[4e] Gladiatoral Arena

[Burley]

So, our usual DM can't make it, and our fill-in DM doesn't really want to DM tonight (we'd only get through a small portion of actual game and only have three players).
But, DizzyD and I came up with the idea of an arena-style gladiatoral brawl.
Questions:
1) What would the best way to run a 4-man tournament be? (Round Robin, Double Elimination, etc)
2) What kind of traps should show up?
3) How do we keep it fair? Obviously, I will know about any traps, but I don't want to give myself an unfair advantage... I've already got the greatest character ever.

[Kurald Galain]

3) How do we keep it fair? Obviously, I will know about any traps, but I don't want to give myself an unfair advantage... I've already got the greatest character ever.

Well, 4E wasn't written with PVP in mind. It slightly depends on the level you're playing at, but it mostly comes down on the luck of who wins initiative, and whether your first attack hits.

One obvious step to take is to ban action points, because otherwise whoever wins initiative will just do two daily attacks with an action point.

A second step is that certain "win buttons" may need to be banned. I'm thinking in particular of the cleric power Consecrated Ground, which pretty much prevents a cleric from losing the battle.

Furthermore, note that many leader and defender powers simply don't work in PVP because you don't have anyone to lead or defend, and if an opponent does more damage than you do, most controller powers don't hamper him long enough to turn the tide. So barring things like stunlocking, it's mostly a contest of who can build the best striker. That is not to say it won't be fun because it can be, but you just need to take that into acount.

Good defenses would include resistances, interrupts, and a means of getting permanent stealth.

[Kiero]

As already said, 4E is designed with team co-operation in mind, PvP will suck badly.

PC team vs other team on the other hand might work.

[Tiki Snakes]

It will be quite iffy, but if they players go into it knowing that it's pretty much the case, it could still kill an evening just fine.

And as the movie 'gladiator' tells us, there were also events that involved groups of gladiators vs wild beasts or so on.

[hamishspence]

Dragon Annual has much to say on gladiatorial stuff.

As long as the party aren't fighting each other, you could have some very gladiator-type events.

Handling them vs each other might be slightly trickier.

[Guinea Anubis]

As it has been said by others 4e is not PvP friendly.

Since you only have 4 guys you could do Team vs Team pvp. I did that before and it worked out well. It also lets you toss some fun monsters in the mix.

[The J Pizzel]

My 4E group did this, but it definitely wasn't against each other. We had a night where only 3 players showed up, so I told them to get lost for 15 minutes while I generated a whole bunch of mini encounters.

It was actually really, really fun. I ended up making six encounters and told the group they could use their daily once per 3 encounters (that way every encounter didn't have a "win" button). My brain got fried doing nothing but combat over and over again so we took a little break after the 3rd fight, but all in all, it was great. Instead of rewarding them with XP, I gave the surviving PC's 50 gold for every fight. That away, their was some initiave to play as if it was a real campaign and not just screw around (kinda like playing poker for no money).

I highly recommend this if you need a way to pass a night.

[Burley]

We're looking at 12th level characters.
Well, the first match is probably gonna be a zombie wave. The PCs may fight as a team if they want.
The zombie wave will probably be a 6-10 round ordeal. Those still standing will be ranked by kill-points.

Second round will be the First and Last place vs. the Second and Third place PCs. Probably a lot of randomly occuring traps scattered about. This will make anybody who can force movement very valuable. I imagine Fire, Acid, and Poison traps (Ongoing 5 Fire (save ends), 10 acid damage, -2 attacks and damage (save ends)).

Next rounds will be two simultaneous 1vs1 matches. Maybe cut the arena in half with a wall of force. It'll be a random matchup, and then winner vs. winner and loser vs loser.

We'll have real life prizes. But, we aren't sure what yet....

[kieza]

My recommendation: Let each player generate 2 or 3 characters of the same level, then throw each player's team against the same set of level-appropriate encounters. Award points for using fewest healing surges, fewest dailies, fewest item dailies, fewest consumables, finishing in least rounds, etc.

For encounters, try to get different setups. I'd recommend one with heavy, slow, melee monsters, one with mobile ranged monsters, one with lurkers, one with minions, and one with lots of special terrain.

[tcrudisi]

There was an adventure that I ran that had a fun "random effect generator" thrown in. Mind you, this was for 4th level characters, but you can easily fix this to go up to level 12.

Spoiler

Show

Each time a character or creature in the pit scores a critical hit, becomes bloodied, or reduces a foe to 0 hit points, roll 1d6. Add 2 if the triggering creature’s side is outnumbered (count only creatures in the lower pit area).

1 You teleport into a randomly chosen unoccupied corner of the pit.
2–3 You and each of your allies regain 1d10 hp (if bloodied) or take 1d10 damage (if not bloodied).
4–5 You and each of your allies gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and skill checks until the end of the triggering creature’s next turn.
6 You gain an extra standard action, which you must use before the end of your next turn or it is lost.

For instance, you can change the +/- 1d10 to be +/- 4d10. Actually, that's the only one I would change. Regardless, it does give you an idea. It's not quite a trap, but it functions a lot like one. Even if the players know what it does, they can't very well prepare for the randomness of it.

[Draz74]

Best tactic in a 4e Gladiatorial duel?

Make sure there's a Warlord in the audience (front row) who's rooting for you. And has the Commander's Strike at-will.

[KillianHawkeye]

At the end, make the top 2 do the Eliminator from American Gladiators.