The Chinese I believe have an old saying “may you live in interesting times.” And after last nights election results we can definitely say even after all the doubt and uncertainty, even chaos of the last year or so, things are set to get very very interesting indeed.

However you haven’t come here to read me bitching about politics. You are here to read about board games and role playing. Which technically I could argue are affected by the decision made by the British public. But that will be for a future post when we will have the impact of those decisions come to fruition.

However let’s get back on track and talk D&D and my prep for the next session. But first I have to cut and paste this warning in for my players.

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.

In my online searching for how to run a gladiatorial arena I came across some advice given on a reddit thread I think it was to look at an Adventure League adventure called Shackles of Blood (DDEX3-2). In this adventure it sees the party taking part in such a situation of gladiatorial combat Hillsfar Arena, recreating a famous battle.

The encounter itself takes part in a flooded arena against halflings.

I like the idea. I can tailor the opposition, and reskin this easily for my campaign.

Because this is an Adventure League adventure there is plenty of advice about running it. There is a colour battle map by one source. Some even made 3D versions of the map, along side giving some great advice.

Naturally access to a 3D printer allows you to do something a bit more impressive like the following:

(source here)

I’ve got to work out how I’m going to present this to the players. I love the 3D but realistically without a 3D printer, not achievable. So something like the first photo might be though. Although I do have foam core I could use.

Who knew being a DM meant being a craft type? It sure does utilise a lot of skills that you initially wouldn’t think of.