Advanced Games (CGH)

Each city and town has its own particular version of the advanced games, specific to that one locale and no place else. Due to circumstances of the arena and the climate around the city, the individual games sprang up to pander to the tastes of the citizens of those cities. The regulars of the arenas know every intricacy of the rules of these games, and they spend countless hours after the games arguing over minor points of the games and the players in them.

There is not enough space here to describe the complexities of the games in each city. Instead, what follows is a quick summary of the games in each of the major cities. The DM will have to flesh out the minor details of these games; what is provided here is merely the foundation.

**Balic:** The advanced game of the Criterion is one called Earthquake. Twelve gladiators enter the field and are stationed around the walls of the arena. Each wears a scarf of a different color somewhere on their body. When the king signals that the game is to begin, the gladiators rush toward the center of the arena, trying to reach the center of the arena and the red silk scarf. The gladiator who stands atop the center column with the red scarf and the scarves of three other gladiators is the one declared a winner.

The game sounds deceptively simple. The detail that ensures that this game is no easy stroll is the shifting columns. The columns of the Criterion rise and fall, at random speeds and random times. They do not necessarily rise all the way up, and neither do they necessarily descend at the same speed at which they rose. Any gladiator in this game must make a Dex —2 check every round to retain their footing, as well as an Int check to keep track of their enemies. This is one of the most challenging games in the Tyr region.

**Draj:** The trademark game of this venue features 16 gladiators in the arena at a time. Clad only in coverings and wrist razors, the gladiators prowl though a hastily erected artificial maze, searching for each other. The last one standing wins. The crowd can clearly see the gladiators because of variations in the elevations; some walls are as tall as 10 feet while others are barely enough for a halfling to crawl behind. This variant is sometimes called the "jaguar games," due to one forgotten combatant's tactic of spotting herself with mud and dirt so as to blend in with the maze's shadows.

**Gulg:** An arboreal game is the favorite in this arena. All the action takes place through the trees. Gladiators may not touch the ground, on pain of death at the hands of the crowd. There are some bramble trees that injure and interfere with movement. Winning strategies include luring enemies into a copse of these bramble trees and backing them into corners.

**Tyr:** Tyr, of course, no longer sponsors games. Since the ascendancy of King Tithian to the throne, the arena has been changed into a marketplace and the gladiators have been given their freedom. In the days of Kalak, however, the best game in town centered around a ziggurat erected in the center of the arena. Up to twenty teams of paired gladiators fought to be both the last standing and the first to make it to the top of the ziggurat. Only the best of the best were allowed to enter this competition, for winning set the victors up for life. Though they would still be slaves (if they were slaves before entering), they could spend most of the rest of their days in luxury, coming out only when their masters needed the extra money that their appearances generated. Occasionally, several teams of semi-retired gladiators emerged from their restful lives to perform again; this was always a crowd-pleaser. For obvious reasons, this game was never held more than once every few months.

**Urik:** The hallmark contest here is kickball with the head of a desert beast. The staves are moved so that there is an outgrowth of them only at the end of the playing field. The object of the game is to slam the head of the beast onto the spikes of the other team (Ten gladiators per team, only five on the field at any given time). The game lasts one hour, and the team that spikes the head most wins. Sometimes the head of a criminal is used (and not always after it's been separated from the body).