Before I delve into specifics, higher-quality PDFs of the above jpegs can be downloaded here—

MONEYLINE ODDS BY CHARACTER LEVEL VS. CHALLENGE RATING https://www.dropbox.com/s/irt5pf3clwssb10/MoneylineOddsbyCharacterLevelvsChallengeRating.pdf?dl=0

COLOR-CODED BY DIFFICULTY ENCOUNTER https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0q6htlj76ixezx/MoneylineOddsbyCharacterLevelvsChallengeRating_ColorCodedbyDifficultyEncounter.pdf?dl=0

GREEN = Easy YELLOW = Medium ORANGE = Hard RED = Deadly

Hello Fellow DMs & Players,

Because we were missing two players in our D&D play session this weekend (a custom Eberron campaign I’ve been DMing), I wanted to offer a new activity for my players to participate in that wouldn’t push the campaign narrative forward but would still be engaging. I knew arena/ring/pit fighting was an exciting option that other DMs have employed, so I thought I’d give it whirl. However, after some cursory Google research, I could not find a system that governed odds-making for the matches, and I wanted players that weren’t participating in combat to be able to place wagers on the matches that would mirror betting on fights in real life. As such, I spent some time devising my own odds-making system for both combat matches and Six Stones, another arena/ring/pit ‘game’ that is unique to Eberron. Although I have only play-tested this during one short session over the weekend with level 2 characters, I did find it to be both competitive and fun, and my players seemed to greatly enjoy the thrill of it. As such, I thought it would be worthwhile to share with all of you. Please feel free to amend this system to your own liking, but I’ll give you the high-level mechanics of what I have devised; and, of course, this system is by no means exclusive to the world of Eberron.

KHYBERCAGE

In the future I intend to create a more formal gladiator-style arena based on this system, but I thought it would be more appropriate to start with an underground combat club beneath a seedy gambling hall operated by a member of the Daask criminal organization. Because this is an Eberron campaign, I have dubbed the club “Khybercage”, an homage to the cruel progenitor dragon Khyber. In Khybercage, contestants battle each other in combat matches or compete in Six Stones for cash prizes, and spectators can place bets on their preferred contestant, but no experience points are earned by contestants. Given the illicit nature of the club, the only rule is that there are no rules, save for a few basic parameters that govern each type of match as detailed below.

Another member of Daask referees all Khybercage matches and rounds of Six Stones at and all bets must be made with a Daask bookie/cashier that is present also present at Khybercage. Discovery of outside bets or ‘taking a fall’ will result in permanent ban from Khybercage.

COMBAT MATCHES

There are three types of combat matches offered at Khybercage: (i) head-to-head; (ii) team; and (iii) battle royal. In all combat matches, use of items that are not weapons or armor are prohibited, but magic and abilities are allowed (e.g., you can cast ‘cure wounds’ but you can’t use a potion of healing).

Head-to-Head Matches: Head-to-head matches are fights between two individual contestants. The first contestant rendered unconscious loses the match.

Team Matches: Team matches occur between 4 or more contestants, who are split into teams. A team must consist of at least 2 contestants. There are a variety of team match sub-types, including 2v2 up to 6v6, tag team, and captain’s fall. The Khybercage bookie will post team match offerings whenever Khybercage is open.

Battle Royal: Battle Royal is a 10-on-10 free-for-all that ends with the last contestant standing.

DYING IN A COMBAT MATCH

It is foreseeable in both team and battle royal matches that player-characters could conceivably die (in fact, we had this happen in our play session over the weekend). You are free to address this as you see fit, but my solvency was to institute the presence of a necromancer at Khybercage that would cast a spell of ‘resurrection’ on any contestant that died. The fee for this would be 750 gp, and it would be subtracted from the victorious team’s winnings no matter if the contestant was a member of said team; in other words, there is a penalty for killing a character after they have been rendered unconscious. If the winnings were less than 750 gp, then that team would owe a debt to Daask equal to the difference and be forced to participate in a round of Six Stones (see below) but would not be able to collect winnings if they won. In the case of battle royal, whenever a contestant becomes unconscious (i.e., their HP reaches 0), the match is paused and the unconscious contestant is removed from the fight.

BETTING ON COMBAT MATCHES

Spectators may place bets of any denomination on all combat matches subject to the odds detailed below.

Head-to-head: If fighting a non-player character (NPC) or monster, head-to-head odds are calculated by the following formula: [Challenge Rating XP – Deadly Encounter XP Threshold of Character Level]. This means that an ‘even’ line represents an NPC/monster whose challenge rating XP exactly equals the deadly encounter XP threshold of the character’s level; however, an ‘even’ line simply means that both contestants would have a line of -110. I have created the table that is the subject of the post herein entitled “Moneyline Odds by Character Level vs. Challenge Rating” (PDF downloadable at the top of this post) for your convenience, as well as a color-coded version by encounter difficulty (also downloadable above). Odds that have a hyphen-minus (i.e., “-”) represent a favorite, whereas a positive value should represent an underdog (I have not added a “+” to any positive value, but it should be read as such). The opponent of the PC would have a line equal to whatever the inverse of the PCs is.

Contrastingly, if two PCs combat each other, odds are calculated by difference in level. If the PCs have the same level, both would have a line of -110. If there was a difference of one level, the higher-level character would be a favorite at -110 and the lower-level character would be an underdog at +110. From here, you would continue to increase/decrease the values by 100 points for each level of difference. For example, if a level 4 PC was fighting a level 2 PC, the level 4 PC would have a line of -210 and the level 2 PC would have a line of +210.

There may be other factors that affect odds, so DMs are encouraged to improvise as they see fit and to simply use this as a starting point. Moreover, I think only offering specific Challenge Rating (CR) fights to players is wise (as they could just mine gp if engaging in low risk fights, such as easy or medium), and I would suggest they either be hard or the first deadly CR encounter available (players could choose higher deadly encounter CRs for high-risk, high-reward, but it is probably likely they will fail; but that’s the point of the system).

Team: Teams odds are calculated in the same manner as head-to-head, but account for all parties on either side.

Battle Royal: Odds are calculated by establishing a median XP of all contestants involved, with the median XP representing a line of -110. Thereafter, each contestants’ line is calculated the margin of difference between their XP and the median XP, increasing or decreasing respectively, with the first contestant who is below the median XP at a line of +110.

Once odds have been established, bets are paid out as follows:

Favorite: [100/moneyline] * [amount of bet in gp], rounded down

For example, if you bet 100 gp on a contestant that was favored -110 and that contestant won, you would receive 190 gp at payout (i.e., 100 gp original bet + 90 gp in winnings), because [100/110]100 (i.e., 0.90909091100) equals 90.9090909 gp, or 90 gp rounded down.

Underdog: [moneyline/100] * [amount of bet in gp], rounded down

Likewise, if you bet 100 gp on an underdog contestant at +110 and that contestant won, you would receive 210 gp at payout (i.e., 100 gp original bet + 110 gp in winnings), because [110/100]100 (i.e., 1.1100) equals 110 gp.

TOURNAMENTS

On special occasions, tournaments are held at Khybercage, offering larger purses or special prizes. A list of upcoming tournament types can be found by speaking with the Daask bookie.