Dungeon Room Index: Arenas
Arenas, combat pits, and coliseums. Places where duels, battles, and similar sport take place!
Here are the rooms:
Let them fight
Perhaps it's a bit contrived to set an arena or coliseum in a dungeon. Given how much of classic dungeon crawling entails fighting monsters, what, we stumble into a formal space for fighting monsters? Especially considering how much classic dungeon crawling entails avoiding monsters, are we really just going to waltz into an arena and face on down? Well, maybe!
But really, I think there are a two main ways to think about an arena in a dungeon:
- In current use. This arena is a place where a local dungeon faction stages fights for sport. These bouts may be friendly (or at least non-lethal), or may entail setting up captured intruders to duel the factions' local champion. Perhaps the faction keeps a monstrous "pet" and feeds victims to it.
- Long abandoned and repurposed. Just like our Great Halls from a previous post, this large open space has taken on a different purpose. Either it's simply dusty and crumbling, or flooded or overgrown, or--if it's big enough--a local faction makes camp here. (See that Great Hall post for several workable ideas.)
Room Notes
Fighting Pits
A simple pit dug out of the ground. Combatants are haphazardly tossed in, and spectators gather around the edges, and along the elevated terrace at the south of the room. Crass observers shout slurs and throw leftover food scraps at whichever combatant they happen to be betting against.
This long pit makes for an interesting and cramped setup: participants are deposited at either end, and either duel
with ranged weapons, or joust, or are otherwise corralled to the center to fight in close quarters.
When thinking
about how you might use an arena in a dungeon setting, it may be useful to ask how willing are the participants? Are
both simply unfortunate souls, forced to fight for the entertainment of onlookers? Or is one an eager participant,
while the other was captured against their will? Or are both willing, and fighting for glory?
Any arena is bound to have spectators in some form, and so the construction of an arena must account for where they will be situated to get a good view. This pit is closed over by an enormous cage, allowing spectators to freely stand above the combatants and watch from directly over their heads.
This pit uses a similar idea. At the north and south end of the room, the cages may be opened to lower (or toss) down
a combatant. Unlike the previous pit, this space is quite large, and broken up by thick pillars. I would imagine it
would give somewhat "labyrinth" vibes: imagine being dropped in one side only to hear something horrific at the other
end. You scramble behind a pillar in the musty darkness as a hulking minotaur steps into a shaft of light and bellows
it's angry roar.
Remember, combatants need not be human! Especially if this is all for the entertainment of
onlookers, ferocious beasts make for a good show!
Extra trouble for your money's worth
Who says an arena has to be fair?
This arena is comprised of a smattering of platforms elevated over spiked pits. Fights staged here may include many combatants, or even teams, forced to tread lightly lest they slip (or get pushed) into the spikes below. Crowding together on a single platform is a bad strategy, though, too easy to accidentally knock your allies off. Better to spread out quickly and threaten any who would jump to your platform. I imagine whoever is running this show would have some mechanism to gradually reduce the number of platforms, forcing combatants to meet each other in the middle.
A simple setup: the arena is surrounded with water. There is probably something nasty--and hungry--circling the
arena, waiting for their next meal to fall into the water.
(I started omitting viewing areas at some point; these
rooms are just so big that I needed to spare the space on the page.)
Something of a combination of the previous two arenas. However, with this much water, and the platforms so precariously float on it, I imagine this would also make for an excellent arena to set humanoid fighters against some terrible aquatic creature. Imagine a giant, monstrous lobster emerging to snatch you off of a platform, then quickly submerging again out of sight.
The arena is a single, giant raft. Your captors spectate from canoes floating around the cavern.
I imagine all of
these floating platforms being somewhat fixed to their positions by ropes or chains anchored to the bottom of the
pools. Of course, it's more fun if there's still some give: the rafts can tip if there's too much weight near the
edges, and floating platforms can shift and bump against each other.
At the center of this arena is a large, deep pit. Deep enough that a fall is almost certainly fatal. I bet there's a door down there for someone to dispose of the bodies later.
At the center of this arena is a single pole. There is a great beast chained to the pole, and the chain is just long enough that it can't reach you if you hug against the walls. Of course, they won't let you out unless you win--you can't avoid that thing forever.
A bridge spans a deep pit. While the walkways along the walls are protected by a short fence, the bridge has no such precautions. Combatants rush to the center to claim the relative safety of the widened pillar, but even that is little consolation. You either fall to your death, or see that the other does so first.
A great cage hangs in a pit. Like a large, flattened sphere. Combatants are tossed in the open roof at it's center.
A forest of thick wooden poles rises twenty feet of the ground. They're just far enough apart to fall between, and just close enough to step across. Fighters in this arena must be incredibly nimble.
"Boxing rings"
Inasmuch as a fight is a spectacle, it must be considered how spectators will be able to see the fight. A pit is one way, but another is to elevate the combatants on a stage, as with a boxing ring.
What are the rules of this fight? Sometimes constraints are fun. Take away their weapons and tools. Make them think on their feet, and fight with their bare hands.
Where the previous ring was elevated, this one is a simple lowered area. It's easy to get out of this "pit", so the participants here surely must be willing. This arena is for settling disputes and defending honor.
Coliseums
What counts as a coliseum? The truth is, these categories are arbitrary as is! (Mostly I went with "big stadium style arenas with out a major gimmick"). This arena features several tall columns to break up the space.
Rather than seating, this arena features simple halls open to the arena proper--I imagine there would actually be several floors of these. Spectators may walk the perimeter of the arena, conducting business, or huddle between pillars and gawk over the railings to the fights below.
Combatants enter from barred trap doors on either end of the arena. A "moat" of spiked surrounding the arena allows the walls of the fighting pit to be lower, giving spectators a closer look at the fight without having to worry about one of the combatants jumping out of the arena at them. A much elevated private box towers on east side, a seat for some very-important-person.
Now this is a coliseum. Heavy towering doors on either end of the arena allow combatants to enter in
large numbers--or large monsters to be brought in. The stadium seating is elevated at least twenty feet above the
arena floor, and six watchtowers allows guards with heavy crossbows to police the arena (and threaten combatants when
needed). A large private box on the south end favors several very-import-persons with the best view in the
house.
Imagine the great battles that could take place here! Two small armies clashing, or one against a
huge and ferocious creature. Did you know the Roman Collosseum was reportedly even filled with water to stage
naval battles?
Race tracks?
This one is a bit of an odd one out, but it still sort of fits the theme: it's a big race track. Two central towers
with open balconies, connected by open bridges
at the center make for privileged viewing; they're entered from private tunnels that lead under the track.
(There
should probably be more space around the track for admitting
chariots or large racing mounts or, y'know, spectators but again, space was at a premium.)
Bonus: a bunch of things to fight in an arena
- The ghosts of fallen gladiators.
- The skeletons of fallen gladiators.
- A wingless drake.
- A trash monster fed on the remains of fallen warriors (an otyugh would do).
- That spider thing from Attack of the Clones.
- A manticore. (The flying kind. It's chained to floor, so it can't fly off, but it's probably too powerful for you to pull it down either.)
- A great antler-tusked boar the size of a bus.
- A squad of lizardfolk gladiators.
- A single champion riding a chariot pulled by great stags, hurling javelins at you.
- Yourself. Some kind of freaky shadow doppleganger.
- A pack of piranhas the size of dogs that jump unexpectedly from the roiling water below.
- An extremely old gladiator that has remained in this arena for a century. If you defeat him, he'll tell you a great secret.
- A minotaur. (It's a classic!)
- An eight legged salamander with a long sticky tongue; it spirals up large pillars and attacks at a distance. Hope you brought a bow or something.
Bonus: how did you end up in this arena?
- You ate some suspicious mushroom goo and passed out. You woke to the jeering of the crowd.
- You were captured by beastfolk while sneaking through the halls. They threw you in here with their emaciated captive owlbear.
- The local faction are a competitive bunch. If you prove yourself in here you'll earn their trust.
- The local faction is wary of outsiders. If you prove yourself here, they'll let you pass freely through the area.
- You made a bet with the local faction. If you can defeat their leader, you'll take control of the faction.
- You stumbled in here while exploring the area. You couldn't resist the pile of treasure in the middle. The monstrous owner of the hoard returns from hunting to find you pilfering their stuff.
- You fell through the roof in the middle of a fight. A three-headed giant cobra vs. an unlucky thief. The snake just finished eating them.
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