I'm not applying for that Borsail role, but if I were...

[IntuitiveApathy]

Those who won these prizes werent gladiators though. They were fighters of AoD, Byn, Tor, and other battle clans that chose to participate in some grandeur competition. They were badasses, but they didnt earn their living in the arena.

True, but it's not a terrible comparison - they stood to die in the Arena in those competitions, and could have and did lose their X days played characters (who had lives outside the Arena, to boot).  But they volunteered, knowing the fights were to the death.  Why?  I can only assume for the rewards.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

And also because, much like your grand-pappy, back in those days the men were men and so were the women!

[Jihelu]

And because look how fucking cool they are!

[Dar]

Those who won these prizes werent gladiators though. They were fighters of AoD, Byn, Tor, and other battle clans that chose to participate in some grandeur competition. They were badasses, but they didnt earn their living in the arena.

True, but it's not a terrible comparison - they stood to die in the Arena in those competitions, and could have and did lose their X days played characters (who had lives outside the Arena, to boot).  But they volunteered, knowing the fights were to the death.  Why?  I can only assume for the rewards.

Sure.Yeah. These were also once in a decade arena. Not a concept to create a noble character around.

[Is Friday]

Having played a noble in Borsail, I'll reiterate what some other players in this thread have said:

Every Borsail noble tries doing this when they first app in.


The Borsail before me tried this. The Borsail before that Borsail tried doing this. The Borsail that replaced my Borsail tried doing this. The Borsail that will replace that Borsail will probably try doing this. Nobody bites on playing a gladiator or if they do, they get themselves killed within 2 RL days of trying to gladiator. (Not in the Arena, either.)

[Drayab]

Ain't even discouraged. Nope. My optimism is unassailable.

[bardlyone]

If staff built a Borsail gladiator training facility (or converted the useless wyvern compound into it), and then allowed Borsails to hire gladiators...  You'd see shit happen.  But Borsail having such small clan caps relative to Oash makes that an impossibility.

I think the obvious workaround on this is to have the gladiators do their training vs each other on the arena floor, getting everyone wh ants to come watch for free used to seeing nonlethal arena combat, exposing the gladiators to more RP opportunities. Perhaps you could even buy a chit or something that would allow you to train on the arena floor against them for a session and on leaving the chit could be taken again or the like, as a way to raise even more $$$ off of the gladiators, if you want to use the greed angle on the part of the nobles, and the pride angle (being able to even train in front of a possible crowd) on the gladiators. That said, I don't really play anymore, but I am Jack's Opinion is right about how much more common arena games used to be, though they were tapering off even before I quit really playing.

[QuillDipper]

I support the optimism. Maybe all future borsails can view this thread and use it to make gladiators or arena based things a more attractive option.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

If nothing else, this thread has sparked some pre-emptive awareness.

Hear that folks who want to play gladiators? Someone's will be hiring in 2-3 weeks. Roll up a Bynner now! Git grinding. Git gud. Git commit! Git push!

[James de Monet]

I think it would be hard for a Borsail noble PC to fix the gladiator problem.  But there are some things they could do.

First, incentives.  I like that gladiator cloak idea, but I'm not sure about the sdesc.  Here's what I would do:

Step One:  Get people to "sign up" as gladiators.  You don't even have to fight yet, just agree to be one and you get a cool (Borsail-branded) weapon.

Step Two: Organize a fight.  Call on some of those people who took your free weapon to be in it.  If they chicken out, you take the weapon back, maybe get the AoD to make them fight anyway.  If they fight (not to the death), they get the cloak.  This makes them a "gladiator".  [Massive bonus points here if you can get the staff to clan them to the Gaj.  Want them to be ICly popular?  Gladiators drink for free in the Gaj.  And they can give drinks to friends.  Seems realistic if the tavern was built around serving those attending the games.  They'd want the champions to hang around, like celebrities.]

Step Three: More fights.  Champions get named.  Maybe all repeat participants start to get other cool stuff.  Gladiator leathers.  Gladiator plate.  Awesome, high quality stuff; a piece or two at a time.  For this, (and because it means some clan perks while still being your own person) people will fight.  Have big tournaments with insane (10k) purses.


None of this is to say it's simple, or that this isn't somewhat similar to things people have tried previously, but I think it would work.  It would either require staff participation, or using up a lot of contractors' mastercrafts, but it could be done.  You'd also need to get a solid base of gladiators, but once you did, and could start running regular games, you'd get a following (and fresh recruits).

[Patuk]

I mean. 90% of all clan ideas in Arm are something along the lines of 'this'd work if I had three other dudes to do this as well.' This seems kiiiiiinda similar in that regard.

[valeria]

I absolutely think we could have gladiator PCs with staff support and motivated leadership.  But the staff support problem is real.  My point is, if this is the entire thing your concept is based around, you need to put that in your role application (and maybe offer to help with the workload by writing up the items, give them your fleshed out ideas, etc) and make it clear that you will need that support as you're apping the role.  And then be extremely, extremely patient.  Because just rolling into the game thinking that you can get places and items built and things off the ground right away is going to lead to frustration and tears.

[LauraMars]

I was the Borsail noble in charge of the Wyverns when they were closed on me, very much under protest.

I had a lot of things I was doing with the Wyverns, including regular arena games in which they performed as gladiators. I won't dredge up all the details, but reopen the Wyverns and future Borsail nobles will find the whole gladiator thing a lot easier to do since they can shape the clan that way if they want to.

[Refugee]

I think that'd be great.  And let the crewmaster have the keys to the Arena so he can train gladiators instead of hunters.

[Armaddict]

I was the Borsail noble in charge of the Wyverns when they were closed on me, very much under protest.

I had a lot of things I was doing with the Wyverns, including regular arena games in which they performed as gladiators. I won't dredge up all the details, but reopen the Wyverns and future Borsail nobles will find the whole gladiator thing a lot easier to do since they can shape the clan that way if they want to.

I +1 this with my obligatory 'moar clans' repetition.

[Evilone]

+2