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c1b3rshad3
2016-01-02, 10:23 PM
I'm slowly working on an arena/gladitorial based setting.

I'm hoping to get some ideas for fun battlefields. I'm thinking material similar to fighting game stages like Mortal Kombat.

Also, if anyone knows of a source book for such material that would be awesome.

Examples:
Bridge over water, lava, etc.
Side of a cliff.
A floating iceberg.

Thanks for the the help folks.

Demidos
2016-01-02, 10:35 PM
A seemingly straightforward flat sand arena, but suddenly....

...burrowing foes!
...mid-earthquake arena fight!
...sand-skimmers (boats that travel via sand)!

c1b3rshad3
2016-01-02, 10:44 PM
Thanks.
Also, if anyone wants to point me to actual maps that would be great too. :)

Gastronomie
2016-01-03, 04:25 AM
The manga "Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro" shows us some awesome ideas, especially at its climax boss battles.

-Fighting a superpowerful shapeshifter atop a crane operating on top of a scyscraper (midnight, making the scene even cooler)
-Riding a helicopter into a CVN controlled by a AI (which, by the way, also has complete control over the entire world's internet and has millions of mind-controlled human slaves at his disposal)
-Fighting the evil mastermind (who also has supernatural strength and agility) above a stealth aircraft that spins, turns and plunges down just as the evil mastermind has already programmed and has fully memorized

These aren't directly usable in most fantasy-ish settings, but one aspect that plunges through all of the above three is that they're all "fighting midair". Just one slip is enough to plunge to your death. The enemy coming to kill you isn't the only thing you need to worry about. And that's what makes them "tense". If there's only one enemy to worry about, it's not that menacing - you could cope with it - but when the battle comes in this fashion, you can't help but feel the fight is badass.

This isn't an arena battle, but as an example, you could have them fight atop a gigantic and mad dracolich (or a dragon, or flying tarrasque, or kraken, or animated flying fortress, or something similar - anything that sways and whirls and involves the constant threat of free fall is fine). The dracolich is flying through a city full of high buildings (perhaps arcane libraries or something like that), and spellcasters are constantly shooting spells at the monster, which plunges down, incinerates the casters with his breath weapon, then soars up again - while the characters are STILL swashbuckling aboard it, possibly in its rib cage. The dracolich tries to get rid of the characters, and crashses into the towers, destroying the wall and tunneling through the bricks and bookshelves, before soaring out again. ...I dunno how the characters could still stay alive at this point, but anyhow, get what I'm saying?

If it's an arena, sure, bridges over lava are good, but just that prolly isn't enough. What if the bridges suddenly collapse irregulary, and new ones rise out of the lava pits through some wild magic? Or what if the enemy (maybe a Fire Giant or Red Dragon or Afrit or Pit Fiend or, I dunno, something like that) keeps on destroying the bridges one by one as he advances upon the characters?

Also, sorta paradoxical, but if you wanna have an awesome "arena battle", the most badass arena battle possible is one in which the characters eventually jump out of the arena, or the arena is destroyed. You could have the final enemy's energy beam destroy the entire colloseum, and then the characters fight in the rubble, where the magic contained in the systems that created the arena's various "versions" (lava pit, desert, etc.) start to overload and send out wild surges of raw magical energy around them (lava suddenly erupts out of one place, while a sandstorm starts in another. The rubble floats up and creates floating islands, while rivers of lava flow inbetween them through the air, twisting and turning like snakes...) Now that's one awesome battle, isn't it?

c1b3rshad3
2016-01-03, 10:21 PM
Excellent ideas Gas. Ty.

Madbox
2016-01-04, 03:37 AM
A seemingly straightforward flat sand arena, but suddenly....

...burrowing foes!
...mid-earthquake arena fight!
...sand-skimmers (boats that travel via sand)!

That reminds me of the antlion boss fight from Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles. As you fight off waves of enemies, the sand slowly lowers until you can actually reach the boss. That game had a few cool fights like that.

Another possible arena is inside a dormant volcano. It forms a natural arena shape, and sharp outcroppings of obsidian could be stage hazards.

c1b3rshad3
2016-01-04, 03:39 AM
Good stuff Mad. Ty

MrStabby
2016-01-04, 05:15 AM
In the branches of a huge awakened tree.

You begin the fight leaping from branch to branch fighting your opponent, lots of acrobatics, climbing and fighting at different levels obscured by different amounts of foliage. In the tree lurk poisonous snakes, giant spiders etc.. As the tree itself wakes up it tries to shake and swat off the people fighting in its branches. Doing more damage to the tree enrages it further.

c1b3rshad3
2016-01-04, 05:20 AM
Awesome idea for the forest/jungle. Tomorrow I'm going to add some content and make a list of what we have so far. I'll also attempt to merge them in a sensible way.

chainer1216
2016-01-04, 06:42 AM
Rotating horizontal rings suspended over water which is inhabited by some sort of carnivorous fish.

Each ring is separated into 4 sections by a 5ft gap, forcing a skill check to get to other sections, every round the rings rotate a quarter turn, separating teammates and causing those who want to move to make skill checks.

c1b3rshad3
2016-01-04, 05:32 PM
So what I'm working on here is making a list of battlefields/arenas and then making some sort of random table to determine the field before hand. Their would be multiple tables depending on the lethality of the stage. This would be akin to challenge/difficulty ratings for sets of stages. I'm thinking we would start with a set of base stages based on source books devoted to certain environments. Then add traps and hazards as we want to increase the CR of the stage. I guess the source books I'm using sort of moves this into the realm of 3.X. It doesn't have to be formatted according to source book though.

Determine an environment for the battle- arena.
Source Environment/s
Cityscape urban: interior, rooftop, streets,back alleys
Dungeonscape underground: cave/cavern, dungeon rooms
Stormwrack oceans, seas, rivers
Sandstorm desert
Frostburn artic
Dreadmire swamps, marshes
Into The Green forests, plains, woods

Natural Disasters
storm: wind, rain, lightning, thunder
earthquake
volcanic eruption
meteor shower
sand storm
avalanche
land slide
blizzard
tornado
tsunami
wildfire
hail storm
flooding
limnic eruption

Please feel free to take these notes and reformat or add to them so that we can make these tables.
A list of basic traps/hazards could be added.
Additional source books can be added.
Add in the suggestions that we have so far.
Create map templates.

Is there not a source book out there devoted to battle maps? Hmmmm.... $

Demidos
2016-01-11, 12:34 AM
Rotating horizontal rings suspended over water which is inhabited by some sort of carnivorous fish.

Each ring is separated into 4 sections by a 5ft gap, forcing a skill check to get to other sections, every round the rings rotate a quarter turn, separating teammates and causing those who want to move to make skill checks.

Someone's been rewatching the One Piece Dressrosa Arc... :smalltongue: