Game Day Gladiatorial Game - Suggestions?

[Quasqueton]

For the upcoming North Carolina Game Day, I've volunteered to referee gladiatorial matches. I want to ask for suggestions on what would be the best "rules" for this, and the best way to run it.

My initial ideas are. . .

Game Rules:

Bring (or make up at the Game Day) a character using only the three core rulebooks.

Standard point buy - 25 points.

Characters must be CR9 or less. [I just picked this number out of the air. I haven't really compared what is available in the MM at this level.] This means, PHB races/classes up to level 9. Creatures from the MM with less than CR9 can have character classes bringing them up to CR9. Like a 5th-level troll barbarian or 1st-level mind flayer sorcerer. Or should I limit the characters to PHB races?

The "arena" will simply be a square grid battle map. Should there be some kind of obstacles? I fear this will make things more complicated in adjudication. "Ceiling" is 40' above the floor. [Has to be some limit to flying and stuff.] Should burrowing be allowed?

Leaving the material arena is a loss. No teleporting out. No plane shifting. No going ethereal. Etc.

How to prevent summoning in powerful creatures without preventing simple summon monster spells? Is calling in a planar ally too much for this situation?

Fights are to the death. Or incapacitation for more than X rounds? Trying to prevent situations where an opponent can't when because he doesn't have fire or acid to finish of the unconscious troll with 500 subdual points, but don't want a simple hold person to when either.

Should there be a time limit, say 20 rounds, where I'd have to make a judgement?


Fitting into Game Day activities:

I was thinking this could be an informal game. Let people fight when they have the chance. No one could use more than one gladiator, but "resurrections" are available.

I could referee matches between opponents as folks are able. I'd have to determine some minimum number of battles for consideration as a winner? How to call a winner of the tournament? Simply go by the best win/loss ratio?

What are some problems I might encounter?

I'm really knowledgable of the core rules, so I feel pretty comfortable there. But I'd like to ask the participants to warn me ahead of time of any special "tricks" or combos they want to use so that I can give consideration to how they would work. I have no problem with the players surprising each other with power plays, but I think the referee should not be blindsided. And the ref should keep secret power plays to himself.

Quasqueton

 

[Quasqueton]

Hello?

<taps microphone>

Is this thing on?

Check, check, check.

Is anybody out there?



Quasqueton

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

We are doing something similar:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37102

You should buy Dargon 303 for sure if you are going to do this. I'll try and write more later, or answer any specific questions, but I have to run to a meeting now...

BIG

 

[Jeph]

Just make it until death. i mean, if you can incapacitate something, you can coup de grace it. and if the creature can't be coup de graced, well, you might as well let their ability come into play. Starting gold?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Bring (or make up at the Game Day) a character using only the three core rulebooks.

Standard point buy - 25 points.

Good so far

Characters must be CR9 or less. [I just picked this number out of the air. I haven't really compared what is available in the MM at this level.] This means, PHB races/classes up to level 9. Creatures from the MM with less than CR9 can have character classes bringing them up to CR9. Like a 5th-level troll barbarian or 1st-level mind flayer sorcerer. Or should I limit the characters to PHB races?

You might provide a list of acceptable monsters with their ECL and ability score adjustments. ECL doesn't necessarily equal CR, and the monster stats in the MM are based on "average" stats, not 25 point buy stats. An ogre, for example, is CR2, but the lastest dragon recommended an ECL of +6 for the ogre. CR, after all, is a measure of how well a monster stands up to a 4-character party.

PrC's allowed? If so: DMG only, or others?

Look at the spells cast for a 9th level caster (IDHMBIFOM) to see if there are any major issues)

The "arena" will simply be a square grid battle map. Should there be some kind of obstacles? I fear this will make things more complicated in adjudication. "Ceiling" is 40' above the floor. [Has to be some limit to flying and stuff.] Should burrowing be allowed?

I'd throw in a few obstacles for cover and the like -- makes it more interesting. Or perhaps a staircase leading up to a platform for multi-level fighting. You could take the miniature gaming approach, and have a selection of obstacles (rocks, tables, steps with platform, pool of lava, pool of grease, collapsing wall, low wall, group of trees, etc) -- each player would pick one obstacle and place it before combat begins.

The "spice" rules from Dragon 303 can give you good ideas.

Leaving the material arena is a loss. No teleporting out. No plane shifting. No going ethereal. Etc.

Good. How much prep time? Do spellcasters get to buff up before entering the arena, or must they do it inside (I'd recommend inside -- otherwise you give spellcasters a tremendous advantage).

How to prevent summoning in powerful creatures without preventing simple summon monster spells? Is calling in a planar ally too much for this situation?

I wouldn't sweat this -- if they can, let 'em

Fights are to the death. Or incapacitation for more than X rounds? Trying to prevent situations where an opponent can't when because he doesn't have fire or acid to finish of the unconscious troll with 500 subdual points, but don't want a simple hold person to when either.

Should there be a time limit, say 20 rounds, where I'd have to make a judgement?

I'd go death or yield, judge's call on things like the troll. 10 rounds is probably all you need.

I could referee matches between opponents as folks are able. I'd have to determine some minimum number of battles for consideration as a winner? How to call a winner of the tournament? Simply go by the best win/loss ratio?

Double-elimination bracket.

Sounds like a lot of fun! Good luck!

 

[Delgar]

I highly recommend that you have a system in place that rewards agression if there are going to be multiple people in the arena at one time. To prevent the hide and wait till everyone kills each other game.

Our group ran something similar with 20th level characters. 2 elimination rounds followed by the big finale, to eliminate 20 down to 6. The first two rounds a point system was in place, where if you didn't act aggressively in a round you actually lost points. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it worked well. In the final round they just had a fight to the death, which didn't work as well as one of the players just hid from the others.

Anyway, I doubt that much of this helps.

Delgar

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

Quasqueton, I've got a copy of the Dragon (#303) with the gladiator stuff in it. I think you should definately pick it up. Not only does it include a map of an arena (more interesting than the square grid), but it also has answers to a lot of the questions that you've brought up so far.

Also, do groups have to be one on one? Some people from our old group were thinking about making a squad of dwarven defenders to fight in a group combat. I could see that being a lot of fun from a creation, playing, DMing position. Besides, imagine Braden, MIcah and I playing a dwarven squad But I do understand that it might be difficult to find another group that is of the same size, so perhaps it is too complicated.

Matt

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Good point!

It is much more challenging ( and fun ) to create character's that can fight in groups OR alone - And that will perhaps fight multiple times per day, so you must be careful about using your 1/day powers & items.


Edit: Added:


The DM can run NPC, or each player can run 2 PC's - it shouldn't be too complicated if you have a small group!

 

[Jeph]

Since the total CR has to be 9, I guess you could make 2 CR 7s, or 4 CR 5s, or 8 CR 3s, or, hell, go for 16 CR 1s.

48 kobolds, here I come! Wee-haw!

 

[Storminator]

I've run and watched a few gladitorial combats recently.

And some of them are amazingly boring instant beatdowns. If a pair of maxed out fighters go toe to toe, whichever one gets the extra full round action wins. Too much damage, too fast.

So I've been thinking up some things to break up the action. I like dynamic terrain. Arena wizards are watching, and they toss out walls of force when they get bored. Have sections of the floor rise and fall. And have monsters jump out of pits at random moments.

I have an "attitude die," which has happy and sad faces on it, and I roll that for crowd reactions. If the gladiator is about to be killed, see if the crowd wants him to die. But let the PCs affect the die roll. Perform checks, intimidate checks, spectacular tumbling or acrobatics, mighty heroics, all move the attitude towards happy. Cowardice, "cheating," bored crowds (i.e. the PC didn't even try a check) and botched checks degrade the attitude.

PS