GURPS Gladiators: Arena Battles - Dungeon Fantasy season 5

Campaign name: Arena Battles

Campaign's Base: Various Arenas

Tech Level (TL): 4

Genre: Action

Theme: Player vs Player Combat

Goals: Impress your secret masters to gain promotion in your lodge.

Realism Level: Larger than Life (M239) — all of the barely realistic and cinematic rules listed under Cinematic Combat (M125-133) are in effect except for Chambara Fighting (M128-130) and More Cinematic Combat Rules (M132-133). This allows acrobatics and extra effort in combat – and makes multiple attacks and defenses easier – but everything is within the realm of the possible under absolutely ideal conditions (that rarely occur in real life!).

Consequences: Gladiators that die may be replaced by a counterpart: near kin, parallel universe counterpart, raised by arcane forces, whatever; but they come back as 300 point characters. Gladiators that survive are healed back to full ability by their secret masters in time for their next fight. Replacement equipment: arrows, potions, broken weapons, etc. must be repurchased with money. (You may exchange character points for money.)

Required GURPS Books:

• GURPS Basic Set
• GURPS Martial Arts
• GURPS Low Tech is NOT allowed without GM approval

Optional GURPS Books:

• GURPS Magic
• GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, though not everything in the series is allowed
• GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling

Required Resources:

• Roll20 for VTT and in-game sound effects and text. The GM goes by "Captain Joy".
• Discord for in-game player voice and out-of-game text. The GM goes by "Captain Joy."
• Gladiators' Cheatsheet for a summary of allowed Combat options.

Starting Points: 300/-50/-5

You will earn an addition character point for submitting each of the following. Expect these will end up on our Gladiators webpage.

• A .gcs or .pdf file of your character
• A clear accounting of your Disadvantages and Exotic abilities that clearly shows you are within campaign limits. Don't forget, lowering attributes and secondary characteristics counts against the campaign's disadvantage limit.
• An image to be used for your avatar—the image you put in the bio of your Roll20 character sheet. Describe what your character looks like (especially if it differs from your avatar) including armor worn and weapons carried (unless they are intentionally hidden from view). If you prefer a different image be used for your token, you'll need to get that to me as well. I recommend RollAdvantage's Token Stamp 2. Use a green-yellow-red hex border to represent your front-side-rear hex sides.
• An illustration or accurate listing of the location, description, DR, and GURPS page reference of all weapons and armor you are using and wearing.
• An amusing backstory in the bio of your Roll20 character sheet.

Attribute Caps: Attributes are capped as given in the Basic Set, pp. 14-18. E.g. ST, DX, IQ, and HT may not exceed 20.

IQ: IQ below 10 is penalized via these house rules.

• 9: You may not take the Evaluate maneuver (B364)
• 8: As above and you may not make Deceptive Attacks (B369)
• 7: As above and all your attacks are Telegraphic Attacks (MA113)
• 6: As above and you may not take the Wait Maneuver (B366)
• 5: IQ below 6 is not allowed (at IQ 5 you are no longer sapient (B15))

Size Modifier (SM): Only size modifiers between -2 (1 yard tall) and +2 (5 yards tall) inclusive are allowed.

Talents: Only published talents are allowed. Use Smooth Talent Cost (GURPS Power-Ups 3: Talents, p. 25): "Talent costs 1 point/level per skill affected, with a minimum cost of 5 points/level."

Arm ST (B40): ST plus Arm ST capped at 20. Arm ST counts as an exotic ability.

Striking ST (B88): ST plus Striking ST capped at 20. Striking ST counts as an exotic ability.

Allies (B36-8): An Ally's point total may come to no more that 0 character points. You may have no more than 1 ally accompany you at any given time. Your ally's exotic traits count against your exotic abilities cap. Allies have no disadvantage cap and may have any IQ score.

Damage Resistance (B46): Natural DR capped at 5 (skull 7). See MA43 for what is considered cinematic, as opposed to exotic. For example, two levels of DR (Tough Skin) [3/level] is cinematic, but three levels would be considered exotic and count against the exotic abilities cap.

Flight (B56): Flight is allowed, but expect your secret masters to impose flight ceilings. Assume that your Flight ability will not allow you to stay out of range of pure melee fighters.

Innate Attack (B61): Basic damage capped at 5d+1. If your Innate Attack is enhanced to make your attack rolls easier or your foe's defense rolls more difficult, then basic damage is capped at 4d+1. Counts as an exotic ability.

Night Vision (B71): Give your Roll20 character +20% lighting bonus for each level. E.g. Night Vision 5 would give you a 200% lighting bonus.

Disadvantages: Disadvantages that are not a disadvantage in an arean battle are not allowed. E.g. One Eye = allowed; Greed = not allowed. You may take not-allowed Disadvantages as a Quirks however. For your convenience, a listing of Suitable Disadvatanges is provided.

Skill Caps: There are no skill caps. Techniques are subject to their published upper limits.

Templates: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy templates are allowed, but subject to the Disadvantages and Exotic Abilities restrictions given in this Campaign Planning Form. Players may come up with their own races, subject to the same Disadvantages and Exotic Abilities restrictions.

Cinematic/Chi Abilities: Cinematic and Chi abilities require Heroic Archer, Trained by a Master, and/or Weapon Master, unless your GURPS published template allows for it.

Exotic Abilities: No more than 25% (round down) of your character points may be spent on exotic abilities; this means 75 points for a starting 300 point character. GURPS published racial templates from required or optional GURPS books do not supersede the campaign's Disadvantages and Exotic Abilities restrictions. You may find the Advantages List: Cinematic vs Realistic thread in the Steve Jackson Games forums useful.

Magic Abilities: Magic requires Magery, unless your GURPS published templates supersede these restrictions.

Psionic/Supernatural/Etc. Abilities: Not allowed, with the exception of magic abilities.

Starting Money: Characters start off with $1000 worth of equipment (DF1:23). Standard Wealth Advantages/Disadvantages are not used in Arean Battles. You may start off with less than $1000 as a Disadvantage worth -1 per $500.

Trading Points for Money: You may trade character points for money: 1 character point gets you $500. (You may do this after character creation, contrary to what DF1:23 says.) Signature Gear also gets you $500 in value per character point for a nonexpendable item.

Signature Gear: The Signature Gear advantage gets you $500 in value per character point for a single nonexpendable item (DF1:23). Sets are considered a single item for this purpose, e.g. a set of body armor or a rapier with a main gauche.

Weapons: Melee, thrown, and muscle-powered ranged weapons are allowed. Poisons from Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers are allowed. Things like bombs and caltrops are not allowed.

Equipment: Purchase your equipment from the required and optional GURPS books. GURPS Low Tech is NOT an allowed book; if you really want something from that book, you must get GM approval first.

Replacement Items: Materials that are used up, e.g. arrows and broken weapons, can be purchased with money. Things protected with character points, e.g. innate attack or signature gear, are exempt: you can get them back for free.

Example Characters: The information below represents the fighter as submitted to the League of Lodges by a Secret Master. It may not be a completely accurate representation of the fighter's current abilities.

• Dexter Imgaxt: RollSouls's 2-Headed 4-Armed Demon(?)
• Finnigor the Annihilist: Jollyfish's 4'4" Mage.
• Govem Stovux: Captain Joy's Gargoyle Scout.
• Hyper Golem X: Loonards's Robot.
• Ishma Holdaret: mejobo's Roman legionary.
• RaakRaar: RollSoul's Dino-woman.
• The Tonfa Guy: Dix's … Tonfa Guy
• Wall: AmericanTophat's dueling halberd specialist.
• Vares Feh Marr: Jollyfish's 24' tall Behemothian. 7-7 Win-Loss record: fought before Size Modifier restrictions were in place.