a free action.

If your group is "up" two successes, you get a +1 bonus to all attack rolls.
If your group is "up" four successes, you get a +2 bonus to all attack rolls.

The key skills are Athletics, Bluff, Endurance, Intimidate, and Streetwise. All other skills can be used repeatedly, but at a higher DC.

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.

Pits are boring: the crowd can't see your kill.

You want moving platforms (and the PCs don't know which ones are solid, and which will roll away). The Dragonborn goal should be to split up the party, so sudden walls & moving terrain are their greatest assets. The "sudden walls" might be made of fire.

Rolling logs are also cool. Anything which makes the PCs look clumsy (and disables them enough for them to be easy kills). At their most basic, the traps should tend to grant the Dragonborn combat advantage, if the PCs fail an Acrobatics or Athletics check.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Piratecat]

Oh, good stuff. I like the idea about moving terrain and separating the PCs. That's going to make the fight interesting.

 

[Scribble]

For stuff like this I also like to tie RP bonus's to skills...

Like in the skill challenge if one of your players gets into his best "WWF Superstar" act either give him an auto success or a +2 bonus on a skill challenge check.

It's always fun to see your players put on a good Macho Man impression.


Oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Aoirorentsu]

I know folks have mentioned Dark Sun, but I thought I would just make sure that you also knew that they have an "arena favor" subsystem. Basically, as the gladiators win matches, they get a treasure parcel worth of "Town X arena favor" with the area that the arena is in. The "favor" has a gold piece value, and can be used to get favors, services, or equipment from peeps in the area. Also, the book has some "arena glory" boons as magic items which can be "purchased" using arena favor, which might reflect a successful gladiator's awesome endurance, badassedness, etc.

Not sure it's exactly what you're going for, but it might be something to look at.

 

[Piratecat]

Thanks everyone - what a great game!

Seven heroes vs seven loathsome gladiators (with two of my players commuting on web cam, remarkably enough), and it was a whole lot of fun. I used a kludged version of the Dragon crowd rules, and I added all sorts of traps: giant spinning gears of death, foe-flingers, flame pits, and spear walls.

 

[Joshua Randall]

foe-flingers

"Oh, the Base Ejector caught him napping!"

(obscure reference to an old advertisement featuring Ken Griffey, Jr.) (I think)