I was thinking about character optimization and pvp. A lot of gamers love to throw down against another player and all the optimization people care about is DPR.

I think it would be fun to open that up some. Right now, character optimization is easy. There is only one right way to build a pvp character because you can read the rules and figure out the best numbers. Worse still, it's been done for you online already, so there is no work to do.

My idea is a Roman arena style gladiator setting with random tables. Imagine a huge, 100,000 seat arena with the capability for large group fights, sea battles, multiple teams, special enchantments, different level competitors...

All this would be determined by random tables, with taste modifiers depending on the city. Characters would have to be built to survive instead of win one on one DPR / save or suck competitions.

How about tigers? Will you have to fight tigers? Let me tell you, man--I'd shit a solid gold brick if I had to fight a tiger.

Quote from: Cranewings;500597I was thinking about character optimization and pvp. A lot of gamers love to throw down against another player and all the optimization people care about is DPR.

I think it would be fun to open that up some. Right now, character optimization is easy. There is only one right way to build a pvp character because you can read the rules and figure out the best numbers. Worse still, it's been done for you online already, so there is no work to do.

My idea is a Roman arena style gladiator setting with random tables. Imagine a huge, 100,000 seat arena with the capability for large group fights, sea battles, multiple teams, special enchantments, different level competitors...

All this would be determined by random tables, with taste modifiers depending on the city. Characters would have to be built to survive instead of win one on one DPR / save or suck competitions.

You might be interested in Conflict Role Playing (http://conflictbooks.com/merchant2/). I did some writing for the original book and got a chance to play online with the guys who made it. It is a bit of what you are describing (though not specifically roman arena). But they have rules and such for creating builds (based on points) the throwing down either one-on-one or as a team.

We would do this from time to time in our Shadowrun 3 games. We called it Omnidome. It was a fun way to blow off some steam and see how characters stacked up against each other.

GURPS Man-to-Man was explicitly this, and GURPS Advanced Combat System would have worked fine for it as late as 3rd edition.  I'm unfamiliar with GURPS 4th ed, though, so I don't know.  My gut instinct is that magic in Pathfinder is enough of a wild card to make the fights unpredictably unbalanced.

Magic is a wildcard, but wizards might die climbing or swimming, so who knOws.

Sounds awesome.  How high would the encounters range, and how random would the encounters be?

It sounds a lot like you're going to put them in a dungeon, and call it an arena?

I dunno, if you're talking about explicit PvP, then you're going to go down the 'it has to be fairly adjudicated' road straight into Rule Bloat Station, aren't you?

That aside, I would love to see a mess of (systemless) tables that generate arena stuff - people to fight, animals, setup, crowd reaction, etc.  That'd be crazy-useful for the right situations.

Quote from: B.T.;500660Sounds awesome.  How high would the encounters range, and how random would the encounters be?

I don't know. I usually only run to 6th anymore. My enjoyment of the game drops off sharply after that.

I think it would be hard to keep a 6th level wizard in an arena without something ham handed.

Depends on how you do the arena.  For one, fly doesn't last that long.  For two, if his goal is to kill everything in the arena, then he's going to want to stay there.  For three, you could give the arena a roof.  For four, you could punish the wizard in-character for fleeing.