Battlegrounds: The Squared Circle

So, the idea has been thrown around about going a PVP game, so I decided to get one rolling. The map is incredibly simple, an 18x18 enclosure for the combatants to fight within. Up to eight people may join in for this free for all. No storyline, just an excuse to beat up on each other for some bragging rights. Since this is basically what 4E was built for, this episode will be done with 4E, though future ones may be run in any number of other rulesets, such as Pathfinder, Shadowrun, d20 Modern, or whatever people can find links and such for. Post your character sheet in this thread as soon as you begin one and as you work on them, they will be public knowledge and looking at your competitor's sheet is encouraged to gain an edge. Keep each other honest in character creation, I will not be reviewing character sheets.

If you have any questions or suggestions, I'd welcome them since I'm not overly familiar with D&D 4E, so if you believe there are other restrictions or rules that should be in place to ensure a fair fight, please let me know.


Character Creation:

Books: Any
Level: 15
Stats: Standard Array: 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10
Money: Up to 400,000 gp
Sheets: Myth Weavers
Other: Each player adds 120 HP to their character after normal creation is done.

Restrictions:

No mounts of any kind
No companions a DM would usually control
(more to come if needed)

Other Rules:

No Daily abilities during Round 1, after that, all good.
(just to give everyone a chance to begin)
No alliances, every person for themselves.


Warning: We will be going by Rules As Written (RAW) for this tournament. No judgments will be made by me, it's all straightforward play.


(1) seTiny
(2) DS
(3) --
(4) --
(5) --
(6) --
(7) --
(8) --


So, who thinks they can come out on top?

~SE++

Do you have a link to or template for the mythweaver sheet?

What are your thoughts on Backgrounds and Themes?

How do you want to do stat creation, standard array, point buy, or dice roll?

Money seems pretty high. Standard character creation would have a value of 45,000 (level 16) +25,000 (level 15) +42,000 (level 14 x2) = 112,000. I'm not complaining an extra 638,000 gold means 14 extra level 16 items or one level 25 item. I just want to be sure this is the amount of gold you want us to have.

<Will use this space for character>

I'm interested I don't have time to get involved in a full game right now, but a short-ish combat game seems good.


I don't plan on making a super strong character. I don't expect to win. I have decided on a theme and will be picking powers based off of that rather than the best fighting character. The character is a Water/Ice based Genasi Wizard. I will be making a competent character just not always the best choices.

(1) Myth Weavers: The reason for using this is for simplicity in standardizing character sheets with a free online service.

(2) You can do whatever you like for a background. For storytelling purposes, it's not going to affect anything. For gameplay, you can pick 1 background.

(3) Gonna go with Standard Array for this first battle: 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10.

(4) Huh, Pathfinder is pretty different. Then again, pathfinder maxes out at level 20.... I had originally gone with a high number since everyone could just arm up with equipment, but if it's too high: 400,000 gold pieces.

~SE++

If I can give you some advice; go by the book for the starting money. This isn't going to work well.

But I may join in. Interested if you fix the money.

EDIT: If my character attacks with closed eyes (voluntarily, not because of a compulsion or something) does he incur a -5 penalty to hit? I hope he will.

Why is the money such a big deal? I'm simply allowing you guys to get creative with your equipment as well as your character. Everyone has access to the same amount, so why is it an issue?

As far as -5 to your attack when you close your eyes, yes, that is what the books says, though depending on when you closed your eyes and if you're refusing to open them, I also have to follow the stealth vs passive perception at the end of its turn and a perception roll on your turn to figure out where to attack.

~SE++

Because people with a lot of optimization experience can gain a lot of powerful equipment now, increasing the gap between them and non-optimized players. That's what I'm afraid of. I am not going to force you to change it, it is just something to think about.

Well, as I said before, its up to the others players to help each other out with character creation. Since it's just fun combat, I'd hope that players would also advise each other on builds and optimization along with policing each other's stats, feats, etc.

~SE++

FYI, 4e builds characters with low HP and high damage (and monsters with high HP and low damage), so 4e PVP is sometimes described as rocket tag, especially if players know they only have one combat encounter at a time so they can nova with all their dailies.

I will be making a character too, just fyi.

Good to know, then I'll be adding into the rules:

Each player adds 120 HP to their character after normal creation is done. (120 HP = 8 HP per lvl)

I mean, I don't want people going out before they have a chance to do anything, so I'll do a small boost.

~SE++

This sounds interesting. Wish I had thw time for it. =/

Well, if I can get enough interest I'll be running many more with various battlegrounds and rules sets. Well, I do want to try and do fairly accessible games, so probably not going to go too crazy with the different games, but hopefully try out a few different ones.

~SE++

Yeah. But that doesnt change my time constraints. Lol

I meant that when your time constraints are released I'll probably still be running new "episodes" of it.

~SE++

@DS and seTiny - So, looks like this is going very slowly, do you two still want to go ahead and play or should I scrap this idea? If you'd like, I could also just build a character so it's at least a three player free for all.

~SE++

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

~SE++

Lets get more RPGers on the boards... that would be a good first step to adding variety down here in PBP