Birthday Bash Arena Brawl [Archive] - Wizards Community

Birthday Bash Arena Brawl [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Oompa
07-02-07, 04:00 AM So.. in a month or so we have our next evening of d&d because of vacations and stuff.. Now is it my birthday right before that evening, so i was planning of having an big old birthday bash :)

My idea was that the players are summoned by an evil wizard that throws them into an arena and they'll have to fight monsters and stuff to entertain the wizard (how original) They dont know its my b'day bash evening and they'll think its serious bussines.. I'm planning on having them to fight low cr monsters in the beginning and then making it challenging each time they get a step higher.. After a few fights they'll get fully restored so they can handle a bit more then one or two fights.. but offcourse, the cr rises and at some moment.. they'll die..

Offcourse they won't really die (they wont know that), it is also a good lesson for them to use strategy.. When they fought ill reward them with an item for each person (my gift to them), it'll cost around 8000 gp per item (its not to much, i calculated what they are worth and stuff)..

Theı will get full xp per monster they defeat, so the more they defeat, the more xp they'll get.. You maybe think its to much.. But my party is no roleplaying party, they love to roll the dice, bashing heads and cracking ribs, the xp and the reward will make them happy joy joy :P And its also the fifth year i dm for them so its also a thankyou :D

So my question is.. anyone have tips, done this before, suggestions, idea's, anything about setting up such an arena fight or tips about the rewards?

Oh the party:
Rogue 7, Cleric 7, Illusionist 8, Druid 8, Fighter 8, Paladin 8

Thanks for the replies :)
LordBritish2
07-02-07, 10:47 AM Make sure to plan out which monsters you are using ahead of time. Also, be careful of heavy evocation users as monsters because I think that may be a weakness in the party (Note: I haven't since your party in action so I don't know how they handle different types of encounters). Along the same vain, seems the party is melee happy so that would be something to play towards/away from.
AlanBruce
07-02-07, 11:44 AM I was just designing a Battle Royale for my player's PCs and was in the process of sketching the arena and such. Have you thought about obstacles and area features? Here's a list I made up for my own:

1. Wooden walls scattered around the arena. Make them 15ft wide x 10 ft. tall x 1 ft. thick. Good enough to protect a group of people (or monsters) vs. those nasty AoE spells.

2. Tall, 50ft. stone pillars. Good enough for a single PC to climb and gain the upper ground if surrounded by monsters and alone.

3. A water tank in the middle of the arena with a 10ft. wooden platform floating in the middle, lily pad style. Perhaps a caster coukd benefit by flying there and waiting for any monsters to jump in the water to reach said caster. The moment they do, begin summoning water creatures.

4. Underground tunnels are always a good idea for PCs who can't fly or blast. Spread out several trapdoors and hide them, giving Pcs a reasonable DC to Spot them. If found, they connect to a series of tunnels beneath the arena. Narrow tunnels, about 10 ft. wide, which connect to the other trapdoors in the arena, as well as having secret rooms with quick pick me ups for the injured PC.

What monsters are you planning on sending them?
GhostOfJacK
07-02-07, 12:25 PM To the arena...

I do these a lot, but usally not with the level that you have. I use them to get people to lvl4/5 sometimes. Take note of the flavour that you can get with the arena rather than just 'you PCs will now vs an equal amount of goblins)

1. Height Even if it is just a big mound of dirt in the middle of the arena, giving a person at the higher height a +2 to hit and the person at a lower height a -2 to hit.

2. Archers If you want to teach tactics, archers can do it fo you. I usually run an arena at 500ftx250ft so you can keep your archers out on the flanks and still hit. Who cares if they hit their own men? The point is that the are a weak target that is usually teamed up with a heavy meelee fighter who stays with the PCs and goes after their 'Back-row' people. It should be highly suggested that the PCs take some time out of the fight to go deal with the ranged people on the flanks.

3. Magic Although it's cliche, drop a fireball on them if they get clumped together. Pull out the tactic of the wizard/rogue pair where the rogue can use evasion for the wizard's fireballs dropped right on him.

4. Big Fight Bring out something really big for one of your fights like a pair of ettins or something. Something with a CR 7 or 8 and not really widely supported. BIG damage -if- it hits you. Teachs light-on-the-feet work.

Summed up, if you want to teach them tactics, use whichever tactics that you, the DM, thought they should have used in a similar fighting scenario.
Oompa
07-02-07, 04:36 PM Im thinking about starting off with low cr/ecl monsters, and then after 4 fights they will be restored to full health, equipment and spells.. But the next fights will be a bit tougher.. And in time they can't hit or having serious trouble..

Im thinking about starting with 4 CR 4 fights, then a break, 4 CR 5 , break, 4 CR 6 ,break, 4 CR 7 , and on and on..

After fighting an enemy, they'll get a one round break and then the next will come.. and after the fourth fight they will be restored..

I'm thinking about using monsters they dont know, it keeps them more on there toe's and offcourse monsters with SR and DR and other special things..

About the arena.. Alanbruce and Ghostofjack thanks for the idea's, i was playing with some adjustments but you two gave some new neat idea's.. I'm gonna make the arena 250 by 500 like said.. It also gives the char more movement oppertunity's..

My players are gonna love this event..
Oompa
07-02-07, 04:38 PM Oh and i was thinking about making it an open roll event.. they don't know they won't die.. so fudging rolls isnt neccesary for me.. good idea?
GhostOfJacK
07-02-07, 05:55 PM Didn't know that the game would have been closed roll. Open roll is just as fine, so that if they score a critical of 47dmg, they can relish even more in the fact that they got such a high roll.

Fudging rolls should only be on your part anyways, IMO, and if you kill them, you kill them. They will feel a real depression losing a char and if the rest of the party wins or not, anyone who died could awaken the next battle 3/4 health or something (they can't die but there should be some penalty to death still - keeps them motivated to fight harder and more tactically).

Good ideas for the battles. Last arena battle I did, I instilled a crowd check to it. It increases the interaction that they were in an arena and not just a series of battles. It's a very crude system, but it worked for the 3 sessions I needed it for.

Crowd score works on a series of points. I only kept track of the PC side as it could become too cumbersome to do both sides. PCs start at zero points and it's modified from there.

5 points = +1 Morale bonus to atk rolls, dmg, skill checks and ability checks
10 points = +2 Morale bonus
15 point +3 bonus (Max)
-5 points = -1 Bonus
-10 points = -2 Bonus
-15 points = -3 (Max)

Then I produced a list of things that could modify the score.
+1 point for taking a fullround action for pumping the crowd (Cha DC15 or DC20)
-2 Creating or summoning or using undead
+1 for tumbling through an opponent to gain a tactical advantage
+1 disarming opponent
+2 defeating opponent
-1 getting reduced to half health
+1 critical hit you make
-1 critical hit upon you
-1 trickery used (throwing sand in opponent's eyes)

Anyways, you get the point. The arena with a crowd is all about showmanship, not just physical prowess.

Also, for creativity, try recreating battles for the pleasure of the crowd. Maybe one side the orcish forces of Gruumish and the others the elves in a famous battle. As with the movie Gladiator, sometimes these historic recreations are meant to just slaughter the one side. It's always great if the PCs are on that one side and come out on top and prove the historic battle to be not so historic. May not be such a great idea for your birthday bash.

Lemme know if you need more ideas. When's your due date for your birthday? (Happy pre-birfday btw)
Oompa
07-02-07, 06:56 PM Im on to party on the 20th.. but im on a vacation then :)

I like the idea of the crowd.. and the points :) The 25% powerloss when you die is also really neat.. add the rule that when all partymembers die in a fight, its gameover.. :P
Ill think my players will like this.. All i have to do is to find 6 rewards and a lot of monsters :D But that won't be so hard..
maharai23
07-02-07, 08:32 PM Round 6: Capture the Flag.

Nuff said.
Nom
07-02-07, 09:31 PM Im thinking about starting with 4 CR 4 fights, then a break, 4 CR 5 , break, 4 CR 6 ,break, 4 CR 7 , and on and on..That's a good idea. Though I'd go more like 3-4-4-5 or 3-4-5-6 then break.
After fighting an enemy, they'll get a one round break and then the next will come.. and after the fourth fight they will be restored..In general, you probably want a half-hour (game time) break. A 1 round break is effectively the same encounter. This will mean the party doesn't have time to out-of-combat heal (heck, lesser restoration takes 3 rounds to cast) but also their battle-buffs won't time out. Longer / larger encounters make x/day buffs (including spells) more effective and healing less effective.

Of course, you should mix things up. Every 5-6 encounters make it a double, where they think the encounter is over and they are immediately hit again.

Conversely, the encounters don't need to be externally timed. It might be a gauntlet where the PCs need to make their way through 4 encounters and they advance to the next one (rather than it coming to them). But what if the gauntlet is timed? You can buff before you enter, but once you enter you have to get through 4 encounters in as few game-rounds as you can.

Other ideas:

* Variable arenas: you might want more than one arena. A 40x40 room (with minor obstructions) stand-up fight is very different from a drawn-out sniping chase through multiple rooms. The map in the back of the DMG can easily be adapted to a "fight in the fort" scenario.

* Variable goals: about half the encounters should be "last man standing wins". Other goals include "capture the flag" (mentioned above), "rescue the prisoners", or other goals where combat is incidental or optional. Traps work particularly well in timed scenarios, since you can't afford to just "take 20". However, make sure they are in some sense "predictable"; "every square is randomly (5% chance) trapped" is just painful.

* Optional goals: best for "race" scenarios. Make them decide whether they want to take a detour for nice treasure (guarded) or just make the exit.

* Terrain: throw terrain into the mix. Most encounters should have some cover and difficult terrain to encourage manoeuvring, but include some exotic environments. Pillars (2-6 squares on top) with narrow poles between encourages jump and balance checks; falling should be inconvenient but not fatal.

Terrain might be neutral (either side can exploit it) or biased. 6 archers behind little forts and arrow slits are a lot harder than 6 archers in the open.

* Traps: as for terrain.
Oompa
07-03-07, 02:56 AM I like those idea's, ill surely add small bits of that :D

About the break you are right, an round is not enough.. Ill give them an half hour game time :)

@ GhostOfJack, with those crowd points, do you use them to get the bonus or do you keep them? So i gatherd 10 points, do i get +2 and keep my 10 points or ill be reduced to 0? And for how long is the bonus? Only a few rounds? The whole fight or till you do something bad?

Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think.. How did you guys do that?
GhostOfJacK
07-03-07, 10:48 AM I like those idea's, ill surely add small bits of that :D

About the break you are right, an round is not enough.. Ill give them an half hour game time :)

@ GhostOfJack, with those crowd points, do you use them to get the bonus or do you keep them? So i gatherd 10 points, do i get +2 and keep my 10 points or ill be reduced to 0? And for how long is the bonus? Only a few rounds? The whole fight or till you do something bad?

Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think.. How did you guys do that?

That size should be just fine. "It's not about the size of the mat you have, just how you employ it". Should work fine. May not be as grandios as a 500x250 but whould work just as fine.

Now, as for your question: As I stated, it was a rough concept. When I did it, your 10 points were cumulative throughout the battle. Having 10 point subsequently means you get the +2mod. You don't have to 'spend them' to get the +2. That's why I would suggest making a few more things on that list that takes away points or you could invoke a sense of urgency on the battle. If I were to do it now (since I couldn't change the rules once they were already familiar with the rules) I would put that if not points were gained in 5rounds (30s) it's be a -2 to their points since the justification for it would be that no one goes to the arena to watch two guys dance around eachother with no blood for 30min (I had that issue, so you may as well). Again, the big thing on that is how much time, you as the DM, have to allocate to out-of-battle mechanics. I was too busy keeping track of 7 enemies at times.

Another fun the to do the larger the map is 'fear'. Have someone cast the spell and what if you fail your save. That's a looooong haul to get as far away from them as possible. Also, I would add '-2 points for showing cowadice in the battle' or something along those lines.

Think of showmanship and mod from there. I like using certain spells to add 'Awe' factor to the battle for the spectators. Illusion spells could be great (treat the crowd as a mob of lvl1 commoners). Fog or obscuring mist is a bad one since spectators cannot see the fight. Summoning spells can be good as the same reasons of illusion spells. Grease can be one to make the audience laugh. You get the idea.

Since I had this problem with my players prior to doing the arena, I'll share for you. My players are of a total melee mindset. They play a lot of WoW and love to hack'n'slash their way through a dungeon. Thereofre, I used these next two to incite more elaborate turns and attacks rather than 'I hit the goblin with my longsword'. I had a '+/-1 point for embarrassing or getting embarrassed by an opponent (such as pantsing a person mid battle)' and '+1 point for showmanship attack (such as vocalizing what they do for the attack such as a 'jump over their low attack and strike at them midair with a jab')'. For the latter point, I had guys sacrifice their weapons in battle to beat the skeleton with his own arm just to get crowd points, and in the end it created scenarios they were buzzing about after the session.

More rubles now. You could almost buy a Lada with how many you have.

EDIT: Misread size
Nom
07-03-07, 11:10 AM Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think..At the PC's level, medium range is 170-180 ft.. That's a long way. If your battlefield is open enough to allow free access for 200 ft, it's on the boring side.

One easy solution is to put two mats next to each other, which gives you 190x270 ft. That should be plenty big. You want very few fire lines that stretch the whole way across.

The big problem with 10 ft. squares is scaling. Where the map is most useful is close quarters, and for that you want 5 ft. squares. If you want a "big picture" / "long range" map, you could easily use 20 ft. squares, but you'll need the ability to "zoom" to 5 ft. for close combat.
Some_call_me_Tim
07-03-07, 11:41 AM If you can get a hold of a published module for Arcanis called The Bloody Sands of Sicaris it is basically a gladiator arena series of fights. Flooded arena for ships, a king of the hill, and an assault battle. I thoroughly enjoyed the module. Could be great inspiration.

I also played in a first edition home game, where we had a gladiator style tournament that featured as the climactic battle a Junkyard Wars game where we were given a list of items and tools we started with, you could send PCs on scavenger hunts to find items not listed. We ended up building our own A-Team tank, out of some tower shields, a cart, and a dozen crossbows tied together. Kind of a fun puzzle exercise followed by some serious kick-butt combat.
Oompa
07-03-07, 04:14 PM My pc's are going to love this :D

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Oompa 07-02-07, 04:00 AM	So.. in a month or so we have our next evening of d&d because of vacations and stuff.. Now is it my birthday right before that evening, so i was planning of having an big old birthday bash :) My idea was that the players are summoned by an evil wizard that throws them into an arena and they'll have to fight monsters and stuff to entertain the wizard (how original) They dont know its my b'day bash evening and they'll think its serious bussines.. I'm planning on having them to fight low cr monsters in the beginning and then making it challenging each time they get a step higher.. After a few fights they'll get fully restored so they can handle a bit more then one or two fights.. but offcourse, the cr rises and at some moment.. they'll die.. Offcourse they won't really die (they wont know that), it is also a good lesson for them to use strategy.. When they fought ill reward them with an item for each person (my gift to them), it'll cost around 8000 gp per item (its not to much, i calculated what they are worth and stuff).. Theı will get full xp per monster they defeat, so the more they defeat, the more xp they'll get.. You maybe think its to much.. But my party is no roleplaying party, they love to roll the dice, bashing heads and cracking ribs, the xp and the reward will make them happy joy joy :P And its also the fifth year i dm for them so its also a thankyou :D So my question is.. anyone have tips, done this before, suggestions, idea's, anything about setting up such an arena fight or tips about the rewards? Oh the party: Rogue 7, Cleric 7, Illusionist 8, Druid 8, Fighter 8, Paladin 8 Thanks for the replies :)
LordBritish2 07-02-07, 10:47 AM	Make sure to plan out which monsters you are using ahead of time. Also, be careful of heavy evocation users as monsters because I think that may be a weakness in the party (Note: I haven't since your party in action so I don't know how they handle different types of encounters). Along the same vain, seems the party is melee happy so that would be something to play towards/away from.
AlanBruce 07-02-07, 11:44 AM	I was just designing a Battle Royale for my player's PCs and was in the process of sketching the arena and such. Have you thought about obstacles and area features? Here's a list I made up for my own: 1. Wooden walls scattered around the arena. Make them 15ft wide x 10 ft. tall x 1 ft. thick. Good enough to protect a group of people (or monsters) vs. those nasty AoE spells. 2. Tall, 50ft. stone pillars. Good enough for a single PC to climb and gain the upper ground if surrounded by monsters and alone. 3. A water tank in the middle of the arena with a 10ft. wooden platform floating in the middle, lily pad style. Perhaps a caster coukd benefit by flying there and waiting for any monsters to jump in the water to reach said caster. The moment they do, begin summoning water creatures. 4. Underground tunnels are always a good idea for PCs who can't fly or blast. Spread out several trapdoors and hide them, giving Pcs a reasonable DC to Spot them. If found, they connect to a series of tunnels beneath the arena. Narrow tunnels, about 10 ft. wide, which connect to the other trapdoors in the arena, as well as having secret rooms with quick pick me ups for the injured PC. What monsters are you planning on sending them?
GhostOfJacK 07-02-07, 12:25 PM	To the arena... I do these a lot, but usally not with the level that you have. I use them to get people to lvl4/5 sometimes. Take note of the flavour that you can get with the arena rather than just 'you PCs will now vs an equal amount of goblins) 1. Height Even if it is just a big mound of dirt in the middle of the arena, giving a person at the higher height a +2 to hit and the person at a lower height a -2 to hit. 2. Archers If you want to teach tactics, archers can do it fo you. I usually run an arena at 500ftx250ft so you can keep your archers out on the flanks and still hit. Who cares if they hit their own men? The point is that the are a weak target that is usually teamed up with a heavy meelee fighter who stays with the PCs and goes after their 'Back-row' people. It should be highly suggested that the PCs take some time out of the fight to go deal with the ranged people on the flanks. 3. Magic Although it's cliche, drop a fireball on them if they get clumped together. Pull out the tactic of the wizard/rogue pair where the rogue can use evasion for the wizard's fireballs dropped right on him. 4. Big Fight Bring out something really big for one of your fights like a pair of ettins or something. Something with a CR 7 or 8 and not really widely supported. BIG damage -if- it hits you. Teachs light-on-the-feet work. Summed up, if you want to teach them tactics, use whichever tactics that you, the DM, thought they should have used in a similar fighting scenario.
Oompa 07-02-07, 04:36 PM	Im thinking about starting off with low cr/ecl monsters, and then after 4 fights they will be restored to full health, equipment and spells.. But the next fights will be a bit tougher.. And in time they can't hit or having serious trouble.. Im thinking about starting with 4 CR 4 fights, then a break, 4 CR 5 , break, 4 CR 6 ,break, 4 CR 7 , and on and on.. After fighting an enemy, they'll get a one round break and then the next will come.. and after the fourth fight they will be restored.. I'm thinking about using monsters they dont know, it keeps them more on there toe's and offcourse monsters with SR and DR and other special things.. About the arena.. Alanbruce and Ghostofjack thanks for the idea's, i was playing with some adjustments but you two gave some new neat idea's.. I'm gonna make the arena 250 by 500 like said.. It also gives the char more movement oppertunity's.. My players are gonna love this event..
Oompa 07-02-07, 04:38 PM	Oh and i was thinking about making it an open roll event.. they don't know they won't die.. so fudging rolls isnt neccesary for me.. good idea?
GhostOfJacK 07-02-07, 05:55 PM	Didn't know that the game would have been closed roll. Open roll is just as fine, so that if they score a critical of 47dmg, they can relish even more in the fact that they got such a high roll. Fudging rolls should only be on your part anyways, IMO, and if you kill them, you kill them. They will feel a real depression losing a char and if the rest of the party wins or not, anyone who died could awaken the next battle 3/4 health or something (they can't die but there should be some penalty to death still - keeps them motivated to fight harder and more tactically). Good ideas for the battles. Last arena battle I did, I instilled a crowd check to it. It increases the interaction that they were in an arena and not just a series of battles. It's a very crude system, but it worked for the 3 sessions I needed it for. Crowd score works on a series of points. I only kept track of the PC side as it could become too cumbersome to do both sides. PCs start at zero points and it's modified from there. 5 points = +1 Morale bonus to atk rolls, dmg, skill checks and ability checks 10 points = +2 Morale bonus 15 point +3 bonus (Max) -5 points = -1 Bonus -10 points = -2 Bonus -15 points = -3 (Max) Then I produced a list of things that could modify the score. +1 point for taking a fullround action for pumping the crowd (Cha DC15 or DC20) -2 Creating or summoning or using undead +1 for tumbling through an opponent to gain a tactical advantage +1 disarming opponent +2 defeating opponent -1 getting reduced to half health +1 critical hit you make -1 critical hit upon you -1 trickery used (throwing sand in opponent's eyes) Anyways, you get the point. The arena with a crowd is all about showmanship, not just physical prowess. Also, for creativity, try recreating battles for the pleasure of the crowd. Maybe one side the orcish forces of Gruumish and the others the elves in a famous battle. As with the movie Gladiator, sometimes these historic recreations are meant to just slaughter the one side. It's always great if the PCs are on that one side and come out on top and prove the historic battle to be not so historic. May not be such a great idea for your birthday bash. Lemme know if you need more ideas. When's your due date for your birthday? (Happy pre-birfday btw)
Oompa 07-02-07, 06:56 PM	Im on to party on the 20th.. but im on a vacation then :) I like the idea of the crowd.. and the points :) The 25% powerloss when you die is also really neat.. add the rule that when all partymembers die in a fight, its gameover.. :P Ill think my players will like this.. All i have to do is to find 6 rewards and a lot of monsters :D But that won't be so hard..
maharai23 07-02-07, 08:32 PM	Round 6: Capture the Flag. Nuff said.
Nom 07-02-07, 09:31 PM	Im thinking about starting with 4 CR 4 fights, then a break, 4 CR 5 , break, 4 CR 6 ,break, 4 CR 7 , and on and on..That's a good idea. Though I'd go more like 3-4-4-5 or 3-4-5-6 then break. After fighting an enemy, they'll get a one round break and then the next will come.. and after the fourth fight they will be restored..In general, you probably want a half-hour (game time) break. A 1 round break is effectively the same encounter. This will mean the party doesn't have time to out-of-combat heal (heck, lesser restoration takes 3 rounds to cast) but also their battle-buffs won't time out. Longer / larger encounters make x/day buffs (including spells) more effective and healing less effective. Of course, you should mix things up. Every 5-6 encounters make it a double, where they think the encounter is over and they are immediately hit again. Conversely, the encounters don't need to be externally timed. It might be a gauntlet where the PCs need to make their way through 4 encounters and they advance to the next one (rather than it coming to them). But what if the gauntlet is timed? You can buff before you enter, but once you enter you have to get through 4 encounters in as few game-rounds as you can. Other ideas: * Variable arenas: you might want more than one arena. A 40x40 room (with minor obstructions) stand-up fight is very different from a drawn-out sniping chase through multiple rooms. The map in the back of the DMG can easily be adapted to a "fight in the fort" scenario. * Variable goals: about half the encounters should be "last man standing wins". Other goals include "capture the flag" (mentioned above), "rescue the prisoners", or other goals where combat is incidental or optional. Traps work particularly well in timed scenarios, since you can't afford to just "take 20". However, make sure they are in some sense "predictable"; "every square is randomly (5% chance) trapped" is just painful. * Optional goals: best for "race" scenarios. Make them decide whether they want to take a detour for nice treasure (guarded) or just make the exit. * Terrain: throw terrain into the mix. Most encounters should have some cover and difficult terrain to encourage manoeuvring, but include some exotic environments. Pillars (2-6 squares on top) with narrow poles between encourages jump and balance checks; falling should be inconvenient but not fatal. Terrain might be neutral (either side can exploit it) or biased. 6 archers behind little forts and arrow slits are a lot harder than 6 archers in the open. * Traps: as for terrain.
Oompa 07-03-07, 02:56 AM	I like those idea's, ill surely add small bits of that :D About the break you are right, an round is not enough.. Ill give them an half hour game time :) @ GhostOfJack, with those crowd points, do you use them to get the bonus or do you keep them? So i gatherd 10 points, do i get +2 and keep my 10 points or ill be reduced to 0? And for how long is the bonus? Only a few rounds? The whole fight or till you do something bad? Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think.. How did you guys do that?
GhostOfJacK 07-03-07, 10:48 AM	I like those idea's, ill surely add small bits of that :D About the break you are right, an round is not enough.. Ill give them an half hour game time :) @ GhostOfJack, with those crowd points, do you use them to get the bonus or do you keep them? So i gatherd 10 points, do i get +2 and keep my 10 points or ill be reduced to 0? And for how long is the bonus? Only a few rounds? The whole fight or till you do something bad? Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think.. How did you guys do that? That size should be just fine. "It's not about the size of the mat you have, just how you employ it". Should work fine. May not be as grandios as a 500x250 but whould work just as fine. Now, as for your question: As I stated, it was a rough concept. When I did it, your 10 points were cumulative throughout the battle. Having 10 point subsequently means you get the +2mod. You don't have to 'spend them' to get the +2. That's why I would suggest making a few more things on that list that takes away points or you could invoke a sense of urgency on the battle. If I were to do it now (since I couldn't change the rules once they were already familiar with the rules) I would put that if not points were gained in 5rounds (30s) it's be a -2 to their points since the justification for it would be that no one goes to the arena to watch two guys dance around eachother with no blood for 30min (I had that issue, so you may as well). Again, the big thing on that is how much time, you as the DM, have to allocate to out-of-battle mechanics. I was too busy keeping track of 7 enemies at times. Another fun the to do the larger the map is 'fear'. Have someone cast the spell and what if you fail your save. That's a looooong haul to get as far away from them as possible. Also, I would add '-2 points for showing cowadice in the battle' or something along those lines. Think of showmanship and mod from there. I like using certain spells to add 'Awe' factor to the battle for the spectators. Illusion spells could be great (treat the crowd as a mob of lvl1 commoners). Fog or obscuring mist is a bad one since spectators cannot see the fight. Summoning spells can be good as the same reasons of illusion spells. Grease can be one to make the audience laugh. You get the idea. Since I had this problem with my players prior to doing the arena, I'll share for you. My players are of a total melee mindset. They play a lot of WoW and love to hack'n'slash their way through a dungeon. Thereofre, I used these next two to incite more elaborate turns and attacks rather than 'I hit the goblin with my longsword'. I had a '+/-1 point for embarrassing or getting embarrassed by an opponent (such as pantsing a person mid battle)' and '+1 point for showmanship attack (such as vocalizing what they do for the attack such as a 'jump over their low attack and strike at them midair with a jab')'. For the latter point, I had guys sacrifice their weapons in battle to beat the skeleton with his own arm just to get crowd points, and in the end it created scenarios they were buzzing about after the session. More rubles now. You could almost buy a Lada with how many you have. EDIT: Misread size
Nom 07-03-07, 11:10 AM	Oh and one other problem i just found.. My battlemat goes from 190 feet by 135.. A bit to small for the main arena i think.. I can go with 10x10 feet squares.. ittl be 380x270 feet.. Thats better i think..At the PC's level, medium range is 170-180 ft.. That's a long way. If your battlefield is open enough to allow free access for 200 ft, it's on the boring side. One easy solution is to put two mats next to each other, which gives you 190x270 ft. That should be plenty big. You want very few fire lines that stretch the whole way across. The big problem with 10 ft. squares is scaling. Where the map is most useful is close quarters, and for that you want 5 ft. squares. If you want a "big picture" / "long range" map, you could easily use 20 ft. squares, but you'll need the ability to "zoom" to 5 ft. for close combat.
Some_call_me_Tim 07-03-07, 11:41 AM	If you can get a hold of a published module for Arcanis called The Bloody Sands of Sicaris it is basically a gladiator arena series of fights. Flooded arena for ships, a king of the hill, and an assault battle. I thoroughly enjoyed the module. Could be great inspiration. I also played in a first edition home game, where we had a gladiator style tournament that featured as the climactic battle a Junkyard Wars game where we were given a list of items and tools we started with, you could send PCs on scavenger hunts to find items not listed. We ended up building our own A-Team tank, out of some tower shields, a cart, and a dozen crossbows tied together. Kind of a fun puzzle exercise followed by some serious kick-butt combat.
Oompa 07-03-07, 04:14 PM	My pc's are going to love this :D