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#1 decode04 Sep 22, 2011 2:43:27

Gladiator Gods A game using the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons Character Generation method.   Here in college a good amount of the people who live on my floor play D&D.  Currently we have two different games going on.  Both on Sunday, but we alternate weeks because we have two different DM’s and generally we do not want to wear our DM’s out. (Which is a really good way to stop games in their tracks.)  On one of these Sundays after the game was done we started making characters for the other game which we were just starting, and we got to talking about how I had never been a DM myself.  For as much D&D as I have played that is actually quite surprising, but in fairness I think one of the reasons is I’m just not a very good story teller.  That very thought is what got me thinking.  I never wanted to DM because I was so hung up on making a good story, but what if I could make a style of game that didn’t really require a story?  So I’m sitting in front of a character sheet with all my dice scattered around, and I had also just finished watching Sunday football not that long ago, and that’s when my idea light bulb lit up.  Instead of the DM being a storyteller I decided that in my version of the game the storyteller would act in more of a referee type capacity.  That night this game was born.  I named it Gladiator Gods and this is how it works:   Step 1:  The first thing after selecting who your DM is going to be is to roll stats for you new level 30 characters.  You do this by rolling percentile dice 6 times.  Yes you heard me right, percentile dice.  Here is the fun catch though; these numbers are rolled in order.  The order is as follows: Roll 1 = Strength Roll 2 = Dexterity Roll 3 = Constitution Roll 4 = Intellect Roll 5 = Wisdom Roll 6 = Charisma Furthermore, you only roll these numbers in front of the DM so that your opposition has no idea what your statistics are.  Also, your opponent is not the DM’s minions but instead other opponents that have also rolled characters in the same fashion.   Step 2:  After your characters base stats are rolled you make the characters as per the standard rules for D&D for a level 30 character.  (Of course you can always make house adjustments to whatever fits your needs)  I typically allow a day for people to create their characters on their own and submit them before a fight. I usually allow this much time because a level 30 character has a lot of options for classes, prestige classes, skills, and feats.  All of which will take a decent amount of time to produce.  After all this work it is finally to the good part.   Step 3:  Now you have finally arrived at the part that is fun.  You pit these characters against each other in a fight to the death.  There are tons of options in this part and when they show up for the fight is when the DM designates the setting for the fight and then the battle begins.  Some examples are as such:   EX1: You have entered a tournament similar to Bloodsport where you fight to the death, you have been bracketed against certain opponents, and you will be fighting in a cage similar to a UFC arena.  Roll initiative.  EX2:  You’re a gladiator in an arena with 5 other brave souls, and on this day only one of you leaves this area on their own two feet.  Everyone roll initiative. EX3.  You three are out at a cosmic bar where your having a good time until (Insert Name Here) over here picks a fight with you and his two friends here come to back him up.  Oh NO God Bar Fight.  Roll Initiative.   As you can see the possibilities are endless, and you can be as silly as you want to be.  The best part of it all is the insane amount of creativity you can use when your characters can do almost anything, just certain things better than others.  And when people start rolling reflex saves with a 93 in dexterity it just starts getting funny trying to explain how a character can incinerated half of a bar but still someone manages to dodge it on that side of the bar. All in all, it’s a fun subversion of a game that I have enjoyed for quite a few years, and it can easily be molded to fit into whatever stipulations you want to include in your DM’s version. Also, I would like to give a special thanks to one Aaron Duden, and a Daniel Leidel whom both were my co-conspirators on that boring night when we came up with this ridiculously fun and entertaining version of this game. Let me know what you think.  I'm always open to new ideas that might make it a more interesting game! -Dave