Looking for Playtesters for Coliseum

I read through your rulebook and the game looks interesting. I like how you've taken the theme of one-on-one combat yet designed a game that isn't a heavy combat simulation. Your combat mechanic is very simple, but I imagine the use of cards makes the game much more involving.

That's Denarii, not "40 Denarri Tokens" in the components part.

You should make a pdf with that doc, my open office cuts pages in a weird way. I have the card in the page is not suppose to be.

Plus, add you email contact info in the document. It could spread over the internet and reach the right hands. Who knows?

"He vows to endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." The gladiator's oath as cited by Petronius (Satyricon, 117). A nice subtitle I think.

I noticed the gladiator in the left is a tipical myrmillo and the one on the right is a thracian. Have you taken in account the different gladiator types? or is this just a coincidence?

KT!

Days of Wonder already has a well known game Coliseum and I think that differentiation is good.

I think there was some phrase that gladiators said before they were let into combat. Don't know it in latin anymore, but the meaning was something like: "The one going to death hails you Caesar". Might work for a name.

Gotcha!

"Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant. Hail, Caesar, those who are about to die salute you. Salutation of Roman gladiators on entering the arena."

For dramatization, you might just use the "Morituri te salutant".

Hi. From reading the rules it has a really nice feel to the game. I will approach my play testers and see if they are interested. Since some of them are doing gladiatorial re-enactment at the moment they may well be interested.

As a play test helper it might be worth considering providing a guide on how to use normal dice for your custom dice, ie 1=, 2=, 3=, etc.

Though final production custom dice will add a really nice feel. I really like the emperor dice.

As for a name ... "Baracus" or name it after a legendary gladiator or gladiator school

Lanista is a good name. Pastor_Mora did a great job with that image too - really brings things to life.

I look forward to trying the game.

-Jerry

I'm not sure if I'm too late to the party or not but I wanted to give some feedback.

I don't have a local play group to test (alas) but just reading through the rules it seems strange that each ludus has all 7 gladiator types at the start of the game. Players will eventually realize that Gladiator type X is better than Gladiator type Y and if Type X is the champion at the time there really isn't much thought process into which gladiator I chose to fight him with, obviously I take the best match up.

That said it seems like it would be very very cool if at the start of the game there was a face down gladiator deck that had 4 of each gladiator in it. At the start of the game you deal out say 3 of this deck to each player randomly. This means each school will not have the same gladiators as the next. One school may be a great match up against another but be a poor match against a third. This sort of imbalance is minor and could really keep the replay value of this game up, when currently it seems in my head to be lacking and very deterministic.

You could also add a mechanic where a player could pay 3 gold or something to purchase a new gladiator of a type of their choosing from the deck. This allows players to go and purchase new gladiators and if there is a gladiator who is leveling up quickly you could go and purchase a gladiator who would be a good match against him, at the cost of some coin of course!

I think adding this simple tweak to the rules would add a great deal of spice to what is a great core of a game, and I'm sorry I can't playtest this idea before submitting it, and I hope it's not too late to help, in any capacity.

I hope it works well, in my head it seems like it would! I think it will be important to note this could lead to one school being imbalanced over another, and it does open the door for player frustration. But I think since each gladiator is relatively well balanced against another it should be minor. Further, I think this minor imbalance will really add to the game since currently there is none, even if a few players may have a rough match up.

Betting on the match would be a great way to involve all the players, it could slow down game too much though, you are correct. Any betting system would have to be quick. Possibly a side placard split into two sides for each gladiator, I'll draw up what I mean and attach it in a moment since it's hard to explain

Something else i wanted to mention that I'm sure you've thought of is how most Romans would not go see 1 v 1 fights. The gladiator types where most often used in pairings or teams. The interaction of a two types working in tandem vs the teamwork of another two was a much more popular draw at the games than mere duals. My hunch is that in any initial testing or brain storming you've run into huge issues with complexity attempting to have battles that are more than two gladiators, but this seems like a great time to discuss it since you are looking for ways for other players to join into the game.

Do you think it would be possible for the game to support 2v2 battles? I think it would have to be even teams (despite historically 1v2 or 1v3 were common match ups) for balance. Unless you can think of a clever way to balance imbalanced teams (possibly giving the lone player the ability to strike twice?). This sort of combat would be especially nice if the game did expand to more players. Possibly as an expansion such as how Catan has the 5-6 player expansions and the like. Players love expandability, and this game seems like one that could thrive on that model.

I think most of your problems could be solved by raising the cost of a new gladiator. By making the price of entry higher it puts a premium on the gladiators you already have and makes them more valuable by comparison. Players would want to invest in their current fighters since going out and replacing them comes at a high cost.

With a high cost new gladiator (like i proposed 3 denarii) going out and getting a good match for the emperor is a tough call since you'll have to heavily invest in a new fighter. The player has a choice of trying to be frugal and fight a poor match up or going out and getting a fighter who will surely compete.

A few other points. I see no reason to not let players just search the gladiator deck for the one they want, but the extra element of randomness is probably good for the game as a whole, so you made a good choice I suspect, it's just not what I had thought of.

As for trained/untrained and the issue of new gladiators being immediately useful. To expand on my "they need to cost more idea" why not have a "purchase" cost and a "train cost" Something like

1.) Purchase a Gladiator (2 Denarii) :: [Same selection rules as you proposed]. Place this gladiator face down on your line, it is in training. At the start of your next turn you may flip it for free as it completes its training and becomes ready.

2.) Hurry Training (1 Denarii) :: Flip a face down training Gladiator on your line to ready.

Basically you can pay a little (2D) and wait or pay more (3D) to accelerate the fighters training. This sort of option gives players more options, and also allows players to try and stop a emperor's champion from claiming that last victory at the cost of many Denarii, and still allows them to expand their school without breaking the bank (which is the reason I suspected you tested with 1 Denarii to begin with).

By increasing the cost of new fighters it makes it much harder to "train a counter for the EC" as you put it. It's a lot hard choice for players to make and one that will create more dynamic decisions for your players. With a cost of only 1 as you found it is almost a non-choice, you go and get the right match up, but with a higher cost you might try to take an okay match up and invest in him to get him ready for an underdog fight (buying more training cards, etc).

If you think 2 is too much for this, I still propose 1 Denarii to buy an untrained gladiator and than 1 to train him right away. Same mechanical flavor as above with less cost if you think it's too taxing on players. In my head the high price of entry helps pace the game well and allow for players to really fight for the "last school standing" victory. It's a testing issue and I implore you test many costs.