Arena Adventures
February 8th, 2011
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another exciting week of Grave Plots, where we bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each week with the sole purpose of getting your own creative juices flowing in order to improve your game. This week on Grave Plots, we will begin discussing one of the most prolific of all adventurous themes: the arena fight. In video games, movies, books, and even the ancient history texts, heroes are made in the coliseum, and the same is naturally true for your tabletop game. In today’s article we will be going over some really general information on running an exciting arena adventure.
Running an Arena Adventure
So you’ve decided to include some form of gladiatorial combat in your game, but haven’t really got any idea where to start? Well, don’t worry – all arena-style combat adventures tend to work in the same way and by following the five simple steps laid out below you should experience success every time. So relax, think about all the fun little details of your personal gladiatorial set-up, keep reading and, after giving some casual consideration to the face of your arena adventure, go on and create something wonderful.
Five Easy Steps
Arena-style combat in tabletop games is something I’ve been tinkering around with as a DM on and off for years, and in that time I’ve done a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, and my experience has taught me that the following five things are most important when running any kind gladiatorial adventure. Remember that the following rules are only general guidelines and that since every group is different, in order to get the most out of these tips you may have to do some tweaking to your group’s individual needs.
1. Incentive
This first step is all about making sure that the PCs fit into the adventure and have some kind of proper motive driving their actions. Providing good motivations for all the characters in your adventure is of paramount importance to having a good arena game. If you do nothing else, you should still ensure that EVERY character has some kind of investment in the arena combat. Making sure that all the characters have a good reason to want to hang a round an arena will really help you determine exactly what kind of adventure(s) to run in that setting, and has the added benefit of allowing your players be more invested in whatever plots you want to do with your arena adventure. Some good sample motivated characters might be slaves fighting for their freedom, mercenaries fighting for the purse (this then begs the question of why they need that money and why they choose gladiatorial combat as a means to get it!), compulsive gamblers obsessed with blood sport, seedy trainers, criminals looking to fix fights or launder money while plotting their next scheme, wealthy nobles looking for good warriors they can hire as bodyguards, or cultists in the service of a deity interested in acts of violence, personal combat, or one of the fighters themselves. In order to ensure that you get characters with appropriate motivations you might want to consider a highly involved group character creation process or using pre-generated characters. If you’re trying to integrate arena elements into an existing game, just try and make sure that the existing cast has some kind of compelling reason to be involved. You know your group best, so be sure to pick things that fit the characters in question.
2. Style
One of the most attractive things about an arena-style adventure (or series of adventures) is the traditional showy style we often associate with gladiatorial games. Let me assure you, the roar of the crowd and tense captivating high action is no less important to the tabletop version of gladiatorial combat. If one or more of your PCs are directly involved in the gladiatorial combat portion of your adventure(s), then be sure to encourage showboating – tell them about crowd reaction (perhaps on a round by round basis) and perhaps even provide some kind of commentary, anything to build the spectacle of this highly exciting ritualistic combat. Should your adventure(s) focus more on some other element of the arena (something I greatly encourage you to try if you’re interested), then be sure to play up those elements. For example those of you looking to tell a story about human suffering might want to draw attention to the frenzied bloodlust of the crowd, or the complete lack of concern for the lives of lesser sentient beings that are lost, all in the pursuit of entertainment and profit. If you instead want to focus on shady backroom deals and fight fixing, use a lot of shadowy imagery and keep a tone of desperate tension. Just remember to have fun with and really make full use of your selected style.
3. Involve the Group
The number one problem with arena adventures is that the personal nature of arena combat tends to throw the focus on one PC while the rest are left with nothing to do. This problem is most likely the result of poor arena adventure planning, and in my experience typically comes up when trying to indulge one of your players’ love for glorious personal combat and showboating, as well as his need to prove himself, without really considering that maybe the rest of the group would like to feel special, too. In order for your arena adventure to be remembered as anything other than a horrible waste of an evening by 4/5 of your group, you need to have something for everyone to do. How to carry this off will largely depend on your group’s play-style, how much sitting-out time people are willing to tolerate, and how good an audience your group is.
Perhaps the easiest solution is to set up team fights and make sure everyone is involved in every aspect of the game. This has obvious benefits but has a few less obvious problems. For example, now you have to make four or five arena combatants for every one that you had before, the fights still need to be interesting, and, depending on how much style you want to inject, the fights can get really bogged down and awkward, causing you to lose a lot of style in the translation. Also on the downside, now you have to do all the fun behind-the-scenes stuff with a much larger group than the scene really calls for, which can hurt how invested your players are in whatever it is your doing. Requiring only marginally more patience, PCs can do related activities (like gladiator fights) in turns, allowing you to focus more on each individual event and then have everyone meet up later to pursue group activities. This set-up shares about half of the drawbacks and advantages of the team set-up.
Next, requiring PCs who are willing to spend a long time not actually doing anything but enjoying the narrative, is a conspiratorial set-up where the PCs all work towards some common goal, but separately. This has the major disadvantage of leaving players out in the cold and only really differs from the problem insofar as it allows players each an even amount of “screen time,” so to speak. Not all groups will want to do this, and that’s just fine; it’s not much fun to sit still for a long time while you watch others advancing the plot. As a DM it’s your job to make sure that everyone is engaged and that no one get’s left out, so make sure all the parts take about the same amount of time, and that the subject matter is particularly compelling before even attempting to proceeded with this method. The main advantage of doing things this way is that it allows players to all be involved in the game they want to play while still playing together.
Finally there is an option I only recommend for those of you who play your games on forums, or who are interested in more experimental role-playing techniques and the like. With this method the PCs each act separately without knowledge of the others, though the actions of each might influence the experience of the others. For example, Tom, Dick, and Harry are all playing a game like this: Tom’s character Moht, a dangerous underground criminal, bribes the former champion to take a dive in his up-coming fight with a relatively unknown newcomer, offering to split his winnings with him. Dick’s character Kidd, without knowledge of Moht’s actions, then enters battle with the former champion, defeating him handily and earning a reputation as a rising star. Meanwhile Harry’s character Eirah’s investigations into the criminal activities of the gang Moht belongs to lead him to order the arrest of Kidd, whom he believes to be in league with the gang. Only you know what style best suits your group, so go ahead and do whatever you think will be the best.
4. Beyond the Fighting
Though most arena adventures will focus on the personal combat angle, by now it should be mostly clear that there’s room for more to be going on at an arena than just fighting. I strongly encourage you to add some kind of “side action,” even if you intend to do a lot of arena fighting (and don’t let me discourage you from that). When there is some other kind of plot going on, you instantly add a lot more ways for the PCs to interact with the adventure. By adding side-plots you can also satisfy the “loves to roleplay” crowd and give the whole group an exciting break from (albeit very interesting) grinding. These extra side-plots also open up a lot of room for your own creativity, and you may just astound your players when you manage to slip a moving plot into the middle of what they thought of as a designated combat zone. When adding your side action, just make sure that it both flavorfully ties in well with the arena theme, and that it offers your players a chance to interact with your arena adventure in a meaningful way.
5. Relax and Have Fun with It!
Ok, well that’s it for this weeks Grave Plots. Join me next time for Romance Week .