Running an arena campaign 3.5

[Zero grim]

One idea I've had in my mind for a little while has been the idea of running a campaign based around arena fights, from team fight against horrible monsters in front of large crowds to shady bare knuckle boxing matches, the problem i find when trying to plan the bare bones of this is, what do you do after session one?

After the first few fights have been and gone I don't think i know how to keep things interesting while keeping the theme, I'm looking for advice or perhaps some experience running a similar theme in the past.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Work in some out-of-arena plots with rivalries, sabotage, politics, stuff like that?

[aeauseth]

An ENTIRE campaign centered around arena fights? I'm not sure I'm a fan of the basic premise.

Are you thinking of Gladiator the movie (where the players are slaves)? How do you create a "party" of arena fighters?

A "Hunger Games" style plot? Your party "teams up" and fights other solo and teams? Various creatures inhabit the "playground".

In most campaigns the party starts out as weaklings and by level 20 become hero's and wield lots of power. How is an arena fighter going to wield lots of power? Are they forced to fight? If so, that's hardly powerful, since they don't really have free choice (their a level 20 slave)!

The lack of changing environments, foes, plots is going to put your players to sleep.

Having a few arena based fights would probably be fun. You will need quite the plot to make an entire campaign work with team arena based fights.

[SciChronic]

that's the problem with arena's they can be fun for a session or two, but they get pretty boring pretty fast, i could see it being used as a temporary thing for an overarcing story, but making the arena the entire campaign is...

another thing you have to take note of is if its a bunch of one on one fights, the noncombatant players will get bored.

[aeauseth]

You could start them out in an arena based environment where they are slaves trying to win their freedom. If they win (after gaining several levels) then they are generously rewarded and set free. From there they could be famous and hired to do various tasks.

[Ortesk]

Its alot of give and take. The players have to write back stories of why there fighting, and then when there leve 5 why dont they murder the slave master. Okay so you can get them to have fun for 5 levels, then maybe base the campaign around becoming free and aboloshing the slave trade. Thats the nuts and bolts of it really

[Emperor Tippy]

Have it take place on the Heroic Domain's of Ysgard. Free daily True Resurrection makes an arena campaign a lot more reasonable.

[Zero grim]

My plan was going to be a set of adventurers that want to gain fame and glory without leaving home, and the life of a super gladiator is what they have decided is the path, so start in unknown barely populated rings and work they way through the high life until they are fighting in front of nobility and such.

I doubt it would keep players attention from level 1 to 20 but then I've never heard a premise that could really, when i say campaign i mean 3months to half a year sort of duration.

Cheaper healing and resurrection defiantly seems to be a way to increase the speed of and brutality of the fights, and if their honor is the thing they care about (or fame or money) then i think dieing will still hold some threat to them, perhaps have the reviving be limited in some way otherwise they may loos interesting in staying alive if its so easy to come back.

And on the slaves forced to fight thing, so long as your master/cell is tough enough you could be held at any level, just because your level 5 doesn't mean the captor isn't level 10.

I think rivalries, sabotage, politics is the way to go for this, and if it all goes horribly wrong that's what the new campaign button is for. (brought to you this week by boredom seeking falling rocks)

[Darcand]

How set are you on the traditional 2 men enter 1 man leaves format? I'm picturing a setting in which "Dungeon Crawl" is the most popular form of entertainment. Would be champions called "crawlers" sign up to run dungeons filled with traps, monsters, and rival crawlers. Working together is allowed, but only one crawler can claim the prize at the end and anything, including killing other players, is allowed. Paladins need not apply.

I'm not imagining traditional d&d, but something more competitive, where PCs are friendly rivals at best. Something like Munchkin.

[PraxisVetli]

One idea I've had in my mind for a little while has been the idea of running a campaign based around arena fights, from team fight against horrible monsters in front of large crowds to shady bare knuckle boxing matches, the problem i find when trying to plan the bare bones of this is, what do you do after session one?

After the first few fights have been and gone I don't think i know how to keep things interesting while keeping the theme, I'm looking for advice or perhaps some experience running a similar theme in the past.
I ran a campaign where the players were in Carceri, and The Prison's...cleaning...system was an arena. The players fought their way to three tiers, (lvl!-&, *-!%, !%-@))
-- my shift key wont turn off!--theyre earned points, which could be spent on items, or "upgrades (better food/accomodations)" they made rivals, and had the occasional squabble outside of a match. I designed different envirornmental terrains, from the default, to a trap loaded field, a quagmire filled swamp, even a storm that hindered visibility and shot lightning occasionally.
Really, the key is variety. a lot of players don't mind smash and kill campaigns, you just gotta jumble it up once in a while.

Also, I had "ArenaLords", a counsel whose individuals could be appeased to, who would "sponser" a match, allowing for extra prizes to be won, meanwhile, other members would rig a match, equipping creatures with gear or paying for them to be spell buffed in advanced.

The players liked it, and it wasn't nearly as boring as an arena would lead you to believe.
Edit: upon reaching the end, the players were freed.
My TwoCp, anyway.