New Meat Dungeon: Happy Funtimes Bloodpit

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Mmmmmm CAD programs

Okay so I made this thing in SolidWorks. I'm calling it the Blood Pit, because I read a bunch of choose-your-own-adventure books lately and it ruined vastly improved my ability to name things.

The pit is broken into four wedges, which each contain a maze/gauntlet with the same layout. The wedges all funnel down to the centre of the pit, where they join up into a small gladiatorial arena. Looks like this:

The idea, from a metagame perspective, was to come up with a good way to do competitive rpgery. Start each player with a character or two in their own private wedge, then they have to fight through a micro-dungeon in order to get to the middle and kill each other. Obvious warning: this is not a good game type for the wrong kind of nerd. Friendships may should be broken.

ring = crosshairs
riddle = questionmark
labyrinth = spiral
trial = skull and crossbones

The zones in these wedges are, in the order encountered, Ring, Riddle, Labyrinth and Trial. Each wedge has a theme, and each zone has a mechanically consistent but thematically different encounter. Every dead end is a Dead End. Save vs death, you rat.

Every round of combat, guess at a riddle and stumble through the labyrinth should be counted. Give it a wanky name like 'Heartbeats' or something if you're really desperate. Use these to keep track of where people are so that they enter the central ring at the right time.

For my mechanically consistent encounters, I have picked these things what are below:

• RING - Simple, pretty easy encounter to get everyone warmed up. Takes place in a circular chamber that should be decorated appropriately to your theme.
• 2 HD, armour as leather, 1d6 attack.
• RIDDLE - Mid-sized room with some kind of barrier between rimwards entrances and hubwards exit: river of acid, wall of roots, bloated fleshbeast, etc. Answering riddle correctly removes barrier. Every time players guess wrong they take 1d3. Trying to cut through the barrier also earns you 1d3. Either of those last two things cost you time.
• Answer for all riddles is the same thing. For me it's always death.
• LABYRINTH - Contents of labyrinth make travel between any intersection take 1 time period thingy. Shape of labyrinth makes any sensible path take 5 units, but anyone not paying attention should lose some valuable time here.
• TRIAL - One serious fight with an interesting monster. Central part stuck in middle of room with about 6 limbs/extra fighty bits flying through the air around it. Monster should surprise PCs probably. Do some suspenseful trudging though the bigger arena here before you spring it.
• Body of critter/main critter is 2 HD, armour as chain, 1d6 attack
• Limbs of critter/extra critters are 1 HD, armour as paper, 1d3-2 attack. 

Here are some example wedges:

THEME	RING	RIDDLE	LABYRINTH	TRIAL
Classical	Gladiator Automaton	Sphinx – wall of sand: “What is the surest path to freedom?”	Choking Mist	Microhydra
Fae (Alice in Wonderland duh)	Warty Toad w/ Axe	Big Blue Caterpillar – wall of mushrooms: “What is life’s greatest reward?”	Clinging Roots	Faeries + Faerie Queen (like giant beeeees)
Grimdark	Death Knight	Wall of Maws: “What medicine will ease my pain?”	Grasping Arms	Chain Demon
Racism	Haunted Samurai Armour	Sage-Looking Fucker in Peace Garden – wall of him/her doing kungfu: “What marks the start and end of empire?”	Spinning Mu Ren Zhuang	River Kami w/ Angry Lantern Spirits
Comedy	Hugely Fat Clown w/ Ladder	Ringmaster – wall of clown antics: “Who gets the last laugh?”	Bouncy Castle	Ghost Pies + Ghost Baker

The central arena can be anything you fucking want it to be

• a caltrop-carpeted pit feat. on rickety podium ballista
• a boiling lake, water slowly rising, one 10 foot pole on the island in the middle
• extra dimensional portal that grants control of devilwasps to anyone standing in it
• giant set of scales - every person on them releases more mustard gas on the ground below, increases die size of damage dealt in getting to the centre

Just make it something that rewards people getting through the maze quicker!

Whole map from top wow

And if you know anyone with a 3D printer then I can totally give you the file and you can go and print this thing and stick it in the middle of the table that's like half the whole point I mean c'mooon.