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Looking for ideas on how to run a prison fighting ring

sheaeugene

New member
Silver WoA
I have this idea for a future adventure series for our group but I'm not sure exactly how to play it out so I thought I would solicit some ideas.

Background:
The groups patron suddenly goes missing from their base of operations in Athkatla in the Sword Coast. They discover he was arrested and sent to prison by the leading council of the city. Someone suggests a jailbreak is needful. If they take the hook, they need to break into a prison where they discover there is an ongoing fighting ring where the most dangerous criminals are force to fight each other - and lots of gp changes hands in the betting stands.

Idea:
I thought it would be fun to have each player create 2-3 other characters - before they know about the fighting ring. Then... if they end up in the ring, they will go up against the character(s) they created (Surprise!).

???:
Any guidance on how to make this successful? Any pitfalls to avoid? How do I explain the need for the extra characters without giving away any surprises? Other thoughts?
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
You could suggest that those other characters are spares to replace their character if need be. Pro: They will be optimized. Contra: This forbodes a deadly campaign.

You could also suggest that they create a bunch of characters and choose the one they most like (especially nice when character creation involves some random factor). Tell them the unchosen characters will be NPCs they can meet throughout the campaign. Pro: Partial truth. Contra: Partial truth.
 

Stephan Hornick

Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
It is a nice background! You can do a lot with this!

Some Questions:
What is the patron arrested for? This could become a theme in this arc or adventure!
So, the prison lets criminals fight? What for? Why should they?
It shows how corrupt the system is (underlining the mood of Athkatla), if the criminals earn their freedom by winning. The most terrible criminals will then hop into prison and out in no time and become deadlier while doing so. And possibly richer and more influential.
As a criminal I would probably try to remember who won in those bets and when free again get the money from them.

Now, let the patron (for this text lets call him "Eresco") be someone who really insulted or annoyed one of the council members (who is of course betting in those prison games; lets call him "Nevraka Sternail"). Maybe Eresco was too strong of a competitor in some area and Nevraka wanted to get rid of him? E.g. wine trade, political force, humanitarian influence... (or even to get back at the PCs!)
The PCs know of course that Eresco is a non-combatant. He couldn't have killed and robbed Milliard Meerhaven, another council member! Regardless, the murder weapon and stained clothes were found with him. Here is a mystery!

There are several possible solutions, but I would suggest the following:
Nevraka won a lot in the last Prison Games. He then was visited by one of the deadlier and crueller criminals, Hestato the Slasher, winner of the Games. Before he could kill him though, Nevraka bargained for his life saying that because of a comment / a tip by Eresco he had lost all his money to Milliard Meerhaven. Therefore, he suggested a deal: Hestato kills Milliard Meerhaven instead (and Nevraka would give opportunity for this), take his money and put the murder weapon in the possession of Eresco. Nevraka would then make the constables arrest Eresco instead. Thereby, both would have gained power and influence and he was open for further collaborations.
You can imagine that greedy Hestato agreed.


I understand that the PCs readily go against the local law when you assume that they will break into the prison instead of talking to the council members, right?

Now, breaking into the prison may be difficult at first. Maybe they accomplish clues by corrupt council members or guards, or even better: by Nevraka himself who plays a good friend of Eresco (If asked Eresco will decline this and this will give the PCs a lead). He says he wants to help the PCs find the real murderer. He may point them to the prison and may even suggest that it is easier to get in convicted than it is to break in and stay hidden. In truth Nevraka watches their abilities, quirks and weaknesses while talking to him and he wants them to get caught, to find their death in the pits and never to find out what really happened to their patron. He wants to cut away all support for the patron.

Only when the PCs accomplish what they believed to be the main part, getting into the prison, they would realize that it is a completely other world.
I believe you as a GM also want them to get caught so that they need to fight in those prison rings.
And this would play again into the hands of Nevraka.
Even if they try to not get caught and succeed, they may find themselves in front of a dire decision: Get caught and be able to help Eresco in his fights, sabotage the fights with lower chance of success from the shadows, or flee and stay true with the laws and succumb their patron to death.

I would suggest there to be different kinds of matches: group matches are the best for the party as they can group with Eresco and help him.
But there will also be 1 on 1 matches, which are truely deadly. Eresco could never hope to win in those. Here the PCs need to be really good in sabotage or bribery.
Now, they might even be able to offer to fight FOR Eresco, so that he doesn't need to.
Or they may commit an even worse crime to gain criminal rank to be paired with his opponents before he can be paired with them.
This can all be very much fun - for all players.

So, the mission here is not to kill everything, but to protect Eresco from facing his death in the pits, while simultaneously finding out, who accused him of the murder so that the guards went looking at his place, and of course who the murderer is.

The guards may tell the PCs if they investigate that people have watched a person in a bloody cape go into Eresco's home and all believed it to be Eresco, and he was nervously twitching with a hand while opening the locks to his home. Truth is, he was picking the lock. And the twitching might at first seem very typical for a person who has just murdered someone, especially if it is the first time, in the pits the PCs will eventually meet Hestato and may notice that he has such nervous twitching, often combined with his urge to grab for his hidden knife and slash at the other person's throat. Some PCs might even notice that he seems to imagine something funny, smiling slightly. But also that he is not looking at the eyes of people he is talking to, but a little lower.... at their throats. This should be creepy and make him a prime enemy that is to become feared. In matches the PCs might watch huge berserkers charge at him and he slashes them once, quickly and without so much as a fight, they topple over and he wins. Too quick for sudden cheers. Some people might even feel awkward or shocked. Even in this city. This increases the tension to when the PCs have to face him.

Anyway, Nevraka is very sly. He will tell Hestato that the PCs are following his trail and they will find out that Hestato did it. The only way is for him to kill them in the pits. And Nevraka will tell Hestato of the weaknesses and traits of the PCs that he learned of. Hestato may have doubts but no choice. He can't exactly go to court with his claims of innocence. He will face the PCs, but secretly plans to kill Nevraka after. And Nevraka hopes that both parties kill each other while he earns more money on the bets, and he got rid of his competitor Meerhaven and now with the killer on the brink of death himself, all clues to what happened will vanish also. And of course he knows where to look for Meerhavens money, i.e. where Hestato might have stashed it. So all should work out nicely for Nevraka.

Coming back to the gaming part: I don't think it is very interesting that the PCs fight against their other PCs... they would have created them to clench one of their secret urges, to play an axe heaving barbarian e.g. It is a surprise to fight against him suddenly, but no fun to kill their own character which they hoped they would play sooner or later. Or they will create a sorcerer, a ranger, a healer, or a mighty paladin. All of these concepts work not so well as criminals, at least not without your virulent adjustments in how they had originally be perceived by your players.
Also, if one player fights off against his own other PC, what are the other players supposed to be doing in the meantime?
I think it is very important here to include all players in the events. Even if not all of them are fighting, some might try to support with hidden magic, some might try to sabotage or poison or bribe or intimidate other parties.

Let them also meet new allies, maybe even new found allies amongst criminals that they themselves had put into prison or who they have met before.

I hope this helps. Sorry, very long.
 

sheaeugene

New member
Silver WoA
It is a nice background! You can do a lot with this!

...

Let them also meet new allies, maybe even new found allies amongst criminals that they themselves had put into prison or who they have met before.

I hope this helps. Sorry, very long.

Thanks Stephan!
Good feedback here - and also good story plot ideas!

You are right... it might not be that fun to fight against a character you created.
 
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