Interest Check: Progressive Gladiator Guild

[Loxmardin]

This was something I attempted briefly on another server but I never got around to actually getting off the ground. After pitching the idea past Grakor to check just how plausible it would be, I was encouraged to pitch it to the community to see how well received it would be.

We've seen many gladiator guilds rise and fall in the past, I realize. What I would want to do here, though, is to try and establish another gladiator guild which has clear systems in place for things like rolling, actual perks and downsides with consequences in the game, and an in-guild economy where wages and money you earn from bets and the like can be traded in for benefits in the form of special armour enchants, weapons and whatnot that are specifically for the guild. This will set in stone a clear system of progression where you win points by participating and keep moving up the ranks.

The economy, by extension, would also fill up the guild coffers so they later can be used to build an arena from the ground and gradually expand on and upgrade this arena for the benefit of the guild and anyone who'd want to use it (with the members of the guild deciding together where the money they've collected can be put to good use).

This would mean an introduction of price lists and the like so people can decide to save up for bigger upgrades and continue to build out the arena until it flourishes and hosts a bunch of business and gives a sense of progress to the guild itself. Who knows where it can go from there?

Would there be any interest in something like this? Perks and the like would be put in place to accomodate for participants who aren't strictly gladiators, of course. I have parts of the system already written out (though most of it needs to be revamped) with suggestions for various different roles, how betting works, and ironing out a basic ruleset for the in-guild economy.

(Perhaps this in-guild economy could get a role in RP outside of it, too! Who knows? From the beginning, though, most of it will be strictly in-guild until it would've established itself.)

... But!

Before any establishing whatsoever, I want to know what people think about this!

[Reigen]

You have my interest!

[Grakor456]

And you have my support!

[McKnighter]

As I've tried building a character development system via the BK perk system, I am interested as well! Building a system that can handle different sorts of actions with rolling dice gives much needed structure in a combat situation. Plus it's fun to make it!

[Clovis]

I'm definitely interested.

[Ukarai]

I'd be interested in this. I recently made a gladiator, too!

[Ural]

This sounds like it could benefit from some sort of structure like we have over here.

It'd be interested to see it expanded upon with the arena upgrades and such. I'm very curious!

Edit: McNinja'd!!

[Alliicce]

So, I'm guessing it would be like this; http://www.wowpedia.org/Brawler's_Guild ?

[Loxmardin]

Similar, but not quite the same, Alliicce.

There's already a system in development. It is also similar to what the BKs use, but not exactly the same.

EDIT:

Also, here's the original guild post as it was salvaged from the old forum of the other server. I'll put it in a CODE box so people can sift through what's already written. I'll be revising most of the stuff in there if I do start something like it here on CotH.

Code:

[center]
[color=#80a0ff][i]How many years, then, had it been? Once upon a time, she’d been a child with a childish dream.

Her dream was made of gleeful chatter, laughter and the chiming tone of the talented singer entertaining a captured crowd. He had the glint to his eye – the one she’d so envied since she wasn’t tall enough to reach past her father’s kneecaps with her nosetip. The dancers, the singers, the makeshift magicians and the petal rains. The faire had always been a key ingredient to her innermost dreamworld and one day, she swore to herself, she’d build one of her own.

And they would dance.

They would sing.

Alas, such a thing could never come true. There was no market for such a thing, her father had always told her. That’s no way to spend a fortune. But it was -her- fortune, she told herself. Surely, she was free to spend it however she wanted.

She would spend it on a circus. A circus of blood and steel.

And they will dance.

“[b]… And they will sing.[/b]”[/i][/color]

-----------------------------[/center]

The Weathermark Corporation is the result of inheritance and the realization of a dream. A very unconventional realization of a dream about an entertainment faire. The Corporation will be dealing with gladiatorial fights, tournaments and the occasional dash of slavery on top – all in the interest of furthering the childish ambitions of the owner from an In-Character perspective. The organization is built in a way that allows for steady in-guild progression all the while providing entertainment on the way.


[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]PURPOSE[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
The activities of this guild will spread pretty thinly over a few different fields, though it will mainly focus around gladiators and activities at home in the arena. There will be fighting, tournaments, the occasional hunt for new slaves, auctions to sell them and various in-guild-relevant items, boot camps, survival events and whatever else can be conjured up and still be somewhat relevant to the theme of the organization. Ultimately, it’s about providing entertainment for you as players and, if possible, your characters. The survival-themed events would be geared more towards providing options for character development and, if successful, gateways for character progression where it is needed even if it’s not relevant to the guild itself.

In order to keep track of progression for characters and the guild itself, character sheets will be in effect (and will be explained further down) so to place every single participant within the guild at a somewhat even level. Everyone starts on the same grounds and work their way up through participation and success – all to give a sense of achievement and provide a fair and fun battleground for everyone.


[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]THE RANKS[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
[spoiler="Ranks and Explanations"][color=#ee4a2d][b]Guild Master / Wheeler[/b][/color]: The head and leader of the organization. A seat held by a single individual; Kayone Weathermark.

[color=#fff][b]Wingman[/b][/color]: The closest and most trusted individuals to the Wheeler. Personal advisors, bodyguards, cashiers… The inner circle and the “family”. Needless to say, one needs to be remarkably close up with Kayone and work directly by her side to be considered a “wingman”. Officer rank.

[color=#fff][b]Investor[/b][/color]: Individuals with a particular interest in the organization who spend their resources on its progression and enjoy certain perks as a result. The more the organization progresses, the tastier the perks they’ll be able to enjoy. These individuals enjoy a certain kind of status solely through the amount of money they are willing to spend at buying it for themselves.

[color=#fff][b]Caretaker[/b][/color]: Medical staff, in short. They are sometimes assigned to single individuals as their personal assistants, tasked to make sure said individual’s at their physical and mental prime so they can fit their assigned purpose.

[color=#fff][b]Staff[/b][/color]: A collection of different task-holders. Any sort of staff that doesn’t fall under the categories of “handler” or “caretaker” fall into this category. If you’re employed and enjoying a salary but can’t fit into any of the previously mentioned categories, this is where you’ll be.

[color=#fff][b]Handler[/b][/color]: A handler deals with slaves. The slaves are their main priority, and everything to do with the slaves. This includes feeding them, disciplining them, tucking them in for the night and making sure they’re ready to put on a good show when they’re required to. A caretaker with dirtier hands, more or less.

[color=#fff][b]Champion[/b][/color]: A champion is a gladiator who enjoys certain benefits as a reward for his or her achievements in the field of battle. A champion is never permanent and can be challenged for his or her title by another gladiator. Typically, a champion may not participate in normal tournaments or penniless fights but is often chosen as a spokesman during public events and is sometimes asked to provide additional entertainment to the crowds when tournaments are over.

[color=#fff][b]Gladiator[/b][/color]: A gladiator in service of the organization. They fight to earn their pay and may use their acquired funds to purchase benefits within the guild itself.

[color=#fff][b]Supporter[/b][/color]: Typically someone who visits the arenas during public events. Someone who associates with the organization without being formally employed by it or fighting for it. … Or otherwise representing it in any manner or form. May reap some form of benefits in the future once the guild has progressed.

[color=#fff][b]Slave[/b][/color]: Self-explanatory. Involuntary members of the organization who are either forced to fight in the tournaments for the benefit of their masters, or slaves who are due to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.[/spoiler]

[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]JOINING[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
Unofficially, you join in on the organization by contacting me (Kayone) either through the forums or in-game to discuss the involvement of your character. There is no formal application to be written, though you will sooner or later need to speak to me so we can find you a spot and a purpose of some kind within the organization.

Officially, there would be advertisements spread across various different towns. The detail about slavery is cleverly overshadowed to give place for the glorious heat of battle and display of power and skill – and the consequent reward for those who rise to the top of their field. These advertisement commonly come in the form of posters, though they may well come through word of mouth or criers in the street. It all depends on what suits you best.


[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]RULES[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
[u]In-Character Rules[/u]:[list][*] Don’t cause trouble. We don’t need that. If you wound someone or destroy property with someone else’s name on it, you’ll be paying for that. If necessary, it will be taken out of your salary until it has been paid for.
[*] The slaves are expensive. Don’t damage the goods or you’ll end up paying for them, too.
[*] Take a moment to listen to the Wheeler when she speaks. If she does. Else, listen to her significantly more loudmouthed colleagues.
[*] The organization reserves every right to withhold, change or delay your salary for any given reason. There’ll probably be a reason, though.
[*] If you’re the subject of a lawsuit, we don’t know you.
[*] Sabotage is not going to be taken lightly. Neither is cheating.
[*] Only fights sanctioned by the Wheeler will actually go on the record.[/list]

[u]Out-of-Character Rules[/u]:[list][*] If you cause trouble in the guild or make the environment uncomfortable and unpleasant for those around you, we reserve the right to remove you.
[*] Be polite and respectful at all times. To your fellow guild-members, and to the fellow members of your community.
[*] Follow the guidelines of this guild and the systems in effect. Failure to adjust to the systems may well result in removal from the guild and its activities.
[*] Please refrain from spamming the Guild chat.
[*] Be mindful of your language while chatting inside the Guild chat.
[*] Otherwise, all Server Rules apply.[/list]


[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]SYSTEMS[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
[u]Character sheets and progression[/u]
When joining the guild as a gladiator or fighter, you’ll be filling out a character sheet. You will not be required to have it on your own computer as I’ll be keeping track of every single character sheet; you will, however, have to allocate your starting points in order to better define the starting grounds for your character. An in-depth explanation of the character sheet will follow inside the spoiler tag.

[spoiler="Character sheets!"]There are a few things your character sheets will contain. First of all, your attributes that will define your bonuses and hit points for battle. Then, it’ll contain your preferences. How you fight if you have a choice about it – emote, roll or PVP combat… Or if you’ve a preference to keep strictly to melee combat or magic combat. Or a mix thereof. First, an explanation of the attributes.

[u]Fortitude[/u], [u]Brawn[/u] and [u]Agility[/u]. Respectively, these affect your: Hit Points, damage/critical chance, and dodge/hit chance.

The above is, obviously, for melee fighters. For casters, you replace “Brawn” with “Aptitude”. You cannot have both. With this system, you are either a melee combatant (including ranged weaponry) or a caster. You either rely on the use of weaponry or on the use of magic, not both. Someone who uses magic along with their weapons still rely more on the effects of their magic than their sword. Or, they will when this system is in effect.

For characters that use weapons and magic, your attributes will be complemented with “perks”. Starting perks will be decided upon creation of your character sheet along with me, Kayone, to better define your character in the best possible way. Prestige classes, for instance, will have to adjust to the system and further define their differences from standard classes through the use of perks. For the sake of fairness and the balance of this system.

About the attributes, once more: Each attribute has a minimum value of 1. It can never go below it, and you automatically start with one in each of the three. You may never go above 10 in any attribute, and you will never have more than 20 points total divided between the three attributes at the highest achievable level.

Upon character creation, you gain 2 additional points to spend. Which means a character can start with one attribute at 3 or two attributes at 2. It depends on how you decide you want to develop your character and what they will later be geared towards.

So, for instance, JimBob the Human Warrior makes his character sheet. He specializes in [b]Melee[/b] and thus uses Brawn in favour of Aptitude. He makes the choice to allocate his points as follows:

[center]Fortitude: 2
Brawn: 2
Agility: 1[/center]

This means he starts out with a standard HP of 4 instead of 3 as a result of his Fortitude increase, and his Brawn increase earns him a standard, unmodified damage count of 2 instead of 1. He gains no bonuses to critical chance (since they don’t come in effect until he reaches a Brawn of 4), hit chance or dodge chance (since he didn’t increase his Agility).

If JimBob had instead been, say, an Ogre, he could’ve complemented this with a perk to show that he’s not at quite the same level as a Human Warrior:

[center][u]Natural Armor (1)[/u]
[i]Passive[/i]
Reduce damage taken by 1.[/center]

This is, of course, just an example of what a perk could be. They can be many different things depending on the character and are simply geared towards giving a more vivid and accurate representation of your character in numbers.

Now, for preferences. For your preferences, you simply state what sort of combat you would rather engage in. If you would rather face off against casters, ranged combatants in general or close-quarter melee only, for example. You also state which form of combat you prefer if given the choice: Emote/Trust, Roll, or Pure PVP (though this is severely discouraged, the option is still available in private and small-scale events).

Finally, your character sheet will keep a record of what you’ve accomplished as a fighter. How many fights you’ve fought (won, and lost) and how much money you’ve earned throughout your career. You’ll also keep note of your experience points here, which will be used to keep track of your progression.

A note on experience points:

Every 100 experience points you successfully collect, you may take another advance for your character. This number may change in the future, depending on how quickly people progress in the beginning.

You gain experience by participating in guild events and fights. The current rate at which you gain experience in fights is as follows: 10 experience points for participation, 25 for winning a single fight (though not for every fight), and 100 for successfully winning an entire tournament.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=”Complete Character Sheet”]When it’s done, this is essentially what your character sheet will look like:

[center][i][color=#fff]JimBob[/color][/i] (Ogre Warrior)
[u]Fortitude[/u]: 2 (+1 HP)
[u]Brawn/Aptitude[/u]: 2 (+1 Damage)
[u]Agility[/u]: 1

[u]Experience Points[/u]: 001
[u]Record[/u]: 0 Wins / 0 Losses
[u]Money[/u]: 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Copper
[u]Preferences[/u]: Melee & Roll

[u]Equipment[/u]:
N/A

[u]Perks[/u]:
[b]Natural Armour (1)[/b] / [i]Passive[/i] / Ignore one point of damage.[/center]

Remember, you don’t need to keep track of your own character sheet unless you absolutely wish to. The Guild Master, myself, will keep track of all the character sheets and will, if possible and the time to make such happen is at hand, possibly keep them in an open record on the forums so people can view them. If you’ve questions about your own character sheet, feel free to contact me.

[spoiler=”Progression Charts”][center] Standard HP - 3

Increase by Fortitude:
2 = +1
4 = +2
6 = +1
8 = +2
10 = +1

Total: +7

You can have a maximum of 10 HP.

-----

Standard damage - 1

Increase by Brawn/Aptitude:
2 - +1
6 - +1
10 - +1

Total: +3

You can do a maximum of 4 damage.

-----

Standard crit-chance - +50%

Increase by Brawn/Aptitude:
4 - -5%
8 - -5%
10 - -10%

Total: -20%

You can have a maximum crit-chance of (30% margin).

-----

Standard hit-chance - +/-0

Increase by Agility:
2 - +5
4 - +5
6 - +5
8 - +5
10 - +5

Total: +25

You can have a maximum hit-chance bonus of 25.

-----

Standard dodge-chance - +/-0

Increase by Agility:
2 - +5
6 - +5
10 - +5

Total: +15

You can have a maximum dodge-chance bonus of 15.
[/center][/spoiler]
[/spoiler]
[center]----------[/center]
[spoiler=”Fighting System”][u]THE FIGHTING SYSTEM[/u]
The fighting system we’ll be using is very simple when it comes down to it. Whenever we are not using trust/emote fighting, we’ll be using rolls. In order to better represent our characters despite using rolls in combat, we have the character sheets as I mentioned in the above spoilers. We’ll be using the “/roll 100”, or “/roll” to determine the outcomes of every turn of fighting. I may update this later with an automated roller to determine turn outcome, but for now we’ll be rolling with actual in-game rolls.

First off, let’s put down some basic guidelines for fighting.

Combat will be based on turns. Battle will normally begin with the participants rolling for “Initiative”. Whoever rolls the highest here gets to go first. The first player types out a battle-emote describing what they use their turn to do, before making a roll for their success.

Let’s say that JimBob goes for a slice-and-dice of his opponent, GaryStu. He details this out in an emote and rolls using the “/roll” command.

He gets a, say, 71.

Now, GaryStu rolls for his defense.

Let’s say GaryStu gets a 84. GaryStu rolls higher than JimBob, which means GaryStu is free to either block or evade the attack in an emote of his own. Granted, this wouldn’t have been the situation if JimBob would’ve had modifiers to make his roll higher. (You can gain such modifiers by leveling up your Agility, for instance.)

Next is GaryStu’s turn. He makes an attack emote, either by making a completely new one or incorporating it into his dodge/evade emote, and then rolls for his own attack.

He rolls a 98.

JimBob rolls for his defense and gets a 20.

Since GaryStu rolled higher than JimBob, he hits. And, because his attack roll was so much higher than JimBob’s defense roll, he deals [i]critical[/i] damage. That means you deal your normal damage +1. In GaryStu’s case, he deals three damage. His base damage is 2 because of his Brawn level, and he gains a +1 from his good roll.

Had this been the shortest kind of battle, JimBob would’ve been down at 1 HP (from his normal 4 HP). Another hit from GaryStu and the battle’d be over.

[u]KINDS OF BATTLES[/u]
When fighting in tournaments, of instance, the battles strictly follow the provided template of rolls as well as the number of HP. As is probably apparent, even at early levels such fights can become very short since you gain extra damage potential already at level 2 Brawn/Aptitude. For the sake of speed and constant fluidity, the tournament fights are much shorter.

Whenever you fight longer battles, you can increase your total HP by two, three or even four times. This depends entirely on how long you intend for it to go on.

Trust battles rarely actually count HP. This is up to the fighters if they decide to count their HP or not, though it’s recommended unless you know you can trust whoever you’re fighting against to be realistic with the damage their character is bound to take in such a fight.[/spoiler]


[center][font=Times New Roman][big]_____[color=#fff]GUILD PROGRESSION[/color]_____[/big][/font][/center]
This guild is going to progress through the events it hosts. It’ll raise funds steadily through the participation it gets and eventually it may raise enough funds to build itself a place to reside – permanently. Yes, I’ve been conjuring up a system for the guild to earn itself a HQ by in-characterly gaining funds, though I’ll go more into detail about that when it becomes relevant. For now, I just want to see how everything works before I start tracking the guild progression.

[Esthrunil]

You have a great deal of my interest.

And I might have the right character in mind for it.

[Rosencrat]

You have my interest!

And you have my support!

And my Moriok.

[Thoradin]

I want to smash stuff. I'm in interested!

[DoctorDaveMD]

mite b cool.

[Nightharrow]

Even though I wouldn't play a gladiator I'd love to interact with this guild, be it events and whatnot! Sounds very interesting.

[Valandil]

Interesting. Now before I stamp these papers, make sure this information is correct.

(Translator's note: I am extremely interested, but as with all systems, there is definitely going to be tweaking. Balance is important so that people have a harsher time trying to essentially min-max their character from the out of character, as well as making different sorts of builds more viable.)