While I'm nowhere near being a sports fan (either in the watching or the playing), I've developed a delicious and perhaps ironic desire to see sports play a role in Alexandria By Night. Chariot racing and Gladiatorial Games were huge in the ancient world, leading to riots and acting akin to religions or political parties. But how to do this?
One way is to just let them be part of the story. Characters might run a gladiatorial school or own/manage a chariot team. Vampires probably fight hard for the job of who handles the corpses of gladiators, though given that most games would happen during the day that blood ain't so fresh by the time any vampires would get to it. The Clan of Death, of course, might not mind.
Another way is to code the games into the rules somehow, and I'm thinking of taking this route. If any influence or some backgrounds (Hello Resources!) can be used to boost your team's chances of victory, then all the characters have a chance to do this. The benefit of winning could be something substantial, like 1xp for the winning side. Another option is to just let victory be its own reward, but I'd hope that different factions of vampires could pride themselves on supporting their faction's team. I envision characters challenging one another, and the outcome of the games could be used to settle scores. The next primogen of the Ravnos will be based on the winning team: Petros the Younger backs the Blues, while Henenet-Kem backs the Greens. That sort of thing.
The mechanics would be relatively simple. Each level of influence used to Rig the Games adds one die to the team's die pool. At the end of the month, each team rolls and the ones with the highest successes are the champions that month. I do like the idea of a minor reward for backing the right team, and 1 XP is a working idea at the moment. Though there might need to be some benefit for backing the right team. Perhaps the faction leaders could set faction goals which include which team to back. That way the Cult of Typhon-Set might back the Greens one month and the Blues the next, depending on their whims. And if the bonus only came from being the only faction to back a team... Maybe you could back a specific gladiator too.
Now, obviously this is a bit simplified from a historical and sporting perspective, but I can imagine a complex set of brackets or set of matches such that each month a team is declared the winner, whether or not it is exactly how things worked historically. So meh.
One way is to just let them be part of the story. Characters might run a gladiatorial school or own/manage a chariot team. Vampires probably fight hard for the job of who handles the corpses of gladiators, though given that most games would happen during the day that blood ain't so fresh by the time any vampires would get to it. The Clan of Death, of course, might not mind.
Another way is to code the games into the rules somehow, and I'm thinking of taking this route. If any influence or some backgrounds (Hello Resources!) can be used to boost your team's chances of victory, then all the characters have a chance to do this. The benefit of winning could be something substantial, like 1xp for the winning side. Another option is to just let victory be its own reward, but I'd hope that different factions of vampires could pride themselves on supporting their faction's team. I envision characters challenging one another, and the outcome of the games could be used to settle scores. The next primogen of the Ravnos will be based on the winning team: Petros the Younger backs the Blues, while Henenet-Kem backs the Greens. That sort of thing.
The mechanics would be relatively simple. Each level of influence used to Rig the Games adds one die to the team's die pool. At the end of the month, each team rolls and the ones with the highest successes are the champions that month. I do like the idea of a minor reward for backing the right team, and 1 XP is a working idea at the moment. Though there might need to be some benefit for backing the right team. Perhaps the faction leaders could set faction goals which include which team to back. That way the Cult of Typhon-Set might back the Greens one month and the Blues the next, depending on their whims. And if the bonus only came from being the only faction to back a team... Maybe you could back a specific gladiator too.
Now, obviously this is a bit simplified from a historical and sporting perspective, but I can imagine a complex set of brackets or set of matches such that each month a team is declared the winner, whether or not it is exactly how things worked historically. So meh.
Is it terrible that I kinda want you to just port in "Titan: The Arena" as the system for gladiatorial combats?
ReplyDeleteIt at least has a framework for thinking about how backing different teams and being declared/undeclared backers might work...
Haha! Yeah, I had forgotten about that. It seems like porting another game and embedding it into a second game seems like it'd add a lot of additional complications, but maybe some of those rules could come into play. Perhaps you only get XP for being an overt backer? Or there could be a champion team each season: with four teams one could be eliminated each month.
DeleteYeah, probably don't want to just port it over whole sale, but it did have some interesting mechanics, like who to handle multiple backers. Though thinking more about it, in the context of a larger game, I don't know that I'd want to necessarily eliminate a team and thus potential wipe out a lot of work/influence that a player had put into it. I think I'd more favor borrowing how to handle multiple backers and maybe allowing overt backers to get more XP, say 2xp for a win instead of 1 or something, or maybe even 3-to-1 xp for overt backers as they'll be publicly showing a target for the other players.
DeleteMostly just remembered Titan: The Arena and how delightfully cut-throat it can get.
I still have an idea that factions might back particular teams, rather than individuals. Or rather, individuals within the faction. Though I'm not quite sure how to do it other than assign people a faction goal: You gain 1 xp each month the Blues win the games. Then it becomes a give-and-take between personal and faction goals. Though factions also probably have goals beyond sports rivalries as well. Modulo a few refinements, I'll feel reasonably happy with the rules once I figure out what to do with sports and mysticism.
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