I recently found my issues of Dragon Magizine 303, and Dungeon 96. Ergo the Gladiator block. I have had several requests from my players to do a Gladiator campaign, but I have always been hesitant cuz A) I don't have a back ground in City Adventures. B) It seemed to limited in scope to be interesting to me.
However I decided to give it a go, here is the bones of my idea, any thoughts or suggestions. BTW I would also like ideas on how to run a City Campaign, I have read Monte Cook's stuff on the matter, but save for the last issue of Dragon (With the Succubus on the Cover, can't remember the issue Number), it didn't help me much.
Design Ideas
Races) Any. I would like to open the campaign to everything and anything d20. As long as you put it in a fantasy context (Like a Frank, or Moreau, outta Genetech. But you would be a Magical Experiment, or something). Including rules from Savage Species. Strange Gladiators are more interesting, and thus sought after.
Classes) Any. I think I am going to limit this one to Offical Wizards Products. Thus anything from the PHB, and Oriental Adventures. But yeah, insane Class and Race ideas are gonna be encouraged. Like Kobold Samari, or Troll Wu Jen. Why not!
Alignment) I don't like alignment. I think I am going to switch to the Alligence System from d20 Modern.
So with these two ideas, I hit upon the idea of a City. A big Waterdeep-esque city. Run by either minor gods or sort of a retirement village for Epic Level Characters (minor gods in their own right). I think the nature of the setting would maybe mean that the city is the home of VERY High Level Wizards... more on that later. I'm not sure of the location of the city... maybe on a planet... maybe another plane. I dunno.
Characters are a part of a Gladiator Stable. They are Slaves... fairly free slaves, but slaves none the less. I think players who are "freelance" Gladiators is kinda stupid, cuz the whole Slave thing of one day maybe being free is a really good adventure hook. But then again living in horrid conditions, and all isn't really fun. So I think Gladiator Combat is like how sports are now, basically they get paid a lot of money cuz the games are so popular. And hell maybe they have "The Red Dragon's Inn" on their armor and stuff. Could be interesting, and or amusing, to have modern ideas of sports stars thrown in. However the Characters are slaves. I think they are gonna wear some sort of Magical Braclet or something that cannot be taken off. It allows the Gladiator to walk around the city and all, but if they go a certain distance from the city... they die. Also the Braclet has some sort of crystal or something that changes color (sorta like on "Logans Run") to tell the Gladiator when to come to the Arena. They don't die if the don't show up, but if you don't fight, you don't get paid. No pay, you have to get some crappy real job or something... I dunno. Also the magic items the characters wear have the Tounges Spell on them. Thus characters from Vastly different worlds or areas can understand each other.
Thats the idea, what do you think.
However I decided to give it a go, here is the bones of my idea, any thoughts or suggestions. BTW I would also like ideas on how to run a City Campaign, I have read Monte Cook's stuff on the matter, but save for the last issue of Dragon (With the Succubus on the Cover, can't remember the issue Number), it didn't help me much.
Design Ideas
Races) Any. I would like to open the campaign to everything and anything d20. As long as you put it in a fantasy context (Like a Frank, or Moreau, outta Genetech. But you would be a Magical Experiment, or something). Including rules from Savage Species. Strange Gladiators are more interesting, and thus sought after.
Classes) Any. I think I am going to limit this one to Offical Wizards Products. Thus anything from the PHB, and Oriental Adventures. But yeah, insane Class and Race ideas are gonna be encouraged. Like Kobold Samari, or Troll Wu Jen. Why not!
Alignment) I don't like alignment. I think I am going to switch to the Alligence System from d20 Modern.
So with these two ideas, I hit upon the idea of a City. A big Waterdeep-esque city. Run by either minor gods or sort of a retirement village for Epic Level Characters (minor gods in their own right). I think the nature of the setting would maybe mean that the city is the home of VERY High Level Wizards... more on that later. I'm not sure of the location of the city... maybe on a planet... maybe another plane. I dunno.
Characters are a part of a Gladiator Stable. They are Slaves... fairly free slaves, but slaves none the less. I think players who are "freelance" Gladiators is kinda stupid, cuz the whole Slave thing of one day maybe being free is a really good adventure hook. But then again living in horrid conditions, and all isn't really fun. So I think Gladiator Combat is like how sports are now, basically they get paid a lot of money cuz the games are so popular. And hell maybe they have "The Red Dragon's Inn" on their armor and stuff. Could be interesting, and or amusing, to have modern ideas of sports stars thrown in. However the Characters are slaves. I think they are gonna wear some sort of Magical Braclet or something that cannot be taken off. It allows the Gladiator to walk around the city and all, but if they go a certain distance from the city... they die. Also the Braclet has some sort of crystal or something that changes color (sorta like on "Logans Run") to tell the Gladiator when to come to the Arena. They don't die if the don't show up, but if you don't fight, you don't get paid. No pay, you have to get some crappy real job or something... I dunno. Also the magic items the characters wear have the Tounges Spell on them. Thus characters from Vastly different worlds or areas can understand each other.
Thats the idea, what do you think.
