discussions on the renewed Arena activities

[Renenutet]

Also some of your suggestions are things I think we will implement.

[Riev]

Making money off the games isn't out of the question, but for all my ideas, I am not able to attend any of the Gladiator Games.

Making bets is a dangerous thing in the game world, because we can only interact with PCs for betting, and the turnover rate and ability to "not log in for a week" makes debt collecting difficult and adds more frustration than content to the world.

I can think of 3 other ideas to make coin off them, off the top of my head, but they all require either attendance at the Games, or the "right" PCs around to collaborate.

[Veselka]

I am impartial, perfectly impartial.

The one thing I'd like to see happen that hasn't happened or at least not thoroughly, is people financially exploiting the games. I can think of so many ways to build a fortune and/or a minor merchant house on profiting from the gladiators and Bloodball. No one has done this yet. What gives?

So far we've had amazing luck with gladiators. People have been excellent sports where the docs are restrictive. Every has jumped headlong into the role as written. Frankly I'm not surprised. You guys are amazing in general.

As for the concerns that this is almost a slave role. There is no almost about it. Gladiators are all slaves. This role is great at first. About the time the rules start to chafe, people die. So, that's kind of perfect.

So again, I would say, without any bias or stake in the whole thing that gladiators are the best thing ever!

The main reason people haven't done this is gambling is a pretty tricky system to figure out.

Gambling between PCs is usually 'I bet you 500 coins that Soandso will win'. The other party says 'Okay'. If Soandso wins, the offerer pays the gambler 500 coins. That's a 1:1.

Where real money comes in from gambling is things like 10:1, 20:1. 100:1. Those kinds of odds are really difficult to keep track of, unless you are a Casino with lots, and lots of money.

Doing a lottery or ticket buying system is also tricky because no literacy. Posting odds, also difficult because of no literacy.

I posted further thoughts here, Renenutet, let me know what you think:
http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,53221.0.html

[pucklepie]

Why are odds difficult to keep track of?

[chrisdcoulombe]

There is nothing I love more than junking coins to fuel ginka, but I feel really uninformed when it comes time to gamble on arena games.  There is no card to say who is going to be fighting, no odds, no records of their current wins.  No information other than it is every other Saturday.  Who is fighting?  No one knows.  It would be nice if at least some of that info was posted here or on an in game board or with the npc Arena man that knows everything about every gladiator.  Anything to cut through the vale of vaguery would make it more enjoyable for me.

[ironeyes]

There is nothing I love more than junking coins to fuel ginka, but I feel really uninformed when it comes time to gamble on arena games.  There is no card to say who is going to be fighting, no odds, no records of their current wins.  No information other than it is every other Saturday.  Who is fighting?  No one knows.  It would be nice if at least some of that info was posted here or on an in game board or with the npc Arena man that knows everything about every gladiator.  Anything to cut through the vale of vaguery would make it more enjoyable for me.

There could be NPCs or a board or other stuff to facilitate this, sure. Arena events are sometimes a little chaotic, though. Last minute changes and decisions get made. I'm not sure anything can replace quick-thinking, fleet-footed PCs running around to deal with gambling.

[deskoft]

The problem is fights are never known before the event.

[ironeyes]

Gladiator PCs may or may not log in for the event, though. It's hard to plan it.

[Feco]

I tried to run gambling on arena games with my Guilder, Red.  It was a nightmare.

Too few coins and too spur of the moment to turn a profit.  Had to constantly change odds to try to keep it profitable, and it's honestly just too fast paced.

He did turn a profit... By stealing the sids sometimes.  But it wasn't a viable honest operation.

[Veselka]

Why are odds difficult to keep track of?

Mostly because unless you're playing craps, the odds aren't fixed, they are fluid. At a horse race, they shift up until the moment of the race, depending on who's betting on what, blinders changed at the last second, removing pieces of the saddle, all of these play into the odds.

I agree that the Gladiators should be paraded around -- Their equipment, their confidence, and their spirit should all be assessed by people betting, just as you have the opportunity to look at the horses you are going to bet on right before the race in person.

[cshoov]

The easiest way to make profit as a bookmaker would be to have the sum of the probabilities of all the possible outcomes exceed. So if we have a veteran gladiator against two rookies in a last-one-standing, the bookie would want to list the odds as something like 2:3 for the vet and 3:1 for each of the rookies. No matter what the outcome is, the bookie makes money.

However, I'm not sure how the arena fights are arranged. If it's 1v1 to the death in every fight, it's going to be hard to convince people to bet anything other than a 1:1. If there's different types of fights and they aren't all to the death, there could be more variety in the kinds of bets allowed and also might allow for a fixed fight, etc.

[deskoft]

There's the problem, also, that when you know who is fighting, you have at most 3-5 minutes to handle any potential bets.

[BadSkeelz]

Gladiator fights that are PC v NPC (which I take is most of them) are also inherently a crap shoot.

[Sorry]

♥

[Wday]

It would be cool if there was an npc you bought a ticket from but worked like giants fist (bet so and so) and then afrer the match you cashed it is.

[Sorry]

RE: Penned.  True, you wouldn't parade a criminal.  But to get that coded 'look', you could have them chain-ganged up at the entrance so PCs can have a look at them en route to the stands -- maybe toss some rotted petoch fruit at them.

Although, the ideal solution would be to code something into the existing arena code allowing people in the stands to 'look' at the people in the arena.  I still don't know what a gaj looks like.

Or hung in Gibbets outside on Arena Road before the game. Sounds pretty Allanak to me.

the gibbet idea sounded great actually, I could see a lot of RP happening in the lead up to it starting there, with the penned all talking themselves up in front of the crowd and disparaging their opponents, breeds, gickers etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36bKjBAdb0

♥

mad martigan gibbet
gibbet martigan mad
martigan gibbet mad

[number13]

>you should make a penned gladiator

How?

[Sorry]

http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,53225.new.html#new