The Goblins Fan Forum

Ok, here's the concept.

Players are a spirit pulled from the outer planes by a spell similar to find familiar, but rather than being a trusted ally and assistant to a wizard, you're consigned to a life as a plaything, made to fight for their amusement. Thrown into an arena of other like spirits pulled forth into physical form, you are forced to do combat until one remains... and then the cycle resets, a new form thrust upon you as you are tossed once more into the fray.

Mechanics: Player spirits all start out inhabiting a Challenge Rating (CR) 0 creature, chosen at random. I will provide players with a stat block they can use to move, attack, hide, etc. It is Battle Royal, last creature standing is the victor. As spirits are knocked out of their current forms, they will earn CR points based on how long they last in the battle. If you're the first one to go out, you get 1 CRP, if you're 2nd, you get 2 CRP, etc. The more combatants, the more points at stake for those who can last longest. CRP can be redeemed to inhabit a more powerful creature in the next match at the rate of 8 CRP = 1 Challenge Rating. If after the first match, Player A went out first and has only 1 CRP, this would be the equivalent of being able to come back as a CR 1/8 creature. Player B has 2 CRP, so can come back as a CR 1/4 creature. Player C has 3 CR, which isn't quite enough to get to CR 1/2, so they would also be a CR 1/4. Players would always have the option to keep their current form vs obtaining a new, random form. So while everyone might start out as cats and crabs, you might end as ancient red dragons... maybe. This may also lead to it being advantageous for players to form temporary alliances to prevent other players from reaching really high Challenge creatures.

Rounds of Combat: At the start of each match, players will roll for initiative and placement will be depicted on an arena map provided by me. Players will be able to take their turns using the provided creature stats, and I'll narrate the action. At predetermined rounds in the match, environmental effects may trigger to prevent the last handful from all hiding out indefinitely.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Interest?

It's a pretty interesting idea, but there's one problem with snowballing. If a player wins one round, they get to start with an inherently stronger creature, while those who struggled stay weak. This means that if there aren't enough players to band together and overcome the stronger player said player will consistently win and become stronger. If there are enough, though, then some of the weaker players would likely still fall behind while working together, leading to multiple stronger players.

I like the idea, it reminds me of munchkin I'm the way you'd need to form alliances and such to take down stupid strong players.

I'd maybe add a randomised component somewhere so that even super weak characters can have a chance to win (the equivalent of a blue shell) - like random magic events or items or something.

I'd be happy to playtest as is though if you want to play around with making it work.

Yey I can be monster!

Yeah, Thinks has the right idea, a playtest may be necessary to determine whether balancing is needed.

As long as people are willing, we could playtest as we go... if it gets out of balance, the wizards can declare one of them the winner and start over from zero for a new season.

It does have some interesting potential. I suppose a way to restore some balance if things get too out of wack might be to allow the weaker ones a chance to grab some form of item or spell to even the odds. The ability to form temporary alliances has some potential. However, I could see someone making an alliance with the strongest character and piggybacking. You'd have to find a way to discourage that. Maybe extra points for taking the strongest down?

May I suggest my thoughts.

So, awhile back, mostly after a certain thing happened in which thinks began to imagine that Zephyr was an agent to the evil ones in our game. I got all bigheaded with the idea that I could take out the entire team by myself. So Spider and I did a mock battle and I ended up losing over and over again because some asshole kept casting sleep on me. I really hate that spell.

Anyways, With that in mind.

If there was some, Arena battle in which players could fight one on one or two on two, whatever. you being either a monster or player characters. (though if you picked monsters, 3.5 monsters might be a better choice as there are many more of them).

That could make for a really interesting game...less RP, more raw action. And as for winning, winners and/or losers would receive a little gold and a little xp. (Another reason to go 3.5...or pathfinder, would be the plethora of items that could be purchased.)

Look at the bright side, it won't work as well when we level up
Did you try it without Holger and what was the scenario like? (straight up all out battle or initiating the combat during a night watch or something like that)

I like the concept of this and it kinda reminds me of some of the old custom games in warcraft 3.

Could perhaps do some random addition/substractions of points when you buy something so you might actually get a something stronger or weaker than expected.

IIRC, sleep was only the first time... After that Mr. Sandman played without spell slots.

I have no interest in 3.5e, as I have no immediate plans to run a 3.5e game. The other motive for me is to see how different creatures play out, which are fun/effective for use in 5e games.

I had considered a asymmetrical gladiator type arena, but establishing characters seemed like more work, as wood handing out gold/XP. Random creature combat with a single reward economy seemed simpler, more focus on the combat.

I could flatten the reward curve, with bonuses for being last as well as taking out the winner of the previous match...

Hmm... For the stronger/weaker, could have it so gaining CRP increases the upper end of the range, so random chance can still have you landing a CR 1 creature if you're pulling from a pool with a max of 2...

If the monsters used were taken off of a random roll table each time, it might go a long way towards equalizing things, particularly if the environments were also random. Or even just the random environments. Being a bada***d water critter isn't going to do you as much good if the arena is a dessert.

Hmmm... hadn't considered the removal aspect...

Could be problematic if it is a global list and someone gets stuck behind and there are no more CR 2 creatures available...

I was definitely thinking of having themed arenas, and using that to restrict the pool for certain matches. ((eg, all aquatic, all flying, etc.))

^As far as evening the score, you could include random npc characters/monsters that act either as 3rd party (1v1v1) or on the side of the weaker opponent.

Whoever is in last gets their consciousness split into two creatures?

so, this monster menu...haha...that people will be selecting from. You could either pick 1 monster, or several lower monsters?

BadgeAddict wrote:so, this monster menu...haha...that people will be selecting from. You could either pick 1 monster, or several lower monsters?

I wasn't intending for there to be any selection... all random!

Well then...Could you (the player) ask for 2 random using available points rather than 1 random?.

Like, say I have 5 CP, I say I want 3 random, 2, 2, 1

Maybe....?

Spider, have you found a copy of volo's book of vile darkness? That's got a bunch of additional monsters if you need them.

I do not, just MM.

Whoever wins a match could be locked into their form for the next match.

That could work. Let's give it a shot and if it needs tweaking we can always reset.

Sounds solid. We'll have to see if any issues come up.

okay so I have a plan. We all team up, getting ourselves to the most powerful monsters avaliable then we try to break the wizard's face and be free!

Uh, I had not seen this, so just read trough all of it...

Seems like an interesting idea, especially to "get a feel" for the 5e monsters....

As for balancing, I like the idea of gaining more points for taking out stronger opponents, that or forced teams, with team winning option...

Say you have
Cr: 1,2,2,3,4,5 youd pair them 1-5, 2-4 and 2-3
I know 2-3 is a bit weaker, and that Cr is not a 1=1 thing... But I do think it would give a fun group dynamic view and allow you and me... ( Sure, the other too) to learn more about the monsters play feel..