Blood on the Sands **NEW** Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...

[Malamute]

have slightly better taste in clothes. 

Now that is very much up for debate

[Mad Doc Morris]

Still watching, kids…

[Mason]

Still watching, kids…

 

Sorry, Doc, I could not resist.

I am afraid it is our very silly British sense of humour.
No (serious) offense is intended at all.
I am sure that Bibbles did not take any of it seriously for one moment.

Honest.

And...to get things back on track: Furt, I shall email you tomorrow, when I have a little more time, with one particular thing that I feel may help with the rules.
 

[Furt]

Sorry, Doc, I could not resist.

We are this close to a good thonging guys!     

And...to get things back on track: Furt, I shall email you tomorrow, when I have a little more time, with one particular thing that I feel may help with the rules.
 

I'm looking forward to your thoughts mate. 

[Furt]

Here is a link to another first go play test of Blood on the Sands http://keepergladius.livejournal.com/10291.html

[Ray Earle]

@Furt How easy is it to modify the equipment/armour each gladiator is equipped with? Are the sheets for each class set in stone?

I'm looking to start my ludus in some frontier backwater so want to use lightly armoured slaves to fight it out (I'll have to get some pictures of figures up to show what I mean). So although the main gladiator classes will be there there'll be a fair bit of deviation in armour.

[Elbows]

Extremely easy.

Each body part is given an armour rating which roughly equates to:

4+: Unarmoured.
5+: Light mail, padding, or greaves.
6+: Heavy shields, heavy helmets, and any other heavy armour.

Beyond this, once you get the game, weapon and shield counters allow you to equip your gladiators however you choose.  Furt's game is definitely aimed at a more historical pairing system, but my fellow gamers and I have been able to come up with alternatives or minor house rules on the fly with little to no fuss.  No reason you couldn't do the same. I don't believe it would tank the game.  Perhaps we could convince Furt to include a blank armatura (similar to the teaser he originally released) with blank armor boxes for just such a contingency?

So it'd be very easy - you just wouldn't have pretty armaturas.  

[Ray Earle]

Pretty armatures wouldn't worry me too much. A blank one would be a good option. 

I'm from the WFRP crowd where the character sheet had a nice hit location chart with blank posed model. It gave the players something to doodle on while contemplating their next moves. Unfortunately some of those characters ended up looking a tad odd...

[Furt]

Elbows is spot on Ray. You could theoretically configure whatever armour you wanted for your gladiators/slaves to wear. 

Of course in the rules the gladiators favour their traditionally armoured sides so the hit location tables favour left leg, left arm etc to mimic their stances.

I will probably provide a blank armatura sheet to modify for this purpose, although it is heading into the realm of "fantasy" rather than historical.

In saying that I think it would be fun just to throw some gladiators together with all weird combinations of weapons and armour and let them slug it out.

I know the WFRP character sheet too. Ours characters grew appendages...

Love to see your figures too. 

[Ray Earle]

That sounds perfect, thanks Elbows/Furt. 

I' m thinking the style of fighting would be the same as each gladiator type but, obviously being from a poorer ludus, the armour would be more scarce. Hence dropping protection, for probably, a bloodier spectacle! 

I'm looking at running more historical refights with fully tooled up gladiators too but just wondered whether it was possible.

[Too Bo Coo]

And to be honest, I like WYSIWYG games, especially with man on man combat.... And I've also noticed that more companies play fast and loose with historical realities than not, so this would be a good way to put all those odd ball minis to work!  No lazy gladiators in my Ludus!

[Furt]

And to be honest, I like WYSIWYG games, especially with man on man combat.... And I've also noticed that more companies play fast and loose with historical realities than not, so this would be a good way to put all those odd ball minis to work!  No lazy gladiators in my Ludus!

WYSIWYG could definitely work, just don't expect a balanced fight. But the odd piece of armour missing or added wouldn't hurt too much. You could also adapt the Fatigue rules by adding up all the armoured pieces and shields etc to hamper the guy that wears heaps of armour over those that don't.

[Elbows]

Furt, I'd think just include one of these with blank armour values and you're set.  Allows people to do what they wish (throw in an unfortunate slave, etc.).

[Ray Earle]

That would be perfect. 

Plenty of room for the artists among us too...

I'd used the negative fatigue for wearing a lot of armour for a different game system, it seemed to work quite well. I'd also looked at a negative modifier to initiative to help aid the guys using less armour and relying on agility.

Balance isnt that much of an issue. Who wants to see a fair fight anyway? 

[Captain Blood]

Had my first game last week - most enjoyable 

Now I have my first gladiator - here he is...



Matt, I really love what you're doing with the game artwork. Adds greatly to the flavour.

I nearly understand the rules, even!
(Having read this excellent thread from start to finish - thank you Frank: a true labour of love, and it shows).

Now all we need, is someone to start manufacturing some decent new 40mm gladiators