Okay... so the Free City Arena is huge. I knew that before I got my hands on The Champion's Belt... but I didn't really fully grasp it until I read through the battles in the adventure.
I was saying that I was going to use the gladiator arena map from Dragon #303, thinking it would fit. It will work fine for the second and third round, but the first round of combat involves four warbands, and putting them into a such a confined space will seriously negate some of the dynamics of a large-scale fight.
Then I looked at my battle map... I use the map that comes with the D&D Miniatures Started Set, which I had laminated. It's bigger, but not as big as I'd like.
So I invited a couple of my players to come over on a non-game day, and we played around with a couple of warbands on the gladiator arena map, and had some fun. I told them that we'd be doing some gladiator arena battles coming up in the game, and that I wanted to see how it would work out on the maps that I had.
The battles didn't work out as well as I had hoped. I mean, the battle maps were fine for the small warbands we used, but it was obvious that anything bigger would need a much larger space. I've seen somewhere that if the Free City Arena were a battle map, the battle map would be about 3 ft by 6 ft... just about the size of my dining room table.
One of my players is also big into miniatures war gaming, and he suggested that we lay down some brown cloth on my table, and use it at the arena. He talked about the differences of table top battles when you use hexes, squares, or measure inches with rulers and measuring tape. (I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me on this one... I've never actually played miniatures war games, though I've seen it in play.)
So, after a few hours of D&D Miniatures battles, and talk of designing spell templates, and what type of cloth to get, I've decided that we will run the Champion's Games on my dining room table. The freedom to move the combatants without a grid will be a nice change of pace for us, and the vast amount of room for the arena will also add to the experience, not to mention change the dynamics of ranged weapons vs. melee, mounted combat vs. foot soldiers, etc.
Combat on the battle maps works fine for me, and it definately works best to define confined spaces, but I think that having the Champion's Games on a large surface such as my dining room table will give a better game feel for the openness of the area.
I actually won't even be starting Hall of Harsh Reflections for another two weeks, but I'm getting excited about the The Champion's Belt. For the next month or so, I won't be seeing my table in the same light... I'm already thinking of it as my arena.
What plans does anyone else have for the arena battles?
I might make up the grid on my laptop using one programme or another. Then I will scale some portraits down to fit onto the squares. I will then run the combat through to the TV and drag and drop the portraits onto the grids they occupy. This way the battlemap is unlimited in size and it solves the ambiguity of where characters are actually standing when they deliver their long range attacks.
That said, I normally use a 4'x3' battlemap but this is a special occasion. :)
Let me preface this response by saying I know nothing about any "official" miniature rules or "battle-mat" playing. My gaming group still plays 2nd edition. But we've been using miniatures to represent our characters and visually track movement and combat for over a dozen years (if you can't reach your opponent as represented by your position on the board, then obviously you need to move before you can attack).
Anyway, I've been using my wife's quilting mat as our battle mat all these years. It's 24 inches by 36 inches with a perfect grid laid out in one inch squares. I use published battle mats (or create my own on the computer) to represent special rooms or smaller areas but the big green mat works well for every other occassion.
The arena is not just big - it's huge; and I agree that it should be represented that way. I'm planning on using the whole dining room table (I have a while to work out the logistics since my gaming group is still wrapping up WC) and might *slide* the green mat back and forth when specific gridwork is most important to a combat area (obviously, always the one the PCs are in). I still haven't received issue 128 so I'm not sure how well my tentative plan will work out logistically but I would encourage other DMs to find or make the biggest battle mat they can. Entering an arena is an experience like no other (if anyone has ever walked into the Roman collesium or even a professional sports arena on the playing field you'll understand what I'm saying). I want to give my players as much of that awe and spectacle as I can using merely plastic figures and a sewing tool. But on the night(s) we play Champion's Belt, the dining room table IS the Free City Arena!
I recommend E-Adventure Tiles ($downloadable$ from SkeletonKey Games).
One set is named "Coliseum" (I think there is another, older one: "Arena"). With these Tile-Sets You can scale up a nice looking Gladiatorial Battlefield as big as you want it to be.
Happy Fighting
Loops!
I've got one of those large battlemats. It just fills my (small) dining room table. I plan on using that for this battle if it'll work.
rooster
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Well - we created a very large 3d model of the Coliseum of Istar quite a while ago at DLA.
We were just playing with it today and I have a 5'x4' battlemap with a one inch grid on the sand surface on it. It will print out at 150 dpi in full color quite nicely.
We can render in Maya so it will go to 300dpi, but the file size spikes considerably at that point. (a 100 meg+ image size or so).
If there is any demand for this - we'll add some bells and whistles and post it. You can print it out at Kinkos on a full color laser plotter, have them laminate it, etc.
If there is any demand for this - we'll add some bells and whistles and post it. You can print it out at Kinkos on a full color laser plotter, have them laminate it, etc.
Hey, I could use the heck out of something like that!
- Neomorte
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Did anyone ever do this? We are doing the comabts this weekend. AS of now, I am getting a few copies of the battlemat included in the DM Guide and going to tape them together...But a nice one, all drawn up, would be really cool...
Yeah we did. The scale is a little off and I was waiting for a logo to slap on it (which is now done).
This weekend? I'll try. WHEN this weekend?
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Sunday... but I would need to get to Kinkos before that, so if there is anyway I could get it by Friday, even if it is a little off, that would rule..
Patman21967@comcast.net
that is my email...
Tell me - do you ACTUALLY want one that has a combat area 500 feet long by 200 feet wide on the oval?
Forgive me - but that is STUPIDLY large. Still, if you want it that big I can make one that big.
The one I have scaled now is far more reasonable 5' x 4' in size (thereabouts).