The New Gladiators

You awake in chains, unable to speak, unable to move more than the inches your restraints allow.

"Welcome!" a man greets you and the others you begin to notice around you, all in similar restraints, "You've all been chosen for a glorious purpose!" He raises his arms dramatically, the flaring of his coat by that motion bringing attention to his strange black attire, "You have all been selected from your respective worlds and times as the strongest warriors of the bunch. Now, a few of you might not have had your training and all that yet, and that's my fault. I didn't grab you from the proper point in your timeline, so that one's on me, but that shan't be too big a deal. You're all known for being resourceful, after all."

He began to pace, not impatiently or with anxiety, but like a showman paces across a stage to address his audience. He was on a stage, you realize. The setup in which you and the others were arranged made it so you were in a sort of half-circle around where he stood on an elevated platform, with nothing but a blank grey wall to distract from him.

"You see," he said, "I've been bored. Very, very bored. Tis' the nature of things out here I suppose. But I wasn't going to settle with that, oh no, so I gathered you all!" He grinned at his captive audience as though you should all be absolutely thrilled at that prospect.

He stopped his movement suddenly in the exact center of his stage, snapping into an authoritative, all-business posture in an instant and changing his voice to match, "Here's what you will be doing. I'm going to have you all interact. Just get to know each other for a little while. Once you are properly acquainted, I'll pair you off into partners and have each duo face off in the wonderfully exciting tournament I've arranged for all of you!" He gradually lost the businesslike tone as he spoke, regaining his previous delight.

He grinned, his eyes sparkling with anticipation, "The last duo left alive will receive a personalized prize! I've scoured all of your histories for exactly what it is you most desire, and I've come up with a prize for each of you accordingly. If any of you need a question answered," he gestured to the wall behind you, where, just out of your sight, is a chalkboard with all of the required chalk in the tray, but no eraser, "all you need to do is write it out on there. If it is a question you're allowed to have answered, the answer will appear for you immediately. If not, nothing will happen."

He then tapped a foot against the ground and raised a hand in farewell, "I will see you all again when it is time for the pairing!" The ground then lowered beneath him, leaving his hand to be the last you see of him before the ground closes up and your restraints fall away, your voice returning with your freedom of movement.

Spoiler

Rules:

1) Mild swearing is allowed, but censor when possible.

2) The combat system is a little confusing by necessity, because of the format making characters fight each other is really difficult without having anyone become accidentally OP. I'll explain how all that works below, but if you have any tweaks or complaints that you think could help improve it I'm all ears.

3) Maximum of three characters per player.

4) There are only four spots open excluding my own to avoid things getting overcrowded and confusing. Sorry about that, but I just don't want there to be too many characters to keep easy track of.

5) The man's backstory will be revealed in full later, but if you'd like it early on you can ask for it. All you really need to know about him, for now, is he will have had to have read about each of your characters in history books and (possibly dramatized) retellings of their accomplishments. Keep that in mind when choosing who to play.

Combat system

Basically, I modeled this partially off dnd, so if it feels familiar that's probably it. You have five points to put into these catagories:

Strength:

Resistance:

Speed:

These will determine who wins a fight against who. You and whoever controls the characters yours is fighting against are going to have to decide what those numbers mean during your individual fight as fairly as possible. It's mostly an honor system to be honest.

If your character has more strength then theirs has resistance, they take a hit. How bad is up to them, but if anyone starts being unrealistic with the amount of damage their character avoids, they will be called out. Politely, though.

The speed is harder to define. If a character has more speed than anything else, they will mostly avoid getting hit at all, but they won't be able to land any really damaging hits of their own. I know that that isn't going to be perfectly accurate to whatever story your character originated from, but, for the sake of fairness, bear with me.

The main thing is to just have fun and try not to go god mode on anyone. Also, minimal control of other people's characters may occur in combat, but nothing more than saying that they dodged an attack or something unless the owner of that character specifically says otherwise.


This ran really long, sorry.

Spoiler

Name: Mindy Nonoch

Age: approximately 20-25, though a bit of magic-induced warping may have affected her actual physical age. (Mentally and chronologically, she's 23)

Physical Description: She's of average height and build, for the most part, though it would be difficult to tell either of those things about her. She covers every inch of exposed skin have her hands and the top half of her face in cloth of some kind. What skin can be seen is of a sickly shade of greyish blue and scaly to the touch, though it doesn't look textured. Her hair, if you can call it that, is gathered into a lumpy bundle that falls just down to her shoulder blades and wrapped in a sunny yellow scarf. Were she to remove the scarf, her 'hair' would be revealed to be a writhing mass of very defensive crimson-colored snakes with green eyes to match Mindy's.

She is armed only with a single dagger, about the length of her forearm, which she has sheathed at her hip.

Relevant skills/abilities: She's technically capable of turning people to stone, though she is unaware of this fact due to the fact that she was cursed with her appearance and that particular ability rather recently and she hasn't been inclined to experiment. Her snakes, who all have minds of their own, to a point (it's complicated), will attack anything that comes within their reach in an attempt to keep Mindy as safe as possible, which is why she keeps them wrapped up. She's also a very capable fighter, though she'll hesitate to engage in combat with anyone she doesn't actually want dead because the snakes have been known to break free and lash out when she gets too agitated.


Strength: 2

Resistance: 1

Speed: 2

Mindy shot to her feet and promptly fell backward, landing hard. Her hands flew immediately to her head to correct the scarf, which had shifted slightly in her fall. The snakes writhed beneath it, energized by her distress.

She focused on controlling her breathing. If she got her heart rate down, they should calm down. In theory.

She kept her eyes down. If she looked at the others just now, the questions from that would only make her more afraid. She had to keep calm.

Spoiler

Jallow Cascan

Age: 98

Physical description: a small figure with a ragged cloak stained with faded bloo collapsed upon a skeletal frame. His face is pulled back in a permanent eerie grin, his eye sockets are empty, void of life. The hood of his cloak hides the pale ghosts of hair reaching up in haphazard clumps from patches of rotten flesh on his skull. The magical wires drilled through his joints are barely able to hold his bones together, making him weak, however his chainmail vest offers some prrotection. His walk is slow and shambling, but he is able to jump at lightning speeds, attacking like wild animal.

He wields two shortswords.

Relevant abilities: Jallow is able to reattach any limbs that were lost in battle. As well as this, lost limbs can still function when severed from the body. So a lost arm can still move around and grab or attack foes. He can also cause any living thing he touches to slowly rot. This will mean that the area will become weaker throughout the course of the battle.

Strength: 1 Resistance: 1 Speed: 3

Jallow watched with anticipation as that foolish showman rambled with his theatrics. He had never understood why people would just want to watch a fight, and not join the battle themselves. The other contestants appeared fearful, which was understandable, Jallow supposed, but he hoped that they would overcome it. A terrified opponent was a weakened opponent and that was simply no fun.

The man was swallowed by the ground, and Jallow laughed inwardly at him. Jallow had known these people before. People who try to feel powerful by puppeting others, he would dance to his strings... for now. But that showman, he would soon see his power, his control stripped away from him, and be reduced to a quivering wreck, begging for life. Jallow couldn't wait.

Spoiler

Name: Ari
Age: turning 15 in a few months
physical appearance: gray eyes with specks of blue, an eyepatch over her right eye, brown hair that reaches her shoulders, and bangs that fall to her eyebrows. She has waterproof cloths and wears flexible clothing. Tall and gangly and incredibly tan.
Weapons: A long sword gifted by her dad.
'Relevant abilities: Has lightning fast reflexes, is an amazing sword fighter, and is very cunning.

Strength: 1
Resistance: 2
Speed: 2

Ari was on her feet the moment she was free. Her heart beat against her ribcage like a drum. She planted her hands on her sword, and looked around. One thing was for certain, she wasn't in the ocean anymore.