In this campaign we will be following a young slave named Vergilius on his journey through the bloody battles that are a staple of being a gladiator. For those unfamiliar with the mechanics in this game you can generate gladiators fairly randomly by using dice rolls and referring to tables, because he is a player character I picked Vergilius's fighting style and starting attributes but everything else was left to the dice, we ended up with a large physique which increases his strength but not at the cost of his speed and the brawler signature which helps in certain situations during a fight. So once he'd been generated I moved on to his first opponent, luckily I got a nice easy match to get it all started, enjoy.
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Today it began. After being bought as a slave the young Vergilius had been condemed to a life of bloodshed for nothing but the entertainment of others, although it made him desirable in the eyes of a lanista his physique had been made to seem like a curse as it forced him into this profession, he'd be chosen to become a gladiator. He'd been taught the style of the Thraex and had been given a small shield and a short curved sword in preperation for his first fight, "Just don't get yourself killed, slaves ain't free yano." A trainer muttered as the new young gladiator made his way towards the arena clutching his equipment.
He may have only been walking into a tiny arena on the edge of the empire but he could still hear the crowds as he approached the large wooden doors which would take him face to face with his first opponent, a young man named Valentinus. As the doors were opened the sound of the crowd grew even louder, as he walked through the doors onto the sand of the arena he caught a glimpse of his first enemy, a scrawny little boy holding a sword in each hand, he could see the fear on the boys face from where he stood and he knew from that moment this fight would be hard to lose.
Once both the gladiators had saluted the crowd and the editor a trumpet signaled the start of the fight. Approaching cautiously as the crowd roared both of the gladiators made their way towards the centre of the arena, Valentinus got there first and prepared himself for an attack as Vergilius arrived. The boy was caught off guard however as instead of stopping Vergilius dropped his shoulder and plowed straight into him sending him flying backwards, he appeared to come out of the attack unscathed although the fear in his eyes doubled as he tries to scramble to his feet.
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The first couple of rounds in this game fly by pretty quickly as all that needs to be done is a dice roll for each gladiator with modifiers added to see who goes first, as both the gladiators don't have any ranged weapon (and neither feel like throwing their swords at this point).
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| Vergilius (Left) and Valentinus (Right) |
Two quick rolling sessions sees Valentinus reaching the centre of the arena first with Vergilius not far behind, now that both the gladiators occupy the same section of the map the fighting really starts. A number of rolls for each gladiator equal to their Savy and any bonus dice they decide to use (As he is control by the game mechanics there is a method to work out when Valentinus uses his bonus dice), I decide not to use any of my dice whereas my opponent uses 1 of his 6. The objective of these rolls is to get a high number of 'Successes' (A roll of 3 or less), these successes are then added to a number of auto successes depending on your gladiator's speed and weapon, I scored 8 against my opponents 4 which, when referring to the maneuver table means I can gain the advantage or try a bash attack, I chose to attempt a bash which knocks my opponent down however he was lucky and blocked any damage with his off-hand weapon.
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| Vergilius takes the centre as Valentinus is knocked down. |
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'Now's my chance' Vergilius thinks to himself as he rushes forwards towards his downed foe, Valentinus puts up his swords in an attempt to defend himself but his lack of strength means they are easily knocked aside leaving him wide open. The boy begins to scurry backwards in an attempt to save himself and manages to avoid serious injury from Vergilius's next attack however he is caught on his right arm, wincing from the pain and breathing heavily he pulls himself to his feet and throws himself at his opponent knowing that if he didn't kill him in one strike things would look bleak. The foolhardy move earned him a shield to the face as Vergilius read his anger fuelled attack, Valentinus just about managed to keep his footing and using the very last of his strength he exchanged parries with his opponent but it was too little too late, an opening revealed itself and Vergilius took it with ruthless efficiency by unleashing a vicious slash to the boys chest, the impact sent him flying backwards into the sand where he lay breathing heavily.
The crowd erupted as the victor threw down his equipment and raised his hand in triumph, for Vergilius his first match as a gladiator had gone as good as it could have and he'd escaped with no injuries, as he left the arena he learned this was a bitter-sweet result as because he was still fit to fight he'd find himself in another match the very same day, he just hoped the next match would go down the same way and it wouldn't be him that was laying in the sand clutching onto his life.
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As we come into the third round of the game Vergilius manages to roll for first turn due to the modifiers that effect his opponent for being knocked down, this also makes it much easier to outmaneuver his opponent and the addition of 2 of his 10 bonus dice will make it easier still, he scores 6 successes and his opponent uses two of his bonus dice to scrape 2 successes, this results in an attack on the unshielded side meaning that his armour is really the only thing that can save him from a hit (Not helpful for this particular gladiator who has next to none). Rolls on the attack table score 7 successes for Vergilius and a surprisingly high 5 for Valentinus, this allows him to get back to his feet next turn and escape with only a minor wound which I rolled to be his right arm.
Now it was Valentinus's turn to take his actions, I rolled to see what they were and it came up he was going to run straight at me, crazy sod, for this maneuver I decided to play safe and use two more of my dice leaving me with 6 left whereas my opponent decided to wing it and not use any, very crazy sod, the result was 7 to me against his 3 which put him in a very bad place, I chose to try another bash attack but he fares slightly better against this one and only scores one success less than me meaning another round of attacks but I lose my bash modifier, this time he sees sense and uses all his remaining dice for a final attack but still somehow only manages two successes, I throw in one bonus dice of my own and score a massive 7 resulting in a serious wound which end up on his chest, not nice, Valentinus is spent as he has no bonus dice remaining which makes Vergilius the winner. There is no appeal for mercy as we are only fighting on the fringe of the empire so battles are not usually to the death and we pick up a feeble one point of fame for beating such an easy opponent.
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| Things don't look good for Valentinus |
So that was Vergilius's first fight, an easy win to get him started although now he will have to fight again right away. I hope you all enjoyed reading that I'd love to hear any feedback or constructive criticism you have for me or any other things you wanna talk to me about so feel free to leave a comment, I'll be doing another one of these campaign fights soon and I'm also going to start up a campaign involving battles on a larger scale so keep checking back after a few days and I should have something new up.
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