Arena : Gladiatoria

https://gladiatoria.com

Revision History
6.1 Base barracks capacity to be reduced from 12 to 10 from AUC 7
Class based fatigue, maximum chances of avoiding fatigue revised
Turn rollover sequence updated
Minor typos corrected
6.0 Arena: Civis launched (separate rulebook)
Lanista boost to Arma Praxi increased to 33% of Lanista level (formerly 20%),
new rounding
Quick close chance improved by 5% for Thracian and Provocator, lowered by 5%
for Scissor (poor visibility)
Sica blooding chance raised by 2%
Provocator gains a x1.1 Advantage modifier
Advice on process if a Championship house fails to meet the requirement to
enter two pairs
5.0.2 Lanista training benefits extended to his own Arma Praxi training
Clarification that a trainer cannot act as both Lanista and Medicus
5.0.1 Tyro fight rules updated to remove requirement that Tyros be entered in
matched pairs.
5.0 Training chances modified to increase impact of Discipline and reduce impact of
Experience
Estates costs modified, in most cases reducing costs for both building and
maintenance
Base Quick Close chance increased from 20% to 25% for Provocator and Scissor,
rising to 50+M% when using the Press Instruction (formerly 45%)
Propugnator title renamed Peoples Champion
Former Champion renamed Grand Champion to reduce risk of confusion with
above
4.3 New Quick Close rule allows for some classes to change range at the start of the
round, due to light encumbrance
4.2.1 Expanded rules for the additional Championship fight, provisionally titled
Propugnator. Expansion covers purses, prizes and glory.
4.2 New rule : Propugnator (provisional title). A contest for the most popular
gladiators, run concurrently with the Championship fights.
4.1 New rule : Hiring someone off the street
Changes to Heeding Instructions, and examples given
4.0.2 New rule : Lanista, a Staff Master Trainer role
Included mention of the Pimp and the Crone

4.0.1 New rule : Preparing for an Opponent, under Fight Orders

Clarified annual adjustments to Glory
Updated Staff Temperaments listing
Updated costs of Estates
4.0.0 New rule : Techniques, an Upgrade option acquired through Praxis
Added House estates expansion to accommodate Lanista
Class combat fatigue modifier increased by 0.1 for Hoplomachus and Myrmillo,
reduced by 0.1 for Provocator and Thracian
Estates Public Fountain maintenance cost reduced to 1HS/turn
Estates Shrine and Barracks Extension maintenance costs reduced, and capacity
increased for Barracks Extension
Removed rounding on Movement component of Advantage for Combat
3.0.4 Corrected inconsistencies in descriptions of how injuries to specific body parts
affect Levels
3.0.3 Section added on Fight Outcomes (Death, Last Blood, First Blood)
Correction to Anatomy section of the rules, where the terms Abdomen and
Stomach have been corrected to Stomach and Ribs respectively
3.0.2.1 Two minor errata corrections
3.0.2 More detail on how Instructions are called in fights.
Correction to description of the effects of Juggernaut Instruction in 3.0.1
3.0.1 Significant expansion of Instructions rules.
Instruction Moves explained.
Rules sequence reviewed.
3.0.0.1 Respect introduced and Honour explained (Standing)
Juggernaut adjusted
Kick Sand Cheat introduced
3.0.0 Practice fights introduced. In turn 2, players can conduct private fights between
their own gladiators, which are not visible to the public or other players.
Aediles become more prominent. Aediles can supplement Imperial Grants and
vote on proposed distribution of funds.
Honour is introduced. Aediles gain +1 Honour each turn.
Changing a gladiators class costs Move Levels.
Popularity transfer. A proportion of a killed gladiators popularity transfers to
other gladiators in his house.
Fruit and Fish Diets rise to 1.5 HS per gladiator (formerly 1 HS).
Maintenance of a Shrine falls from 15 HS to 10 HS per turn.
Infirmary (Medicus) building cost rises from 80HS to 100HS and maintenance
rises from 8HS to 12 HS per turn (due to increased competition for medical
supplies).
Houses can no longer change faction allegiance in the second turn of a game
year (now only the first turn).
Aediles elected at Festival of Janus (Turn 1).
Staff Retirement tests expanded.
Glory adjusted by x0.8 at start of Year.
Staff +2 ageing benefit limited to L16 or less (previously L18 or less).
Sica maximum damage increased from 11 to 12, Blooding chance increased
from 12 to 16.
Gladius Blooding chance increased from 10 to 12.
Trident Blooding chance increased from 12 to 14.

Hoplon and Dagger maximum damage reduced from 6 to 4 (in line with Dagger),
Concussion chance reduced from 16 to 12 (in line with Parma)
Dory Concussion chance reduced from 6 to 4.
Class-based Hit bonus to damage increased for Strength and Bulk.
Some restructuring of the reading order of this rulebook.
Money section updated to include order of payment for Trades and Estates.
Glory section expanded to include Championship fights.
2.0.5 Estates. Added option to demolish, repair or withhold maintenance on
structures.

2.0.4 Correction of rules on training. Since the start of AUC 2, Gladiators do not need
to be named and classed to receive training.
Hit bonus increased from 1-3 to 1-4 for lightly armed classes.
2.0.3 Hit bonus upgraded for all classes, higher for heavy classes
Interpreting fight messages section added
Rally explained in fight mechanics
2.0.2 Open fights added
Correction to Public fountain maintenance cost

2.0.1 Trading
Staff ageing
Staff departure
Estates expansion (Barracks capacity, Fountain, Infirmary, Shrine)
Barracks over-crowding
Builder available at the Tavern
Medicus staff specialist
Aediles and the Election of Aediles
Editors introduced
Calendar revised to accommodate Saturnalia as an end of year turn
Changes to base Stamina increase influence of both Endurance and Discipline
Class-based Fatigue added, removed Youth Bonus to Stamina from some
classes, adjustments to Strength bonus which change influence of Strength on
Fatigue for most classes
Staff Allegiance affects loyalty
Staff temperament rules expanded
Top Tips embedded in rules
1.7.2 Clarified the dismissal of staff in the event of inadequate funds
1.7.1 Injury Recovery rules clarify difference between recovery which is automatic,
and recovery which only occurs if the gladiator receives Training
Influence of Move Levels on Damage clarified
Clarification of carrying over Upgrade Points for Moves
1.7 Significantly expanded coverage of Experience
Taxes explained under Money
Hit Bonus added for potential extra damage on medium-damage hits , based on
Strength and Bulk
Expanded coverage of Instructions
Juggernaut instruction added
Fatigue reduced for Press instruction
Notification of change to Advantage from AUC 2
Advantage Accumulator withdrawn

Minor changes to Calendar

1.6.2 Clarified Range, which is based on Weapon Range
Added two new Instructions, Take Knee Early and Take Knee Late
1.6.1 Clarified awarding of Palms and Laurels
1.6 Added a modifier to the Relative Roll and corrected a typo in the description
New Instructions added and descriptions expanded
Youth Bonus described in the Strength Test rules
In response to player feedback, the terms Damage Points and DPs replaced
with Health Points and HPs. This is a change of name , not a change to any
other aspect of the damage mechanic. May take a while for this change to be
fully implemented across the site
Sundry typos corrected
Added Index
1.5 Significantly expanded coverage of Stamina and Fatigue under Combat,
including formulae, Strength Test and Pace
Expanded coverage of Armour in the Combat section
Updated Attacks and Defences to reflect new Fatigue values on website
New tactical Instructions outlined
Events explained
Ageing corrected (Year 1 should be 33% of gained levels, not 25%; Year 2 should
be 25% of gained levels, not 33%)
Corrected Typo in chance of Training Uplift when selecting 3 activities (0.45 not
0.4)

2016 Richard Egan

Quick Start Tips For Success

1. Buy Gladiators
The gladiators you start with are unlikely to be the best
Visit the Market tab and make some offers.
The best gladiators are the ones with higher numbers for Animus [A], Corpus [C] and Praxis
[P].
Big numbers in one or two of these is good.
Big numbers in all three of them is excellent.
Worried about bidding too high? You only pay 1 more than the next-highest bid. Whatever
you pay, someone else thought the same.

2. Hire Trainers
One trainer can run up to 4 Gladiators.
So long as you have enough Trainers, you can train all your Gladiators.
Training is always a Good Thing.
Therefore you will want at least 1 Trainer for every 4 Gladiators.
If you dont have enough trainers, go to the Tavern tab and make some offers.
TIP : At the Tavern, for one trainer, you can tick a box to make him your Priority. It gives
you a better chance of hiring that one.
TIP : If youre desperate and dont have much to spend, avoid making the best Trainer your
Priority (someone else is sure to have the same idea).
TIP : The Barkeeper and Meretrix are only important if you want to get an idea of what other
players are doing this turn.

3. train gladiators

Training cannot make your gladiators worse. Its never a mistake to train them.
Training is a tab under Barracks.
Assign each gladiator to a trainer.
Then make sure each Trainer has at least 1 activity for his gladiators (the activities are along
the top, with images to show what they mean). You can use more than 1 if you want.
TIP : Training need only take a few seconds. Once youre set up, you can re-run the previous turns
training. All you need do is hit Save and then Run.

CALENDAR
These are the 13 turns of a game year, each known by its most prominent festival:

1 Agonalia Festival of Janus Ianuarius Market, Aedile Elections

2 Parentalia Festival of the Manes Februarius Market, Practice Fights
3 Ludi Martis Games of Mars Martius Market, Games
4 Ludi Megalenses Games of Cybele Aprilis Market, Games
5 Ludi Mercurii Games of Mercury Maius Market, Games
6 Ludi Piscatorii Games of the Fishermen Iunius Market, Games
7 Ludi Apollinares Games of Apollo Iulius Games
8 Ludi Neptuni Games of Neptune Iulius Games
9 Ludi Vulcani Games of Vulcan Augustus Market, Games
10 Ludi Magni The Great Games September Market, Games
11 Ludi Augustales Games of Augustus October House Fights
12 Ludi Plebeii Games of the People November Championships
13 Saturnalia Festival of Saturn December End of Year

House preferences, including School of fighting, can be changed in Turn 1 only, the Festival of Janus.

Trading is allowed to the deadline of Turn 6, the Games of the Fishermen.

There may be additional intermediate deadlines in some turns.

I. GAME CONCEPTS

Introduction
In this game, you are a prominent citizen in one of the cities of the Roman Empire, and Head of a
rising family House. You enjoy enough wealth to establish your own gladiatorial barracks. You can
buy gladiators, hire trainers to train them, and fight your gladiators against those of other players.

Gladiators are killers. The presence of a gladiatorial barracks represents a risk to the safety of the
city. It is only tolerated if the gladiators entertain the locals. Therefore, players are expected to enter
their gladiators in the games at the local amphitheatre. The reward is recognition and stature.

Each year, one gladiator is crowned Grand Champion of your city. This is the ultimate achievement.
However, you may also try to manage your social standing, which provides another dimension to the
game.

The game is organised into Game Years of 12 Festivals (see the Calendar). The first two Festivals of
the Game Year see the biggest auctions of slaves as potential gladiators. The highlight of next
Festivals is the gladiatorial games in the citys amphitheatre. Houses pair off according to a published
calendar, and have their gladiators fight each other in house fights. Each house is expected to fight
every other house in the same city, once per game year.

Houses
When a player joins the game, he or she lacks the stature to have more than one name. The initial
name for your House must be a single word. It will grow over time. The starting name cannot contain
spaces, and will be your praenomen, or first name.

At the start of his or her second Game Year, a player can add a proper family name: the nomen. This
marks the founding of a family dynasty. Henceforth the players house will be known by his or her
newly created family name.

The longer the player stays in the game, he or she may add further names, to reflect growing
stature. More names, means seniority.

Lets take an example from history: Gaius Julius Caesar. His first name (praenomen) was Gaius. Julius
was his nomen, or family name, which identified him as a member of the tribe Julii. The fact that he
later took another name, Caesar, reflected his growing social standing.

Having more names is a sign of status in the game.

Gladiator Classes
This game is about buying, training and fighting gladiators in competitive contests. New gladiators
are auctioned at the slave markets, where they are sold to the highest bidder. Each new gladiator
starts with a nation and tribe, and a set of values representing his combat strengths and weaknesses.
Each gladiator can then be assigned one of the gladiatorial Classes.

Hoplomachus
A medium-weight, spear-wielding, small-
shield class, notable for its round shields.
The Hoplo usually fights a Myrmillo or
Thracian, and relies on keeping his distance
to exploit the extra reach of his spear. He
carries a long dagger in his left hand,
beneath his buckler, in case of need, and
wears long greaves to protect his legs.

Thracian
The Thracian (or Thraex) is a lightly-
armoured class of gladiator notable for his
small shield and curved blade. Individuals
in the crowd usually owed allegiance to
either the big-shield gladiators (scutarii) or
small-shield gladiators (parmularii), and
cheered accordingly.

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Myrmilllo
The tank, the heavyweight class of the
Arena. Employed by Gallic schools, the
Myrmillo developed from the earlier Gaul
class and is heavily influenced by Gallic
fighting styles. He carries a large shield,
wears a massive helmet, and is protected
by the most armour of any class.The
Myrmillo is usually pitted against a
Hoplomachus, Provocator or Retiarius.

Provocator
The Provocator was a medium-weight class
which emerged in the late Republican era.
Initially issued with the weapons and
armour used by legionaries, the class was
unusual for the fact that Provocators were
often matched against others of the same
class.

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Retiarius
The Retiarius is perhaps the most iconic
class of the gladiatorial arena, recognisable
for his net and trident. Without a helmet,
the Retairius showed his face to the crowd,
and this class was held in particular
ignomy. The Retiarius fought heavier
weight gladiators, and relied on speed and
initiative to keep them at bay.

Secutor
The Secutor is a medium-weight addition of
the early Imperial era, believed to have
emerged around 50AD. His distinctive
helmet was smooth, and intended to
provide a particular challenge for the
Retiarius (the class the Secutor was
intended to fight). The Secutor symbolised
Fire, fighting the Ret who symbolised
water. For this reason, the Secutor wore a
lot of red, for example on his loincloth and
the fin on his helmet.

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Scissor
The Scissor (or contra-retiarius) developed
from the Secutor and was usually pitted
against the Reiarius. Distinguished by a
weapon unique to his class, the Scissor
carried metal cone with a sharp-bladed
half-moon projecting on a short pole. This
was ideal for snagging the net of a
Retiarius, but could also be used
defensively to parry, or crossed with the
sword to counter a polearm.

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SCHOOLS OF FIGHTING
Not all classes can be used by all Houses. Each House must adopt one of the three schools of
fighting, and this determines what classes it will need. Choose from the following:

Dacian School Gallic School Great School

Symbol : Wolf Symbol : Boar Symbol : Eagle
Specialises in Specialises in Trains a mix of classes
lightly armoured classes heavily-armoured classes

Needs Needs Needs
Thracian Myrmillo x2 Provocator x2
Retiarius Retiarius Retiarius
Scissor Hoplomachus Secutor
Hoplomachus


The banner (vexil) of a school will be crowned with a cast of one of the three animals above: Wolf
for a House following the Dacian school; Boar for a House following the Gallic school; Eagle for a
House following the Great School.

Changing S chool
A house can change its school in the first turn of any year. An owner can also change the class of any
gladiator in the first two turns of any year.

However, note that changing schools:

1. Automatically deletes all fight orders

2. Does not change the class of gladiators in itself

If you change school, take care to reassign classes during the first turn, and also update fight orders
(unless you wish to miss fights).

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Cities
Each house shares a city with up to 9 other houses. If a city has 10 houses there will be 9 Festivals of
house fights per Game Year; if city has less houses, there may be less house fights, or the houses
may fight repeat fights against some houses.

The final Festival of the Game Year sees the most successful houses meet for the Championships of
their city.

Each city has its own Tavern, where owners may encounter among others:

Trainers looking for jobs

A Builder touting for work to expand owners barracks (see Estates, below)

The Pimp and the Crone

Sometimes, a House owner may encounter a Pimp acting on behalf of a wealthy citizen with an
interest in gladiators, or a Wise Woman offering Unguents and Potions. These characters tend to
avoid successful houses, and seek out owners more likely to value some extra income or assistance.

Joining a City
Depending on the state of the game, owners first joining the game might start in one of 3 places:

1. A newly-founded city
2. An established city
3. The sandpit game at Sutrium

Each new house in Sutrium will be allocated a fixed number of gladiators and staff. Apart from some
minor randomly allocated details, these gladiators and staff will be the same for each new house.
Houses in Sutrium do not fight each other, and have access to a limited subset of the games
features.

If a House replaces one leaving the game, it may gain the following compensations:

1. It may be assigned up to 4 gladiators from the house it replaces

2. In exceptional circumstances, it may claim one gladiator from up to 4 other houses in the
same city, subject to the following restrictions:
a. No more than 1 gladiator may be taken from the same house*
b. No Primus Palus can be taken from a house

*Should more than one new house join the same established city in the same game year,
and then seek to acquire gladiators from the same house, then the Emperor is likely to rule
those selections forfeit at his discretion. For this reason, owners of houses joining an
established city may wish to enter a dialogue on their selections.

However, this will depend on the status of game development, and will only apply in specific
circumstances. Watch out for editorials explaining where and how new houses will be introduced.

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Money
You need game money to own a gladiatorial House. Game money is used to buy gladiators and hire
trainers. Fortunately, game money is relatively easy to acquire. There is:

an Imperial Grant when you establish your house

a smaller Imperial Grant every turn
an appearance purse for supplying gladiators for some fights
prize money for winning some fights

Game currency is the Roman Sestertius (plural Sestertii), expressed as HS. So HS 30 means
thirty Sestertii.

Game money is awarded in the following amounts:

Award Description HS
Imperial Grant to New House Automatically awarded to each new 300
house
Imperial Monthly Grant All houses receive this at the start of a 50
turn, regardless of whether or not there
are fights
Appearance purse for Tyro Each complete pair appearing in a Tyro 0
fight pair fight earns this much for the owner
Appearance purse for Open Each gladiator appearing in an Open 0
fight pair fight earns this much for the owner
Appearance purse for House Each gladiator appearing in a House 5
fight fight earns this much for the owner
Appearance purse for Awarded to the owner of each gladiator 5
Propugnator fight contesting a fight in any round
Appearance purse for Each gladiator appearing in a 10
Championship fight Championship fight earns this much for
the owner
Prize for Open fight victory Each house fight won earns this prize 2
money for the owner
Prize for House fight victory Each house fight won earns this prize 5
money for the owner
Prize for Propugnator victory Awarded for every figt won 15
Prize for Championship victory Each Championship fight won earns this 10
prize money for the owner
Bonus for the final round of Awarded to both winner and loser of 10
the Championship the Championship fight, in addition to
purse and prize

Buying Gladiators
Gladiators are slaves, purchased at the Market (see below) with game money. Since gladiators are
not paid, buying a gladiator represents a one-time cost.

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Improving Diets
The standard gladiatorial diet is supplied free, as part of the citys food dole. However, enhanced
diets are available at extra cost each month, and such diets may bring benefits to the development
of gladiators.

Hiring trainers and other staff

In order to train your gladiators, youll need Trainers. These can be hired at the Tavern. Trainers and
all other staff must be paid the agreed wage in the turn after they are hired. This is their monthly
wage, although it is by convention paid at the great festivals, which fall roughly once a month (and
align exactly with the 12 turns in a game year).

Hiring someone off the street

If a House has no Trainers, it cannot Train. In this event, you will be offered the option to Create a
Trainer by hiring a guy off the street. He wont be very good, but he will work for bed and board (no
wages are paid). You can only hire a guy off the street if you have no other staff, but can then keep
him at your house indefinitely.

Debt
A house should never go into debt. If an owner lacks sufficient funds to pay all the wages of his or
her staff at the start of a turn, and after receiving all purses, prizes and grants, then some or all of
the staff will be released. The staff form a line, and are paid in order, starting with the lowest-paid.
This ensures that as many will be retained as possible.

Turn S equence
At each deadline, money is earnt and spent in the following sequence:

1. Fights
2. New Turn begins
3. Trades
4. Imperial grants
5. Fight prizes
6. Estates maintenance
7. Staff wages
8. Aedile grant supplements and deductions
9. New staff hired
10. Slave markets

*Houses must have adequate funds for agreed trades at start of the turn (New turn begins), else the
trade fails. A house cannot use incoming trade money to pay for another trade.

On the home page for managing your House, you will find a Treasury tab. This allows you to set
limits for expenditure at the next deadline. The Reserve sets a limit to your expenditure on new
staff and new slaves: you will not spend on new staff or new slaves if you have less than (or equal to)

17


the indicated Reserve. If you set the Reserve higher than the amount you have, you will spend
nothing,

Note that money earned from fights and grants will already have been applied, so in this way you
can set conditional orders based on whether or not your fights earned enough this turn.

You can also set a New Staff Spend limit, which limits how much of your expenditure will go on new
staff. This works in tandem with the Reserve, either of which could constrain your spending on new
staff. This may be important if you want to limit how much of your money is left for buying new
slaves.

Taxes
Taxes are paid once each game year, at the start of the game year. Houses which finished the
previous game year with more than 300HS will pay taxes on that surplus. The standard rate is 50%.

Note that new houses never pay Taxes in the year they start, and Taxes are not paid on the first
300HS.

Example : A House starts the game year with 350HS. It must therefore pay tax on (350-300=) 50HS
of that sum. At a tax rate of 50%, the House will pay 25HS at the start of the new game year. Another
House finishes the game year with 500HS, and must therefore pay 100HS in taxes.

Money Guidance
The availability (or lack) of funds will be heavily influenced by how much owners collectively choose
to pay staff. The following guidance may be helpful:

As a rough guide, a House can expect to earn between HS 50 a turn (in turns it does not
fight) and HS 90 a turn (if it enters and wins all its House contests)
Remember that appearance purses and prizes are not available in every turn, since there are
not fights in every turn
Some costs, such as gladiators, are one-off purchases (capital); others, such as staff, are
running costs which must be paid each turn, including turns where purses and prizes are not
available
Gladiators can be killed. Furthermore, a gladiator who survives four years of service must be
released from slavery. Therefore, you should maintain a war chest to replace gladiators
The game is balanced on the assumption that a trainer will on average require H20 a turn,
but the actual values will depend on how much owners are prepared to pay

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MARKETS
New gladiators are bought at the regular slave markets. These happen monthly in your own city, or
one of the neighbouring cities.

The slaves on sale will be offered by one of the local merchants, who will offer a rough estimate of
their strengths and weaknesses. An estimated level will be offered for each of the 3 levels (Animus,
Corpus and Praxis), and the merchant will highlight any particular attribute strengths.

However, it takes time to learn the true qualities of a potential gladiator, so the merchants estimate
may not be completely accurate. Depending on the merchant, a slave offered at market will
generally be within 1 level of the estimated level. However, different merchants have different
approaches to salesmanship. Some are prone to exaggerate strengths, or disguise weaknesses.
Others will do their best to offer an honest appraisal of their slaves (in the hope of winning your
loyalty). Over time, you may come to recognise the traits of particular merchants.

This will extend to download summaries of the market, available on the website. Different vendors
will give you different information. Some are more informative, or reliable, than others.

To buy a slave, you make an offer to the merchant. Offers are accepted throughout the turn, and
kept secret. This avoids any advantage to ordering early or late in the turn. Offers can be changed or
withdrawn right up to the deadline.

At a game deadline, all offers for slaves at the market are reviewed. Each slave will be sold to the
highest bidder. However, its assumed that the sale takes the form of an auction, so the highest
bidder only pays one Sestertius more than the second-highest bidder.

The slave joins his new House immediately, and his true levels and attributes become visible to his
owner. The slave may now be named and then assigned a class (follow the link to the gladiators
page by hitting his card on your gladiator lists).

A couple of final points about the market. You can make more offers than you can really afford. At
the deadline, sales start with the highest offer of the month (ties are broken in favour of the earliest
offer). Once that is resolved, the next sale is announced, based on the next-highest offer. Each time
a slave is sold, the buyers offers are reduced to no more than his or her remaining funds. In this
way, you can make lots of offers, using the value of your offers to manage the order they are made.

If you dont want to spend all your money at the market, you can set a Reserve. You will not spend
that Reserve at the market. At any point, if there is money left above your reserve, remaining offers
will be modifier to no more than whats left, before you cut into your reserve.

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Gladiators
Levels
When your gladiators fight, we measure their success by comparing their strengths and weaknesses.
We measure these in Levels, and each gladiator has 3 Levels, from which everything else is inferred.
High Levels are better than Low levels, and make your gladiator more likely to succeed.

The three Levels of each gladiator are given Latin names. You dont need Latin to play this game, but
knowing just three Latin words will be useful. The three words are:

Animus
Mental skills. How much the gladiator understands combat and is able to outwit his
opponent.

Corpus
Body skills. A gladiators physical fitness, health and his ability to use his weight and strength
to advantage against his opponent.

Praxis
Technical skills. The gladiators ability to use weapons to best effect, including his training in
moves and manoeuvres.

Every gladiator in the game will have a rating in each of these, measured in Levels. High levels reflect
highly developed abilities.

When a gladiator joins the game, he will have a Level in each of Animus, Corpus and Praxis. Each will
generally start between 8 and 12 and each can be expected to rise through gladiatorial training. In a
gladiators later years, Levels above 30 might be achieved in all three.

Example: A gladiator is purchased with an Animus Level of 8 (written L8); Corpus L12; Praxis L10. The
next turn, he starts his training. The owner decides his low level in Animus is a problem. The gladiator
is likely to be out-foxed by most opponents he will meet in the Arena, so the owner instructs a trainer
to improve it. This is duly done, and Animus duly rise to L9, then L10. At this point, the owner
instructs the trainer to get some weapons training underway, and so Praxis begins to improve.

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Virtues
The three Levels are the most important features of a gladiator, but each can be sub-divided among
three subsidiary Virtues. These Virtues are expressed as a percentage of the overall Level (L).

Level Abbreviation Virtues Abbreviation

Animus A Discipline D
(Mind) Initiative I
Guile G
Corpus C Endurance E
(Body) Strength S
Bulk B
Praxis P Attack K
(Technical) Defence F
Movement M

Example : Lets imagine a gladiator with Animus Level 12 and a Discipline of 50%, an Initiative of 30%
and a Guile of 20% (note that Discipline, Initiative and Guile add up to 100%, and all are Virtues of
Animus). In effect, this gladiator has 50% of his 12 Animus Levels in Discipline, so he has 6 Levels of
Discipline. If he rises to Animus Level 13, he will have 6.5 Levels of Discipline.

Lets explore the concepts behind Levels and Virtues in more detail:

Animus

The Roman soul was encapsulated in Animus. In our game, it has a single level to represent the
development of a gladiators mental abilities and character, and this is made up of three virtues:

Discipline. A gladiator without Discipline will be unable to control his instincts. He will be
less likely to respond to training, less prone to follow instructions, and more likely to make
foolish mistakes in fights. Discipline is a valued virtue for every gladiator.

Initiative. Quick-wittedness and anticipation are summed up in Initiative. A gladiator
without good Initiative will be condemned to spend combat reacting to his opponent. For
some classes, particularly the lightly-armed classes, poor Initiative is likely to court disaster,
since they rely on speed and agility to keep out of reach of more heavily-armed opponents.
The heavily-armed gladiators can compensate for poor Initiative with good defence and
armour, waiting till their poorly-armoured opponent makes a mistake.

Guile. This represents cunning, which can give a gladiator the ability to influence his
opponent, lure him into a mistake, and counter-attack. A gladiator with good Guile will be
more likely to turn a fight in a single move. It tends to be more advantageous for lightly-
armed gladiators with good Movement or Initiative, but is not exclusively so.

Corpus

21


The body, and its physical characteristics, are summed up in Corpus. It has a single level,
representing the ability to make best use of physical characteristics in combat, but has three virtues:

Endurance. Gladiatorial contests were most often about stamina, and the ability to
withstand trauma. These are heavily influenced by Endurance. Endurance is a valued virtue
for every gladiator.

Strength. The power in a gladiators blows, and the weight of armour he can carry, depend
on good Strength. A lightly armed gladiator may rely on victory by a thousand cuts or
exhaustion,, but a heavily armed gladiator needs to make every blow count.

Bulk. The single most important factor in how much damage a gladiator can take. The sheer
size of a gladiator could protect him, intimidate his opponent, and give him the ability to
knock down his opponent in a charge. Especially when combined with the weight of heavy
armour. Note that in this game, Bulk is not necessarily a reflection of size, but measures a
gladiators ability to make best use of his weight (whatever it may be).

Praxis

Combat and weapon skills are governed by Praxis. This covers movement, attack and defence.

Attack. Every gladiator needs to know how to use his combination of weapons to land
strikes on his opponent.

Defence. Some classes may rely on movement to evade the blows of opponents. But for
others, the ability to block Attacks will determine how long they survive.

Movement. Positioning to gain the advantage, and evasion of Attacks, are covered by
Movement. Heavily armed classes are less likely to get the most from Movement, since they
are encumbered and made slow by the weight of their armour.

Name
Before a gladiator can be sent to the arena, or even trained, he will also need a Name and a
gladiatorial Class. Gladiator names can be between 3 and 16 characters long, and may not contain
spaces, punctuation or Arabic numbers. Names must be unique within a House.

Class
Every gladiator in the Arena is expected to fight as one of the highly specialised gladiatorial Classes.
His Class determines exactly what weapons he uses, and the armour he wears. The gladiator learns
to fight in a way that takes full advantage of that specific combination of weapons and armour.

It is possible for a gladiator to change class at the start of a new game year. However, not all of his
training may be suitable for his new class. Therefore, a highly-trained gladiator may suffer some
penalties when changing class (see Moves, below).

In the Arena, each class is generally paired with a complementary class. The combinations are
relatively few. For example:

22


The Retarius wields a net and trident. He is lightly armoured, and is almost exclusively paired
with a heavily-armoured Myrmillo, or one of two other classes which developed from the
Myrmillo specifically to oppose the Retiarius: the Secutor or the sinister Scissor
The heavy-weight, large-shield Myrmillo, if not fighting a Retiarius, will generally be paired
with a medium-weight, small-shield Hoplomachus or light-weight Thracian. Crowds were
often predisposed to favour large shield or small shield gladiators, and fights between
one of each were a popular combination

Pairings were generally expected to pit a class against a complementary class, not the same class.
Most combinations were intended to represent a theme or moral, for example the net-and-trident
Retiarius represents water, against the Secutor representing fire with his red loincloth.

The Provocator was unusual in that this class often fought another Provocator

In our game, owners are expected to enter complementary pairs of gladiators, of specific classes.
This ensures a fight, even if the opposition doesnt turn up.

A gladiator must be assigned a Class before he can be entered into a fight.

Height
Every gladiator will have a Height, which can be, in descending order:

G Giant
T Very Tall
A Tall
M Average
S Short

Tyros
When a gladiator is purchased from the Market, he will arrive as an unclassed Tyro. Once he is
assigned both a name and a class, he may fight against other Tyros in up to two Tyro fights (see
below).

After two fights, he is no longer considered a Tyro. He gains a new status: Spectatus. He can then no
longer participate in Tyro fights.

23


Fight Pairs
Fights always feature two gladiators, and in many cases these will be classes chosen with an
emphasis on tradition : some classes are intended to fight specific opposing classes. For example, the
Secutor class was explicitly intended to fight a Retiarius, and his smooth but finned helmet was
designed to present little purchase for his opponents net.

To ensure the crowd is entertained in the correct manner, owners are expected to enter matched
pairs of gladiators. The required classes depend on the School of fighting. Any combination of
schools will always produce a matched pair:

PAIR A PAIR B
I II III IV
Great School Retiarius Secutor Provocator Provocator
Gallic School Retiarius Myrmillo Myrmillo Hoplomachus
Dacian School Retiarius Scissor Thracian Hoplomachus

In most months, the most significant fights are House fights. These involve two pairs of gladiators
from each House, giving 8 gladiators in total (2 pairs of 2 from 2 houses). The 8 gladiators will be
paired up according to the following table:

I vs II
II vs I
III vs IV
IV vs III

If one House fails to submit a complete pair, gladiators from the same house will fight each other,
ensuring that the crowd are entertained. In this case, the two gladiators will tend to go easier on
each other, and will take extra precautions to avoid accidental death.

24


Fight Outcomes
Fights to the Death
There are relatively few fights to the Death, since gladiators are expensive to buy and train.
However, the final fights of each year (the Championships) are all to the Death. A gladiator who
collapses or cannot continue in a Fight to the Death can appeal for mercy (missio) by raising a finger
in the air to signal surrender. Depending on his popularity and the temperament of the Editor
presiding over the fights, he may be spared, else his opponent will quickly dispatch him.

Fights to Last Blood

Most fights are to Last Blood, meaning the gladiators will fight until one surrenders, or lies prone on
the sand. There is no need for missio in these fights, the gladiator is always spared if he collapses.
However, fights to Last Blood are dangerous, since a particularly deadly blow can finish off a
gladiator close to collapse. Deaths do happen in Fights to Last Blood.

Fights to First Blood

Fights intended for new gladiators (tyros) are considered fights to First Blood. Also, House fights
which pair gladiators from the same house (because the opponent did not show) are also fights to
First Blood. Finally, Practice fights are to First Blood.

These fights will stop if a gladiator:

Is blooded or dazed
Falls below a fixed proportion of his health or stamina*
Collapses
Follows an order to takes the knee

*The exact proportion depends on the Editor chosen for the fights by the Aediles. Some editors are
more merciful than others.

25


HOUSE FIGHTS
In most months there will be House Fights, where an owner is expected to match his or her
gladiators with gladiators from another House. In the course of a year, every House is expected to
fight every other House in the same city.

House fights are to Last Blood. If an owner does not enter two complete pairs of gladiators for a
House fight, the opponents gladiators will fight each other to First Blood. This will count as one
House Win for the opponent.

Example 1. X owns a Great School, and enters all 4 gladiators. Y owns a Dacian school and enters all
4 gladiators. There will be 4 fights as follows: Retiarius(X) vs Scissor(Y); Secutor (X) vs Retiarius(Y);
Provocator(X) vs Thracian (Y); Provocator (X) vs Hoplomachus(Y).

Example 2. X owns a Great School, and enters all 4 gladiators. Y owns a Dacian school and chooses
not to field Pair B (the Hoplomachus and Thracian). There will be 3 fights: Retiarius(X) vs Scissor(Y);
Retiarius(Y) vs Secutor (X); Provocator(X) vs Provocator (X). The only way Y can win a palm is if his
Scissor and Retiarius are both victorious.

Example 3. X owns a Great School, and enters all 4 gladiators. Y owns a Dacian school and does not
enter a Thracian. Again, there will be 3 fights, because Ys second pair is incomplete (his
Hoplomachus will not get a fight).

A set of House fights between two Houses can result in a tie (an equal number of wins), or a victory
for one House.

Palms and Laurels

A Palm is awarded for each House fight won, and a Laurel is awarded if one House wins more House
fights than his or her opponent in a turn. Where one House enters no gladiators, the other House
will always win a Laurel so long as at least one pair is entered.

PRACTICE FIGHTS
In the second turn of each game year, a house can stage Practice fights between two pairs of its own
gladiators. These are fights to First Blood. Orders are set as for House Fights, using the same
pairings.

26


Practice Fights are fought at the turn rollover, and pitch gladiators from the following slots:

I vs II
III vs IV

Note that Tyro slots are unused at this deadline.

Practice fights use wooden weapons, and are conducted in private. Others will not see your own
Practice fights.

No injuries are taken from Practice Fights

No experience is gained from Practice Fights
No Popularity is gained from Practice Fights

Links to view Practice fights will appear on your Barracks page for Turn 3 only. Practice fights are
deleted after Turn 3.

OPEN FIGHTS
Of course, sometimes a House is missing a gladiator to complete a pair. In this case, the spare
gladiator is ordered as for a House Fight, but will be entered in an Open Fight and assigned a random
opponent. This option exists to permit Houses with recruitment problems to still gain experience.

Pairing is arranged by the drawing of lots, and there will be no attempt to match classes.

A Win in an Open Fight does not secure Palm, nor Glory, but a small prize is awarded the winner.

TYRO FIGHTS
Tyro fights offer an owner a chance to give his newest gladiators experience in the arena, before
facing more hardened gladiators. Tyro fights are to First Blood, so there is less likelihood of severe
injury or accidental death. To enter a Tyro fight, a gladiator must:

Be given a class
Have fought in less than 2 fights

Tyros are not limited to Tyro fights, and can be entered in House Fights like other gladiators.
However, they cannot be entered in both House fights and Tyro fights in the same turn.

In Tyro fights, gladiators are randomly paired against other Tyros. Any Tyro entered will be matched
at random if there is valid opposition. However, pairings respect the same rules as for House fights,
so a gladiator in the first Tyro slot will always fight a gladiator from a second Tyro slot, and so on.

27


Championships
Each year, each city crowns two Champions: a Grand Champion, and a Peoples Champion. These
accolades are awarded after the last fights of the game year.

Grand Champion
To decide the Grand Champion, the 4 houses with the most Laurels are expected to enter two pairs
of gladiators for the Grand Championships. If a house does not meet this requirement, two pairs will
be selected at random.

If houses are tied for the most Laurels, the tie is broken in favour of the house with the most Palms,
then Acclaim (total popularity of all its gladiators). If the tie is still unbroken, then the tie is decided
by the gods (random).

Grand Championship fights are to the Death.

Ordering for the Grand Championships is exactly the same as ordering for an inter-house fight, with
the two pairs of gladiators being those required by a School (Great, Dacian or Gallic).

The Championships are fought over 3 days, at the end of which each city will have a Grand
Champion. The trophy for this is a Crown.

Day 1 32 fights.

Each of the 4 houses from the same city pair up as in inter-house fights
These are fights to the death
After the fights, survivors will have a night to recover

Day 2 24 fights

Winners of the Day 1 fights are paired, fighting other winners from their own city
Lots are drawn to pair up the gladiators
There is no guarantee that a gladiator will not fight someone from his own house
These fights are to the death
After these fights, there is a short interlude
Then the winners of the earlier fights are again paired, and fight again to the death
After the second fight of the day, there will only be 2 survivors from each city
Survivors will have a night to recover

Day 3 7 fights

The two survivors from each city fight to the death for the Grand Championship of their city
The winners are presented Crowns

28


Peoples Champion
Alongside the Grand Championship, there will be fights to determine the Peoples Champion
(formerly Propugnator) in each city. Peoples Champion is a lesser title than Champion, but is open
to all houses.

Peoples Championship fights are to the Death.

In the Championships turn, owners will find additional slots on their Pairings screen labelled
Propugnator. These allow owners to offer gladiators to fight in the Peoples Championship, and are
only available for one turn each game year.

Gladiators of the appropriate class can be entered, but only one per class. Where a house might
normally be offered more than one slot for a class, there will be only be one per class when selecting
entrants for the Peoples Championship.

Anyone can enter a gladiator for the Peoples Championship, but only the most popular is selected
from each class.

The two most popular Retiarii are selected

The single most popular gladiator from each other class is selected

This allows 8 entrants per city. Ties for Popularity are broken randomly.

Pairings are then made as follows:

1. Scissor vs Retiarius (randomly selected from those available)

2. Secutor vs Retiarius
3. Myrmillo vs Hoplomachus
4. Thracian vs Provocator

The winner of Fight 1 faces the winner of Fight 2, and the winner of Fight 3 faces the winner of Fight
4, after which the two remaining gladiators face off, and the winner is named Peoples Champion for
his city.

The Rudis
The gladiator winning the final fight is named Peoples Champion, and is presented a wooden sword,
called a Rudis. By tradition, his owner exchanges this trophy for the immediate freedom of the
gladiator.

Death
Popularity Transfer. When a gladiator is killed in the arena, some of the crowd transfer their loyalty
to others from the same house. One sixth of his final Popularity is transferred to each of the 4 most
Popular gladiators in his former barracks. This applies whether the gladiator was slain in a fight, or
refused Missio.

29


Glory
Glory extends Palms and Laurels. Palms and Laurels bring Glory to the House, as follows:

+ 1 Glory for each House fight won (Palms)

+1 Glory if a house wins a Laurel
+1 Glory if a house wins 4 House fights in the same games
-1 Glory if a house fails to win at least two House fights in a turn
-1 Glory additional penalty if a house enters no House fights in a turn

A running total of Glory for each house will be shown on the website, along with a standing order of
houses by glory.

Championship fights also earn glory:

+ 1 Glory for each Round 1 fight entered

+ 2 Glory for each Round 2 fight entered
+ 3 Glory for each Round 3 fight entered
+ 1 Glory for each fight won
+8 Glory for each Championship Round fought
+ 2 Glory for winning the Championship

Glory from Championship fights is cumulative.

Propugnator fights earn glory:

+ 2 Glory for each fight contested

+ 4 Glory for each fight won

Glory from Championship fights is cumulative.

Example: A gladiator progressing from Round 1 of the Championships to win the title wins his
house 1+2+3+8=14 glory for entering fights, then an additional 1+1+1+1+2=6 for winning fights,
for a total 20 Glory.

Note that Glory, unlike Popularity, belongs to a House, rather than a Gladiator. It remains if the
Gladiator which won it is lost, freed or traded.

30


Honour
Honour reflects the esteem and gravitas which come from public service.

Aediles gain +1 Honour per turn.

Respect
Respect is gained from demonstrating adherence to Roman values. For example, Cicero and Livy
wrote of Constantia being one of the original Roman virtues, and it loosely translates as Stoicism,
grit or cool. It is more than perseverance and grim resolve, it is the maintenance of a calm
demeanour in the face of adversity. It is highly sought in political and military leaders.

An owner gains +1 Respect if he or she loses 4 House fights in a month.

The owner of any gladiator killed in a House or Championship fight gains +1 Respect.
The owner of the gladiator losing the Championship Title fight gains +2 Respect.

Annual Adjustment
At the start of each game year, Glory and Stoicism are adjusted by x0.8 (rounding up), and Honour is
adjusted by x0.9 (rounding up),.

31


FIGHT ORDERS
Gladiators can be entered for fights as pairs, using the Pairings subtab under the Barracks tab. For
House fights and Championship fights, orders can be supplemented by :

Preparing for a specific opponent, using the link to Opponents on the Pairings screen
Instructions, using the link to Instructions on the Pairings screen

Opponents
For House Fights and the first round of the Championships, you will know which House will supply
your next opposition. This is shown on the schedule, which appears on your Barracks home page.

Knowing the opposing house means you also know which classes of gladiators you will face.

On the Opponents screen, which is linked from the Pairings subtab, a list of all the possible opposing
gladiators is shown, along with some details of their Health and fights to date. Each gladiators name
is a link to a page where you can drill deeper into their history.

If you wish, you can identify the gladiators you think the other House will select for the forthcoming
fights. Doing so allows your trainers to prepare your own gladiators for their expected opponents.

Each time you correctly anticipate the opposing gladiator, your own gladiator will perform at a
higher level for that fight (+1 Level in each of Animus, Corpus and Praxis). The benefit is temporary,
and simply reflects his preparation for the fight.

There is no penalty for anticipating the wrong opponent.

32


INSTRUCTIONS
The Myrmillo stood in the darkness of the amphitheatre tunnel, waiting his turn to be called.
His cumbersome helmet added several inches to his six foot height, so that he towered over
the white-haired trainer at his side. The crowd roared as a Retiarius was summoned, and in
that moment the older man beckoned the Myrmillo to stoop. The trainer shielded his mouth
and spoke through the grill of his gladiators heavy helmet: Remember. Use your bulk to
intimidate him, and when he strikes, block with your sword not your shield.
Instructions guide a gladiator on what to do in a fight. All Instruction options are available to all
classes. The available options are:

Instructions are optional, and can be given before any fight. There are two ways they can be set:

On the home page of the gladiator

On the fight orders Instructions screen, where gladiators are selected for fights

Maximum Instructions
The number of instructions a gladiator can handle is influenced by Guile. Gladiators with low Guile
may only be able to handle one instruction, others may cope with up to four (four is the maximum).

Guile in Levels Maximum Instructions

1-3 1
4-8 2
9-15 3
16+ 4

33


Where a gladiator can remember multiple instructions, they are of equal significance. Unless
indicated otherwise, they can be called throughout the fight.

Heeding Instructions
During a fight, the gladiator will not always follow instructions. There is always a chance that he will
forget instructions in the heat of battle. A strong nerve will help him keep his head, and the chance
of a gladiator remembering an instruction will be based on his Discipline.

At the start of each turn, if the gladiator is not currently heeding an instruction, a check is made to
determine whether he will start to heed one:

Chance of applying an instruction = 20 + Discipline * 2

This rises by +5% if the House has appointed a Lanista.

Instructions can have Moves associated with them, which the gladiator will follow if appropriate.
The Move to associate with an Instruction is selected on the gladiators home screen and can be
changed at any time.

Gladiators check for one instruction per round, in advance of deciding Advantage.

There is also a chance that a gladiator will follow another instruction in the same round. Checks are
made throughout the Round, depending on circumstances.

Example. The Retiarius Hazel is facing a Secutor. He has been given 3 instructions: Favour Left; Press
and Cover Right. At the start of the round, Hazel passes the Discipline test, and Favour Left is selected
as an Instruction. Hazel then wins advantage. His owner has told him to use Sweep for Favour Left ,
and Hazel will now attempt an attack with Sweep.

Example. In the following round, Hazel will first check to see if he keeps Favour Left as his preferred
Instruction. He passes the Discipline check and does. However, advantage now passes to the Secutor,
and Hazels Favour Left is an attacking option. The Sectutor has been told to Stand Off, and obeys.
This means the Sectutor will try to open the range. It can be countered with Press, and Hazel has
been given a Press instruction. A fresh test is made against Hazels Discipline to see if he follows the
Press instruction. He passes again: Hazel obeys the Press instruction, and the range remains
unchanged. The fight report will show Hazel following both Favour Left and Press in this round.

Instruction Options
All Instruction options are available to all classes. he available options are:

Cover Left/Right
If the gladiator is attacked, select a Defence move using the relevant hand. Against

34


an opponents Favour Instruction, a defenders Cover Instruction will modify the

strength of the Attack or the Defence.

Favour Right Favour Left
Cover Right Defence x 0.9 Attack x 0.8
Cover Left Attack x 0.8 Defence x 0.9



Favour Left/Right
If gladiator has Advantage and is in range, select an Attack move using the
relevant hand. If the gladiator has Advantage and is out of range, seek the correct
range for an Attack using the relevant hand. Note that the Right Hand includes
Frontal attacks.
Effects modified in Attack if the Defender uses Cover

Goad
Taunt the opponent in the hope of undermining his composure, with the objective
of driving him Beserk and drawing him into unsuccessful attacks (see Combat
rules for an explanation of Beserk). Goad can only begin when the gladiator does
not have advantage, but can carry into subsequent rounds. If a Shout has been set
for Goad then this will be shown when the gladiator first Goads. Success depends
on a Relative Roll, comparing Guile with the opponents Discipline.
If successful increases opponent fatigue (+0.7)

Intimidate
Exploit a size advantage, if available. Can only begin when the gladiator has
advantage, but can carry into subsequent rounds. Subject to a successful Relative
Roll of Bulk modified by Size (Average, Tall, Giant, etc), Intimidate discourages
attacks even when the opponent has Advantage. If the Relative Roll succeeds, the
opponent acquires a negative Morale, and will suffer a penalty to attacks in future
rounds, until Morale is restored by a successful Discipline check. If the Intimidate
attempt fails, then this tactic has no effect.
If successful increases opponent fatigue (+0.7)

Juggernaut
Head down, the gladiator maintains an aggressive posture and accepts a higher
risk of being hit. Defensive move values are halved in the current round. However,
the gladiator gains a chance of a large bonus to Advantage in the following round,
and gains bonuses to his chance to hit.
x1.8 hit bonus modifier if the gladiator makes a successful Relative Roll on
Bulk

Press
Attempt to close with the opponent and press for an early result. Gain an
enhanced chance of advantage, at the expense of a penalty to stamina.
x2.5 modifier to Initiative levels for Advantage only
Increased Fatigue (+0.2)
When defending, prevents opponent increasing range with Stand Off
Instruction

35


Adds or improves chance of Quick Close for some classes (see Quick
Close)

Stand Off
Tend to hold back even when the gladiator has Advantage, in the hope of drawing
out the fight. The gladiator will benefit from a small reduction in the loss of
stamina, but will not attack at every opportunity.
Reduced Fatigue (-0.3)
Use Evade defence moves
Likelihood of Attack is reduced when holding Advantage

Take Knee (Early)
If the gladiator heeds this instruction when his Health is below 55% of his starting
total, he will surrender. The gladiator loses half his starting Popularity, in addition
to any Popularity loss due to defeat. Popularity cannot fall below 1.

Take Knee (Late)
If the gladiator heeds this instruction when his Health is below 10 HPs, he will
surrender. The gladiator suffers a loss of 5 Popularity (or one quarter of his
starting Popularity, whichever is lower), in addition to any Popularity loss due to
defeat. Popularity cannot fall below 1.

Instruction Moves

On a gladiators page, one or two specific Moves can be associated with each Instruction. In some
cases this will be an Attack Move or a Defence Move, sometimes from a specific set (for example,
Favour Left is an attacking Instruction which requires a Left-handed Attack Move). However, in many
cases an Instruction can be associated with both an Attack Move and a Defence Move.

The move or moves selected for an Instruction remain associated with that Instruction for that
gladiator until changed, even if the gladiator does not use the Instruction in fights.

It is not guaranteed that a gladiator will use the correct Move when following an Instruction, but the
chance is significantly heightened.

36


Estates
Your starting estate will be a basic barracks. It consists of a sand-covered training area, with a Palus
or two (a wooden pole for practice with weapons); modest accommodation for any trainers you
hire; meagre cells for your gladiators; and a small space for services (domestic slaves and kitchens).

An owner can build additions to a barracks, to accommodate more gladiators and improve standing
with the people.

Over-crowding
A basic barracks like the one above can only comfortably accommodate 101 gladiators. If more than
10 gladiators are housed in a basic barracks, over-crowding will lead to negative modifiers on
Training (see Training).

Therefore, an early priority for large establishments is likely to be Barracks Expansion.

1
From AUC VII. Prior to the 7th game year, capacity was 12 gladiators.

37


Construction
Structures can be added by hiring a Builder at the Tavern. Each additional structure will have an
initial build cost, which must be paid immediately. It will also have a build time, which will be a
number of turns required to complete.

Building starts at the next turn rollover. Therefore, the build time does not include the current turn.

At any time up to the start of building, the owner can cancel the construction and recover the full
build cost. After building starts, it can be cancelled but no costs are recovered. Building can also be
suspended, which simply extends the time until the structure is available (and therefore incurs
maintenance).

An owner can only have one construction underway at the same time.

Maintenance
A basic barracks is maintained by the government, but any additional structures must be maintained
by the Owner.

At each turn rollover after constructions is complete, the structure will incur maintenance costs. The
maintenance cost is deducted at the turn rollover, after Staff Hires and Market Auctions

If an owner cannot pay maintenance on any or all of his or her structures, then maintenance is
skipped for them all, and all the additional structures become Dilapidated.

A Dilapidated structure continues to function as normal, but if a second turns maintenance is

missed, the structure will collapse without warning.

Repairs can made to one or more Dilapidated structures by hiring a Builder at the Tavern or via he
Estates management screen. Repairs take place immediately, and cost the same as the missed turns
maintenance. Repair costs, like building costs, must be paid immediately. An owner can choose
which structures are repaired, and may conduct repairs to more than one in the same turn.

Demolition
The Property screen allows an Owner to view his estate. The manage link, available under each
structure, allows an Owner to demolish a structure. If demolition is ordered, it happens at the
rollover to the next turn, and in advance of maintenance. Until then, the Owner may still use the
building and even cancel the Demolition order.

Withhold maintenance
Owners may also identify buildings from which to withhold maintenance next turn. Again, this is
ordered via the link to manage a structure. Unmaintained structures will become dilapidated, if not
already; or fall down. Like Demolition, this happens at the rollover to the next turn.

38


Additional S tructures
Public Fountain
Provides drinking water for passers-by, and enhances the
reputation of the House. All Popularity gained in fights by
gladiators is modified: any loss of popularity from a fight is
reduced by one fifth; any gain of popularity is increased by
one quarter.

Cost : HS 20

Maintenance : HS 1 per Turn
Build Time: 1 Turn

Barracks Expansion
Adds more accommodation, and more space for kitchens
and services. Allows an additional 12 gladiators to be
accommodated without over-crowding.

Cost : HS 80
Maintenance : HS 8 per Turn
Build Time: 3 Turns

S hrine
Honours the gods, and allows the owner to win Divine
Protection for one gladiator each turn. The protected
gladiator is selected on the Pairs tab for fight orders. Divine
Protection prevents a killing blow in fights (though it cannot
save a gladiator from refused msissio), and brings a chance
of reducing blows of 8HPs or more by 1 -5 HPs.


Cost : HS 50
Maintenance : HS 5 per Turn
Build Time: 2 Turns

Infirmary
Allows the appointment of a Medicus to tend to injured
gladiators. Adds extra accommodation for 2 gladiators.

Cost : HS 65
Maintenance : HS 8 per Turn
Build Time : 3 Turns

39


House
Allows the appointment of a Lanista to tend to oversee your
barracks. Improves Arma Praxi training and allows a boost to
Instructions.

Cost : HS 60
Maintenance : HS 6 per Turn
Build Time : 3 Turns

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Factions
Gladiatorial contests provide an opportunity for contests between various political interests in the
city and Empire. Each House must be aligned with one of the following:

Army Nobles Guilds

The Army is guardian of Romes The Senate protects Rome from Guilds protect workers against
liberties and protector of tyrrany. The vigor and values of exploitation and hardship. They
civilisation. A strong Empire the Empire stem from the maintain standards of
depends on a strong Army. honour and superiority of its worksmanship and training,
After the Emperor, the interests great families. Chalked white is and services to their
of the Army are paramount. the colour of the toga worn by community. Without the Guilds,
Red is the colour of the banners all Senators. there would be Mob Rule. Blue
and cloaks of Romes soldiers. is the colour of the workers
tunics.

Gods Hedonists

First honour the gods! Only the Wine, food, song and lust.
gods grant luck and success. There is no point in glory if it
The mysteries of this world are cant be enjoyed. Rome is
beyond our understanding, great, revel in its spoils. In the
keep the gods appeased, lest villas of the rich, the walls of
Rome fall back into darkness one room are painted
and despair. The colour of Orpiment, a rich Yellow. This
Mercury, Diana and the Vestal will be the room of Love and
Virgins is green. indulgence.

Rivalries
At any time, each allegiance will have a mortal rival. Rivalries can influence the sympathies of the
crowd in the Arena, and may lead to modifiers to the Popularity of gladiators from a house aligned
with the right (or wrong) interests. The loyalty of Staff may also be influenced by Rivalries.

Changing Allegiance
A house can change its allegiance any number of times in the first two turns of any season.

41


Events
In some turns, external Events will influence the game. The nature of these Events will be announced
on the website, and may influence rivalries or gain Popularity boosts or penalties for Houses with the
right (or wrong) allegiance. For example, military victories are likely to boost the crowds sympathies
for gladiators of Houses associated with the Army, while fortuitous events or natural calamites may
focus attention on Houses associated with the Gods.

The prevailing Event, if any, will be announced on the website at the start of the turn.

42


Aediles
Each faction is represented by one Owner on the Assembly of Aediles. Elections takes place in the
first turn of the game year, and the option to vote for a representative of your faction can be found
on your Barracks home page (the Procuratio).

At the start of the second turn of the game year, five newly-elected Aediles are announced, one for
each faction. Becoming an Aedile is the start of a political career, but power depends on forming
alliances between factions.

Aediles can vote each turn to decide two things:

Editors
Trade Reserve

Editors
The games at each Festival are overseen by an Editor. He will instruct the overseers of the games,
and set the tempo for fights. Selection is from a pool of Editors:

Albinus Messalina Otacilius Saturnus Iulius Purpurio Luscinus
Clemency Honour Honour Malice
Temperance Justice Justice Greed
Nobility Integrity Acclaim Power

Each of the Editors has distinctive characteristics, represented by ratings in each of the following:

Clemency
An editor with a high Clemency will allow gladiators to take the Knee early, and will stop
fights early if a gladiator is close to death. An Editor with a low Clemency will insist that
gladiators fight on. The default value is 1

Pace
The fight overseers will drive gladiators to faster, more exciting fights, or slower, more
tactical fights, based on the Editors preferred Pace. The default value is 1 (Justice).

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Popularity
Some editors seek to win the favour of the mob, others maintain a haughty indifference to
the baying of the crowd. An Editors Popularity modifier is applied to the Popularity gained
or lost by a gladiator in a fight. The default value is 1 (Integrity).

To ensure that no individual monopolises the public eye, Imperial Decree requires that no two
consecutive games be overseen by the same Editor.

Example : If Albinus Messalina is Editor of the Games in Turn 3, he cannot be Editor in Turn 4. One of
the others must be appointed in Turn 4. However, Albinus Messalina can be Editor again in Turn 5.

Editors are selected a turn in advance, so that Owners know who will be running the coming set of
games, from the start of the turn.

Example : The Aediles are elected at the end of Turn 2. In Turn 3, they vote for the Editor to run the
Turn 4 Games. Their choice is announced at the start of Turn 3, so that all owners know who will be
in charge, when they are creating their orders.

At least 3 votes are required to select an Editor. Otherwise, a default Editor will be chosen. A default
Editor is always chosen for the Turn 3 games.

Trade Reserve
When a gladiator is traded, he will have a minimum price set upon him by the Imperial Inspectors.

By default, the Trade Reserve modifiers is set at Medium (x1). It can be modified to High or Low if a
minimum of 3 Aediles agree.

Changing the Trade Reserve modifier always requires 3 Aediles in agreement.

Grant S upplements
To support the Aediles in maintaining competition, funds can be made available to supplement the
monthly Imperial Grant.

Each turn, an Aedile can propose how to split any supplementary funds between houses. Each Aedile
may make one such proposal per turn. A proposal cannot be changed once submitted, but the Aedile
is not obliged to support his or her own proposal.

The proposal must include at least 1 house, and no more than 4 houses. It is perfectly acceptable for
an Aedile to include his or her own house in the proposed split.

The Aediles vote on any proposals, and can change their vote throughout the turn. Each Aedile has
one vote. An Aedile is not required to support any proposal, even if he or she made one. An Aedile
can withdraw his or her support at any time during the turn.

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An Aedile who supports any proposal at the deadline is expected to contribute 6 HS to a fund for the
Supplement. This is matched by the public purse, so that each proposal supported gains 12 HS for
the fund.

An Aedile who supports no proposal makes no contribution to the fund.

If any proposal receives a majority, the total fund is split evenly among the houses named in the
proposal. A majority requires no minimum vote: if only one Aedile votes, that proposal wins.

A house can be named more than once, and then receive more than one share. However, the total
number of shares cannot exceed 4.

Example: An Aedile proposes three shares: House A; House A; House B. If the proposal is successful.
House A receives two thirds of the supplementary fund, and House B receives one third.

If there is a tie for the winning proposal, no proposal wins and all contributions are held over to
further supplement the next turns funds (rollover).

Those who make contributions do so at turn rollover. If the Aedile lacks sufficient funds to make a
contribution, his or her vote is discarded.

45


46


STAFF
Staff are not slaves. They are paid experts (see Money), hired on a turn-by-turn basis to train your
gladiators or undertake other duties. Their most common use is as gladiator trainers, but as your
house grows, you may hire staff to specialise in areas other than training.

Each member of staff will have a Level, generally between 10 and 20, in the following 6 areas:

Arma Praxi Cursus Gymnas Halteres Luctamen Medicina
Weapons Running Gymnastics Weights Wrestling Healing

The first five areas correspond to training options for gladiators. The sixth, Medicina, counts towards
injury recovery rather than training.

Training and injury recovery will be covered below, where we will also see how the different training
options affect the development of gladiators.

In addition to their 6 levels, staff will have:

A gladiatorial class Specialism (one class only, e.g. Thracian or Myrmillo)

Three attribute specialisms, one in each of Animus, Corpus and Praxis (for example, they
might be strong in training up Discipline, Endurance and Defence)
o These improve the chance that gladiators improve in these attributes
A natio (a Roman concept based on place of origin)
An age
An allegiance
A name given by the first owner to hire them

Trainers
By default, staff become Trainers at your barracks, and can be assigned up to 4 gladiators each to
train.

Medicus
If your barracks has an Infirmary, then one member of Staff can be appointed Medicus (Surgeon). He
is selected on the Staff tab for your Barracks. A Medicus spends his time in the Infirmary, so any
gladiators assigned to a Medicus can be healed but not trained. However, the Medicus gains a bonus
to his healing skill. Furthermore, any gladiators assigned Healing as part of their training regimen
with other staff will visit the Infirmary, and use the Healing skill of the Medicus for Injury Recovery.

A Trainer cannot act as both Lanista and Medicus.

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Lanista
You can set up one Trainer as your Head Trainer by building a Lansitas House just outside your
barracks, then appointing one member of Staff as Lanista (Master Trainer). He is selected on the
Staff tab for your Barracks.

The primary responsibility of a Lanista is to meet the expectations of the crowd by cultivating
excellent weapons skills. A Lanista drives other trainers to meet his own standards of Arma Praxi
(weapons skills), and drills gladiators in the need to obey Instructions.

Appointing a Lanista brings the following automatic benefits:

All trainers including the Lanista gain a boost to their Base Chance of raising Arma Praxi. The
boost is equal to 33.33% of the Lanistas own Arma Praxi skill, rounded to the nearest whole
number
During fights, all gladiators from a house with a Lanista gain a bonus to their chance of
following an Instruction (see Instructions)

A Trainer cannot act as both Lanista and Medicus.

The Tavern
To hire staff, visit the Tavern. Unemployed staff will hang around here, hoping for a job offer. Staff
available for hire will have a button marked Approach, and they will be quick to provide advice on
their skills. However, they still want to test the market, and wont accept an offer on the spot.
Everyone gets a chance to hire staff, without favouring the first or last to visit each turn.

To offer a job, enter the amount youre prepared to pay each turn. Youll get an immediate
indication of your chances, as one of three possible responses:

An outright rejection (no)

Interest (maybe)
Strong interest (probably)

If your first offer doesnt get the response you want, you can improve it. A hireling will give you a
total of three chances, after which he will assume he has the best offer from you, and disengage.

You cannot amend your offer after you have made the maximum number of approaches, however
you can still withdraw it. Withdrawal of an offer does not mean you can start afresh with the trainer,
it just means that your latest offer will be discarded.

Only your latest offer counts. If it is met with an outright rejection, you will definitely not hire him
this turn. If it is met with a maybe or probably then theres a chance he may work for you.

Priority
You can improve your chances of hiring one trainer by paying him particular attention. He can be
made your Priority for the turn. This involves a fair amount of wining, dining and flattery (and all by
you in person), but it can reap dividends.

The benefit is that if you turn out to be the only owner making a specific trainer Priority for the turn,
and so long as you offer above his minimum, he will automatically accept your offer and join your

48


house. The disadvantage is that you cant lavish this much attention on more than one trainer a
turn, and it wont go unnoticed. Others visiting the tavern are likely to find out about your interest.

Hires
At the deadline, offers which fail to meet a trainers minimum value will be discarded.

Next, any Priority offers will be considered, in descending order of value. Finally, any remaining
offers will be considered in descending order of value.

Priority offers are considered before others. There can be only one Priority offer per house.

If a trainer receives a Priority offer from only one house he will accept it
If a trainer receives Priority offers from more than one house, he will accept the highest
value Priority offer
A trainer will always accept Priority offers before others, even if the others offer a higher
value.

Once the Priority offers have been resolved, the remaining offers will be considered in favour of the
highest value offers.

Like buying gladiators in the market, staff are considered in turn, starting with the one receiving the
highest offer. However, there are two important differences with staff:

1. They must be paid every turn

2. What you offer is what you pay

Firing S taff
You can Fire staff at any time. When Fired, staff immediately leave your House. Note that if training
has not been completed, any gladiators assigned to the fired trainer will not receive the benefits of
his training.

Staff will be fired automatically if you lack funds to pay them at the start of a turn (see Money).

Fired trainers will generally hang around the Tavern looking for a new job. However, they will not
accept offers from an owner who fired them in the current game year.

Happiness
Staff may not be content to stick with your house indefinitely. Each has a current value for
Happiness, which is shown on their profile page.

You can give a member of your staff a Raise to reward good performance or retain them. The Raise
will be 1 Sestertius a month, and the first Raise in any turn will set their Happiness to its Happiness
After Raise value. Multiple raises can be given in a turn, but only the first of the turn yields a
Happiness benefit.

A member of staff with a Happiness below 5 may leave your House, and a member of staff with a
Happiness of 0 at the end of the game year will definitely depart.

49


Allegiance and Loyalty

Staff will remain most loyal to a House which shares their allegiance to a faction. The allegiance of a
member of staff is indicated by the colour of the icon in the bottom right of their portrait. The colour
of the icon will match the allegiance colours for houses. Sharing the same allegiance is likely to make
it easier or cheaper to retain a member of staff.

At the start of each game year, Staff lose 1 point of Happiness if their allegiance is to a faction
different from that of their House. This rises to a loss of 2 points of Happiness if the House allegiance
is the rival of their own.

Temperament
Temperament can take a number of forms, each of which affects their starting Happiness; response
to a Raise; and maximum Happiness. Staff will always join a new House with their Starting Value for
Happiness.

Temperament Description Starting Happiness Maximum

Value after Raise Value
Ambitious Happiness depends on being part of a 12 12 15
winning House. In each turn his House
wins more House fights than it loses,
Happiness rises by 1. In each turn his
House loses more House fights than it
wins, Happiness falls by 1.
Even Default. The individual has no notable 12 12 14
virtues or vices. Loses 1 point of
Happiness every 3 turns.
Genius An innovator. 15% chance per turn that 9 12 12
he will train or heal with a x1.2 modifier
to his skills, but requires constant
recognition. Happiness falls by 1 every 2
turns since his last raise.
Lazy (Easy Going) Tends to be happy so long as he has a 14 14 16
job. Loses 1 point of Happiness every 3
turns.
Loyal Happiness depends on being employed 12 12 12
by a House which shares the same
allegiance. If not, then 1 point of
Happiness is lost every 2 turns. This rises
to 1 point every turn if the House is in
allegiance to a faction in rivalry with that
of the individual.
Surly Happiness depends on constant 10 10 12
recognition. Happiness falls by 1 every 2
turns since his last raise.
Vice (Drink) Enjoys a drink more than most. 14 9-15 16
Occasionally wakes up somewhere
unfamiliar. 15% chance per turn that he
will train or heal with a x0.9 penalty to

50


his skills. Loses Happiness erratically

from the third turn after a raise. 40%
chance of losing 1 or 2 levels each turn
thereafter. Responds unpredictably to a
raise.
Vice (Sex) Unusual peccadillos. May disappear for 10-14 10-14 16
days on end. 15% chance per turn that
he will train or heal with a x0.9 penalty
to his skills. Loses Happiness erratically
from the third turn after a raise. 40%
chance of losing 1 or 2 levels each turn
thereafter. Responds unpredictably to a
raise.

You may glimpse this aspect of their character when you approach them with job offers. Its up to
you whether or not to set much store by their responses at the Tavern.

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TRAINING
Once each month, you can train your gladiators, so long as you have enough trainers. Gladiators are
trained by:

1. Assigning them to trainers

2. Choosing which training options the trainer will use

Having more trainers gives you more training options, and allows you to train more gladiators. One
trainer can train up to four gladiators each turn. Success will be influenced by the qualities of your
trainers.

Different gladiators can be assigned to different trainers. All the gladiators assigned to the same
trainer will follow the same training. The set of training options used by a trainer is called a training
regimen. The training regimen can be changed each month.

There are 5 training options, and each trainer has a level in each of the 5 training options (the trainer
also has a 6th level, which reflects the trainers ability to assist injury recovery. We will cover this
under injuries).

Each of the 5 training options has a potential to change a gladiator by:

a. Raising one of his 3 levels by one (Animus, Corpus or Praxis)

b. Changing the balance of his attributes by 5% in one area (e.g. Discipline, Initiative or Guile)

Because the 3 attributes in the same area always add up to 100%, a rise in one attribute will always
require a fall of 5% in one of the areas other 2 attributes (the highest of the two).

Level Attribute
Arma Praxi Praxis Initiative or
Weapons training Attack or
Trainer Praxis specialism
Cursus Corpus Endurance or
Running Endurance or
Trainer Corpus specialism
Gymnas Animus Discipline or
Gymnastics Movement or
Trainer Animus specialism
Halteres Corpus Discipline or
Weights Strength or
Trainer Corpus specialism

Luctamen Animus Guile or
Wrestling Defend or
Trainer Animus specialism

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A trainer can use any number of these options in his training regimen
o However, as more are used, it reduces the chance of a particular one leading to
improvement (see Training Chances, below)
Each of the 3 levels (Animus, Corpus and Praxis) can improve in the same turn
o But none can improve by more than +1 in the same turn
An attribute change can only happen if there is a level change

Training Chances

The chance of a gladiator rising one level as a result of a training option is as follows:

Base Chance of Change

40% + (3* x [Trainer Level] ) + (1.25 x Discipline) + (0.25 x [Experience]) - [High Low Mean]%

3* - The multiplier for Trainer level rises to 3.5 if the trainers class specialism matches the
gladiators class
Trainer Level The trainers level in the relevant area (e.g. Halteres for Halteres training)
Discipline The gladiators levels of Discipline (e.g. a gladiator with 10 levels in Animus, and
a 50% rating in Discipline, has 5 levels of Discipline)
High Low Mean - The average (mean) of two levels (the highest and the lowest) from the
gladiators Animus, Corpus and Praxis (e.g . a gladiator with 10 levels of Animus, 18 levels of
Corpus and 20 levels of Praxis would have a High Low Mean of 15: his highest level is 20; his
lowest is 10; and the average of the two is 15)

This is modified depending on how many of the training options the trainer uses in the same game
turn:

Options used Modifier to base Cumulative modifier

chance
1 1 1
2 0.65 1.3
3 0.45 1.35
4 0.3 1.2
5 0.2 1
6 0.15 0.9

Over-crowding Penalties
If a barracks houses more gladiators than its intended capacity, it is considered over-crowded. The
capacity of a barracks is explained under Estates, and can be expanded by extending your buildings.

For each gladiator above capacity, there is an additional modifier to the training chance, including all
other modifiers:

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Number of extra Muliplier

gladiators
+1 0.95
+2 0.9
+3 0.85
+4 0.8
+5 0.75
+6 0.7
+7 0.65
+8 0.6
+9 0.55
>+9 0.5

Attribute changes
A change of level may also lead to a shift of 5% from one attribute to another. The chance of change
is 50%, and if a change is indicated, then one attribute will be selected to gain 5%:

EITHER one of the two attributes associated with the relevant form of training (Halteres,
Cursus, etc)
OR one of the 3 staff specialisms (whichever is associated with the relevant level-up)

This gives 3 candidates for change (note that sometimes the same attribute can be a candidate more
than once). One of the 3 will be randomly selected, but the choice will be weighted towards the
lowest, and can never be an attribute at 60% (if all three possible attributes are 60%, then there is
no attribute change).

Weighting for each attribute = 60 points

Once an attribute has been identified, it will be increased by 5 points at the expense of the highest
other attribute of the same Level.

Final Year Gladiators

After three years, there is little a seasoned gladiator can learn from Training. In his fourth year of
service, a gladiator:

cannot gain further levels through Training

cannot change his attributes through Training

However, his Diet and Medical treatment can still affect him. Therefore, he may still be assigned a
Trainer and be assigned a Regimen.

54


DIET
The Roman medical expert Galen was a great believer in the importance of diet in the development
of gladiators. A group of gladiators sharing a trainer and training programme will also eat together,
and therefore share the same diet. Diets are therefore set as part of training. The options are:

Default

Goat Meat and Goats Milk Barley and Beans Fruit and fish

Goat meat and Goats Milk

The standard diet is roast goat meat, bread and goats milk.

Barley and Beans

If you want to bulk up your gladiators, you can make them barleymen by feeding them a diet of
barley and beans. It was widely believed that adding Bulk in the form of fat helped to protect a
gladiator. A Barley and Beans diet creates a chance of a gladiator gaining 5 points of Bulk at the
expense of Strength or Endurance. The chance is:

Bulk Change Chance

(65-B) / 2 %
Where B is the gladiators current Bulk value.

Fruit and Fish

This is an expensive diet and costs 1.5 HS per gladiator enjoying it (rounded down to the nearest
Sestertius).

A diet of Fruit and Fish can assist injury recovery. It allows a 50% chance per Body Part of recovering
2 HPs, else it recovers 1 HP, in addition to any other recovery. It is capable of healing multiple Body
Parts in this way.

55


Upgrade Points
When a gladiator gains a Level of Praxis, he gains an Upgrade Point. One Upgrade Point can be used
to upgrade his Moves or to acquire fighting Techniques.

Upgrade Points must be spent in the year they are acquired.

Look for the following indication that a gladiator has one or more upgrade points available:

Any available Upgrade Points will be shown on both the Gladiator listing, and his own page. The link
to spend the Upgrade Points appears on the gladiators own page, which can be reached via the
Gladiators listing at your Barracks.

56


Techniques
Fighting Techniques can be acquired through spending Upgrade Points. Techniques enhance other
aspects of a gladiators combat abilities.

Techniques cannot be acquired in the first year of a gladiators career.

Techniques themselves have Levels, and it is often possible to develop a Technique beyond the
starting value by spending additional Upgrade Points.

The following Techniques are available:

Technique Description Effect Maximum

Level
Heft Techniques to maximise +1 damage bonus per Heft 2
damage using weight and level, applied before Juggernaut
leverage modifier; cannot be gained on
the Net.
Precision Awareness of anatomy and +1 damage bonus per level per 2
armour weak points and how to round to any blood loss from
exploit them. Blooding; no effect unless the
weapon inflicts Blooding

57


MOVES
Combat involves a series of Moves, one by each gladiator. The most important Moves are:

Attack Moves, used to try to strike or trap an opponent

Defence Moves, used to block or evade an Attack

However, there are other types of Move:

Holding Moves, used when an opponent is trapped

Escape Moves, used to escape a net or other trap

Each Move has a rating, which is based on a gladiators class and Virtues.

In the case of Attacks and Defences, not all Moves are available from the start of a gladiators career,
and some must be learnt (see Upgrade Points, above).

Attack Moves and Defence Moves include:

Instinctive Moves which any gladiator will be assumed know from the start. Any gladiator
can use these Moves at any time. These are Level 0 moves
Basic Moves, which a gladiator can learn in his first Year or later. These are Level 1 moves
Advanced Moves (and Specialist Defences), which a gladiator can learn in his second Year or
later. These are Level 2 moves
Expert Attacks, which a gladiator can only learn in his third Year or later. These are Level 3
moves

Tactics progress

Attacks Defences
Instinctive Instinctive
Basic Basic
Advanced Advanced Specialist
Expert

Furthermore, Attack Moves have three categories:

Fontal attacks
Attacks from the Right
Attacks from the Left

While Defences Moves also have three categories:

Left-arm blocks
Right-arm blocks
Evading Moves

These descriptive terms are loose, but distinguish which weapon will be used:

Frontal and right-hand attacks depend on the weapon held in the right hand

58


Left-hand attacks depend on the weapon held in the left hand

Every Defence will be particularly effective (or ineffective) against particular categories of Attack.
Once a gladiator has been trained to use it, a Defence will generally be:

Strong against one category of Attack

Moderate against a second
Weak against the other

All gladiators start with 3 basic Attacks (one in each category) and 3 basic Defences (one of which is
generally weaker against a particular category of attack). These are Instinctive Attacks and Defences,
and will be the only tactics known to a gladiator at the start of his career.

Once a gladiator is given a class and starts to be trained, he can learn additional levels in specific
categories of Attacks and Defences. These progress from Instinctive through Basic to Advanced and
beyond. Each gladiator Class has:

one Frontal attack at each Level (Basic to Expert , L0-3)

one Right attack at each Level (Basic to Expert , L0-3)
one Left attack at each Level (Basic to Expert , L0-3)
one or more Left defences at each Level (Basic to Advanced, L0-3)
one or more Right defences at each Level(0-3)
one or more Evading defences at each Level(0-3).

Upgrading gains access to all moves of a specific category at the next Level, and in some cases that
can mean multiple new Moves.

Specialist Defences may or may not be available, depending on the class.

Move Levels and Changing Class

If a highly-trained gladiator changes class, he may lose levels in his Moves. His former training may
not apply to his new class.

Any Level 2 Moves will be reduced to Level 12, and any Level 3 Moves will be reduced to Level 2.

Level 1 Moves are not affected, as the basic principles can be adapted to a new fighting style.

Move Levels and Damage

When a hit lands, the damage caused is based on the Weapon used, and may be enhanced by the
attacking gladiators Bulk and Strength.

Furthermore, a comparison is made between the Levels of the Moves used by each gladiator : the
Level of the Attack Move, and the Level of the Defence Move.

If the Attack Move is a higher Level Move, the damage is increased to 150% of its value

2
The loss of Level 2 only applies to class changes from AUC IV onwards. The loss of Level 3
applies from AUC III.

59


If the Attack Move is two or more Levels higher than the Defence Move, the damage is
doubled

These damage multipliers apply to the damage from the Weapon and any Hit Bonuses.

Height
If a gladiator is taller than his opponent, he will gain a small bonus to Frontal Attacks. If he is shorter,
he will gain a small bonus to Evading Defences.

Other Moves
In the case of Holding Moves, the attacker will use his Frontal attack level. In the case of Escape
Moves, the gladiator will have access to Moves equal to or less than his current Year.

Training Moves
When a gladiator gains a Level of Praxis, he gains an Upgrade Point. One Upgrade Point can be used
to upgrade one of the following, at any time:

Frontal Attack Moves

Right Attack Moves
Left Attack Moves
Left Defence Moves
Evasion Moves

A Move can only be upgraded if the gladiators current Year is the same as, or more than, the new
Level.

Upgrade Points may be carried over between turns, but not between game years.

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POPULARITY
The Popularity of a gladiator is an important gauge of success. It is a barometer of the gladiators
support in the city, and the total Popularity of its gladiators may influence whether a House is invited
to contest the Championship at the end of the year.

Popularity also influences the chance of survival if a gladiator loses a fight to the death and pleads
for missio.

A gladiator starts unknown, and therefore with no Popularity. However, if he wins a fight, and
demonstrates flair, his reputation will grow.

There is a difference between a gladiators Popularity with the crowd watching a particular fight, and
his Popularity in the city at large.

During the fight

In a fight, the gladiators Popularity reflects the proportion of the crowd wanting him to win. Since
the entire crowd will take sides and support one or other of the two combatants, the total Popularity
of the two gladiators will equal 100% In this way, a gladiator may gain new support, depending on
his class and reputation.

At the start of each fight, each gladiator can rely on the support of at least a third of the crowd. With
two gladiators, that means two thirds of the crowd are accounted. The remaining third of the crowd
will decide based on the relative Popularity of the gladiators. This will be split in proportion to their
Popularity, with a modifier for class : the undecided part of the crowd will want to see variety, and
tend to favour less successful classes.

If they both gladiators are unknown (no Popularity), and belong to classes with similar success, each
gladiator starts the fight with half the crowd on his side.

During the fight, the sympathies of the crowd are likely to change, depending on the qualities
displayed by the two gladiators.

Crowds are generally bloodthirsty and boorish. They will respond positively to:

Hits (specially damaging ones)

Striking an opponent so hard on the head that he becomes Dazed
Inflicting an open wound on an opponent
Capturing a gladiator in a Net or other Constraint
Escaping a Net or other Constraint
Winning a round of any Tug of War

Therefore a different proportion of the crowd is likely to support a gladiator at the end of a fight,
than at the start.

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Missio
If a fight is to the Death, and one gladiator surrenders without being killed, he may appeal to the
crowd for mercy. He may be spared if he remains popular. This is called pleading for Missio.

His chance of success is exactly the same as his Popularity with the crowd at the end of the fight.

After the fight

The outcome of a fight will have a lasting effect on the gladiators Popularity across the city. Some of
the crowd who watched him fight may become long-term supporters, others may only have
supported him for the duration of the fight.

After each Fight:

The Victor gains 10 x C% Popularity points

The Loser s Popularity is modified by (10 x C%) - 5 Popularity points

Where C% represents the percentage of the Crowd supporting the gladiator at the end of the fight.

Example. Gladiator A fights Gladiator B, and both have a Popularity of 20 before the fight. They each
start the fight with 50% of the crowd on their side. A defeats B, and the crowd finishes the fight split
60:40 in favour of A. As the Victor, A gains (10x60%=10x0.6=) +6 Popularity. His city-wide Popularity
is now (20+6=) 26. Since B lost the fight his Popularity is modified by ((10x40%=) 4 5 =) -1, and
becomes 19.

Popularity Prize
A different calculation is used if a gladiator defeats a gladiator who had more Popularity before the
fight (a giant-killing). Where the winning gladiator started the fight less Popular than the losing
gladiator, a Popularity Prize is added to the Winners Popularity boost, and may change the Losers
Popularity.

The Popularity Prize (Z) is equal to the difference between the Popularity of the two gladiators
divided by five:

The Victor gains 10 x C% + Z Popularity points

The Loser s Popularity is modified by (10 x C%) - N Popularity points

Where Z is the Popularity Prize, and N is 5 or Z (whichever is higher).

The Popularity Prize only applies to the Winner if it is positive.

Minimum Popularity
Regardless of the above, can ever have less than 1 Popularity point after his first fight.

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Experience
As a gladiator gains Experience from fights in the arena, he will mature from being a Tyro (Novice) to
being a Spectatus and ultimately a Veteranus. This is sometimes called his status, and the status of a
gladiator is shown against his name on notices (and therefore on the website).

Furthermore, as he gains Experience, his ability to use his skills improves. During combat, his
Animus, Corpus and Praxis are all modified by an Experience bonus as follows:

Fights survived Status Experience Bonus

0 Tyro 0
1 Tyro +1
2 - 3 Spectatus +1
4 - 8 Spectatus +2
9 Spectatus +3
10 - 15 Veteranus +3
16 24 Veteranus +4
25 + Veteranus +5

Note that Tyro fights count as full fights for Experience. The gladiators first experiences in front of a
large crowd will yield as much benefit from a short bout as a long one. It is only as a gladiator
becomes accustomed to the crowd that the experience yields other benefits.

The result of a fight makes no difference to the Experience gained. A Win brings no more Experience
than a Loss, and so long as the gladiator survives, he will accumulate benefit from his fights.

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SHOUTS
Shouts are a chance for owners to add some character to their gladiators. They are phrases which
appear in the fight viewer, during a fight.

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INJURIES
In the course of fights, gladiators are likely to suffer injuries. These will generally be the result of
strikes from their opponent, which were not absorbed by armour. The severity of an Injury is
measured in Health Points (HPs). The higher the HPs, the worse the Injury.

Health
Each gladiator can absorb a fixed amount of Health Points. The amount depends on his Bulk, his
Discipline, and his overall level in Corpus. The most important of these is his levels in Bulk, in
accordance with the Roman conviction that layers of body fat were protective.

A fully fit gladiator, with no Injuries, is considered to have 100% Health. This means he is capable of
taking his full amount of Health Points.

Each time a gladiator suffers an Injury, his Health is reduced by a number of Health Points. His
Health will be represented as a percentage of his maximum.

A gladiator who reaches less than 5% Health may collapse. A gladiator who falls below 0% Health
will die if he has less than -3 HPs.

At all times, the gladiators overall Health matters most. Both for his survival, and his victory.

Anatomy
Injuries have more subtle effects when we consider how they affect the body.

The anatomy describes how hit locations and armour protection are determined. There are 6 major
parts of the body : the Head, Torso, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg and Left Leg. These are then split
into 3 Protection Areas each, and each Protection Area has 2 hit locations. This makes a total of 18
Areas and 36 Targets.

Code Body Part Protection Areas Hit Location

HD Head Face Face
Jaw
Crown Crown
Forehead
Neck Neck
Throat
TR Torso Chest Chest
Ribs
Stomach Stomach
Groin
Back Shoulder Blades
Lower Back
RA Right Arm Shoulder Shoulder
Collar

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Arm Arm
Elbow
Forearm Forearm
Hand
LA Left Arm Shoulder Shoulder
Collar
Arm Arm
Elbow
Forearm Forearm
Hand
RL Right Leg Thigh Thigh
Hip
Knee Knee
Shin
Calf Calf
Foot
LL Left Leg Thigh Thigh
Hip
Knee Knee
Shin
Calf Calf
Foot

If a gladiator is struck, one of the 6 Body Parts will be identified as the target, based on the weapon
and type of attack. From within the Body Part, one of the 3 protection areas will be identified, to see
if armour protected the gladiator from the blow (in whole or part). If not, then one of the 2 hit
locations will be selected to report the blow. In short:

Body Parts : hits and wounds are recorded at this level

Protection Areas : armour works at this level
Hit Locations : used for reporting hits

When a gladiator takes a hit, the damage will not only reduce the gladiators overall Health. It is also
recorded against one of these six Body Parts. So as Health comes down, damage to the six Body
Parts rises.

After the fight, the six Body Parts will recover independently. This is covered under Injury Recovery,
below. A gladiator must reach zero damage in all six Body Parts before he recover full fitness.

Furthermore, damage to a specific Body Part can have a direct impact on the gladiators Levels
(remember that Levels are the scores in Animus, Corpus and Praxis). For example, damage to the
Head can reduce Animus; damage to the Torso can affect Corpus; and damage to the arms and legs
can reduce Praxis.

Body Part Level Affected

Head Animus (A)
Torso Corpus (C)
Arms and Legs Praxis (P)

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For each 8 points of Injury currently affecting a Body Part, a 5% penalty is applied to one of the
gladiators Levels, up to the following maximums from any single Body Part:

1st Year as a Gladiator 5% of Level per Body Part

2nd Year as a Gladiator 10% of Level per Body Part
3rd Year as a Gladiator 15% of Level per Body Part
4th Year as a Gladiator 20% of Level per Body Part

Example. A gladiator with 24 points of damage to his Head, and 9 points of damage to his Torso,
could lose up to 15% of his Animus Levels due to Head Injuries, and 5% of his Corpus Levels due to
Torso Injuries. However, if he is in his second year of service, the maximum he can lose due to Injuries
from any area is 10%. Therefore, the impact of the Head Injuries is reduced to 10%.

A tired and battered veteran in his fourth year could be penalised for as much as 40% of each of his
three Levels through Injuries during a fight, but a Gladiator in his first year can only be penalised
10%.

Targets
For reporting purposes only, Areas are each split into two smaller Targets. For example, the Right
Thigh has both a Right Thigh and Right Hip target; the Right Calf has a Right Calf and Right Foot
target; and the Right Knee has a Right Knee and Right Shin target. The Targets of every Area will
share the same level of armour protection.

S umming Up
Blows from an opponent will strike a specific Target. Any armour worn on that Area will reduce the
Damage taken. Damage is measured in Hit Points, which are deducted from the gladiators Health.
If a gladiators Health gets too low, he will collapse or die. During a fight, Damage to any Body Part
can lead to a penalty for Levels. The Body Part hit determines which Level suffers a penalty.

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Armour
Armour applies to an Area, and Armour always covers at least one Areas. Some pieces of Armour
cover more than one Area.

Example. The Right Leg is one of the six Body Parts. Its Areas are the Right Thigh, Right Knee and
Right Calf. Some gladiator classes may wear armour which protects only the Right Calf, while others
may wear bindings which cover all three areas of the Right Leg.

Armour reduces the Health Points (HPs) taken from a hit. The HPs absorbed will be a random value
within a range determined by its material, which will be one of the following:

Iron
Leather
Cloth

Iron armour offers the best protection, then Leather, then Cloth.

Total and Partial Cover

A piece of armour can provide Total or Partial cover to an Area. Total cover gives the best protection,
and will always absorb some damage. Partial cover provides a lower level of protection, including
the possibility of absorbing 0 HPs.

Multiple Cover
Some areas are covered by more than one piece of Armour. In this case, their protection is
cumulative.

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INJURY RECOVERY
Damage penalties to Levels are not permanent. Levels will continue to be shown at their full value.
Damage penalties are only applied during fights.

Damage to Health and Hit Points can be recovered through Injury Recovery. Most Injury Recovery
occurs as part of Training (in historical terms a gladiator would be as likely to die as recover
naturally; expert care was essential).

A gladiator who remains alive after a fight may recover from injuries in up to four ways as part of
training::

Immediate Recovery
Natural recovery
Diet
Treatment

Immediate Recovery
If a gladiator survives a fight, he immediately recovers half the damage suffered on each Body Part.
This reflects the sharply diminishing impact of trauma, and that some fight damage is short-lived.
Immediate Recovery is automatic, and gained immediately after a fight.

Natural Recovery
This only occurs as part of training, and requires that the gladiator be assigned a trainer. When
Natural Recovery takes place, damage to each injured Body Part will automatically fall by 1 HP per
turn, plus a percentage of the current Damage equal to the gladiators levels in Strength.

Example. Before training, a gladiator has 12 Damage to his Right Arm, 21 Damage to his Left Arm
and 28 Damage to his Torso. He has 20 Levels in Corpus, and a Strength of 50% (so 50% of his 20
Corpus Levels are in Strength, meaning he has 10 Levels of Strength). During Training, the gladiators
injured Body Parts will each recover by (1 + 10%). His Right Arm will recover by 2 HPs; and his Left
Arm will recover by 3 HPs (because 2.1 rounds down to 2); and his Torso will recover by 4 HPs
(because 2.8 rounds up to 3).

Diet
A gladiators Diet, chosen as part of Training, may accelerate training. For more information, see the
rules on Diet.

Treatment
This only occurs as part of training, and requires that the gladiator be assigned a Trainer or Medicus.
Each member of staff has a skill in Medicina, which reflects his potential skill in treating Gladiators

69


assigned to him. The higher the Medicina skill, the better the chance the Trainer can heal the
Gladiator.

However, the Trainer must be allowed time to treat his injured Gladiators. The Medicina Training
Option covers treatment, but in all other respects acts like the other Training Options. As with all
forms of Training, it only takes effect if it is used, and the chances of success diminish if the Trainer is
required to complete several different types of Training in the same turn.

If an injured gladiator is assigned to a Trainer using only the Medicina Training Option, each Body
Part will recover a percentage of lost Health Points (HPs) based on the Trainers Medicine rating.

Treatment Recovery = Medicine x 2.2 %

In this case, the number of healed HPs is rounded up.

If the Trainer uses other Training Options in addition to Medicina, the value of the treatment is
modified in the same way as other Training options:

Options used Modifier

1 100%
2 65%
3 45%
4 30%
5 20%
6 15%

Example. Our earlier a gladiator started with 12 Damage to his Right Arm, 21 Damage to his Left
Arm and 28 Damage to his Torso. In addition to Natural Recovery, his trainer spends the month
tending to his wounds, and he gains a rest from training. To do so, the Trainer uses only the
Medicina training option, meaning it works at 100%. The trainer has 15 Levels in Medicine, meaning
he heals (15 x 2.5 = ) 37.5% of the injuries on each body part. The gladiator will recover 37.5% of the
damage to each Body Part, in addition the any Natural Recovery. This equals 4.5 HPs on his Right
Arm; 7.8 HPs on his Left Arm; and 10.5 HPs on his Torso. Since rounding is up in this case, hell
recover 5HPs, 8HPs and 10HPs respectively from Medical treatment, in addition to any other
recovery.

Medicus
If your barracks has an Infirmary and a dedicated Medicus (Surgeon) then any gladiators assigned to
the Medicus will receive an enhanced Treatment Recovery rate:

Treatment Recovery = Medicine x 3 %

A Medicus can only conduct Healing and not combat Training.

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The Medicus also improves Treatment for gladiators assigned treatment with other Trainers. First,
his own Medicina (healing) Level is used rather than that of the assigned Trainer, and secondly, the
Treatment Recovery rate is higher:

Treatment Recovery = Medicine x 2.5 %

Permanent Injury
There is a risk that an injury will not fully recover. In this case, the Injury will be reported as
Permanent, and cease to recover beyond a certain point. In this case, Treatment, Diet or Natural
Recovery will have no effect on the Injury.

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AGEING
Gladiator Ageing
At the start of each game year, every gladiator gains 1 year of Service, 1 year of Age and loses a
proportion of the Levels gained in the previous game year (rounded to nearest whole number3).

Gladiator progression Levels lost

Year 1 to Year 2 33% of Levels gained in Year 1
Year 2 to Year 3 25% of Levels gained in Year 2
Year 3 to Year 4 None

Example. In his second year of service, a gladiator gains an extra 8 Levels in Animus; an extra 4 Levels
in Corpus; and an extra 3 Levels in Praxis. As he enters his third year, he will lose 3 of those Animus
Levels; 1 of the Corpus Levels; and 1 of the Praxis Levels.

By law, at the end of his fourth year of service as a gladiator, he is freed and leaves the game.

S taff Ageing
At the start of each game year, each member of Staff gains 1 year of Service, 1 year of Age and has
the potential to gain and lose levels in the six training areas:

Arma Praxi
Cursus
Gymnas
Halteres
Luctamen
Medicina

A member of staff will tend to specialise as he grows older; he will also tend to hit a peak.

First comes Specialisation. One of the six areas is selected at random, and compared with a second,
also selected at random. So long as the weaker of the two skills is level 4 or above, the better of the
two will rise by 2 levels (or 1 if the skill is currently above 16), the other will fall by 1 level. If the two
are equal in level, then one will be selected at random to rise, and the other will fall.

The same process is repeated is repeated a second and third time as part of Specialisation. It is
entirely possible for the same area to be selected repeatedly, even for the same comparison.

Note that less than 3 areas may change as a result of specialisation, because there will be no change
if the weaker area is already level 3 or less.

3
For ageing, from Year V rounding of 0.5 lost levels is down to 0; formerly it was up. In other game
effects rounding of 0.5 is up to 1, unless stated otherwise.

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Next comes the Maturity Test. A comparison is made between the age of the individual, and his total
levels across all 6 areas after Specialisation. If the total of skills levels exceeds 100 minus double the
age of the individual (his maturity test), he will lose levels from randomly selected areas. The
number lost will rise with the difference as follows:

Difference Levels lost*

>90 7
>70 6
>50 5
>40 4
>30 3
>10 2
>0 1
*Maximum levels lost through Maturity Test

Example. Aurelius is a 40-year trainer with 10 Levels in each of Arma Praxi, Cursus and Gymnas; and
12 Levels in each of Halteres, Luctamen and Medicina. His total Levels are therefore
10+10+10+12+12+12=66. His maturity test is (100-(2x40))=20. The difference between his total levels
and his maturity test is (66-20=) 46. Therefore, he will lose 4 Levels on his Maturity Test.These are
randomly selected, and turn out to be Arma Praxi, Cursus, Arma Praxi (again!) and Medicina. He
finishes the Maturity Test with 8 Levels in Arma Praxi, 9 in Cursus, and 11 in Medicina.

S taff Retirement
Staff in the following categories will seek a new occupation and not return for the new game year:

Unemployed
Happiness of 0
Happiness less than years of service.
Level 0 or less in any of the 6 training areas after ageing

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Trading

Houses can buy and sell gladiators with each other subject to the following restrictions, imposed to
protect competition, to ensure adherence to Imperial law, and to protect Imperial funds against
abuse.

Imperial Edicts for the Promotion of Competition

1. Gladiators can only be sold between Houses in the first 6 turns of the game year.
2. Each Sale takes the form of an exchange of Money for either one Gladiator or a pair of
Gladiators.
3. Each gladiator has a minimum price, set by an Imperial inspector at the start of the turn. A
gladiator cannot be sold for less than his minimum.
a. The minimum price is based on the gladiators total levels, his years of service, and a
modifier set by the Aediles.
4. Optional. The purchaser may seek to make good any shortfall in funds by offering a
makeweight gladiator or a a makeweight pair as as part of the exchange. Makeweights are
valued at their minimum price.
5. For the purposes of these rules, any reference to a Trade means a package of two or three
components: a gladiator or pair of gladiators from one house; a sum of money offered in
exchange; and optionally, a gladiator or pair of gladiators offered in part exchange.
6. Each trade must involve an exchange of money to form a contract. The minimum value of
that exchange is 1HS.
7. There are limits on the same two Houses trading in consecutive turns. These are covered
below.

Imperial Edicts for the Protection of S laves

8. A gladiator cannot be sold or otherwise exchanged in his final year of service (Year 4).
9. After an exchange, the new owner of a gladiator is bound by the usual restrictions in force,
including:
a. Service (a gladiator will be released after 4 complete years of service as a gladiator,
regardless of owners)
b. Name (if a name has been given by his former owner, it cannot be changed)
c. Class (if the deadline for changing class has passed, the gladiator will be bound to his
current class)
d. Any other restrictions which apply

Imperial Edicts for the Administration of S ale

10. A Trade must be completed in the turn it is created. At the turn rollover, all unresolved
trades are void.
11. Every Trade must be recorded with the Imperial Authorities using the Imperial website.
a. The purpose of the Trade screens is to record and administer a Trade.

74


b. It is assumed that players will have already agreed the terms via other
communications, and the Trade screens have not been designed to support
speculative offers.
12. Every Trade involves one Buyer and one Seller.
13. The Buyer is the player who sets up the Trade on the website, and who pays money.
14. The Seller is the other House involved in the Trade.
a. The Seller must always receive gladiators and/or funds at least equal to the value of
the gladiators he or she sells.
15. To set up a Trade, the Buyer identifies up to four things:
a. Optional. A label to identify the trade to himself and the other player
b. Mandatory. One gladiator or a pair of gladiators the Buyer wishes to purchase
c. Mandatory. The sum offered (mandatory)
d. Optional. A makeweight gladiator or pair offered to the Seller.
16. The Seller will see the offer and have one or two options:
a. Accept. If the offer is valid, the Seller will have the option to Accept.
b. Reject. The Seller will always have the option to Reject, and this will be the only
option if the offer is not valid.
17. The Buyer can Withdraw an Offer if the Seller has yet to respond.
18. A Buyer is limited to one successful Offer per turn.
a. A Buyer can only initiate one Offer at a time.
b. A Buyer cannot create a new Offer in the turn one of his or her Offers has
been Accepted.
c. A Buyer can receive unlimited Offers from other owners.
19. A Seller can receive an unlimited number of Offers at the same time.

Imperial Edicts on the Exchange of Gladiators

20. Gladiators are exchanged at the next deadline.
a. Gladiators are exchanged after the next fights have been run. The gladiators
remain with their current Houses for the next round of fights, and may be
entered in those fights.
b. Any gladiators involved in a successful exchange are immediately removed
from fight orders.
c. If a gladiator is killed in a fight before the exchange takes effect, the trade is
Void.
21. All trades are checked for available funds at the turn rollover.
a. Trade money is exchanged before all other financial transactions at a turn
rollover. They occur before Grants and fight money is awarded.
b. All trades are tested for available funds before any trades are processed.
Therefore, a House cannot use money gained from one trade to pay for
another trade in the same turn (to avoid contention over which trade
happens first)
c. If there are insufficient funds the trade Fails.

Imperial Edicts Against Money Laundering

22. A Buyer cannot act as Buyer from the same Seller in consecutive turns.

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2. Fights

FIGHT ENGINE
Combat in the arena takes the form of pairs of gladiators fighting one-on-one. The fundamental
concepts in combat are summarised below. Key game terms are highlighted in bold, and in some
cases explained in more detail below the summary.

S ummary
Combat is a succession of Rounds, representing a period of time roughly equivalent to 5
seconds of modern timekeeping
Each Round, one gladiator will have Advantage
Advantage is determined with a Check based on the Initiative and Movement of each
gladiator
The gladiator with Advantage becomes the Attacker, and the other gladiator becomes the
Defender
A gladiator with Advantage may choose to Attack his opponent, but can only do so if he is
close enough
Range is the measure of whether two gladiators are close enough for one to attack the other
o The possible ranges are : Distant, Apart, Close, Immediate
o A gladiators weapons determine how close an opponent must be for an Attack. For
example, a spear can reach further than a dagger
o A gladiator with longer weapons than his opponent will generally try to keep Apart,
while his opponent will try to get Close
If the gladiator with Advantage is not close enough to attack, he will generally use his
advantage to get closer
If the gladiator within Advantage does not Attack, there is a chance based on his Guile that
he will be able to position himself to better retain Advantage in the next round
If the Attacker decides to attack, he will select an Attack move
o Attacks include some which are instinctive, available to everyone, and some which
must be trained and are specific to a class
o Attacks vary in their strengths and weaknesses
o Attacks determine which hand, and therefore which Weapon are used
o Attacks generally fall into one of 3 categories: Frontal; Right and Left.
All Frontal and Right moves use the right-hand weapon
All Left moves use the left-hand weapon
o A small collection of Attacks are used in special circumstances, for example when
the opponent in trapped
In the same way, the Defender will select a Defence move from those available to him
o Defenses work in the same way as Attacks

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o Some will be better against Right-handed attacks; some will be better against Left-
handed attacks; and some are Evasive.
The two moves (the Attackers Attack and the Defenders Defence) will each have a value,
based on one or more of the gladiators attributes
o For example, some rely on Strength, such as attempting to knock down an opponent
with a charge; others rely on Guile, such as a sneaky feint
The value of the attackers Attack is compared with the defenders Defence, using a Relative
Roll (RR) Check
If the Check favours the attacker, his attack is a Hit. If it does not, the attack missed, or is
countered by the defender
If the Attack results in a Hit, a specific part of the defenders body is identified as the Hit
Location.
o This will be heavily influenced by what attacking Move was used. Attacks will
generally target specific parts of the body
A Hit is likely to Damage the defender, and the amount of Damage depends on the Weapon
used and the Attackers Strength or Bulk
If the defender wears Armour on the Hit Location, the value of the Armour will reduce the
Damage
The rest of the Damage will be deducted from the defenders Health
If the Defenders Health reaches zero, he will collapse unconscious. If it falls more than 3
points below zero, he is dead
In addition to Health, each gladiator has a rating for Stamina based on his Endurance
Each Round, each gladiator will suffer Fatigue, which reduces his remaining Stamina
If a gladiators Stamina falls to zero or less, he will drop to the sand and surrender, unable to
continue
The gladiators will continue fighting Round by Round until one of them wins
o In a fight to the death, a gladiator wins if he kills his opponent, or the opponent
surrenders
o In a fight to the fall, a gladiator wins when his opponent lies prone on the sand , or
surrenders

Virtues
A reminder that throughout combat, gladiators will rely on their number of Levels in various Virtues,
such as Discipline, Initiative and Strength. For example:

If a gladiator has 10 Levels in Animus, and a rating of 60 in Initiative, he has 6 levels of

Initiative (10 x 60%), because Initiative is percentage of his Animus (the rest of his Animus
being devoted to Discipline and Guile)
If a gladiator has 12 Levels in Corpus, and a rating of 50 in Endurance, he has 6 levels of
Endurance (12 x 50%), because Endurance is percentage of his Corpus (the rest of his Corpus
being used in Strength and Bulk)
Attacks and Defences each depend on particular virtues

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Raw Virtues
At times, the combat rules will mention Raw Virtues. These are used to make comparisons between
different virtues of the same gladiator, and in this case the number used is the actual rating plus the
Level (not multiplied by the Level). For example:

If a gladiator has 10 Levels in Animus, and a rating of 60 in Initiative, his Raw Initiative is
60+10=70

Raw Virtues are not widely used, and only apply to comparisons between different virtues of the
same gladiator.

Class Bonuses
Some classes gain Combat bonuses to Virtues, relative to other gladiators, due to their armour and
equipment.

Class Attribute Bonus Reason

Myrmillo Bulk x1.2 Heavy armour
Provocator Bulk x1.1 Armour
Retiarius Initiative x1.15 Excellent vision (no helmet)
Scissor Bulk x1.1 Armour
Secutor Bulk x1.1 Armour
Thracian Initiative x1.15 No cumbersome weaponry or armour

The Relative Roll

Most combat outcomes depend on comparing the Virtues of one gladiator, with the Virtues of his
opponent. This is done using a Relative Roll.

A gladiators chance of winning a Relative Roll is calculated as follows:

Add together the two gladiators Virtue

Produce a random number between 0 and the that number
If that random number if less than or equal to the first gladiators modified Virtue(s), he
wins; otherwise, the second gladiator wins
Each gladiator has a minimum chance of success, equal to 5%

A Relative Roll can compare any values:

Sometimes it may involve one Virtue, sometimes two or more

Sometimes it may be the same Virtue for each gladiator, sometimes different Virtues are
compared

Regardless of the specific Virtues involved, the Relative Roll offers a way to compare them and
identify a winner.

There is always one winner of a Relative Roll.

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Combat Rounds
Combat is resolved as a series of Combat Rounds, roughly equivalent to 5-15 seconds of time. There
can be any number of Combat Rounds in a fight, which continues until the victory is won by one
gladiator.

Advantage
Each Combat Round begins with a test to decide which gladiator has Advantage for that round. The
test is a Relative Roll. This test is based on a combination of Initiative and Movement. Movement
counts half (not rounded).

Advantage Weighting = Initiative + (0.5 x Manouvre)

Class Advantage Modifiers

Some classes gain a bonus from light armour or encumbrance.

Class Multiplier
Hoplomachus 1
Myrmillo 1
Provocator 1
Retiarius 1
Scissor 1.1
Secutor 1.1
Thracian 1.33

Attacks and Defences

Each round, the gladiator with Advantage will decide whether to attempt an attack. There are
circumstances in which a gladiator with Advantage cannot attack. For example, he may be too far for
his weapon to reach, or too close for him to bring his weapon to bear; in this case, he will use his
Advantage to change the Range between himself and his opponent.

Example: The Hoplomachus carries a spear, which allows him to strike his opponent from beyond
arms-length. He will seek to keep his opponent at a range where the Hoplomachus can hit, but a
sword-carrying opponent cannot reach him.

Where the Relative Roll for Advantage was close, a successful gladiator may manoeuvre rather than
attack. In this case, he will gain a bonus to his roll for Advantage in the following round.

This could lead to prolonged periods of manoeuvring. At such times, crowds tend to become
restless, and the gladiators will be driven forward by the referees.

When the gladiator with Advantage decides to attack, and will select one of the Attacks available to
him. The Attacks available will depend on his class and training, and may be influenced by the orders
he was given before the fight.

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A gladiator with strong Discipline is more likely to follow fight instructions than one with low
Discipline.

The Defender will select from the Defences available to him (again, this will depend on his class,
training and perhaps his fight orders).

Each Attack and each Defence have a value based on the gladiators attributes.

Most Attacks fall into one of 3 categories:

Frontal attacks
Right-hand attacks
Left-hand attacks

Most Defences fall into one of 3 catagories:

Defences against the opponents Right

Defences against the opponents Left
Evasion

A Defence which is strong against one type of Attack will be less effective against the others, and will
often leave the gladiator particularly exposed in one area.

The values for the chosen Attack and Defence are compared, and this decides if there has been a Hit.

If the Attacker lands a Hit on the Defender, his choice of Weapon (determined by the Attack he
used) will govern the maximum and minimum Health Points he might inflict. A random number
between the minimum and maximum is then generated, and this is the Base Damage.

The choice of Attack will strongly influence what part of the body is struck. If the Defender is wearing
Armour on that part of his body (as determined by his Class), the value of the Armour is deducted
from the Base Damage. In this way, Armour can completely absorb the impact of a blow.

Metal armour absorbs more damage than Leather armour

Leather armour absorbs more damage than Cloth armour

Any remaining damage is taken by the Defender, and deducted from his Health.

Hit Bonus
When a gladiator lands a hit on his opponent, his Strength or Bulk may allow him to add extra
damage. This is called a Hit Bonus. It is only possible when the blows damage would otherwise be
more than 1 (a graze), allowing little chance to apply leverage. Success is determined by a Relative
Roll, first on Strength then on Bulk. If either is successful, it will increase the blows damage by 1-4
HPs for lightly-armoured classes (left hand only); by 2-7 HPs for the Secutor and Scissor; by 2-8 HPs
for the Provocator; and by 2-10 HPs for the heavily armoured Myrmillo. This may lead to damage in
excess of the maximum possible from the weapon alone. It is not possible to gain more than one Hit
Bonus on the same hit.

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Blooding
If a blow strikes the defender on an unarmoured or lightly armoured location, there is a chance that
the defender will suffer an open wound which continues to lose Hit Points in subsequent rounds.
The chance of this is higher with edged weapons than blunt weapons, and some attacks allow the
Attackers Strength or Guile to increase the chance of blooding.

A blooded gladiator suffers the following penalties:

10% loss of Endurance

10% loss of Attack Praxis
20% loss of Defence Praxis
all Fatigue losses are increased by 30%

A gladiator can suffer multiple bloodings at the same time, and a blooding can cause the loss of
more than 1 HP per Round. However, the other penalties are the same regardless of the number or
severity of the blooding.

A gladiators chance of recovery from Blooding is based on his Bulk.

Wearing armour helps reduce the chance of Blooding.

Concussion
If a blow strikes the defender on the head, there is a chance that the defender will be dazed (suffer
concussion) for one or more rounds afterwards. The chance of this is higher with blunt weapons,
and some attacks allow the Attackers Strength to increase the chance of concussion. Where an
Attack move has an enhanced chance of dazing the opponent, the increased chance will be based on
the Attackers Strength.

A dazed gladiator suffers the following penalties:

30% reduction in Initiative

10% loss of Guile
40% loss of Movement
his chance of gaining advantage is further reduced by 70%
all Fatigue losses are increased by 50%

His chance of recovery is based on his Discipline.

A gladiator can suffer multiple concussions at the same time.

Beserk
A gladiator may lose his composure as a result of frustration or goading. In this case he becomes
Beserk and will attack recklessly without heed to stamina. A gladiator who is Beserk can become
more Beserk, and can therefore have multiple points of Beserk.

The chance of gaining Advantage will rise for a Beserk gladiator, but his Attack and Defence moves
will suffer a 25% penalty for each point of Beserk (to a maximum of 60%), and he will suffer

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multiplied Fatigue each Round until he regains composure. Good Discipline will reduce the chance
of a gladiator becoming Beserk.

When Beserk, a gladiator makes a Discipline check each round, and loses a point of Beserk if
successful (the maximum he can recover is one point each Round). Beserk can never fall below zero.

Goading is a tactical option, which can be ordered as an Instruction.

Morale
A gladiator with low Morale is less likely to attack when he has advantage. Failure of Morale can be
caused by Intimidation, which can be ordered as an Instruction. A gladiator with low Morale become
further de-moralised. He makes a Discipline check each round, and recovers a point of negative
Morale if successful.

Rally
A Rally follows a number of rounds without Advantage. A Rally involves the gladiator marshalling his
forces, and secures Advantage for a number of successive turns. It also gains a bonus to Hit while the
Rally is in effect. Successive rounds without Advantage improve the chance of a Rally, and depend on
either his Bulk (the gladiator overpowers his opponent) or Discipline (the gladiator marshals his
efforts through an act of will).

Cheat
A gladiator without Advantage, but not defending against an attack, can Cheat by Kicking Sand in the
eyes of his opponent. This can only happen if the gladiators Guile is greater than his Discipline, and
the chance is equal to the difference between Raw Guile and Raw Discipline.

Kicking Sand will cause the opponent to be blinded for a number of rounds, during which he will
suffer severe penalties to Initiative. However, Cheating is not well received by the crowd and costs
Popularity.

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Quick Close
Changing range usually requires a gladiator to hold advantage in consecutive rounds: one round to
identify the opportunity, and one round to move.

Due to his light encumbrance, the Thracian has a high chance of changing range at need when he has
Advantage. This is called a Quick Close, and his chance rises if the Press Instruction is in effect.

The Provocator, Secutor and Scissor can also employ the Quick Close, but in their case the chance is
lower.

Class Base chance Press Instruction

Provocator 35% 55 + M %
Scissor 20% 50 + M %
Secutor 20% 30 + M %
Thracian 45% 60 + M %

Where M equals Movement levels.

Maximum Quick Close chance is 95%.

S tamina And Fatigue

Fights are often lost due to exhaustion, rather than injury or death. The gladiator who can fight no
more will drop to one knee, raising a finger to signal surrender. For this reason, Endurance,
Discipline and Strength can directly affect a gladiators ability to win.

A gladiator starts each fight at 100% of his Stamina. The precise value of a gladiators initial stamina
is determined by his Endurance and Discipline. More Endurance and Discipline mean more Stamina.

Stamina = 65 + (2.7 x Endurance) + (0.33 x Discipline)

As is generally the case throughout these rules, the values for Endurance and Discipline are the
number of Levels in each (Endurance Levels being a proportion of Corpus, and Discipline Levels being
a proportion of Animus).

Fatigue
During fights, gladiators will lose Stamina to Fatigue. Most Moves have a Fatigue cost, which
represents the amount of Fatigue suffered when attempting that Move.

For a number of rounds equal to half his Endurance levels, a gladiator will suffer no Fatigue for any
reason. Thereafter, he will lose Fatigue equal to the Fatigue cost of the Move he uses.

The Base fatigue values for Attacks and Defences are shown on the listings for Attack and Defence
Moves. For other Moves, the Base Fatigue values are as follows:

Gladiator with Opponent

Advantage
Change Range 0.7 0.6
Tug of War 1.7 1.7
All Other Moves, excluding 0.5 0.5

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Attacks and Defences

Fatigue may also be caused by injuries and other effects, and may be modified by class (see below).

Netted Gladiator
A Net constrained gladiator suffers a further 0.2 Fatigue loss each turn he is constrained, in addition
to any loss due to the Move chosen.

S trength Test
Each round, each gladiator undergoes a Strength Test to check that he can still carry his armour and
equipment. Failing the Strength Test costs further Fatigue due to the weight of Armour worn. The
chance of passing the Strength test depends on his Class, since his Class determines his Armour.

Class Chance of success Youth bonus Maximum

Hoplomachus 52 + (2 x S) No 90%
Myrmillo 35 + (3 x S) Yes 90%
Provocator 60 + (2 x S) No 95%
Retiarius 75 + S No 95%
Scissor 55 + (2 x S) Yes 92%
Secutor 55 + (2 x S) Yes 95%
Thracian 70 + S No 95%

New gladiators can to some extent compensate for their under-developed Strength with youth. They
gain a Youth Bonus which starts at 9% in their first year, and declines to zero over 4 years of service.
The Youth Bonus is added to the Chance of success where indicated.

A gladiator failing his Strength Test suffers a further loss of 0.25 Fatigue in that round.

Class Fatigue
It is more tiring to carry all the armour of a Myrmillo, or the cumbersome pole-arm of the
Hoplomachus, than the light armour and Sica of the Thracian. The Retiarius carries a Trident, which
is cumbersome, but he wears no helmet. The Provoctaor is lightly armed compared to most classes.

Fatigue costs are always multiplied by a factor to represent the encumbrance of the gladiators
equipment:

Fatigue
Class Multiplier
Hoplomachus x1.1
Myrmillo x1.2
Provocator x0.9
Retiarius x0.9
Scissor x1.0
Secutor x1.0
Thracian x0.7

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Other Fatigue Modifiers

The following modifiers are also applied to all Fatigue:

A Blooded gladiator suffers a x1.2 multiplier to all Fatigue

A Concussed gladiator suffers a x1.5 multiplier to all Fatigue
A Beserk gladiator suffers a x3.0 multiplier to all Fatigue

These affects are cumulative.

Pace
All Base Fatigue values are subject to a self-regulating in-fight modifier, called Pace. This represents
the intensity of the fight, and allows for slower fatigue in fights between evenly matched, low-
stamina fighters. Pace affects all fatigue and is always the same for both gladiators in a fight.
However, Pace may vary between game turns.

Zero S tamina
If his remaining Stamina falls close to zero, a gladiator may collapse, exhausted. If his remaining
Stamina reaches zero, he will surrender. In a fight to the death, this means he must plead for his life,
requesting missio (mercy) from the crowd.

Mobility
A gladiator will generally have full freedom of movement. The ways in which this can change are as
follows:

Entangled. Being Entangled around the legs by the Net of a Retiarius

Pinned. Having a leg pinned by an opponents Spear or Trident
Trapped. Being trapped in the Net of a Retiarius

These are called Constraints. A gladiator with a Constraint will try to escape each Round, but this will
incur additional loss of Stamina.

Entangled or Pinned Constraints

Some attack Moves allow a gladiator to try to entangle his opponents legs with a Net, or pin one leg
with a Spear or Trident. An Entangled or Pinned gladiator suffers the following penalties:

40% loss of Movement

20% loss of Initiative
20% loss of Bulk

He can escape the constraint through a successful check of Guile (slips the constraint) or Strength
(overpowers the constraint) or Movement (escapes the constraint). One attribute is randomly
selected for a Relative Roll each turn a gladiator is Entangled or Pinned.

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Bring Entangled or Pinned does not prevent a gladiator making an attack if he can overcome the
advantage penalties, but Entangled or Constrained gladiators cannot attempt to change Range.

Trapped Constraint
Against a Retiarius, a gladiator can become trapped in his opponents Net weapon. This only occurs
if the Retiarius makes successful attack with his Net, using an attack Move which allows a chance to
trap. If a gladiator is trapped in a Net, he suffers these penalties until he escapes:

50% loss of Movement

Bring Trapped prevents a gladiator gaining Advantage. Instead, he and his opponent use a special
set of moves to resolve traps.

The Retiarius will have a range of options to attack the trapped gladiator with his other weapon,
and the trapped gladiator will have a range of moves to evade these attacks and possibly escape
the Net.

A trapped gladiator can escape the Net through a successful Check of Discipline (sheds the
net), Strength (forces an escape) or Movement (escapes the net). One attribute is
randomly selected for a Relative Roll each turn a gladiator is Trapped.

Some defensive moves add bonuses to the chance of escape, based on Discipline (Slip), Strength
(Pull) or Movement (Escape).

If he fails to escape and the opponents attack Move failed to hit, the gladiator may initiate a Tug
of War.

Tug of War
If one gladiator holds another with a Net, a Tug of War can take place. A Tug of War will
generally only commence after a missed Attack by the holding gladiator, and a failed Escape
attempt by the gladiator who is held.

A Tug of War involves a Check based on Bulk, in which the loser suffers a loss of Stamina. It can
last for more than one Round. A Tug of War will continue as long as the held gladiator wins each
Round, and will wear down the holding gladiator. If the holding gladiator wins a Round of the
Tug of War, or the held gladiator escapes, the Tug of War ends.

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Interpreting Fight Messages

During fights, you will see messages reporting on each gladiator. Most are self-explanatory. The
following incomplete list indicates the meaning of some of the more obscure messages.

Back Off, Backs Off A gladiator who backs off has failed a Discipline
check, and uses advantage to disengage from his
opponent by backing off.
Beserk The gladiator is enraged and out of control.
Various modifiers (positive and negative) apply.
Discipline reduces the chance of Beserk.
Blinded The gladiator has temporarily lost sight of his
opponent and suffers severe penalties to
initiative.
Blooded The gladiator has been cut, usually by a blade,
and the wound continues to sap his Hit Points
and Fatigue. Armour reduces the chance of
blooding.
Cautious The gladiator has avoided engagement. This can
reflect poor Discipline, intimidation by his
opponent, a recent loss of stamina, or lack of
experience.
Circling The two gladiators are circling, trying to size up
the opponent. Tends to be limited to the first
few moves of a fight.
Dazed The gladiator has suffered a blow to the head
and is concussed. He will suffer negative
modifiers to his chance of gaining advantage or
landing a blow.
Disciplined The gladiators Discipline and experience allow
him to Rally.
Divine Protection The gladiator is protected by a sacrifice at the
barracks Shrine.
Fearful The gladiator has low Morale and is trying to
back off. Discipline improves Morale.
Feeble defence The defence is weakened by panic. The defender
is suffering low morale. Discipline improves
Morale.
Flailing The defence is weakened by blind rage. The
defender is beserk, which is a sign of poor
Discipline.
Goads opponent The gladiator is obeying an Instruction to goad
his opponent, with the aim of driving him Beserk.
Guile is used to Goad an opponent.
Intimidates The gladiator is using his Bulk to intimidate his
opponent and reduce his Morale. Only possible if
the Attacker has a higher Bulk than his

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opponent. Note that some classes receive Bulk

modifiers from their armour.
Rallies The gladiator gains advantage for a number of
consecutive rounds. His chance to hit is
enhanced. A rally depends on Bulk or Discipline.
Scared The gladiator has low Morale. Discipline
improves Morale.
Shakes head Dazed gladiator shakes off concussion. End of
penalties.
Staunched Blooded gladiator. Blood loss from a wound is
reduced.
Surge The gladiator employs his Bulk to stage a Rally.

Withdraws A gladiator who Withdraws can do so either

because his weapon requires a longer range, or
because he has failed a Discipline check (see also
Backs Off)..

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CALENDAR .............................................................................................................................................. 8

I. GAME CONCEPTS ................................................................................................................................ 9

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Houses ................................................................................................................................................ 9

Gladiator Classes .............................................................................................................................. 10

SCHOOLS OF FIGHTING .................................................................................................................... 14

Cities ................................................................................................................................................. 15

The Pimp and the Crone ............................................................................................................... 15

Joining a City ................................................................................................................................. 15

Money .............................................................................................................................................. 16

Buying Gladiators ......................................................................................................................... 16

Improving Diets ............................................................................................................................ 17

Hiring trainers and other staff ...................................................................................................... 17

Hiring someone off the street ...................................................................................................... 17

Debt .............................................................................................................................................. 17

Turn Sequence .............................................................................................................................. 17

Taxes ............................................................................................................................................. 18

Money Guidance .......................................................................................................................... 18

MARKETS .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Gladiators ......................................................................................................................................... 20

Levels ............................................................................................................................................ 20

Virtues .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Name ............................................................................................................................................ 22

Class .............................................................................................................................................. 22

Height ........................................................................................................................................... 23

Tyros ............................................................................................................................................. 23

Fight Pairs ......................................................................................................................................... 24

Fight Outcomes ................................................................................................................................ 25

Fights to the Death ....................................................................................................................... 25

Fights to Last Blood ...................................................................................................................... 25

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Fights to First Blood ...................................................................................................................... 25

HOUSE FIGHTS .................................................................................................................................. 26

Palms and Laurels ......................................................................................................................... 26

PRACTICE FIGHTS .............................................................................................................................. 26

OPEN FIGHTS .................................................................................................................................... 27

TYRO FIGHTS .................................................................................................................................... 27

Championships ................................................................................................................................. 28

Grand Champion .............................................................................................................................. 28

Peoples Champion ........................................................................................................................... 29

The Rudis ...................................................................................................................................... 29

Death ................................................................................................................................................ 29

Glory ................................................................................................................................................. 30

Honour ............................................................................................................................................. 31

Respect ............................................................................................................................................. 31

Annual Adjustment .......................................................................................................................... 31

FIGHT ORDERS .................................................................................................................................. 32

Opponents .................................................................................................................................... 32

INSTRUCTIONS.................................................................................................................................. 33

Maximum Instructions ................................................................................................................. 33

Heeding Instructions .................................................................................................................... 34

Instruction Options ....................................................................................................................... 34

Instruction Moves ........................................................................................................................ 36

Estates .............................................................................................................................................. 37

Over-crowding .............................................................................................................................. 37

Construction ................................................................................................................................. 38

Maintenance ................................................................................................................................ 38

Additional Structures .................................................................................................................... 39

Factions ............................................................................................................................................ 41

Rivalries ........................................................................................................................................ 41

Changing Allegiance ..................................................................................................................... 41

Events ............................................................................................................................................... 42

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Aediles .............................................................................................................................................. 43

Editors .......................................................................................................................................... 43

Trade Reserve ............................................................................................................................... 44

Grant Supplements ...................................................................................................................... 44

STAFF ................................................................................................................................................ 47

Trainers ........................................................................................................................................ 47

Medicus ........................................................................................................................................ 47

Lanista .......................................................................................................................................... 48

The Tavern .................................................................................................................................... 48

Priority .......................................................................................................................................... 48

Hires ............................................................................................................................................. 49

Firing Staff .................................................................................................................................... 49

Happiness ..................................................................................................................................... 49

Allegiance and Loyalty .................................................................................................................. 50

Temperament ............................................................................................................................... 50

TRAINING .......................................................................................................................................... 52

Training Chances .......................................................................................................................... 53

Final Year Gladiators .................................................................................................................... 54

DIET .................................................................................................................................................. 55

Goat meat and Goats Milk ........................................................................................................... 55

Barley and Beans .......................................................................................................................... 55

Fruit and Fish ................................................................................................................................ 55

Upgrade Points ................................................................................................................................. 56

Techniques ....................................................................................................................................... 57

MOVES .............................................................................................................................................. 58

Move Levels and Changing Class .................................................................................................. 59

Move Levels and Damage ............................................................................................................. 59

Height ........................................................................................................................................... 60

Other Moves ................................................................................................................................. 60

Training Moves ............................................................................................................................. 60

POPULARITY ..................................................................................................................................... 61

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During the fight ............................................................................................................................ 61

Missio ........................................................................................................................................... 62

After the fight ............................................................................................................................... 62

Experience ........................................................................................................................................ 63

SHOUTS ............................................................................................................................................ 64

INJURIES ........................................................................................................................................... 65

Health ........................................................................................................................................... 65

Anatomy ....................................................................................................................................... 65

Targets .......................................................................................................................................... 67

Summing Up ................................................................................................................................. 67

Armour ............................................................................................................................................. 68

Total and Partial Cover ................................................................................................................. 68

INJURY RECOVERY ............................................................................................................................ 69

Immediate Recovery .................................................................................................................... 69

Natural Recovery .......................................................................................................................... 69

Diet ............................................................................................................................................... 69

Treatment ..................................................................................................................................... 69

Medicus ........................................................................................................................................ 70

Permanent Injury ......................................................................................................................... 71

AGEING ............................................................................................................................................. 72

Gladiator Ageing ........................................................................................................................... 72

Staff Ageing .................................................................................................................................. 72

Staff Retirement ........................................................................................................................... 73

Trading ............................................................................................................................................. 74

2. Fights ................................................................................................................................................ 76

FIGHT ENGINE .................................................................................................................................. 76

Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 76

Virtues .......................................................................................................................................... 77

Raw Virtues .................................................................................................................................. 78

Class Bonuses ............................................................................................................................... 78

The Relative Roll ........................................................................................................................... 78

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Combat Rounds ............................................................................................................................ 79

Advantage .................................................................................................................................... 79

Attacks and Defences ................................................................................................................... 79

Hit Bonus ...................................................................................................................................... 80

Blooding ....................................................................................................................................... 81

Concussion ................................................................................................................................... 81

Beserk ........................................................................................................................................... 81

Morale .......................................................................................................................................... 82

Rally .............................................................................................................................................. 82

Cheat ............................................................................................................................................ 82

Quick Close ................................................................................................................................... 83

Stamina And Fatigue .................................................................................................................... 83

Mobility ........................................................................................................................................ 85

Entangled or Pinned Constraints .................................................................................................. 85

Trapped Constraint ....................................................................................................................... 86

Tug of War .................................................................................................................................... 86

Interpreting Fight Messages ............................................................................................................. 87

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 94

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Bibliography

Selected Books

AUGUERT, ROLAND (1972) Cruelty and Civilisation. London, Routledge

BUCHANAN, DAVID (1976) Roman Sport and Entertainment. London, Longman
CONNOLLY, PETER (2003) Colosseum Romes Arena of Death. London, BBC Books
DUNKLE, ROGER (2008), Gladiators : Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome. London, Routledge
GRANT, MICHAEL (2000) Gladiators The Bloody Truth. London, Penguin
MATYSZAK, PHILIP (2011) Gladiator The Roman Fighters Manual. London, Thames & Hudson
MATTHEWS, RUPERT (2003) The Age of the Gladiators : Spectacle and Savagery in Ancient Rome.
London, Arcturus
PEASON, JOHN (1973) Arena: The Story of the Colosseum. London , Thames & Hudson
SCOTT, A.F. (1977) The Roman Age. London, White Lion
WATKINS, RICHARD (1997) Gladiator. Boston, Houghton Mifflin
WIEDEMANN, THOMAS (1995) Emperors and Gladiators. London, Routledge
WISDOM, W (2001) Gladiators 100 BC- AD 200. Oxford, Osprey

Web

Too many to mention, but you could do worse than start on Wikipedia and follow links from there

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