Nocan in the Arena

Since my last post discussing my arena combat rules, I made some changes. I'm treating it like a joust - the combatants have 3 passes to score points.

I decided to test out the rules combined with my joust campaign structure. For the test, I'm bringing back a character from my old blog. Nocan was a barbarian miniature that was miserable in combat - he couldn't (no can) hit anything! Let's see how his 2-dimensional avatar fares in the arena.

A little Chat GPT imagining

Backstory

Mocked by his clan for his lack of offensive skill, Nocan travels to the Empire to test himself in the arena.

Note: I'm using my LARP's world as the setting.

Results

Here are the results of Nocan's fights.

Versus the Orc

I did not take pictures of all Nocan's bouts. I recreated his fight against the orc so that I could get a few images. This is from round 2 of the 3rd preliminary tournament.

In the first pass, the orc rushes Nocan, knocking him down. As Nocan falls, he manages to get in a body hit. Score 3-1 for the orc.

The orc rushes again. This time, Nocan sidesteps the blow and clocks the orc in the head. Score 3-3.

This time, both score body hits. Score 4-4.

Finally, Nocan gets the initiative, and strikes the orc while avoiding its counter.

A 5-4 victory for Nocan against a veteran fighter!

Other Highlights

• Nocan proved his tribe wrong with his success in the arena. He reached the semi-finals of one tournament and won another tournament!
• He did not do so well in the regionals. Oh well, there is always next season!
• He did well when the pressure was on. He went 4-0 in bouts that went to extra passes.
• He leveled up, and will fight in the next season as an experienced (level 2) fighter.

GAME NOTES

• Limiting the bout to 3 passes really streamlined the game. The rules as they are could also work for jousts.
• For the latest iteration, I added a simple mechanism to account for different levels. The higher level fighter gets a number of re-rolls equal to the difference in levels.
• I plan to have levels up to 6. Between seasons, characters roll to level up.
• I decided to create two tournament circuits - one for levels 1-3 and another for levels 4-6. That way, there are no crazy mismatches.
• I also added "fighting stance." A fighter can choose to be offensive, defensive, or neutral. Stance affects combat rolls in various ways. I added this to give a decision point to the player. Otherwise, it is just an exercise in dice rolling. The rules did not work as intended, and I usually just adopted a neutral stance. I'm going to play around with these a bit.
• The campaign works great, though. It is quick with lots of drama. I think the entire season took about half an hour.