Author Topic: Players in a Death Arena  (Read 1502 times)

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Offline Mordrig

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Players in a Death Arena
« on: January 22, 2018, 01:51:35 PM »
Hi Folks,
  In a long running campaign (25+ years) there is a special event that occurs every 20 years.  It is simply called 'The Challenge'.  Players are given the chance to have a second character in the game if they complete the challenge.  Now this challenge is simply a death arena.  As GM you throw a ton of random creatures in, make a maze, some puzzles, and finally an arena.  Those who survive to the arena section face off there.  Only One May Live is the only real rule.
  Now, I have six players in the final arena.  They are all doing their best to hide from each other and wait until several have died or been badly wounded before they step up to fight one another.  Thing is, I can only take so many turns of sit and hide in the corner before I go crazy, (GM Here).  To promote players fighting each other what would you do to get things moving? 
I have considered the following:
1.  Drop items into the middle of the arena to get them to come out and fight.
2.  Release monsters (low level ones) into the darkness.
3.  Have the arena slowly contract forcing them in to the middle area.
4.  Have sponsors who pay to drop items to players based on their performance making it worth putting yourself at risk to get an item.

Thoughts?  Comments?

Offline Tolwen

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Re: Players in a Death Arena
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2018, 02:13:09 PM »
Hi Mordrig!
An option would be a time limit. This is proclaimed at the beginning of the "tournament" and may be announced officially (a big gong being sounded or a bell rung). This is done once per hour (or day or whatever time interval is fine with you) and anyone who is not within the central arena by the time the last bell/gong is rung, is considered to have lost automatically (and entrances and exits to the arena blocked without chance of escaping). These may be dealt with in any manner you deem appropriate to make death a sure outcome.
As a further incentive, you may place useful items in the central arena that diminish (e.g. vanish) over time (e.g. with every gong one is lost). So, effectively the longer you wait, the less benefit you will have *g*

Best
Tolwen
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Offline Mordrig

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Re: Players in a Death Arena
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2018, 02:35:50 PM »
I like that... I like that a lot.

4 extremely powerful items, vanishing one at a time every 3-5 minutes.

Offline Tolwen

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Re: Players in a Death Arena
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2018, 12:44:26 PM »
The thing with the items can also be further modified or refined: The characters may know beforehand what's in there item-wise. Every item may give every character an advantage, but there is one of the items that gives every one given character a bigger advantage (i.e. tailored to him/her). And the item that vanishes is determined randomly, so no one knows whether it's "your" useful item that will disappear next.

Making the items too powerful may be contraproductive though: If they are so powerful, it is likely that everyone will rush forward, to avoid "his" item being the one to vanish. That way they may forego challenges in the other parts of the maze (of course this may be what you desire). If the items are useful, but not too good, there is still an incentive, but it isn't a "no-brainer". And in any event, a time limit will prevent hiding around too long in any case ;)

Best
Tolwen
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Offline Peter R

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Re: Players in a Death Arena
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2018, 02:28:19 PM »
If you are building a hunger games arena just throw a gang of mutts at anyone who doesn't move the way you want them.
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Offline Mordrig

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Re: Players in a Death Arena
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2018, 10:24:12 AM »
I am not going Hunger Games for sure, but this is something that will benefit the winner.  He who survives is Exalted throughout the land.

Folks, this is not my campaign, I am a guest GM running a minor sideline for the main GM.  He has given me a brief outline of his thoughts and plans and then told me to run with it.  I know I have deviated from his plans quite a bit, but he has been gracious about it.  This mini event has been running in parallel with the game for three years now, I need it finished in the first half of this year because he has now assigned me a second sideline plot event and I need to get working on that.

GM collaboration is a wonderful thing.  :-)