Considerations for a PbP Arena type game

[Rejusu]

So I'm thinking of trying to start up a PbP game over on the PbP forums. I want to run a high-level, high-power (I'm thinking 15, with) arena tournament. There are however a few details I could use some help working out before I start.

Firstly I want to enter a character in the tournament, I enjoy playing more than administrating after all. Now this presents a set of problems. For a start I couldn't run it by myself because it wouldn't be fair if I was the only source of arbitration in a tournament I'm entering in. Now the solutions open include:

1) Get someone else to run it, not something I'd really want to do as it seems kind of unfair lumping running this on someone else (assuming I could find someone else) just because of my selfish desire to participate.

2) Either get a small group (or all) of the players to co-judge it. This seems ideal for creating a fair and level playing field. Though it'd probably be better to just have a few people act as judges to streamline things.

This in turn creates another potential problem, that players will be able to see their opponents character sheets in advance if they act as a judge. This could potentially lead to the problem of advance knowledge acting as an unfair advantage. However I don't think this will be an issue if all the participants character sheets are public to all the players, ie complete transparency.

I don't see this being a problem as with it being a tournament players can't realistically build characters to counteract their opponent. Doing so would just weaken them against later opponents their character wasn't designed to fight. Plus they'll have no knowledge of who their opponents are until the brackets are drawn.

Though it still worries me that character knowledge will lead to meta.

My second concern is what to ban and what to allow. There's the obvious things like Leadership (and by extension Thrallherd) but I'm not sure I'm experienced enough to spot all the pitfalls in terms of overly cheesy characters.

I've had a look at the whole Test of Spite threads and I think I might take a modified version of their rules, but maybe with more fixed rules (like a set number of buff rounds, or only allow mundane prep) to keep it more consistent across all matches.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Look up 'Test of Spite'. It was pretty much this.

Of course, the rules developed to the point where it developed it's own game system. It's called Legend. It's still available as a free download (http://www.ruleofcool.com/get-the-game/). It's a pretty balanced system, actually.

Otherwise, you will have a problem with Tier 1 and 2 classes dominating everything else.

[Rejusu]

Look up 'Test of Spite'. It was pretty much this.

Of course, the rules developed to the point where it developed it's own game system. It's called Legend. It's still available as a free download (http://www.ruleofcool.com/get-the-game/). It's a pretty balanced system, actually.

Otherwise, you will have a problem with Tier 1 and 2 classes dominating everything else.

Hah yes, I actually found the Test of Spite threads through your signature, it's why I mentioned ToS in my original post. I have to congratulate you on winning that match with what's probably one of the most terrible base classes in the game. I think it makes a good base set of rules yet as I said before I think I want to standardise the match rules a bit more. It'll probably limit what kind of characters are viable but it should make for more consistent matches.

I'll have to check out Legend, I'm a bit hesitant about using something I'm unfamiliar with though.

I might ban level 9 spells/powers to try and give some semblance of balance. Granted they SHOULD be off the table at level 15, but you've got to take things like Ur-priests into account.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Hah yes, I actually found the Test of Spite threads through your signature, it's why I mentioned ToS in my original post. I have to congratulate you on winning that match with what's probably one of the most terrible base classes in the game. I think it makes a good base set of rules yet as I said before I think I want to standardise the match rules a bit more. It'll probably limit what kind of characters are viable but it should make for more consistent matches.

I'll have to check out Legend, I'm a bit hesitant about using something I'm unfamiliar with though.

I might ban level 9 spells/powers to try and give some semblance of balance. Granted they SHOULD be off the table at level 15, but you've got to take things like Ur-priests into account.

ToS only had level 13 characters, and 9th level spells/powers were quite frequently thrown about. It's not just Ur-Priests and Sublime Chords you have to worry about... if nothing else, UMD lets you get access to 9th level anything. To say nothing of Shadowcraft Gnomes and other exploits.

Legend is free to download the PhB. It doesn't get any less expensive than that. Check it out. Familiarize yourself with it. See if it is what you like.

[Rejusu]

ToS only had level 13 characters, and 9th level spells/powers were quite frequently thrown about. It's not just Ur-Priests and Sublime Chords you have to worry about... if nothing else, UMD lets you get access to 9th level anything. To say nothing of Shadowcraft Gnomes and other exploits.

Legend is free to download the PhB. It doesn't get any less expensive than that. Check it out. Familiarize yourself with it. See if it is what you like.

Yeah I'll definitely give it a look, but as I said before I think I'd be more comfortable doing this with something I'm more familiar with.

And yeah, when I said ban 9th level spells I mean just a complete blanket ban on their use in any form whatsoever. Whether it's from a magic device, a potion, scroll, spell-like whatever. Who knows, it might be overkill and it does limit the kind of builds people can do. But hopefully it should encourage people to not build characters that rely on them. I'll probably rule that you still get 9th level spell slots (for the purposes of metamagic) but you just don't know any 9th level spells.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Yeah I'll definitely give it a look, but as I said before I think I'd be more comfortable doing this with something I'm more familiar with.

And yeah, when I said ban 9th level spells I mean just a complete blanket ban on their use in any form whatsoever. Whether it's from a magic device, a potion, scroll, spell-like whatever. Who knows, it might be overkill and it does limit the kind of builds people can do. But hopefully it should encourage people to not build characters that rely on them. I'll probably rule that you still get 9th level spell slots (for the purposes of metamagic) but you just don't know any 9th level spells.

9th level spells aren't the only abusable ones. Celerity, for example, completely breaks the action economy when used properly.

I'd probably make a blanket statement that no one can gain more than one full round action per turn, may gain no more than one standard and one action per turn, may only gain one swift action per turn, and may only gain five free actions per turn.

The easiest way to break the game is to break the action economy. Preventing anyone from doing that will at least keep the matches to a relatively sane level.

[Rejusu]

9th level spells aren't the only abusable ones. Celerity, for example, completely breaks the action economy when used properly.

I'd probably make a blanket statement that no one can gain more than one full round action per turn, may gain no more than one standard and one action per turn, may only gain one swift action per turn, and may only gain five free actions per turn.

The easiest way to break the game is to break the action economy. Preventing anyone from doing that will at least keep the matches to a relatively sane level.

Yeah, seems the last Test of Spite includes some rules on the action economy. The ban list is... very in depth. I'm tempted just to simplify the rules down a bit to ban the really blatant stuff and see what happens. Then add bans as necessary.