Morturi: Campaign Rules

Morturi Te Salutant: Main Page -> Morturi: Campaign Rules

This page describes how to run Campaigns!

Overview

Running campaigns is not an easy task! Its up to the Imperator to link together a series of battles, providing both opportunity and incentive for lanistae to play as many games as possible!

The following factors ought to be considered by any Imperator player:

• Working the Campaign Calendar
• Preparing and running Auctions
• Adding School Resources
• Battle variety and rewards
• Ending the Campaign
• Balance, New Schools and Retirement

Working the Campaign Calendar

Campaigns need structure, and one of the best ways to do this is to introduce a Campaign Calendar. Doing this introduces a sense of narrative to the Campaign, and provides a framework of explanations.

For example, you might choose to run a Campaign around the months of the Romulan calendar:

• Martius (31 days)
• Aprilis (30 days)
• Maius (31 days)
• Iunius (30 days)
• Quintilis (31 days)
• Sextilis (30 days)
• September (30 days)
• October (31 days)
• November (30 days)
• December (30 days)

Each month can then be broken down further. A recommended structure might look something like this:

1) Auctions 2) Build/complete School Resources 3) Ludi - the Battles are fought! 4) Free play - Out-of-arena activities are engaged in.

A nice thing to do with working the calendar is to make each month themed in some way. For example, you could set out that Martius is the season of the Spring Festivals, and that the games are set across a variety of small towns across the Empire. As a result, we'd be looking at small arenas with small teams, and straight forward rules. In contrast, Quintilius could be a month of Funerary Games, taking place in Rome itself and dedicated to a single deceased Emperor and with lots of Games set around classic match ups, like Secutor-Retarius duels. Then, October could be Beast Month, with multiple games around beast-fights, and large financial rewards for bestiarii and schools who provide animals for the games.

Likewise, you could theme a game around geographic regions. Perhaps in your high fantasy game the Season of Springtide has the games in the Elvish Kingdoms - this could be reflected in the auctions, with Elf Faction gladiators being available for auction, and Games which favour elvish skills.

Preparing and Running Auctions

An Imperator has a heavy responsibility, preparing a batch of Gladiators for auction and then running the auction itself.

First, ask yourself how many Gladiators you want to auction each month. If you provide too many, then they'll get sold too cheaply. If you provide too few then Schools will have too much spare cash for School Resources.

For novice Imperators, as a good rule of thumb its worth totalling the denarii available between all the schools, dividing that number by 1500 and then providing that many Gladiators. So, for example, in the first month, if there are three players with 10000 denarii each, then provide 20 Gladiators! The majority of the Gladiators should be of Palus rank, perhaps 1 in 5 as Novicius amd 1 in 5 as Primus Palus.

Its might be worth avoiding providing Primus Palus gladiators for auction in the first couple of game months, as they can quickly unbalance any battles they are in if they have no similarly skilled peers to compete against!

Remind players that they once the Auctions are done they can still purchase Servus rank gladiators freely at 250 Denarii each, so they can make up their numbers, and can invest in School Resources as well.

For game months after the first, you don't have to look back over the School's balance sheets to work out how many Gladiators to auction. Instead, look at the prizes of the previous month, total them up and then work from that number instead.

The above is, of course, just a guideline. Part of the skill of being an Imperator is judging month by month what is going to be most fun and what will best support a strong narrative. It makes sense, for example, for a month of games in a small town to yield only a very small number of Gladiators, while one in Rome itself should provide lots of choice!

As to running the auction, the Imperator has a choice of methods. Its recommended that you either pick one and stick with it, or if you're feeling brave, select the auction method that reflects the location of that month's games. Auction methods might include:

• Open Auction

With this method, the Imperator first sets out all the "lots" of Gladiators, and describes them in full. He then selects a lot, which might consist of one or more Gladiators, and asks for a starting price. If any player bids, then he has control of the lot. Other players can then jump in with higher bids, or the Imperator can actively call out incremental prices, trying to persuade the Lanistae to outbid one another. If no player bids at all, then the Imperator can drop his starting price, but he should keep in mind a "reserve price" which he will not drop below (500 for Palus, 1000 for Primus Palus is generally reasonable as a reserve price). If no-one will meet even this reserve price, the gladiator is taken off auction.

• Closed Auction

With this method, the Imperator describes the lot, and then takes a written offer from each Lanista. The highest offer wins the auction immediately and buys the lot, so long as it exceeds the reserve price.

• Structured Auction

This works in the same way as an open auction, but rather than shouting out bids, the Lanistae are turned to in strict order, asking if they want to decline or raise on the previous bid.

• Roleplayed Auction

In this variant, the players actually roleplay out their lanistae freely, wandering the streets and looking for their new Gladiators. Smart roleplay might work in a lanista's favour (for example threatening a slave trader with his thugs to force a cheap sale) or it might turn against a lanista (landing him in trouble with the law, and having him booted out of the marketplace). This sort of approach is recommended only for groups who are comfortable with the diceless roleplaying involved, and who trust their Imperator to run such diceless stories fairly and impartially.

Credits

This page created by Asklepios.