Projects in the Works

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One of my pet projects is a boardgame. Well, it's a boardgame in the sense that you play it at a table with a bunch of friends, not in the sense that there's an actual board that you move little doo-dads about on.  Ars Gladiatorum started because I watched three seasons of Spartacus in a two day span and said 'yes, I would do that in a New York Minute'.

I have a propensity for making stupid decisions when I'm ODing on action serials. One time, after watching Saving Private Ryan, I ended up in the Army. True story.

Age bringing wisdom (or at least bad knees) and sans time machine, I opted for the next best thing: a simulation of running a gladiator academy and arena combat. Shamelessly pilfering the best bits of a dozen different games and hot gluing them together, I have ended up with a robust combat system where death is an ever present threat, welded to a fighter management system where you decide how much a risk you want to take with your stable. 

The base is there, which I suppose puts it in Alpha, but there a lots of things that need tightening up. I've been holding playtests which have been going well, but I'm hoping to expand my test audience in the coming months. When it's done, it should let you play a season or two of bloody, cut throat competition in an hour or two with little to no set-up.

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