Gladiator School

[WrestleManiac]

A game based on Roman gladiators. It would have a similar premise to WMMA, or TEW in that the player has to make match-ups between gladiators.

The news screen would be used as a way of “keeping ones ear to the ground” and to get an idea on what is going on in the world. Events like political changes, deaths, and other celebrations would be used to your advantage as you try to persuade the editor (sponsor) that your ludus (school) would be the right one for their games.

The “Your Office” screen would serve a similar purpose to what it does in WMMA3 but with a few differences:

In “Match Making” you cannot add an event when you like. You will have to be invited to various games that are being held. You can, however, have many games to attend and to put a show on for and you will have to decide, for example, weather to put your best fighters into games being held by a local chieftain of a conquered province who is trying to Romanise his people, or do you save them for a visiting consul with bottomless bags of coin. Do you risk the rich consul asking your top fighters to fight to the death, or do you value his gold over your hard-trained gladiators? If your top fighters are killed you'll lose the selling power of your ludus. If you fail to put on a good show, you would probably take a decent hit to your schools prestige. These are just some things you would have to weigh up when making matches.

Popularity and prestige would work the same as WMMA and TEW: put on a good show it goes up; put on a bad show it goes down.

There would be no weight classes, instead you would have different classes of gladiator. What type of gladiators you hire depend on the trainers you hire. Do you focus on particular types, or do you go for a bit of everything? The more styles your ludus promotes the trainers you'll have to hire, which increases the cost.

You will also be competing with other schools on a regional as well as an empire-wide scale for show contracts. Editors will hire a school based on the types of fighters they want to see, as well as the prestige of the school and it's fighters.

The game would start in 72 AD when the emperor Vespasian begins building the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum). In 80 AD Vespasian's son, Titus, holds the inaugural games of the Colosseum. If you can be invited to this event and manage to put on a good show you will receive a massive popularity and prestige boost. But attaining a school to perform well in these games will not be easy. The games lasted 100 days, so you will need vast resources and skill in putting on a good enough show. Put on a good show and you may get regular invites from the emperor... but be warned, emperors don't always last long and new emperors have their own favourites. Of course, you can ignore the political goings-on in Rome and concentrate on building a reputable provincial ludus. But, remember, no-one refuses the emperor.

[boofhead71]

A game such as this would work very well.

Contrary to popular/Hollywood/HBO opinion, gladiators didn't have a 50/50 chance of being killed in a match, so the game breaking due to constant regens wouldn't need to occur. Of course a gladiator could get killed during a fight, but then again his performance during it (think fight rating: abysmal -> excellent) could decide whether the crowd (and hence editor of the games decided for life or death over a prone, defeated gladiator). A defeated fighter who put on a fantastic show would gain popularity despite his loss. It was all about entertainment after all.

I've read a number of books on gladiators, and basically a fighter who earned his freedom would have to average around 9 victories; chances of death per combat are estimated at being in the order of 1/10 to 1/8. Freed gladiators could be retained as doctores (trainers) and their stats could be used to improve like stats in their students.

Fights to the guaranteed death of one participant (sine missione) were rare, more like a main event between 2 better-known combatants. Obviously as a lanista you'd be paid much more in this case for the risk/loss of your gladiator.

Regarding ''match cards'', the preliminaries could involve bestiarii fighting against wild animals, like lions, tigers etc. As a fighter would most often win in these preliminaries, they could be used as a way to boost his popularity prior to moving onto the more risky man-on-man competitions.

Just a few ideas anyway

[thamolas]

This game would be crazy fun.

Heck, it would be fun to include animals and fantasy monsters as well.

[Riven]

Just wanted to suggest this idea. It would be great game!

[hurri]

I'd buy in an instant.