Ideas for a gladiatorial game (with meta-game!)

[ScyldSceafing]

I'm having an extended gameday in a couple of months, and I wanted to do something sort of different. I'm trying to come up with a structure that will allow the players to play with each other and not so much all of them with me. We're probably going to have about 8 people.

I was thinking of doing a gladiatorial contest of some kind. I'd ask the players to create a level X character (what X equals is a variable I would enjoy seeing discussed), equipping them as a level X-Y character (lower, as some of their items would be stripped, I'm assuming). I'd ask for backgrounds and not give away the plan. There would be gladiatorial contests of some kind, which is yet another variable I'd dearly love to see the denizens of this dank cave murmur into definition.

Finally, to create a sense of buy-in for the players who aren't involved in a particular round, there would be a meta-game; basically a free-for-all betting game on the gladiatorial contests. I thought perhaps some Monopoly money could be used. I'm pondering saying right up front that your money's security is your problem.

Anyway, that's enough to start the discussion, I guess. I'll pop back in with further ideas as they move through the IdeaColon(tm).

 

[ScyldSceafing]

Further ideas

Another idea: make the entities betting on the gladiatorial games gods; perhaps instruct the players to choose a D&D god they'd like to roleplay in a discussion-room-of-the-gods situation?

This thing on?