The Gaming Den

Are there any good adventures or good ways to handle the "forcefully conscripted to fight in the arena" style plotline?

Not that I am aware of, but I don't really see much of a complication with it to begin with. What ere you inparticular looking for that is so drastically different?

I remember there was an adventure called Pandemonium in the Veins in Dungeon #96 that was based on gladiatorial combat - possibly conscripted.

Here's the first review that Google gave me.

The Dark Sun Shattered Lands ms dos rpg has that premise

If this is for a new campaign, just have that be part of the premise - you start out as conscripted gladiators. Simple, and avoids players being pissed off about railroading and/or avoiding the conscription somehow and skipping the whole thing. Also you don't have to worry about someone's character being useless in such a scenario.

If it's for an existing campaign, easiest way is for the PCs to want to be there (at least initially), such as they have to infiltrate the arena in order to talk to someone there / assassinate someone / whatever. Alternately, you can always just talk to the players and get their buy-in OOC, then summarize how they got captured rather than play it out in detail.

It's not impossible to have them get captured IC, but it's difficult, may lead to a split party if you don't railroad, and may lead to lost trust / strife if you do railroad.

virgil wrote:Are there any good adventures or good ways to handle the "forcefully conscripted to fight in the arena" style plotline?

Do it at low level, or you have to deal with increasing bullshit excuses as to why the characters can't just walk out with various transportation magics OR why you won't let them have spells.

I believe the first dark sun adventure had a starting point of 'you're gladiators! and then slave revolt!,' but I don't remember if it was particularly convincing. I suspect not, since the metaplot NPCs ended up doing everything of importance (like killing the city-state's dragon king).

Party is level 4 (only one can do anything vaguely like transportation) and visiting a foreign world - I was tempted to have a "recruitment drive" that is EL = APL+4 come in and tell them that they've been selected to compete in a three day arena competition. They'll be given 'gilded cages', but otherwise they fight some number of fights, and then are released (presuming survival) and the promise to never again be conscripted for such. I would include various NPCs corroborating such a promise as valid. I'm not sure if that's too rail-roadey or fraught with problems.

If you're good at playing NPCs, have one offer them a lucrative award if they do a little job. He can be vague on the details, and one of the plot points could be they’re not sure if they’re really prisoners. By the fourth time he says "trust me" they'll be awfully sore. But don’t have him turn on them. At the end of the agreed upon time they get paid as agreed - maybe even extra.

The Age of Worms Adventure Path has a pretty sweet adventure around the middle-ish that focuses on gladiatorial combat, including pre-made opposition teams. Probably worth a look.

Level 8-10 as I recall.

Neurosis wrote:The Age of Worms Adventure Path has a pretty sweet adventure around the middle-ish that focuses on gladiatorial combat, including pre-made opposition teams. Probably worth a look.

Level 8-10 as I recall.

"The Champion's Belt" was a pretty fun adventure, but it's more of an investigation behind the scenes of some gladiator games rather than being forced to fight.