What are these bonuses and penalties for having high honor? And I guess the reverse, what are the bonuses and penalties for having low honor?
Here's the rules I propose.This is just a prototype,and will probably need a lot of fine tuning.Any comments or questions are welcome!
CHARACTER CREATION
*Races:Any that are CR 1 or lower(No ogres..)*Classes:Depends on league.All allowed in Standard league;casters only in Magic league,and only classes that specialize in mounts allowed in Mounted league.
*Stats:20 Point Buy
*Start at level 1.
*No traits,unless you take the Additional Traits feat.
FIGHTS
*Can choose to start in either predetermined(by both combatants) or random terrain.*Start 30 feet apart.
*In a 125X125 ft,50 ft deep pit,surrounded by a cheering audience.
WINS/LOSSES
*On a win,you gain a number of experience equal to your opponent's level.You need a number of experience points equal to 3X your level in order to level up.Your experience points reset each level.*On a win,you gain 1 glory.You can gain or lose glory and honor in different ways;this will be described more in depth below.
*On a win,you can choose to either loot your opponent of one item,or gain a number of item chits based on your level.At levels 1-5,you gain 1 item chit.At level 6-10,you gain 2 item chits.At level 11-15,you gain 3 item chits.At level 16-20,you gain 5 item chits.
*You can pay one of the Arena Healers before a fight to either cast Raise Dead,Resurrection, or True Resurrection. if you die during the fight.If you do not,your money is not lost. More about out-of-combat services is below.
*On a loss,if you survive,you lose one Glory point.
LEAGUES
*Standard League: This league is a free-for-all that allows all classes.*Martial League: Martial classes only.It is debatable whether to let experienced spellcasters and/or hybrids in (paladin,ranger,magus).
*Caster League: Spellcasting classes only.Note:You must take a class that has spellcasting capabilities from level 1.
*Performance League: As the Standard League,but uses performance rules,to make it a real gladiatorial arena.
GLORY AND HONOR...
I think there are too many special rules. If we are going to have so many arenas then we need more people to GM. I think each arena should have be its own campaign thread also, but all arena would still have the same character creation rules. You should be allowed a character in each arena, but you can only be an active combatant in one arena. That way everyone gets to play. Once you fight you are moved to the bottom of the list or to a listed labeled as fought(or whatever else makes sense).
In short:
1. Whoever is willing GM an arena should say so. That GM should have someone(s) willing to take his place so he gets to play also.
I will willing to do the arena without limits on classes to start things off. I am about to go to work so I can't create it until tomorrow. I will post the rules from the last arena thread I did with Eben and see how those are liked.
2. I prefer simple rules. Instead of looting the opponent the arena gives you gold as if you had defeated an opponent of a CR equal to the level of your opponent. In short if you defeat a level 2 opponent then you get gold as if you had defeated a CR 2 monster.
3. As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level. As an example if you are level one then you need 10 victory points. If you are level 2 then you need 20 additional victory points. A character's level equals his value in victory points. That means a level 3 character is worth 3 victory points. You can't take on someone more than 2 levels above you.
4. If this takes too long, possible more than 3 or 4 more days, to come up with agreed upon rules we should just nominate 2 or 3 people and let them make up the rules.
PS:These are just my suggestions, but I am strongly vouching for point 1.
I'll run an arena, too. And I pretty much support Swaggers ideas.
Also, if Swagger is going to run the "all classes allowed" arena, I'll volunteer to run one that's 'no magics allowed'... kind of an all things spell-less type arena. Maybe it'll be called the "blood pits" or something.
Knowledge of all things spell-related isn't my strengths, but I'd be fine stepping in to give Swagger a game off in his arena now and then, too... in case he wants to run a mage in his own arena.
i don't have an answer to that. in my experience they've played out the same way other php's play out... when people have time to post.
Also, let's get a sound-off of everyone still interested. It'd be good to know who all we're dealing with.
I could probably be a secondary 'GM'.
Also..you're playing a D&D equivalent and you like simple rules? >_>
By simple rules I mean for the purposes of this arena no additional special rules other than those that are needed to make it work. No chit rules as an example just to get gear.
We need general character creation and advancement rules which would include wealth acquisition. Each arena can have its own combat rules, and rules saying which classes are allowed in and so on.
My suggestion:
20 point buy
Core races only
Books allowed: CRB, APG, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat.
Average starting gold
You start at level 1. Max HP at 1st level, and average hp rounded up whenever you level so a fighter would get 6hp since he can't get 5.5 at every level.
No traits.
One buff that last at least 10 min per caster level as a precombat buff.
Instead of looting the opponent the arena gives you gold as if you had defeated an opponent of a CR equal to the level of your opponent. In short if you defeat a level 2 opponent then you get gold as if you had defeated a CR 2 monster.
As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level. As an example if you are level one then you need 10 victory points. If you are level 2 then you need 20 additional victory points. A character's level equals his value in victory points. That means a level 3 character is worth 3 victory points. You can't take on someone more than 2 levels above you.
Before the fight or during the introduction give a detailed description of what your guys is wearing or hold at the beginning of the fight.
As an example:
Mr.Swagger is wearing full plate, and wielding a scythe. He also has a holy symbol, and spell component pouch. He also has a light cross bow on his back.
As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level. As an example if you are level one then you need 10 victory points. If you are level 2 then you need 20 additional victory points. A character's level equals his value in victory points. That means a level 3 character is worth 3 victory points. You can't take on someone more than 2 levels above you.
Do you mean "As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level times 10"?
As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level. As an example if you are level one then you need 10 victory points. If you are level 2 then you need 20 additional victory points. A character's level equals his value in victory points. That means a level 3 character is worth 3 victory points. You can't take on someone more than 2 levels above you.Do you mean "As for leveling up you need a number of victory points equal to your current level times 10"?
Yeah, that is what I meant.
I think that works, then.
Once we agree to terms, let's go ahead an open up a new arena thread... this one has been up long enough and has a high enough post count that people aren't likely to realize we're just now ready to get applicants in the door.
My suggestion would be for us to formalize the rules, then have the two arenas named so we can say "gladiators can choose to fight in either of these arenas, but not both at the same time" kind of thing.
Thoughts?
Is it only going to be PVP? Because I just realized that if it takes ten fights of an equal level opponent to advance and say only 20% of fights leads to a fight, no one is going to reach level 2.
@Eben: I agree with that. We just need someone to track the fighters. I can only get online for a few hours a day for now. It is enough to GM though.
@Jen:I think the occasional group fight against monsters will work if we get a lot of people, but it needs to be a boss level fight, but for now I think we can get away with PvP. It only takes one good blow to end a low level fight so people should not be waiting too long.
PS: Do you think leveling up after 5 fights is better? An opponent's level would still be equal to their VP value so that won't have to be changed.
PS3: If your character dies are you done for good, or do you just lost VP, or something else. I have no preference. If this was clarified before and I missed it then ignore this question.
If we do group vs monster fights then an APL+4 is what is need to get everyone a number of VP equal to their level. Level 1 is the exception.
I didn't mean that. I meant, everyone's character is going to die before they level.
So let's make it 3 wins for a level in general. So it's a glad's level x 3 in victory points to level up.
As to tracking gladiators, we have registration, then close off registration for rounds of fighting. When a round of fights is going on, we close down the recruitment thread. When a round of fighting is over, we do level ups and gear-ups, then bump the recruitment thread back open fornfresh blood.
Once we close recruitment for any given round of fighting, we divvy up gladiators into the different arenas/DM's and move forward.
What do y'all think of that?
That slows down the pace to the slowest person though.
We should just keep pairing people up as they are available (except for the two people that just fought each other). And missing for two days could be a forfeit.
Maybe that's just because I'm big on moving forward though. Naturally, if you think you'll miss, then you could just ask not to be put in a match.
I just got internet access back. I think leveling up and gear acquisition are the only hangups.
I agree with the 3 levels per fight,and people fighting as they are available as long as everyone has a fair chance to fight.
If we are going to level up 3 times as fast then we can give out 3 times the amount of treasure.