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kakita
2009-08-12, 03:42 AM
I'm looking to DM a campaign concentrating on fun combats; namely gladiator fights, but I still want some semblance of rp running and stringing the fights together. Are there any ideas I could reference from, or any campaign or adventure books (or even websites) out there that I could look at?

Gnorman
2009-08-12, 06:12 AM
Play a little game called Gladius maybe?

Surprisingly intricate tactical RPG made by Lucas Arts a few years back, it's basically a gladiator simulator. The world is fairly simplistic (there are four major regions, corresponding roughly to Germany/Scandinavia, Rome, Central Asia, and Egypt) and the story is nothing to write home about, but it's a fun game and full of practical ideas about how a gladiator campaign might work.

Your characters might be the up and coming stars of a local school of gladiators, hoping to prove themselves in arenas across the land. There's healers on hand to prevent them from truly dying, but the combat itself is still brutal.

It'll give you some ideas on how different classes would work in the campaign, too - there's a few Rogue-like characters, some Magey types, plenty of monsters like Minotaurs and Cyclopses, and even a satyr Bard.

Kaiyanwang
2009-08-12, 07:24 AM
Well, the first thing you should decide, is how "magic" or "mundane" should be the campaing.

You can go from a no-magic (I suggest gestalt in this case) to a campaign with a large amount of magic, and PCs in the arena fight magic monsters forced to fight by the power of the arena masters, and can be rewarded in many ways.

Once you decide it, you can start to plan the campaign IMHO.

Cyrion
2009-08-12, 09:23 AM
You might find Tanith Lee's "Birthgrave" useful. It's flavor would probably fit in fairly well with a gladiator campaign, and there's a really good chariot race in there (near the end I think).

Amiria
2009-08-12, 11:38 AM
I think there were some ideas for a gladiator campaign / gladiatorial combat in the old 3.0 Sword & Fist sourcebook. Not sure, I didn't look into that book since 2004 or so.

Rhiannon87
2009-08-12, 11:58 AM
Cityscape has some information on gladiator guilds; you could build off that, have the characters all be members of a guild... there could be corruption in the ranks, people taking bribes to throw fights, someone deliberately trying to kill a particular famous gladiator by sabotaging the fights, things like that. As the players make certain decisions, they might get targeted by people more powerful than they are; they could get put into really tough fights in an attempt to kill them off, or they could be recruited to a good cause after proving themselves in the arena.

It's an interesting campaign idea; good luck with it!

RTGoodman
2009-08-12, 12:09 PM
Depends on the system as to where you're going to find some information. For 3.x, I have no idea, but the suggestions of Sword & Fist and Cityscape are probably right. For 4E, there was a month at some point that had gladiator adventures/skill challenges/etc. in Dungeon and feats/PPs in Dragon.

Also, I guess you probably couldn't go wrong looking into the Dark Sun setting. There's a lot of gladiatorial stuff in it.

kakita
2009-08-12, 08:50 PM
It's going to be 4e and pretty high magic. Essentially this will be an empire that spans multiple planes. The city that the players will be in is a main trade hub. The general idea is that gladiators are volunteers. They are sponsored by a gladiatorial house, which takes a percentage of the winnings. Gladiators may be career warriors or switch 'jobs' after serving out their attachment. Makes for good ways to train elite fighters/adventurers.

I'm not worried about the fights. What I'm stuck at is trying to figure out an overarching plot or characterization for NPCs so that the players feel like they're still roleplaying and not stuck re-enacting one fight scene after another.

I have vague ideas like 'intrigue between gladiator houses' or 'PCs have a rival team' but have no idea how to continue past that.

Rhiannon: What you talk about sounds interesting. What's Cityscape?

Hawriel
2009-08-12, 11:46 PM
I see sports movies as insperation. Boxing movies like Rocky. Martial arts such as Best of the Best. Video games like street fighter. They can be up and comming super star athleats. Not only are the characters motivated by becomig champion but they have other obsticles. The mob tries to own them. They get into vices, as in drugs and hedonism. They start cheating. IN what ever constitutes cheating in your world. Maybe magic is outlawed but the players are tempted to use it, because of their own desire to win or forced to by the mob. Maybe fighting in the arena is the only way to get out of poverty and support their families.

bosssmiley
2009-08-13, 07:22 AM
Dragon #303 and Dungeon #96 (both Jan 2003) - special features on gladiator campaigns in D&D.

edit: "Dragon", not "Drogan". :smallconfused:

heruca
2009-08-13, 08:13 AM
I'm looking to DM a campaign concentrating on fun combats; namely gladiator fights, but I still want some semblance of rp running and stringing the fights together. Are there any ideas I could reference from, or any campaign or adventure books (or even websites) out there that I could look at?

The GURPS Gladiators PDF (http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG37-1642) might prove invaluable, regardless of which RPG system you plan to use.

jmbrown
2009-08-13, 09:17 AM
For a more fantasy based gladiator arena, I wrote how to handle bouts, build an arena, admission feas, and placing bets specifically written with 4E in mind. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121054)

kemmotar
2009-08-13, 10:30 AM
If you're looking for a way to implement an interesting idea as to how to compel your players (beyond the normal fight or we kill you) you can look at the the manga deadman wonderland (http://www.onemanga.com/Deadman_Wonderland/) which has an interesting concept...you could also give them a minor power that grows like a weapon of legacy to make it slightly more interesting.

This could be the balancing factor between the spell caster types and the fighter types to even out the playing field a bit...

Hunter Noventa
2009-08-13, 02:06 PM
Complete Warrior has some rules regarding gladiator arena style games, including getting the crowd on your side and the like, it may come in handy if you decide to do this in D+D.