Hey all,
I'm about to run a new game with some friends and as I am creating the game world I run into a few confusing world-building issues.
Here's the basic idea:
In a rapidly expanding magocratic empire, gladiatorial games have become the most popular form of entertainment for the rich middle class and the upper classes. The players take on the role of characters that, for their own reasons (willingly or unwillingly), participate in these games as rookie gladiators.
Basically, as gladiators they are somewhat like prisoners or slaves in the game world. In the case of non-voluntary gladiators, escape should mean certain death (if the imperial soldiers catch you).
However, me and my friends have played lead-by-the-nose campaigns a bit too often... and I want to create some freedom for the players outside of the arena battles.
So my idea was that the gladiators basically live in their own special city-area. A ghetto of some sorts where their training grounds and dorms are. Since merchants and other common folk can enter this ghetto, for trade and whatnot, I need some special rules for gladiators and slaves, so that they cannot just run off but at the same time, not completely impeding all the freedom the players have...
How would you approach this?
I have a system in mind right now, that slaves and gladiators are branded with a certain magical tattoo or permanent arcane mark that shows what kind of slave/gladiator they are, who they belong to, and what their rank is in the gladiatorial ladder. As the gladiators gain popularity and rank, they can buy more freedom to go to certain areas of the city. (For example, if they do not have a sufficient mark, an Alarm spell and Hold Person spell triggers, and the city guard comes your way.)
Do you think a system like that will work? What are your ideas/suggestions?
I also want the players to be able to find means of temporarily escaping the ghetto maybe... or to find out what's going on in the outside world. The campaign will also deal with a more global plot revolving around political schemes and the motives of the empire,
and I want to grant the players the possibility of getting involved in all of it.
But I tend to lose consistency and how to approach it all in detail...
And as I mentioned before, I'm trying very hard not to create a lead-by-the-nose experience.
I need some advice to get me started... or maybe just some pitfalls that I should look out for...
My advice:
I like your use of a magic tattoo. I would keep it intact from the most part. What I would add to it to allow the players more freedom in travel in the design of their owner/patron. I mean if their owner is somebody who travels a gladiator circuit from city to city they would have to be allowed to leave.
You could accomplish this by have the owners of the gladiator be able to give permission. Have it in other words be more keyed on the owner than a location in the city. Not that you can't have a area in city where all the gladiators are stabled...but the owner's desire should proably take precedent.
Also...this kind of game tends to be railroady by nature...the only way I see to make it less so would be for the PCs to have either one that is seeking to change a corrupt system. Or atleast a underground resistance movement that can maybe temporaily suppress the tattoos.
Just some ideas.
My advice:
I like your use of a magic tattoo. I would keep it intact from the most part. What I would add to it to allow the players more freedom in travel in the design of their owner/patron. I mean if their owner is somebody who travels a gladiator circuit from city to city they would have to be allowed to leave.
You could accomplish this by have the owners of the gladiator be able to give permission. Have it in other words be more keyed on the owner than a location in the city. Not that you can't have a area in city where all the gladiators are stabled...but the owner's desire should proably take precedent.
Also...this kind of game tends to be railroady by nature...the only way I see to make it less so would be for the PCs to have either one that is seeking to change a corrupt system. Or atleast a underground resistance movement that can maybe temporaily suppress the tattoos.
Just some ideas.
I guess the nature of this campaign could come across as railroady indeed. But I think that the setting can provide so much more than arena-combat after arena-combat. I like the idea of an underground resistance movement opposed to the imperial rule, I'll definitely put some thought into it. The idea that the owner can decide where the gladiators may or may not go is also good to consider!
Thanks!Do gladiators compete as individuals, as teams, or both? If the latter, will the PCs be a team? Is combat always to the death?
You know about the Performance Combat rules, right? And all the Performance Combat feats?
Political schemes: consider a viewing of the Spartacus TV series. (Okay, it's three seasons plus a prequel, so that's a lot of watching. Also, it's very firmly R-rated and NSFW. That said, it definitely fits your "global plot involving political schemes" requirement.)
The players will mostly function as a team (these are usually set at the beginning of the session, this also immediately solves the problem of not every player being present at every session), and a lot of battles will be to the death, unless that particular event has different rules or goals (I'm thinking of doing other game types as well, with irregular teams, monster battles, races, capture the flag style games etcetera).
Yes I am aware of the performance feats, and since my players are rather new to Pathfinder I'll certainly notify them as well. The only danger with this is that if one of the players has a non-performance oriented character he or she might feel less special in a way... I might need to houserule some performance/rewarding system that works for everyone.
I'm not familiar with the Spartacus series and sadly I really don't have time to watch, but it should be good reference indeed. Maybe I'll look up the basic plot outline (and spoil the whole thing for myself but hell).
Expanding magocratic empire: that screams Lawful Evil to me. Or anyway, nongood and nonchaotic. Gladiatorial combat isn't likely to be a huge thing in a good-aligned society, and in a chaotic one it'll probably degenerate fast into brawls and bloodbaths. You want a society that has rules, but doesn't much care about human life.
Magocratic: man, that opens up all kinds of crazyass possibilities for fun. If the rulers are all powerful spellcasters, and mages generally are in charge? Conjured monsters, freakish magical beasts, terrifying illusions. And the enchanters can turn your mind inside out (and may do just that, for fun).
Special rules for gladiators and slaves: some kind of tattoo or mark on the neck or face. It's simple for slaves, more complex for gladiators. It's a 1st level spell to put it on, a 3rd level spell to take it off -- and taking it off without legal authorization is a death-after-torture offense.
There's probably some rule that a gladiator automatically gets freedom after X years or Y number of victories. Freed gladiators often go on to be managers and may even end up owning dozens of slaves and gladiators themselves. (This happened fairly often in Rome.) Popular, successful gladiators are rock stars, face tattoo notwithstanding -- they have women, admiration, the run of the city. I don't think Alarm and Hold Person spells are needed, though they're certainly possible; things get more interesting if junior gladiators CAN go out of bounds, but it's really dangerous.
Note that gladiators typically lived in a hierarchy, with trainers and managers. These should be interesting NPCs in their own right. And, of course, many gladiatorial fights were fixed or rigged, one way or another...
Are these the sorts of things you're looking for?
Doug M.
Although the initial question mostly concerned freedom of movement for the players, these are certainly helpful.
The way I see it, the alignment of the imperial people should vary greatly. Lawful makes sense, and the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes are evil. But I also want some imperial troops to be chivalrous and good, like loyal, noble warriors. Anyway, it would indeed not be strange if the overall alignment of the empire leans towards Evil.
However, they are not necessarily a dark, gloomy empire on the outside.
Another possibility is simple escape -- the PCs want to get away. This leads to the possibility that at some point the PCs either fail and die, or succeed and escape to some place outside the Empire. Then the second, higher-level part of the campaign has them organizing their new homeland to fight the Empire. (Again, realistic -- many of the leaders of the German tribes that resisted Rome got their training as Roman soldiers and slaves.)
A third is, the PCs want to rise to the top of the system. In this scenario the PCs are probably nongood and may well be evil. The goal here may be an internal coup or revolution, or simply joining the ruling elite as a noble. Endgame here could be the former gladiators using their skills to help the Empire expand -- possibly against some savage tribes who are being organized by some escaped gladiators, a bunch of treacherous ingrates...
Doug M.
I'm not really sure what the players themselves really want at this point. As far as characters go, one player will probably be playing a Monk specializing in grapple combat maneuvers, and another player wants to play a cleric (probably with necromantic abilities). The third player does not yet really know what he wants.
I try not to set their goals for them, since I want them to decide for themselves, but I guess you summed up the most likely scenarios and they all seem quite nice to me.I'd study up on roman history of the gladiator and it will provide ur answer. Short of it though, the gladiators were not slaves as often as Hollywood makes it seem. In fact they were often out equivilant of football players who made deals with various gladiator schools to make money and were traded by those schools like u see today. The "slaves" could have been men who needed to pay debts and the schools payed the debts of the man in exchange for him being in the fights. TRUE slaves were bought and bred to fight but a successful gladiator, even if he was a slave, would earn some of the purse and be well fed and tended to as he would give his owner wealth and respect above whatever his station alone would grant him. Because of the good treatment most would reciece, almost no slave that was a good fighter would ever leave or escape. Now after the period of years even a true slave could eventually buy his own freedom and do as he wished.
As for freedom of movement in the city, some areas are restricted obviously but there is no reason they couldn't walk to any area that is open to the public or commerce. If u want them marked for their social status that works but you will have to distinguish what is being branded. Do ALL gladiators get a tattoo? Do only slaves?
Wow, I really need to read into this indeed. I think it would be really rewarding for players if they gained popularity and cult status as they progressed through the campaign.
As for freedom of movement and markings, only gladiators and slaves get marked. For example, the aristocracy does not get marks, it is not like some sign of power or status, at least not in their eyes. That scenario would also mean that every inhabitant of the city should have their own mark. That's not where I want to go. The imperial state is not that totalitarian.
But I think it would be important that the gladiator markings indicate their rank and experience, so that they are indeed bought and sold like football players... some players being more valuable than others.
Thanks for all the great help so far guys! Any other suggestions are welcome as well!
Make a gigantic city (like Rome). Have the gladiator ghetto be the size of a large town: 4000 people live there (100 of these are city guards in round-the-clock surveillance to keep the "stock in their cages") and have the resident businesses and market cater to gladiators and guards; places to buy armor, weapons, gear, etc.
Use the Arcane Mark thing. Have each mark tied to a different patron/stable/school etc. These owners have the right to pay a fee (bribe) to then assemble their gladiators for supervised missions (if you want them to dungeon hack out of the city) or perhaps on PR campaigns in and around different parts of the city. This would be like giving the characters a furlough from the ghetto to then do things like intrigue between nobles, preach in the local temple, clean out a haunted house, etc.
Create a system by which the PCs can free themselves. They can buy their way out, fight their way to a championship, use their downtime to build a sufficient masterwork item/spell/magic item etc. Of course, if the PCs are affiliated with an unscrupulous owner this system will be corrupt and they can't trust it, leading to intrigue or revolt. Then again if their owner is just the nobles might just have that owner "dealt with" so that these prized gladiators (the PCs) don't get released.
Of course maybe the system works as promised and the players win their freedom. At that point you could either end the campaign or turn it into a more standard PF game of exploration and adventures but with the undercurrents of slavery, corruption and the lives the part left behind.
To discourage outright revolt at first, perhaps have the state arcanists have a few things in place to keep the gladiators in line:
1. detect magic radiating from walls at check points where the character's mark suddenly begins glowing
2. Alarm spells keyed to the marks in certain parts of town so that guards are instantly alerted to the characters' presence in restricted areas.
3. Hold Person spells broadcast from magical checkpoints once the alarm has been tripped. That way if the PC fails their save there is no harm to them but they also can't escape.
if you don't want it to be another railroad situation let them go wherever they want... if you want them to fight in the arena (which is already a little bit of railroading) i see two good options:
1. a highly stratified class/caste based society. this could be a simple noble/peasant division or a more complicated arcane/divine/artisan/warrior/chumps system (or whatever). in this society the players were all born into some low position and victory in the arena is their only hope of ever being anything more than second (or third, or fourth...) class citizens. until they achieve this, they are free to come and go as they please (more or less) but are not allowed into certain areas that are above their station and are basically subject to the whims of anyone they encounter from a higher class.
2. use it as a backdrop... i ran a 'ninja clan' campaign where different people were missing each session- we began and ended each session in the clan compound (so the rotating cast was never an issue) and the clan would often have assignments for them (almost every session) but they were free to go wherever they wanted and do whatever they wanted to complete that assignment. you could do something similar- have them all part of the same gladiator stable; begin each session with a match (nothing gets a session from catching-up/BSing to rocking-and-rolling faster than "ok, everybody roll initiative"), afterwards either let them do their thing or have a NPC (or a couple NPCs) in or around the stables who have single session missions they can take on (it could be things their owner putting them to other uses, a coach who's been training them for more than just the arena, a member of some kind resistance/revolution, or just a random schemer with some gold), you can either give them near total freedom to do these missions or combine it with some form of number 1.