Tournament of the Gods - Scoring

[Magius del Cotto]

OK, as I've said in a previous post, I'm running a Creature Feature, and I've decided to run it as a tournament of massive proportians (obivously). It's a pretty simple setup, but I need a scoring system to make it more of a gladiator type thing, where the highest level characters are still challenged to "look cool", even while fighting things that are no challenge at all for them (IE, a lvl 20 going up against orcs). I'll use this to determine their "prestige", which, in turn, will determine what kind of weapons they can use and what areas they're allowed into.
Thing is, I can only think of two scoring events and one penalty. I've got criticals (not sure of what the award would be), and 1 hit take-outs (something like 3 points, though open for change) for the scores, and taking 1 round of combat as the penalty (tentatively at -5 points), but that's obviously not enough for what I'm planning.
What do you recommend for scoring? Some things to note: this is an anything goes tournament, and I have at my disposal the PHB, Oriental Adventures (OA), Sovreign Stone (SS), Spycraft (SC), Shadowforce Archer (SA), Dragonstar (DS), Call of Cthulhu (CoC), Wheel of Time (WoT), Mercenaries (M), Star Wars (SW), Fobidden Kingdoms (FK), and Mythic Races (MR) for playable races. Equipment from each will be used as well, but I'm going to go through and reprice it to reflect the different system.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

22 views and no ideas at all? Come now, surely someone has an idea for what to base scoring around. Don't worry if it sounds stupid, I can promise that I won't laugh you out.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

I do need these ideas, otherwise I'm going to have to rely on either the normal experience progression for 3e (which we all know is far to fast for what I want to do), or on some home brewed system, and from the reception of those I've posted up here, that's probably not going to work too well either.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

After each battle, the PC could make a Charisma check, his sucess would give him his score, modified by crits, being hit, how much he plays the crowd, # of wins/losses in a row, ect. If he is popular or unpopular (feats?), these could be opposed checks, or just be further mods.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

In the movie Gladiator, the crowed was dissapointed if one side was killed too quickly, so you might wanna rethink that bonus. ( although I have to admit to not understanding your brief description of point ideas...) Observers wanna be entertained, right?

Ask Kaptain Kantrip to desribe to you the rules for combat in Harn - They are supposedly very descriptive ( where a hit lands & exactly what type of damage was done etc... ) so they might be suitable for your gladiator scoring, although I'm not interested in that type of combat myself...

If I were running a Gladiator type scenario, I'd use the above mentioned Charisma as a factor, and also assign points based on CR or EL.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

After having the connection to the sight go down right as I was posting my reply to this, here we go (again).
Jondor: Yes, I agree that Charisma should be a factor in the prestige bonus, though whether it's as a fluid (IE, checks) or a static bonus, I don't know yet. I also want the monster's CR to be factored into the equation, so characters get more for beating more dificult monsters (though the fight likely won't be as flashy). I might use the feats idea, or I might just allow the characters prestige rating to take care of that.
BFG: Well, I want to punish them for finishing the fight off quickly, while at the same time awarding them for a flashy finish or complete humiliating defeat (such as a one hit decapitation). Stuff that makes other players just say, "Cool...".
And, yes, you seem to have the basic idea of what I want down, and, as I said, I'm going to use Charisma, CR, and ECL in the mix, but I want something that's dynamic that can really hurt someone if they do stuff the crowd doesn't like (IE, constantly running away), or really help them out (IE, escaping a certain death situation). I'm basing almost everything around their prestige, from equipment they can buy to where they can watch others fighting, and I need a system that's dynamic enough to do this.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Give points for total overkill.
Points for playing in an entertaining fashion with your opponent (ie going total defense for five rounds and THEN killing them)
Points for big flashy spells as against disintegrate or powerword, kill.

Think about the visual part of everything. Seeing a 20th level fighter butcher standard orcs wouldn't be visually entertaining, it'd be like watching a man squash bugs. But seeing a 10th level fighter overcome a bunch of ogres - that could be much better.

Give points to characters with burst weapons over those with keen enchantments - visual effects again.

Put yourself in the place of the crowd - what entertains a crowd? Heck, take lessons from pro wrestling! Entrances, talking before fights, setting up feuds, having run-ins, illegal (if there is such a thing) weapons and tactics. Good guys and bad guys.

Build repuations. Have a big nasty with a vorpal sword. No one leaves his fights alive. Have a hero - give him a weapon with the merciful bonus (does +1d6 damage, all damage is subdual).

Give bonuses for defeating strange and peculiar creatures. Imagine the reaction of a crowd to a fight against a ankheg as opposed to another round of orc slayage.

That's enough for now, I think!

 

[Magius del Cotto]

OK, we've got overkill (say, -10 in one hit?), flash, CR (again), entrance/finale (charisma checks?), PC based challenges (they can choose their own weapons). Don't have to worry about exotic creatures, really, since I've gotten 904 so far, and I haven't hit my monster-heavy books yet.
Anything else to throw into the equation?
[edit]Oh yeah. Don't forget about penalties for stuff like ending the fight too quickly. Need to be able to have characters lose prestige as well as gain it.

 

[Impeesa]

Points for every round they go without getting hit, bonus for a flawless victory.

Points for unnecessarily complicated strategies, maneuvers, or acrobatics.

Points for taking advantage of the scenery, if there are any props or anything in the arena.

--Impeesa--

 

[Magius del Cotto]

OK... I still need more penalties than just finishing the fight too quickly. Also, more rewards would still be appreciated (compiling them now).