How can i pull off something like TV... Pathfinder

[anoblewolf]

Thank you all in advance for your help.

I have an idea for a campaign where the players are forced to take part in a tournament. This tournament will take part in an area that had been recently torn apart by war and has since then been walled off and turned into a tournament ground where groups are pitted against each other the environment and other creature fore the pleasure of the people.

Is there a creative way to have television as the way for the people the watch the events, possibly in there homes or projected in public areas.

I know that I can pretty much just say that there a crystals that are projecting these images, but I am looking for something a little more creative.

Thank you for your time and advice.

[jaydubs]

There's a scene in a lot of those old greek mythology movies, like Clash of the Titans, where the gods are gathered around to watch events in the mortal world. I imagine something like that, but repeated in many different places across the country.

Picture that there are certain magical tables set out, and groups of people will gather around them to watch. When no one is around, it shows a zoomed out, 3-dimensional image of the entire battlegrounds, with the contestants as occasionally glowing spots of color. But any person around the table can reach down, and with a flick of the hand cause the image to zoom down to focus on a particular person or group. A slightly different finger gesture will bring up stats and biographical information. And the nation's citizens gather around to discuss and marvel over these contestants. Further, whoever puts on these games likes to reward entertaining contestants with help. They can track what groups get the most viewers, and try to encourage them with temporary blessings, magical consumables, etc. For your players, this means that putting on interesting fights with exciting strategies is rewarded over being efficient.

So essentially, Clash of the Titans meets scifi magic holographic projector meets Hunger Games. Or maybe closer to the Running Man, depending on how you flavor it.

[Drork]

Gambling dens with pools of scrying is the first thing that springs to mind. Effectively pub betting with a screen for watching. There could also then be illegal messages send into the arena to add another dimension to what can be known about the party before a fight. Would also make it against the rules to have no detection items in the arena enabling detection to be a very useful skill for those involved, then again there is always those who try to break the rules. The area could be Coterminous with a plane that assists in scrying magic making it even easier to craft a simple magic item to distribute to the masses.
Great events could be recorded in crystals that capture holograms and sold for display around the nation.
Speaking stones for radio board casts of the events.
Perhaps special rope tricks scattered around the arena area with dimension door between them for the awe inspiring in the action front row seats. Could even have officials who run around setting them up in advance or in the thick of battle. This would give the players a back door to escape into if it is one of those involuntary game shows.
Airships would also work as a viewing platform could have large sections of glasssteal around it for viewing areas.

A few things that come to mind.

[JDL]

Step 1: At the arena, the commentator of the bout is a spellcaster able to cast Major Image. He watches the fight in real-time and recreates a display of the match centred on himself that extends approximately 10 feet in all directions with a duration of concentration (and optionally provides commentary on the fight as a free action).

Step 2: At any other location showing the match, a second spellcaster who has cast Permanent Image (through either personal spellcasting or a scroll) uses a Crystal Ball to cast Scrying on the commentator (who deliberately fails his Will save against the spell). The second spellcaster concentrates on the Permanent Image to display an identical illusion of the commentator's Major Image as viewed through the Crystal Ball. He has to spend a standard action every 10 minutes to refresh the Scrying spell using the Crystal Ball.

Total Cost
Commentator: Major Image - 150 gp (10 gp x CL: 5 x Spell Level 3)
Broadcaster: Permanent Image - 660 gp (10 gp x CL: 11 x Spell Level 6) & Crystal Ball - 42,000 gp

Obviously this would be extremely expensive for an in-home TV style viewing, but assuming instead it's being shown at an up-market tavern catering to rich nobles, and that they're possibly charging an admission fee for viewing, I'd say it's quite possible this is a viable business strategy, especially if the tavern is showing this kind of thing regularly. This assumes that high level spellcasters are available in your setting.

[Geddy2112]

If you have the tournament on another plane, then you can just use interplanar gates to let people watch the carnage firsthand...then again, if these gates were fully open the spectators could be hit with a stray arrow, or join the fray!

[Barstro]

Reminded of an episode of Star Trek Voyager where Seven of Nine was in an arena thing like this and the fighting was projected via holograms in other arenas so that it looks as if it were a live event to the other watchers. In that save spirit, you could have other actual arenas with life-size scrying.

Do you have a fun end-game for this? I can see this arena sized scrying culminating in organized crime somehow delaying and/or changing the images so that they can make money from gambling (The Sting). Or, have the imaging be from one person scrying and allowing others to share his images with him (and him using that connection to learn their secrets and blackmail them or some other nefarious thing.