Working on an arena event based on Cutthroat Kitchen

[doc the grey]

So I was up last night working on some stuff for my home game while watching TV and stumbled onto the idea of doing a gladitorial game inspired by the food network show Cutthroat Kitchen. Basically the party and all the competitors start with no gear and no weapons. Each round they are allowed 60 seconds (in game) within an armory to grab up all the gear they want to use for this round of combat as well as like 100 pounds of silver coins (number still in the air atm). After this the host offers to sell them various ways to undercut or screw over the other players with things like swapping their weapons or armor for broken ones, swapping their potions for other ones, switching gear with another player, or chaining them to a rust monster. After that they have to do combat that round with a group of random mooks (or specific mooks if that was their screw) using whatever they have on hand. Last one to clear, first to fall, or whomever the crown favored least returns their money and goes home. This goes on until you have one man standing who's prize is whatever money he didn't spend during the tourney.

Now the thing I really want help with is ideas for different ways to screw your opponents. Right now I have a few but I would love more and if you've actually seen the show the more inventive you want to get the better. Also remember that the players don't get healed in between the rounds and are only allowed to heal with whatever they bring/grab at the armory.

[MrSin]

Example:

Now for this challenge your going to have to fight... A level one human skeleton! That sounds pretty easy right? I mean what adventurer hasn't fought one before. Now for our first item for auction is an assortment of bludgeoning weapons. Whoever wins this auction has the exclusive right to use bludgeoning weapons, and may take away all their opponents bludgeoning weapons! Now don't worry we'll be more than happy to give you a replacement sword and dagger for your lost mace if you didn't bring any spares. For our second auction we have vials of holy water. Whoever wins this auction gets all the holy water they want, and we'll just take away all your opponents alchemical items to make sure they don't get any ideas.

Other auctions may include, taking one item of their choice from their opponents armory, exclusive right to special materials, upgrading their gear to Adamantine quality, Adding special qualities to their weapon("+1 flaming greatsword? Now we're cooking! Who will pay me 10 pounds of silver for this item"), etc. You can always do more than undercut the competition, you can get access to bonuses!

Like this? Just be careful not to make it too deadly. A lot of the fun in cutthroat is that its entertaining to watch people work around the problems and their reactions to it, but just being straight up deadly can take away some of that and pathfinder isn't exactly the best game for improv sometimes. No weapons is death, can't fix things up, and losing 6 AC or swapping your greatsword for a dagger could be deadly and without much of a chance to somehow work your way around the problem. Especially doesn't help that characters aren't versatile, but a chef can be excellent in a lot of fields.

Oh! Bonus points if you draw a picture of the room your stealing from or take pictures from the book of weapons to use to give the kitchen a more cutthroat kitchen approach where they can say "I want that and that and that!"

[doc the grey]

MrSin wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

Like this? Just be careful not to make it too deadly. A lot of the fun in cutthroat is that its entertaining to watch people work around the problems and their reactions to it, but just being straight up deadly can take away some of that and pathfinder isn't exactly the best game for improv sometimes. No weapons is death, can't fix things up, and losing 6 AC or swapping your greatsword for a dagger could be deadly and without much of a chance to somehow work your way around the problem. Especially doesn't help that characters aren't versatile, but a chef can be excellent in a lot of fields.

Oh! Bonus points if you draw a picture of the room your stealing from or take pictures from the book of weapons to use to give the kitchen a more cutthroat kitchen approach where they can say "I want that and that and that!"

Sort of though I'm thinking more along the lines of they can only pick screw options.

Like say they were fighting skeletons you could force one opponent to roll with all their gear broken, or say make the wizard wear full plate but yeah you're getting the idea. I really want to see some more crazy ideas though like having to fight manacled or blindfolded or say chained to a rust monster you may not be allowed to kill.

[Pizza Lord]

Can be tough if there's a bunch of classes available. Taking away a monk's weapons isn't as bad as anybody else. Breaking one guy's weapons when he's a wizard with mending isn't so bad unless you say they can't fix the weapons. Even then, he's probably using spells anyhow.

All the contestants would have to know what the others were or they would all have to be relatively equal classes, just different feat/skill builds. Just like in the show where the contestants are all cooks but one might be a sous chef and another a line cook.

You could probably allow the contestants to use money to increase the difficulty of the opponent. For instance 1 hp per 10 sp. +1 natural armor/per 25 sp. +1 touch/deflection for 50 sp. +1 damage to one natural attack per 50 sp. You should make all the groups bid and pay for the increases to the upcoming monster, then have a separate challenge or at least a randomization so one group might end up facing a monster they paid to beef up themselves.

If they win, they get double the amount that they paid in increases and some other prize, possibly just getting to know what the next opponent is while the other teams do not, thus allowing them to better focus on what abilities to pay for buffing, though they might still end up fighting it.

Otherwise, focusing more on the screwing over aspect:

• Forced to wear heavy lead shoes. (double movement costs, prevents 5-foot steps, doesn't count as prohibited armor for druids so they don't lose their spells.)
  
• Forced to have greased up hands or gloves. (Any item used has a chance to slip and fall. Either use a grease aspect, or just a 25% chance that any item used slips out, doing nothing. 10% chance for an item to slip out at end of PC's turn if they didn't do anything with it other than holding it. Have to make this effect monk's equally somehow, perhaps if an oiled fist or glove is used to attack it deals 2 points less damage from failing to land solidly, but then they might claim to be using elbows or knees.)
  
• Forced to wear blinders (not blindfold). Can now be considered flanked by opponents threatening you from 90 degrees or more instead of just directly across. Basically, if one foe is in 'front' of you, then you have 5 squares another foe can stand to make you flanked instead of just one. Can change this to just the 'rear' three square if it seems too much. Obviously only useful in a match with 2 or more opponents.
  
• Heavily-weighted weapons (or wrist weights for monks). -2 to attack and +2 to damage. The first miss however causes a -2 to AC until the start of the next round due to over extension. Additional misses, from multiple attacks or even AoOs taken cause cumulative -1 to AC for each one.
  
• Hands are bound by two-foot cord. Until the cord is broken, the foe cannot be damaged and spells all fail. The cord is easy to break but the bound character cannot break it themselves. The character can still hold weapons or items, so as soon as the cord breaks they can use them. Assume that if the character is attacked and the to hit roll falls within 1 point of their AC (AC +/- 1) then the attack struck the cord and snapped it (the still take damage if the attack was a hit). As a Ready action the character can try and place the cord into a foe's line of attack. They make an opposed attack roll, success means they made the attack sever the cord and take no damage (ties go to them). Probably not fair to use this if the foe is an archer or primarily ranged attacker, but whatever.
  
• Must eat a jar of questionably pickled eggs and some slightly curdled milk before the fight. Any round spent doing anything but moving at half-speed causes a DC 15 Fortitude check or lose the action due to retching, next round count as sickened. Bonuses to save vs poison do not help, since that would indicate the body is trying to purge the poison and induce vomiting anyway. Last the duration of the fight.

[The Human Diversion]

I'm dying to know what kind of creature you're making Alton.