If you are familiar with TTRPGs think of a pit boss like a game or dungeon master. A pit boss’s function is to aid in the implementation of the game rules while providing additional narrative and creativity. For example, here are some of the ways in which a pit boss can participate.
Helping track CRED gains
This starts by taking control of the crowd pile. The pit boss keeps the crowd pile in front of them and makes sure it receives all the coins it has coming and doles out all coins owed to participating lanistas. A pit boss will also retain possession and control of the barge sheet, making sure that all helot CRED gains from the blood.stream are recorded for each participating helot.
Overseeing barge hazard activations and placements
Along with the crowd pile and barge sheet, a pit boss keeps all the floor saws, floor spikes and other hazards near them and at the ready. As a pit boss, it is your job to track their activation, roll for their placement, and implement their execution order and individual hazard rules. This allows lanistas to keep their attention to where it belongs, on their helots.
Reminding players about turning point counters and helot status effects
It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of winning initiative and to forget to mark your turning point counter. It is equally likely that a time or two during a bout a lanista may forget to subtract a coin from their helots overall due to the flaming or bleeding state. As a pit boss, it is your job to make sure that doesn’t happen. Remind these cheating bastards that they are prone or that they gloated last command cycle and are -SDS to defend!
Creating new barges
You think you are better than me?! Fine. Prove it! Create your own barges! Design a layout and select from the existing hazards and obstacles or, better yet, create your own! I even recommend creating pre-bout and post bout narratives to help aid in the players immersion into the game.
Creating new hazards
This can be a lot of fun and there are plenty of ways to do this.
REPURPOSE CURRENT HAZARDS
Like I did with the crates, turning them into weapon crates for the crate barge. Another example would be to make your own effects table for the dart columns.
3D PRINT YOUR OWN HAZARDS OR USE MODELS FROM OTHER GAMES
Have an interesting idea on how to make the NEXUS even more chaotic? Have you seen something in another game that you think would be exciting to implement here? Well, do it! Nothing is stopping you!
USE THE BARGE SHEET TO IMPLEMENT BOOBY TRAPS
Being a neutral party means that you can mark certain areas on the barge sheet and keep them unknown to the other players. This opens an entire world of possibilities to you. You could even go as far as making each square its own narrative event.
Creating New Equipment
As the game develops, I plan on releasing an abundance of new weapons, armors, and other equipment from the d-mart. That said, don’t wait on me. Make your own d-mart vendor and let the players shop its wares. Keep it balanced, or don’t. Whatever you and your players have fun doing is the correct way to play. You can even create your own cybernetics and mutations if you like. Let your imagination run wild.
Creating turning points and other narrative events
For me, this is the most exciting part about being a pit boss. While the NEXUS is chaotic and unpredictable, as a pit boss you have the power to control the overall narrative of a bout.
PRE-BOUT EVENTS
These are events that occur before the bout even begins. Maybe you share them with the group collectively or possibly you reveal them to each lanista in private before the bout begins.
Example: The barge captain sends a messenger to each of the participating lanistas with a list of services. It is a little something he calls a bribe auction. The messenger implies that the highest bidder for each service will acquire the benefits of said service during the bout. With that said, the messenger informs them that the captain will retain their bid regardless of the auction outcome and that they will be informed if their bid was the highest just before the bout begins.
The captain’s list of services:
- Sneak in weapon for your helot, but you must provide the weapon.
- The captain will reveal to you the locations of all Booby Traps in the barge arena.
- You will agree on a secret signal for the instant activation or deactivation of a Barge Hazard during the bout. However, this secret signal may only be used once.
- Slip a health booster into your helot’s pre-fight meal granting it +10 Overall.
IN-BOUT EVENTS
Turning point events are handled with turning point counters and cards. But there are other ways to handle in-bout events when a pit boss is involved in a bout.
Example: The pit boss creates six different narratives and numbers them respectively one through six. Then, during the bout, they reveal them as the corresponding numbers are rolled by all participating lanistas.
POST-BOUT EVENTS
Who knows, at the conclusion of a bout a member of an unsanctioned cleaning crew may approach the lanistas with a unique business opportunity.
Example: The pit boss creates six different narratives and numbers them respectively one through six. Then, during the bout, they reveal them as the corresponding numbers are rolled by all participating lanistas.
CUSTOMIZING TURNING POINTS
There are several creative ways to handle turning points during a barge bout.
Adding to or Culling from the Standard Deck – Maybe you don’t care for one or more of the turning point cards or there is a certain player experience that you are after that some of the turning point cards detract from. As a pit boss you can just remove them from the deck. Doing this doesn’t affect any other aspect of play. You can even create your own turning point cards and add them to the turning point deck if you like.
Building Your Own Deck – You can take adding cards one step further by making your own custom turning point decks specific to whatever barge you have created or events that are occurring in your game world. This is a great way to keep an ongoing storyline throughout your gaming sessions with your own reoccurring characters.
Creating Turning Point Tables – Creating cards may be too much of a time sink for you. If that is the case, just make a table and roll some dice for the result!
Scripting Turning Points – For total control of the narrative a pit boss may decide to take the randomness factor out completely by scripting what the turning points will be and in what order. Talk about being a control freak…
Alternative Objectives
Giving lanistas alternative objectives during the bout can be a great source of both confusion and entertainment. You may choose to do this in private for each individual lanista or openly, letting them compete for a coveted reward.
Example: A wealthy patron of the “Gory Hole” has a very particular kink. This alien is deeply aroused by the spectacle of blood boiling on living bio-matter. That said, it needs a fair amount of time to pleasure itself manually and large crowds don’t help matters any. Long story short, if at any point in the bout a helot spends four (4) consecutive command rounds both Flaming AND Bleeding, its lanista will be rewarded with ₿ 40,000.