 February 11, 2012 - 1:00pm | Was thinking of large scale arenas and had a few minutes to type this up. Let me know what you think. Content of Adventure Writing Forum project Caught between a rock and a laserThis adventure assumes the players have been caught and forced to fight in the arena or volunteered to fight for a cause. In either case the adventure should run the same.
Imagine a roman-style arena. Stands to seat thousands, dirt or sand floor, small buildings and platforms to hide, etc. The arena is littered with weapons and defenses, some are in open sight, others are hidden. Powered items have limited SEU, the players shouldn't know how long an item's power source will last. You can draw out the arena and decide where items are or determine what % chance a character has of finding an item. For instance, there is a 40% chance a character will find an item on the following table. If the roll includes a "0" the character has found two items. Sample Item Table (I need to make a d100 table) 1d10 - ITEM 1 - laser pistol with 4 SEU 2 - blasthammer (Issue #13, p6) 3 - skiensuit jacket will absorb 20 pts of interia damage 4 - auto pistol with 2 clips (no burst mode) 5 - electric sword with 10 SEU 6 - sonic devestator with 1 shot 7 - tangler grenade 8 - spear 9 - shock gloves with 10 SEU 10 - roll twice Larger Arenas may include vehicles and different types of terrain. Mix up such areas with traps, pits, water areas, dry land, mazes, etc. |
 February 11, 2012 - 7:11pm | Something along the lines of "Running Man" would fit in the SF universe. I don't think that you would want audiences in an arena with ranged weapons. Unless of course you had a lot of shielding. Having roaming cameras and such and televising it to the audience would solve that problem though. I think it is a good idea and you could set it for 2 players or more. So, one pc against another or a team of pcs against an npc team or creature(s). |
 February 12, 2012 - 1:41am | Have you checked out the "Hunger Games"? Some of it borders on the magical but generally an interesting way to run an arena. The society is pretty well detailed and later books give it an interesting full campaign. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 12, 2012 - 12:34pm | @Karxan, I was thinking of brutal non-civilized arenas where those in charge don't worry about stray blast bolts. :-) You got me thinking, what if the Kurbanda has such an arena (or any other low-tech race)? A meteor crater or naturally occurring "bowl" in the dirt. Might be a fun encounter. Throw in one of my titans and wala, PC Stew! lol @rattraveller, this is the first time I've heard of it. Where can I get a copy? |
February 12, 2012 - 6:03pm | @ Rattraveller. Good call. My daughter finished the series a couple of weeks ago and gave me the whole rundown for the plot. I had forgooten it already. Selective memory. |
 February 14, 2012 - 10:39am | Rat, the hunger games is what leaped to my mind as well. I imagine that the motivation for the games would need to be altered for SF purposes (or not), but I could see some outer worlds embracing something like this to dispense some justice and entertainment at the same time. I agree too that it would be best to be televised. I think a fun little dirty trick would be a cloaking holoscreen that would run out of juice at the worst possible moment. This would of course require involvement of the game-makers. |
February 14, 2012 - 11:14am | Well if the Arena were located on Outer Reach you may not have to use forced beings as volunteers would be pretty easy to find in that crowd. Thinking about it an arena on Outer Reach with professional and amatuer and combined competitions would be an easy fit there. Research time look for an episode of Sliders ( called Rules of the Game episode 1 season 3) where they were in a televised team survival competition. This one is good for SF with plenty of traps and robotic opponents and finally the other teams. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 14, 2012 - 12:27pm | Sliders on Netflix:
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Sliders/70140439 w00t must watch tonight. |
February 14, 2012 - 3:17pm | Just checked Netflix and Season 2 and 3 were combined. The episode is in the middle of the listing. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 18, 2012 - 7:32pm | Humma and Yazirian are good for having High-tech Arena sports... not sure Osakar, Vrusk, and Dralasites could justify such lethal behavior being popularized on a large scale... Ifshnit are iffy... maybe yes maybe no, I would count them as same as - Humans, yes of course... a colony or two would no doubt support such a market, especially at the fringe worlds... and especially with unpardonable criminals used as contestants.  ...one of the archaic words for planet in Satharese is synonymous with "Great Arena" and is now used to refer to reality as a whole in an esoteric sense. Otherwise they have no real need for the concept. "Death-pits" are just places to stick beings to forget about them... usually constructed to connect with the Cyberdragon feeding chamber. Watch your pets eat or don't, ambivalence...Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
February 19, 2012 - 8:54am | Humma and Yazirian would go for the Arena games. Human and Dralasite would also but not the entire populations. Ifshnit and Vrusk would be involved in the technical and presenting side to make a profit but not really have feelings toward it. Some members would participate like they would adventure. Osakar probably not involved. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 19, 2012 - 9:24am | FAF: Frontier Arean Federation Some people claim its fake, what with the over the top personalities and drama that goes on. Areana Mainia XXIV is coming to Outer Reach! Iffy Hart, the ifshnit promoter will be there with his bull horn. Assorted other personalities as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 21, 2012 - 12:07pm | I love a good arena encounter and have incorporated a few as mentioned over the years.
Iffy Hart, the ifshnit promoter will be there with his bull horn. threadjack --- I used to bump into a lot of the original Wrestlemania cast back in the early days, a lot of them stayed where I worked (Imperial Palace, across teh street from Caesar's). I actually went to high school with one of them back in Texas, Shawn Hickenbottom aka Shawn Michaels. I never had him pegged to be a wrestler, he was a bit quiet/reserved despite being a captain of the varsity football team yet a very likeable fellow. |
February 23, 2012 - 6:37am | I love a good arena encounter and have incorporated a few as mentioned over the years. Any specifics you want to share? |
February 23, 2012 - 3:33pm | One in D&D and the other in SF, both had contestants (prisoners) facing each other and the option of various melee weapons hung on the walls. I never saw the need for ranged weapons in arena combat, at least not a prison arena...seeing as they could be turned on their captors instead. |
