Help with gladiator style campaign

[Sagan Darkside]

What I need are some interesting thugs/villians/allies to throw at them on the first day. Someone that they will despise or aspire too. Anyone have any good ideas here?

Hmm- a dwarven gladiator who has specialized in knocking out his opponents. (subdues them with quarterstaff or something along those lines) Sounds nice, right? Until he removes the right eye of everyone he k.o.'s. It is rumored he keeps the eyes in jars in his home- so he can constantly be looked at and worshipped by those he defeated.

A goblin gladiator who specializes in stealing kills.. he hides/plays dead/runs from standard combat, but when he sees two others who are near killing each other.. he runs in and tries to finish off both.

An old gladiator who had bought his freedom long ago (and became a legend), but as he grows old he wants to die in the arena. He could help the pc's out if they show themselves as honorable sorts.

A loud mouth braggart who taunts his opponents while using defensive feats to make sure he never gets harmed.

A silent elf-like figure that wears a mask of some sort. He uses the weapon of the last person he killed. (starts with his bare hands).

Good luck
SD

 

[Delgar]

Thanks Sagan,

This is great stuff, please feel free to keep it coming! I'll need as many interesting personalities that I can get my gruby little hands on. So far, I'm liking what I'm seeing!

Come on, I know your out there just waiting to give me a juicy little tid-bit!

Delgar

 

[AngelTears]

Here is a thought of a plot

Nick the nose.

Nick is a grizzled fighter of many years and is currently one of the larger gladiator owners in the city. Winning his freedom through endless batltle hea wears the metal banded nose as a personal trophy. He is very much involved in all parts of the illicit goings on in the Arena, from fixing matches to gambling. Those who have opposed him have found themselves wakng up to the soundign cheer of the arena chained to Goar the half-Ogre.

Malveena

Nick's long suffering sister who enjoys playing with Nick's gladiators. One day she would like for Nick to die, maybe even by a disgruntled gladiator. The word among the gladiators is that while her words are honey she is pure poison. An unwary gladiator whom Malveena has taken a disliking might find himself poisoned...

Kein

One of the many companies that sell things by sponsoring gladiatorial bouts, showing off their wares. The Spiked Boot is their current fall fashion item and has been prominently on display in several matches.

 

[Delgar]

Thanks Angel for the great ideas.

One of the many companies that sell things by sponsoring gladiatorial bouts, showing off their wares. The

I can just see my characters doing ads for SPIKE (pronounced Spikey)!

Delgar

 

[NPC]

You could make one of the gladitorial combats a sports game with violence, a la the movie "The Blood of Heroes".

The gladiators must put a ball in a basket but they could be killed doing so. You could give the ball anti-magic properties, make it really heavy, whatever.

Or you could create some violent game of quiddich (sp?). Instead of brooms the PC's use flying carpets.

In one combat you could have someone sabotage the weapons the PC's are using, and they must investigate who's out to get them and why.

 

[Joe123]

Gladiator Style Campaign Ideas

Hi Delgar,

firstly, there was an entertaining D&D 1st edition adventure module, released by TSR in 1990 called "Arena of Thyatis". Certiainly, you would find many sound adventure ideas from that publication. John Nephew wrote it. Much of the material could be converted to the 3rd edition as well. I highly recommend it because it relates strongly to your intended campaign scenario. (The locale of the adventure, of course, was in a Roman-like coliseum involving gladiatorial combat.)

I've got a few bits of ideas for you:

ARENA: You could set it up so that the coliseum itself is really the entertainment centre of the city/town. Thousands of residents come daily to bet on the duels. There could be an animal trainer as well as trainers specifically for gladiators. Each gladiator could have a sponsor, who establishes a contract with a PC, obligating him to participate in X number of duels per week/month. The PC Gladiator would not be officially paid for duels. Perhaps his income could come from his performance on the sands and success in front of the crowds, who throw flowers/coins out for him. (You could even introduce a "perform" check, influencing the crowd reaction) Imagine the reputation of a PC Gladiator who consistently overcomes even the mightiest of foes in the coliseum!

COMBATANTS: Aside from other gladiators, much of the competition could come from monsters you simply pluck out of the MM. Creatures like tigers, lions, and so on. (Even the occasional slave thrown out with a simple dagger, for humour.)

PLOT HOOKS: Perhaps there is a dwarven PC in the party, skilled in weapon and armorsmithing. This in itself provides a link to the arena, for someone must supply and craft the gladiator's weapons. He could work towards establishing himself as a rookie gladiator so that he fights on the sands. (Maybe he tries making magical weapons, which may be forbidden by the authorities.)

One of the PCs relatives died on the sands. Surely that PC will want to avenge the death of his relative when he hears the gladiator who killed him is still fighting in the arena!

NPC's/VILLAINS: Perhaps power and money are much sought after, with several elite former gladiators now either controlling (albeit illegally) events on the sands or even ruling part of the city! No leader wants his power challenged by formidable PCs who seem to be winning every fight!

 

[Delgar]

Wow even more great ideas.

Thanks for the book info, I'll definately look into it.

Thanks guys!

I'm working on a summary of my initial campaign plans at the moment and I'll post here and hope for more help!

Keep the ideas coming!

Delgar

 

[Sagan Darkside]

I had an idea for an npc for my campeign that you might find use for:

A monk with a control animal-type of magical ring. He wears long robes that cover his hands.. and the poisonous snakes wrapped around his forearms. When he attacks, they have a readied action to bite the person he is hitting.

SD

 

[seasong]

The Duggess Arena

A small-time arena in a tiny urban center, the Duggess Arena is owned and operated by Duggess, a retired aquaduct engineer who purchased numerous broken stone waterways and refinished them sufficiently for his purposes.

The arena is fairly small, perhaps two thousand square feet (not counting the stadia surrounding it), and consists of stone walkways at varying heights. The arena is completely open to the stadia, and differences in elevation and use of wall cover is vital to the strategies of the fighters who do battle in the arena.

Duggess has a half-ogre champion who is intimately familiar with the arena, and uses a combination of superior reach, higher elevation, and paths of retreat to turn his spear-and-net fighting style into methodical murder.

Below is a rough map showing elevations and walls. Spaced dashes represent stair steps, and every doorway has stair steps. The walls are all 6' high (to allow full vision from the field) and some gladiators have managed rather spectacular battles by clambering on top of or jumping over the walls.

[color=skyblue]o--[___]-------------------------------o
|               |               \      |
|              /      9'         \     |
|    0'       /               /   |    |
|            / -  -  -  -  -     --    |
|           /                       6' |
|          \               6'    __    |
|  -  -     \ -  -  -  -         /     |
|   3'   \               \      /      |
|_______/ \                    /       |
|       \         6'       \  /        |
|        \                   /  \      |
|         \_______|   |_____/          |
|   6'    /       |   |           \    |
|                                      |
|       /           9'              \  |
|                                      |
|      |                              \|
|                             ___      |
o----------------------------[   ]-----o[/color]

 

[Delgar]

Thanks Seasong,

You rock!

Right now I'm working on a summary with many blanks to be filled in by the creative people of enworld. I just want to get together enough background and ideas to start off a campaign with a bang and let it grow from there. Anyway, if anyone is out there and has an idea (and I know your out there lurking!). Speak up and let yourself be heard, besides don't you want a gladiator named after yourself in the ring? Huh? Who doesn't!

Delgar