Cutthroat Coliseum

[gr8artist]

Anybody watch the show "Cutthroat Kitchen" on the cooking channel? It's pretty bad by cooking show standards, but as a game show it's awesome. Four contestants enter, and get their prize money ($25,000) up front. Each round, the chefs are assigned a dish to cook (usually something broad or open to interpretation, like "meatloaf" or "ice cream sundae" but occasionally more classic or challenging, like "shrimp scampi"). The chef with the worst dish, as determined by a famous chef/restaurateur, is eliminated and their money is lost. After 3 rounds, the remaining player wins and takes his prize money home.
The catch? Each round, after they gather ingredients for their dish, the host holds an auction. At the auction, contestants can "buy" things with their prize money (reducing their possible winnings, but helping them not get eliminated), that either give them an advantage or penalize their opponents. Common items include "you lose all your knives and instead have to use this thing (plastic knife, tin-snips, etc.)" or "you cannot use traditional cooking methods and must instead get all your heat from this (tiki torch, bag full of candles, pile of firewood and some matches)." Items go to the highest bidder, so they always see play. Some of the sabotages are actually pretty great, like making somebody wear halloween-prop lobster claw gloves while trying to make a lobster dinner, or being attached to an anchor (which they can drag or carry, but gets in the way and gets caught on things) while making a fish-and-chips plate.
Due to the sabotages, the show doesn't do much to teach you how to cook or make a decent meal with a normal kitchen, but watching people decide when and how to spend their money, who to sabotage and who to spare, and how to cope with the sabotages they've been given, is pretty fun.

So... what if we did it in D&D?
or PF, or Exalted, or Scion, or whatever...

It'd be a simple series of 1-shot arena-style encounters, where each team would be fighting against 1 or more other teams. They'd get the money before the encounter, rather than as a reward for success. They could spend the money on gear, expendables, and maybe even hired help, in preparation for the challenge. They'd need to know what the challenge or encounter was going to be roughly a day in advance, to give them time to prepare. Then, immediately before the match, the officiator would auction items, boons, and penalties that either team could buy with whatever money they had left. Cheap weapons, spell or item bans, continuous spell effects, etc. Once the auction is completed, the match begins, and the teams face each-other.

The specific nature of the tournament and its rules haven't been finalized or anything, but could vary depending on the purpose and the DM's desire. Solo tournament, instead of teams? Free-for-all or a tiered elimination style tournament? The possibilities are endless (practically).

What are your thoughts? I'm not necessarily suggesting that such a thing should start, and I'm certainly not suggesting that I be the DM (I have a bit too much on my plate ATM) but it's an idea I thought others might appreciate. Heck, in a toned-down scale it could even work as an episode or interlude for a larger campaign.

If anyone's interested, we should begin brainstorming the following ideas.
Different types of challenges

Out and out combat (fight to the death, or brawl 'til you drop, or any variant thereof)
Meat Grinder (whoever kills/defeats the most neutral creatures wins; PVP violence may or may not be discouraged)
Capture the Flag (get the enemy's thing from point A to point B before they get yours from point B or C to point A or D)
Tag (one neutral monster that 1-shot eliminates contestants, and everyone running from it and pushing enemies toward it)
Musical Chairs (find/hide/steal/move chairs so that when time runs out your team knows where to sit, and enemies are left out and eliminated*)
Maze (escape a maze... duh)
Gauntlet (must make your way through a variety of traps, enemies, and obstacles, possibly while being pursued by something dangerous or powerful)

and different types of sabotages (for enemies) and boons (for the purchaser)

Spell-school or equipment bans
Equipment replacement (all items of a certain type (melee weapons, expendables, etc.) replaced with a crappy similar item (improvised weapon, cantrip-level potions))
Negative spell effects (slow, crushing despair, etc) or conditions (fatigued, dazzled)
Beneficial spell effects (haste, blessing of fervor, enlarge person)
Terrain and strategic penalties (starting nearer cover, on higher ground, etc, or changing the terrain into something that your opponents will have a harder time dealing with)
Weather and environmental penalties (fog, ice, nighttime/daylight, possibly with an exception or countermeasure for the purchaser)
Monsters and creatures positioned near your enemies, or specifically encouraged to attack them


* yes, Musical Chairs was shamelessly stolen from the manga Liar Game.

[j_spencer93]

As a dm running a coliseum i think it could be cool. Also i might borrow some match ideas

[gr8artist]

Go for it, man. Just try and contribute at least 1 idea for each that you borrow, if you can.

[j_spencer93]

Will do. On break at work or id try to help out now.

[j_spencer93]

Maybe weather or terrain. Choosing if its sunny or storming can have amusing effects, more so with storms obvious. Terrains as well. They can change a battle like swamp, desert, tundra, etc. Maybe even add different planes.

[Inevitability]

First, I just love this idea. Kudos for posting it here.

Second, maybe an arena where people are just running down an endless slope with obstacles, monsters, traps, and whatnot, while a giant sphere is rolling down mere feet behind them? People could try to knock others out, simply outrun their foes, or even grapple enemies and have them go down with them. Indiana Jones + D&D + arena fights: how can it not be awesome?

[j_spencer93]

lol that is goofy as the nine hells but would actually be a little interesting to see in play.

[Honest Tiefling]

Do angry monsters count as a terrain challenge? I sorta like the idea that the better you do in previous matches, the more likely it is that the hungry dire lion is released closer to your opponent then you. Perhaps also have some really resistant creatures in a cage in the middle of the arena, such as a troll. The troll can heal a great number of attacks, but the cage containing it cannot.

[j_spencer93]

that actually sounds cool.

[gr8artist]

Added the suggestions, in general terms, to the original lists. A lot of the challenges would have specific boons and sabotages, like shortcuts through a maze, or drastically increasing the difficulty of carrying your team's "flag" (like the Sony game, "Fat Princess")
I'm imagining a maze, two teams racing to find object X (and possibly bring it to the other side or to their own starting area). If the teams meet, they can fight. Hidden throughout the maze are traps or challenges that they can set up to penalize the enemy team, but would take time to do so. Also in the maze is a large creature, dangerous but not immediately lethal. If it catches you, you'll be detained, penalized, wounded, and possibly killed, but odds are you'd be able to escape with only a slight loss of time.
Prior to the start of the match, the following boons/sabotages could be for sale.
1 - An item that can be used to create a single wall for a short time.
2 - A head-start in the maze, before the creature or enemy team are unleashed.
3 - A heavy burden that the enemy team must carry, and to which they are all shackled with 20 ft. chains.
4 - Guaranteed immunity from the monster's attacks and abilities for 1 character on your team.
5 - Keys that open doors in the maze walls, allowing you to bypass long stretches of hallway quickly. You don't get enough keys to open every door, however, and some doors are better shortcuts than others.