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A few relativly unimportant questions. If PC's are able to have anything brought into the arena rest areas, why would they bother keeping pc's there the whole time? I also noted under the 2-dwarf team it says the dwarfs don't know the arena master wants the pc's dead, but the next column it says they are under orders to kill the pc's. Which is it? off the subject,,,HOW in gods name did Auric win the belt last year while being 5th level? Musta been part of (read: skulking behind)a 10th level fighter's team...is there only 1 belt, or do all team members get a copy? Anyone feel like writing up the other teams?
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HOW in gods name did Auric win the belt last year while being 5th level? Anyone feel like writing up the other teams?
It's been two years running that Auric Warband has won. Which irritates they 'ell out of Loris. Thus a part of the reason why he is the original target of the Apostle, among other things. I'm hatching an elaborate story that involves a level-draining undead catoblepas that the Free City Trio encountered while tracking down Ulavant's Seeker expedition. Auric's sudden rage instigated an all-out genecidal war against catoblepi and thus they never made it to a WotC 3.xE product... The sudden shakiness of Auric and Co. has them poking around a milk-toast Stirgenest Cairn until their confidence returns. The Leatherworks are mentioned as being provided by Loris, perhaps to bolster Auric's Warband to assure they'll be in the running for the final "death" match.
As for writing up the other teams, it's on my "to do wishlist". With some long flights upcoming for the Holidays, I'll work on it then. Hopefully, DMs will be thoughful enough to post their versions of other teams at the Age of Worms DM Resource Site and hopefully the full Games' worth of teams will eventually get their stats posted.
HOW in gods name did Auric win the belt last year while being 5th level?
Well, the event is really only as difficult as the competition. Every so often, in organized events, there is a lack of serious competitors. So one year a 5th level fighter might have been the toughest person to step out onto the sands.
By the end of the competition, there were probably a lot of higher level competitors that were thinking "How in the GODS did Auric win the belt while being 5th level?" and started making plans for the next year's games.
Except for the fact tha Auric is a two-time champion, which means that last year (as the module states is the tradition for the defending champion) Auric and his team faced the monster slot in the semi-final match.
The way I figure it, unless you go with some sort of explaination along the lines of level loss, or with the idea that Auric was previously captain of a team that were much higher level than he was/is, you have to have some sort of other fix.
My favorite idea is that two years ago, a corrupt Raknian rigged the games to both feed his ego and make a little money on the side. Via both bribes and a little subtle posioning, he arranged for a true longshot (a 2/3rd level Auric team) to triumph in the games.
Both Auric and Raknian lived the good life after those first games. However, during the course of the year, Auric began to realize that he didn't truely deserve the Champions belt, and began to train in earnest. He also beefed up his team with several higher level NPC's (perhaps who died as a result of the final match).
Rakin intended to rig the games again last year, only this time, he bet against Auric. Unfortunatly, Auric didn't play along, and his stronger team took the belts again. That cost rankin a lot of money and more than a lot of pride. Which is the reason that this year, Rakin is now viewing Auric and Co. as Kyuss-chow.
Creative Director
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A few relativly unimportant questions. If PC's are able to have anything brought into the arena rest areas, why would they bother keeping pc's there the whole time?
A combination of tradition and control... just because you can have things brought to you doesn't mean you can have everything you want.
I also noted under the 2-dwarf team it says the dwarfs don't know the arena master wants the pc's dead, but the next column it says they are under orders to kill the pc's. Which is it?
Both. The dwarves are told to kill the PCs by their manager, but they don't know that it's Raknian that wants the PCs dead.
HOW in gods name did Auric win the belt last year while being 5th level?
Luck. Plus... when the Champion's Games first started, they weren't established enough to attract high-level gladiators. Auric won his first bout by being the last man standing from his group. He won the second one more by luck and skill. This time out is the first time Auric has been the leader of his band in the games.
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... when the Champion's Games first started, they weren't established enough to attract high-level gladiators...
Good point. The economics of the Games didn't warrant higher level individuals to risk their necks. Now that the winning purse is several thousand orbs/gp, higher level NPCs are entering into the fray. The purse is still not high enough to warrant the really high level NPCs. They'd do better going after "real" treasure-stashing adversaries.
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Both. The dwarves are told to kill the PCs by their manager, but they don't know that it's Raknian that wants the PCs dead.
Ehh..it does not say that..it says the members of pitchblade don't know OKORAL and Raknian want the pc's dead but they fight fiercely none the less..but then in column 3 it's Okoral telling them to kill the pc's....I'll assume the first line deletes Okoral...picky picky I know
Anyone notice how the prize pool on offer seems to be *many times* the expected proceeds from ticket sales?
I did a back of the envelope calculation, using ticket prices * expected numbers of sales (some are given, some hinted at), and there's no way the ticket sales could even come close to all the prize moneys. Even if you imagine there are other sources of income, from say a cut on the food and beverage sales, I still think it looks like the ticket prices are way under-priced, or the prize money is way too much. [I refuse to even consider they are funded by some wealthy benefactor]
Something to bear in mind if your players are sticklers for detail - I'll be putting the admission prices up, or cutting the prize money back (not sure which yet, I need to remind myself how "rich" the average person in GH City is, as high ticket sales might mean no-one can affford to fil the cheap seats).
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Creative Director
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The price to get in to see the games is intentionally low, so that most anyone can afford to get in to see the games. The real money to be made is in the betting pools, in corruption associated with the gladiator licenses, and in areas like concessions, contests, and similar diversions.
A modern example would be the movie theater. The theater itself makes close to no money on ticket sales (typically, upwards of 90% of ticket sales go to the studio). Movie theaters instead make money at the concession stands and by selling ad space on their screens.
It would also make a lot of sense for the elite to purchase luxury boxes which would be exorbitantly expensive but also be removed from the rabble and have other amenities. Some sort of graft is probably involved where nobles and the ruling Oligarchy have first choice on the best seats.
A modern example would be the movie
theater. The theater itself makes close to no money on ticket
sales (typically, upwards of 90% of ticket sales go to the
studio). Movie theaters instead make money at the concession
stands and by selling ad space on their screens.
From what I've heard, if one were to trust the History and
Discovery channels, often Roman games would be sponsored by theemporer or a politician looking to curry favor with the rable.
In many ways this is similar to how teams in professional auto
racing (NASCAR, F1) and the series themselves will get
corporate sponsors to cover costs of operation, as the ticket
sales don't cover the cost of many series, and the purse
winnings don't cover the costs of most teams. So, an Oligarch,
or someone seeking to become one, could be sponsoring the
games, and providing a large purse to make sure the fighters
present are of the highest calibre.
Assuming the house gets a cut of all bet money collected probably more than makes up for the low price of tickets. The movie theatre analogy is a good one.
Anyone notice how the prize pool on offer seems to be *many times* the expected proceeds from ticket sales?
Here's how to keep your players from going all detail-oriented and wondering where the prize money comes from: don't let them see the odds.
Run any betting with the assumption that everyone is told the opposite of the actual ratios -- if they're even told at all. This will encourage people to bet on the high-ranking teams (which are more likely to win), as opposed to the low-ranking teams (which have higher returns).
Of course, the payout described in the sidebar makes no sense at all. There is no reason for anyone to bet on a team with even an average rank (anything above 4). Of course, the only ones worth betting on are the rank 3 or lower teams... except that they're likely to get paired up with a group that is better, and is more likely to lose.
The sure thing is a guaranteed loss, while the high-yield bet is the most likely to lose. Who would bet on these odds? They should've checked a few racetracks on tips for setting the betting odds.
Answer - Not enough. With their fly potions, the dwarves can cover ground in a hurry - a nasty surprise for my group, which found themselves in melee on the second round after expecting to have a few rounds to soften the dwarves up with spells and missile weapons before their little stumpy legs could close the distance.
Actually, the adventure doesn't say how far apart they start, so I put them at opposite sides of my battlemat, which I had decided was miraculously the exact same size as the arena floor. I did choose the shorter dimension, however, to give the dwarves a better shot since they must use a close and crush strategy.
The dwarves still got pounded into dogsnot by my combat-heavy party, but not before they put a scare in them by getting a couple of early crits, putting the party cleric down and ruining the main fighter's day.
My players have an artificer, a juggernaut, a cleric, and a wizard. My thought was to avoid the cleric and go for the juggernaut's weapon to scare the party a bit. Do think that two dwarves can do that much damage to a +2 axe?
I know most of this post is pretty old, but I just added a post concerning the economics of the Champion's Games, in which I concluded that through some conservative estimates and a number of different types of revenue, that Raknian and his financial backers are making an absolute killin in terms of profit at the end of the day. I partially wrote this becuase I myself had added up the ticket prices and realized that they nowhere nearly paid for the prizes alone (although as you might see, the tickets prices, each day over 5 days do add up to more than the cost of the prizes, at least by my arithmetic. Go check it out if you are interested however.
I'm going to have the inner walls of the arena covered in advertising ("See Roc City!") just like at baseball games. There's also going to be griffons doing flybys towing banners ("Discerning orcs get their pies at Murdo's Pantry in the Midnight Muddle").