The Colosseum

Scheduled bouts between players, the bookmaker who runs the book on them, and how to back a fighter without doing any sums.

The Colosseum stands west off Thorngate Alley in Aurin. Two players can agree to meet on its sands at a set hour, the whole realm is told to come and watch, and the bookmaker, Dorrit Vane, runs a book on the result. Her booth is in the entrance. Type compass set colosseum to be guided there, and bout at any time to see the card, the odds and what you should do next.

Making a Bout#

Bouts are made at the booth, and both fighters must be in the realm when one is made. Once both agree, the realm hears about it and the book opens. A stake is taken from your purse and then your bank.

Presenting a Bout#

You do not have to fight to run a ring. bout book offers two other players a bout. If both accept and the bout is fought, you are paid a share of the book. It is worked out for you, so all you have to do is find two people who want to hit each other and get a crowd down to watch.

Checking In#

The gate list opens a quarter of an hour before the bout. Go to the booth, type bout checkin, and stay anywhere inside the Colosseum. If you step outside, your name comes off the list and you must check in again. At the hour the guards fetch you to the sands.

If you are not on the gate list when the horn sounds, you lose. Your opponent takes the bout and your stake, and anyone who backed them is paid. If neither fighter is there, the bout is off and every coin goes back.

On the Sands#

You start with full health, spell points and endurance, every skill ready and every hostile effect gone. Your own buffs stay, but anything another player laid on you comes off at the gate. The gates are barred behind you, and the fight begins at the second horn. Nobody else can reach you, by any skill, and nobody can leave. Whatever you have raised goes in with you; heroes and henchmen wait outside.

The Colosseum is at peace: nobody can be attacked in the stands, the entrance or the undercroft, so nobody can stop you reaching the gate.

Nobody dies. A bout ends when one fighter falls, when one types bout yield, or after six minutes, when the judges give it to whoever has the larger share of their health left. If they cannot split you it is a draw. A beaten fighter wakes with the surgeons, and anything knocked from a hand or lifted from a pocket on the sands is given back.

Spectators take a seat in the stands and type watch battle.

Betting#

The coin comes from your purse and then your bank. Amounts can be written as 5000, 5,000, 5k or 50 gold. The book takes at least 10 coins. You may add to a bet, but you cannot back both fighters, a bet once laid stands, and the book closes a minute before the hour. You cannot bet on a bout you, or another character of yours, is fighting in.

How the Book Works#

Everything goes in one pot, so the stands set the odds and the price moves with every bet. When the bout is decided, everybody who backed the winner gets their stake back and a share of what the losers put in, in proportion to what they staked. The house keeps a tenth of the losers' coin first. Half of that is the winning fighter's purse, and if somebody presented the bout the other half is theirs. A walkover pays the backers, but no purse and no promoter's share.

A price of 2.4 to 1 means that if the book closed as it stands, every 100 coins on that fighter would win 240 and come back with the 100.

You can never be paid less than you staked. If nobody backed the other fighter, there is nobody to pay you, so the book is void and every bet goes back whole. The same goes for a draw, and for a bout that does not happen.

Winnings go straight into your bank account. If you are logged out when the book settles, you are paid when you next come in.

Records#

The card shows every fighter's record, level and class, which is what the people laying the odds have to go on.