Arena Æmilia
Author: Zed
System: BX
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 4-6
Spectacle! at the Arena Æmilia[.] Every Ides new performances. History and legends, classics and new,
thrill and laughter, reenactments and hunts. Entry a silver sesterce, tours upon agreement.
The above notice "hang[s] in ever (sic) town of the region, and every 15th of the month plebeians and nobles alike from all over the frontier province flock to the amphitheater, for some well earned distraction from the toils of imperial expansion."
The site is located in a settlement—any large town or city with an Imperial Rome theme—and its run by Titus, a 7th-level fighter and, variously, a champion, decorated war veteran, and former slave raider. He lives here with his 3rd-level magic-user daughter and her pet smilodon, along with their 100-year old housekeeper, a 4th-level elf who has served Titus's wife's family "for generations" (for some reason).
He oversees a staff of two: A Lawful (!) ogress combat instructor and a 3rd-level halfling animal tender. The ogress keeps a dozen gladiator-slaves in line (better hope she doesn't spot Titus's neanderthal concubine, as ogres "will attack them on sight" according to Moldvay). The halfling lives below the arena and handles the fighting beasts, a menagerie that includes caged pythons, apes, dire wolves, and crocodiles.
Titus has apparently built a nice retirement for himself hosting once-a-month spectacles as well as renting out parts of his compound to local tenants, including a tavern run by a 3rd-level Chaotic cleric (?), a musician (a 2nd-level thief who also serves as the arena's announcer), a pastry-seller (a 1st-level thief), a tailor (a 6th-level (!) thief), and a "[s]hy teenager with a crush on the landlord's daughter and a side job as bouncer at the arena" (a 1st-level fighter whose full-time job is not stated).
The individually-described gladiators are divided into three teams of four men, based on audience popularity, and the fights are set up as pro-wrestling matches, with drama and bombast, hero characters and villains. A coterie of concubines—each of whom is also individually described—attend to the gladiators' "needs" and help keep the place clean. Players can purchase their services to satisfy their own needs (and the author recommends awarding xp to characters who do). Hm.
The brief intro is followed by a thorough accounting of all these NPCs, which takes up two of the contest's three pages. The third page is a super-concise key of the map, with minimal descriptions and sometimes an explanation of the area's purpose or activity occurring there on gameday. It's a fairly effective key, almost Judges Guild-like in its info-packed brevity, which is good.
Then we come to the map page, and the adventure site's fatal flaw becomes inescapable: There is no adventure to be had here. It's a great location, there's lots of interesting detail, the NPCs are creatively imagined; it all works, but lacks anything for a party to hang its hat on. What, precisely, are they meant to do here other than participate as part of the audience? I have absolutely no idea. I won't dive down into all the details because this review would quickly degenerate into: "This area has this neat idea, and here's another, etc." I have no gameplay or narrative to comment on because there is none.
There is treasure to be had, but only if the party goes on some brazen, home invasion-style robbery. Even if they manage to find and drag every silver coin out of the place, they're only looking at a payday of about 1,534 gpv. This adventure assumes the silver standard, so taking that into account, the total haul becomes worth 15,340 spv, or about 3,000 apiece for a party of five, less than half of what a 4th-level character would need to go to 5th level. Not good.
The various magical items found here are decent, if low-powered for a level 4–6 party. Probably the best items are a pair of Pendants of Minor Elemental Summoning—one fire (for use in the kitchens) and one water (for deep-cleaning tasks). Each of these items summons a 4HD elemental, though how often and for how long isn't specified. Minor elementals aren't a thing in BX, but these are given stat blocks so I can roll with it. There's also a chest of enchanted bones that can form either eight skeletons or one bone golem, though how the chest works is a bit vague. The item is definitely something certain characters would want to use, however.
It's all sort of irrelevant because it is unlikely the party would ever find itself in a position to get any of it unless they are a team of thieving, evil-minded characters who don't mind a little wetwork on innocents to make a quick sackful of dimes.
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1) THEME
(How strong/consistent is the adventure's premise, flavor, and setting?)
The theme is full-on Imperial Rome, and the writeup is saturated with all sorts of Roman goodness. The text is flavorful and well-written, and this site is a terrific location to plop into a city as something to do while carousing (I'm guessing that's the xp reference for engaging in a spot of human trafficking).
The business element of this site doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In the stands, there are (56) 10x10-ft. squares of spectator seating and (8) squares of elite seats. If we assume each spectator takes up 2.5 sq. ft. (16 people per 10'square) and each elite takes up 3.3 sq. ft. (9 per 10' square), then that means a full-crowd audience would entail about 896 spectators and 72 elites. The entry fee is "a silver sesterce," presumably one silver piece. That means Titus earns about 950 sp per monthly performance, or 11,400 sp annually.
Presumably he makes money on his tenants, but it certainly can't be much given the renters' low-income establishments. Let's be generous and round it up to 1,200 sp per month in total revenue. He has a lot of human and animal mouths to feed, and a 36,000 sq. ft. compound to manage and maintain. Granted, he also makes money pimping out his gladiators and concubines for photo ops and sexual favors, but that's not indicated as a major part of his income. The math just doesn't look promising.
I'm scoring this as highly as I am because it is so well-done, but be aware that all of it is in service to nothing, as everything happens without the PCs' involvement or awareness, and there is nothing for them to do here other than buy a ticket and enjoy the show. Maybe talk with a flavorful NPC or two.
SCORE (THEME) = 4 / 5
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2) MAP AND ART
(How complex/useful is the map and/or art? How easy is it to grok the layout?)
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There are a few map errors, mostly some mislabeled stair destinations, and missing stairs in one room (area 28), but the author's intention is obvious and easily fixed on the fly. Again, most of the site will never be seen by an ordinary party, so the effort is kind of wasted here.
SCORE (MAP/ART) = 3 / 5
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3) CLARITY
(How easy is the writeup to read/parse quickly? How well does the information flow?)
The first two pages of NPCs are in single-column, left-aligned format, while the third key page shifts to two-columns. The margins are medium-sized,, but there isn't much line spacing meaning you're reading through a dense wall of text. Use of bolding, shading, and underlining highlights important pieces of the text and despite its density, the document is fairly easy to scan.
Information flow follows a logical order, and the text does a fine job of conveying what goes on here. Good descriptive words and flavorful touches make the details enjoyable to read, even as you begin to wonder where it's all going (nowhere, as we discover).
SCORE (CLARITY) = 3 / 5
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4) INTERACTIVITY/INNOVATION
(How well does the adventure use the rules to create interesting play?)
The only thing to do here is interact with NPCs, though how or why a bunch of outsiders would be roaming around the compound (talking to the house concubines, for example) is never indicated. Unless the party is a guest of the arena's proprietor or are given a reason to break into the place, they will never see the compound's interior.
Even if they do break in, there isn't much dungeoneering to do beyond some simple thievery and maybe stabbing a few people just minding their own beeswax. Despite the dearth of adventure to be found here, I'm giving it a score of '1' (and not '0') simply because if they do meet even a single NPC, the writeup gives the DM plenty of juice to make the encounter an interesting one.
SCORE (INTERACTIVITY) = 1 / 5
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5) MODULARITY
(How easy would it be to drop/integrate the adventure into an existing campaign?)
This is a great city location in search of a point. The depth of imperial flavor sort of limits the DM to a Classical Age campaign setting, maybe even a sword-and-sorcery setting (like Conan in Aquilonia), but with some modifications, a DM could easily port this into a more medieval-style setting. It would work great in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord or any other JG city setting as well. If slaves and concubines cause you any issues, this one may not be for you as their presence is explicit.
SCORE (MODULARITY) = 3 / 5
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6) USABILITY
(How much work will the referee have to do to run this adventure at the table tonight?)
The singular problem remains: Why would your players want to go here? You'll have to come up with all that, so if you need a quick city site for an evening's adventure, this one will require some effort. Ditto if you want to convert the flavor from Roman to some other setting. Most of the conversion work will involve renaming certain elements of the details, so probably not too labor-intensive.
If you need an adventure right out of the bag, however, this one won't do at all.
SCORE (USABILITY) = 2 / 5
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7) OVERALL THOUGHTS
The quality and flavor of the writing saves this from being in the basement, score-wise, but I think the author took a big swing and whiffed it. There isn't any more room to squeeze an adventure into the text, so we'll just have to ponder what might have been. If it's any consolation, I'm definitely borrowing the rich list of NPCs for this other thing I'm doing.
FINAL SCORE = 2.7 / 5
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