build: arena rex: designing an arena, pt. 2 - the stands

While an arena floor is what you need to play the game, it just looks like an empty patch of sand without some stands to back up the illusion. As much as I researched reality for my arena floor, I researched fantasy just as much when trying to figure out my arena's stands. There are some beautiful reference pictures of other folk's miniature arenas out there, but no matter where I turned, I kept coming back to pics from the Starz series Spartacus.

Capua's Arena: primary entrance, exterior, host's box

My design aesthetic will borrow heavily from these design cues. However, recreating Capua's arena in in full would pose several challenges - transport, ease of play, and build-time being chief amongst them. For this reason, I plan to draw a bit of inspiration from Arden Fell's arena. I really like that the missing wall breaks the typical "god's eye view" most wargames give us and invites us to get down onto the sand with out gladiators. It helps give the feeling that we aren't commanding the gladiators so much as being them, and I dig it hardcore.

However, Arden built his as one solid piece. While I applaud that for arena's kept in one location, I plan on transporting my arena quite a bit. To combat the bulkiness problem, and to fit the arena in my tiny Yaris, I plan to break my arena into four pieces - arena floor, "backdrop" stands, and two sets of side stands.

Arena Composition: floor, backdrop stands, side stands

The arena floor is the arena floor as detailed in "designing an arena, pt. 1." The "backdrop" stands will be the largest single piece, encompassing the host's box, multiple tiers of seating, and the shades seen so prominently in Gladiator and Spartacus. The side stands are likely to only have one tier of seating, and one of the sides will feature the "Emperor's Gate" entrance. Where the "front" bit of seating would go, I'll leave open for the reasons stated above.

Arena in 3D: incomplete sketch

I've not yet decided whether the walls between the gladiators and the spectators will be part of the stands, or build directly into the arena floor. The upside of attaching them to the stands is that the floor becomes a flat piece for transport. The upside of having them attached to the floor is that they're always there and can create the cursory illusion of an arena when time or space doesn't permit the stands. Either way, the aesthetic of the arena walls will draw heavily from the Spartacus photos above, as will the Host's box.

Arena Walls

Host's Box: cribbed almost entirely from the show

Depending on how the build goes, I've got a couple ideas that could give the backdrop and side stands some utility beyond elaborate decoration. Unfortunately, those came to me just today and I don't yet have them mapped out or drawn up. I'll let them marinate until I'm ready to tackle them head-on.

For now, it's time to run through a few games of Arena Rex and paint up another game's figures from the backlog.

build: arena rex: printable test arena

As promised, here's some pictures of the printed arena floor I'll be using for the Arena Rex beta test.

Test Arena: 1/2 the size of a regular arena, all the fun!

Just for these photos, I laid out the arena with three columns on either side, two braziers, three regular pits, one animal pit and a dais in the middle. I may need to come up with a simple way to lock the modular terrain in place while play-testing, but other than that, I think it'll work great for giving the rules a try.

Blood Brothers: what I'm hoping will be my "good guy" team

Ludus Magnus: the faceless "bad guys" I hope to acquire and paint

At half-size, I was able to print up the arena, terrain counters and Red Republic's figures for less than $5. Not too shabby. Plus, after putting the figures and chits in ziploc bags, the figures, rules and terrain all fit nicely in an easy-to-transport school folder. If only the dice and tape measure would fit too...

If anyone is interested in printing the arena or terrain, here are the PDF files I used. If you want full-scale, just have your favorite printer blow it up. All the art is based on vectors, so it should scale nicely.

Arena Floor - for Legal paper (11"x17")
Arena Obstacles - for Letter paper (8.5" x 11")

build: arena rex: designing an arena, pt.1 - the arena floor

A few months ago, when the Arena Rex Kickstarter was going strong, I pledged that if my friends jumped in I'd build us an arena to play in. Two of 'em jumped in, and I've been marinating on the build ever since.

My primary design goal was to balance modularity of the arena's traps and obstacles while having legitimate depth to any pit traps. After a few less-than-enthusing starts, I did a bit of internet research on the actual architecture and techniques used to make traps and animal pits in ancient Roman amphitheaters. Turns out most of the pits, animals, and other tricksy stuff were kept in a systematically designed underground labyrinth known as a hypogeum.

Amphitheater of Italica | Amphitheater of Capua

Using the two amphitheaters shown above as inspiration, I've combined elements to design a hypogeum of my own.

Hypogeum

There's a central staging/animal control area connected to an under-arena circuit by a lengthwise passageway. As you'll see in later pictures, a large chunk of this will be covered. Because of this, I plan to keep detailing simple - mostly dry brushed rock walls and passageways. The columns in the central staging area will get some extra attention, as they're a decidedly structural component. Here's why...

Amphitheater Floor: contiguous w/ holes

The arena floor will be a layer of wood (popsicle sticks or balsa) and sand over the hypogeum with regularly placed 2.5" and 3" square holes. As you can see, there's still dark brown from the hypogeum layer showing through every hole. The idea is that the "drop-in terrain" will rest on these areas, allowing for obstacles flush with the top layer of sand. The next couple pictures should help explain.

Hypogeum + Arena Floor: cross-section

Pit Trap: essentially a square donut

As you can see, the square would drop into one of the holes of the arena floor, resting on the hypogeum substructure, but also hanging a little over the tunnels. Terrain that sits above ground level (columns, crates, dais, etc) will be a snap, just make a square that lies flush and place the terrain on top. I've got ideas for at least two more terrain pieces that would take advantage of the passageways' depth.

Animal Cage & Brazier: both have components below ground level

Hopefully that helps my intentions make more sense. Theoretically, a completed arena with some drop-in columns, pits and an animal cage might look something like this:

Arena Floor: w/ modular terrain

The arena floor as designed is 33"x22". For the Arena Rex playtest, I plan to print up the above design at 1/2 scale with varying terrain squares I can drop on top of the map. (When playing, I'll scale the movement distances and ranges accordingly.) If the dimensions and spacing work well with the playtest, great! If not, it's easy enough to tweak the design in Illustrator 'till something works. The implementation of the "drop-in" terrain concept should work regardless of arena layout.

Sometime this weekend, I'll try to post up pics of the printed arena as well as my ideas for the amphitheater itself.