The Pits: a Board Game About Gladiators
Introduction: The Pits: a Board Game About Gladiators
The Pits is a board game for 2-4 players about gladiators fighting for their freedom in the arena. Expect a game to last about 30 minutes. It uses common playing pieces and a printable board. Here are the required pieces:
* A deck of playing cards, mini size preferred, or full size cut in half in order to fit on the character sheets
* 4 dice of one colour (blue in this case), 3 of another colour (white)
* 4 character sheet print outs (see below for pdf)
* Arena board print out (see below for pdf)
* 4 unique gladiator miniatures (chess pieces in this case)
* 3 damage markers for each player (monopoly hotels in this case)
Victory goes to the player who acquires a full suite of armour of one type (E.G. all diamonds) and the weapon and shield of that same suite.
Step 1: Print the Board
Print the arena, trim it, then tape it together. Print the character sheets.
The arena has 52 empty spaces for the 52 cards in the deck. These cards represent the equipment that the gladiators will use in combat.
* The Aces are weapons
* The Kings are shields
* The remaining cards from 2 to Queen are the various pieces of armour
The character sheets indicate where the cards are placed and what they represent. E.G. The 7 is the cuirass covering the chest and torso. The 2 is for the right boot.
The different suites indicate the quality of the armour and weapons, ranked from diamonds (best), hearts, spades then clubs.
Step 2: Arrange Cards and Pieces
Remove the Jokers from the deck of cards, then shuffle them as you place them on the spaces on the board. Each player starts with their piece at the portcullis/gate. In this example I've also put the same type of piece on each character sheet to show which belongs to whom.
Step 3: Roll and Take Action
On a player's turn, they roll one white die. The number rolled is the number of actions they have for that round. Actions are:
* move (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally)
* look at a card
* equip or replace a card
* attack another gladiator
Each costs 1 action point.
Let's look at movement and picking up cards to start with. The photos show the player with the king chess piece rolling a 5. 50
The moves one-by-one are as follows:
1. moves 1 space
2. looks at a card
3. equips the card in the appropriate spot
4. moves 1 space
5. looks at a card
Step 4: Swap Cards
As the game progresses inevitably a player will turn over a card on the board with the same number/rank as a card already equipped on their character sheet. The player may swap one for the other. Only one card can be equipped in each slot on the character sheet. The photos show the rook piece uncovering a 5 of spades which it swaps out for the 5 of clubs.
Step 5: Attacking
A gladiator which is equipped with a weapon (one of the Ace cards) may attack another gladiator that is adjacent (not including diagonal).
The attacker can roll 1,2 or 3 white dice to determine the body area to attack. A 1-die roll will aim for the bottom half while a 3-dice roll will aim for neck and head, but both have the chance of missing if the roll is less than 2 or greater than 12.
E.G.A) Three white dice are rolled - 5,2 and 3 - with a total of 10 which targets the opponent's right shoulder.
E.G.B) One white die is rolled for 2 which targets the opponent's right foot.
The blue dice are rolled to determine the strength of the attack. The number of blue dice rolled is determined by the quality of weapon:
* Ace of Clubs: 1
* Ace of Spades: 2
* Ace of Hearts: 3
* Ace of Diamonds: 4
The strength of the attack is the highest value on any one of the dice.
Let's look at the photos for an example. The King piece is attacking the <PERSON> piece. The King is equipped with the Ace of Diamonds so rolls all 4 blue dice and chooses to roll 2 white dice. The white dice totals 4 so the attack aims at the <PERSON>'s left foot. The highest of the blue dice is 4, so that is the attack strength. 50