AFAIK it’s because the armour was heavy and they had to do lots of running around - so they only armoured the essential parts of their bodies and learned to parry with what they had. Professional soldiers had the same problem. A lot of early gladiators would be prisoners of war and used their soldiering equipment - the fanciful styles were a later development.
Yes, these are not Roman gladiators. I would agree more historical gladiators would req a servant LP or a Debt based trait. Mine, in particular, I wanted to use for a homebrew world where Gladiators were plucked from the ranks of criminals and soldiers when there wasn’t a war to fight.
I am going to play-test Piecemeal before deciding if it’s superfluous. I wanted to make certain it was clear what was going on and I wanted to see the type of fight decisions made when standardly missing pieces of your armor.
Do we think there will be a little more bite to the LP if it started with Taste the Lash or Crippled? My idea here is that spending that much time in the arena would come at a heavy price.
Not making weapon skills first is a balance issue, not a simulationist one. I’m not trying to say they aren’t taught weapons, rather I’m emphasizing the change in fighting environment than in raw force. besides, 99.9% of players will pick weapon skills regardless what goes in here and will be offered in many of the required LPs. Oh, and I considered Boxing and Martial Arts but decided brawling and Wrestling was more appropriate.
Question: no doubt gladiators will be about the baddest mofos to swing steel. I was going to take out Fearless but I just think it fits how badass they really are. If this LP were in your game would every player that wanted to make a fighting character choose the Gladiator LP regardless if it fit?
I don’t think Appropriate Weapons should necessarily be first, or even in the lifepath at all. Gladiators would probably already have had significant weapon training, and while they DID train heavily, what separates them from other combat characters is the performative aspect. I’d allow any outcast lifepath to be a prerequisite - any societal dregs could get thrown in the ring. Possibly Wild Animal-wise? Possibly Broken? Brawling is good because it allows you to use ANY weapon, albeit unscientifically. I’m also not sure it deserves the extra M.
But, if you are a gladiator, why to buy armor at all? Your master will give you the armor that he deems appropriate. And 10 resources points may be too much.
It seems too much for what it is. As it is, it’s like you took squire (already very good) and souped it up, reducing the time and adding better traits. Fewer skill points, though. Oddly few considering how many skills you have there. Most LPs have around the same number of skill points as skills.
First, I don’t think +1 M,P fits. And combined with the short (4 year) duration, it’s a very powerful path for getting very high starting stats. I’d put it at +1P. If you really want to emphasize that they improve their minds (how exactly do you see that fitting in your setting?) then make it +1M/P.
Second, the resource points seem too high at 10. They get paid more than a city guard? But they taste the lash too? I don’t get it. I’d put it at 4 or 5. But maybe you’re picturing it differently than I am.
Last, you crammed in too many traits and skills. Take out theatrics for sure - read the skill description and sample Obs. Are these guys going to be applying stage makeup and disguising men as women? For me, intimidation would be out too - intimidation is a great way to make somebody stand down and win a confrontation without fighting. In the arena, your opponent’s not going anywhere - he has to fight you and he’s come prepared to fight. Keep in mind that your opponent is also a gladiator and thus a fearless gloryhound or whatever. I don’t want to look up all the traits, but you should pare it down too. If you want to keep in fearless, by all means go ahead. It’s good to have a trait like that available to tempt people to take the LP.
I read it as fame. Good gladiators (and this one was good, or he wouldn’t have survived) would be as famous as good sportsmen.
Then take that as a trait. Renowned Fighter - +1D Reputation in your city for being a prodigious badass.
Good input guys. Okay, Theatrics are out. +1M/P. I dunno what I was thinking there. The resource points are based on equipment they will start with as well as affiliations/reputations/relationships. Resources is what you start with, not how much you are paid. Keep in mind, my gladiators for this setting aren’t naturally slaves and also keep in mind this is based on having survived as a gladiator for 4 years.
Oh, and the few skill points compared to multiple skills shows they are specialized. A particular gladiator won’t be trained in all of the skills and if he is he will be a generalist.
You must give the LP one skill point per skill, one skill point plus one per skill, or two skill points per skill. (Monster Burner, page 87.)
This is my conservative version (for roman gladiators). I hope you don’t main.
Gladiator
Time 4 years Res 5 Stat +1P Leads Court, Serviture, Outcast
Skills: 6 pts: Appropriate Weapon, Shield Trainning, Crowd-wise, Arena-wise, Wild Animals-wise
Traits: 2 pts: Infamia, Brutal, Tasting the Lash, Crippled, Spartacus
Requirements: This can’t be the second character lifepath.
I created a new die trait: Infamia, and put it first in the trait list of the lifepath (as Diseased is the first required trait for Ratcatcher and Zealot it is for Cultist).
Infamia Dt
Maybe the gladiator was a soldier once, or a captive of war, or maybe he or she chose to became a gladiator, but he’s a slave now. He has not legal or social standing. He suffers a +1D infamus reputation for all settings except Outcast.
Oh yeah that is good! steals immediately
Nitpick: wild animal-wise instead of lion-wise - they had to fight all manners of beasts.
Btw, Eruditus, I love the “Spartacus” trait.
Changed. But, what about making individuals wises? Lion-wise, boar-wise, bulldog-wise (?), etc.
And I made Infamia mandatory.
Note: I removed Armor Trainning from the lifepath because the romans preferred to watch the gladiators fight with little clothing (for example, women “with spear in hand and breasts exposed”), and because if you don’t have Armor Trainning you must consider using Half-Leggings and Half-Sleeves (just a piece here and another there, y’know).
…“Appropriate animal”-wise? But I think they didn’t fight one kind of animal exclusively, so I’d leave it as a generic thing. I’d maybe even limit it to Dangerous animal-wise (because they sure weren’t fighting squirrels).
As for armour, they had lightly armoured gladiators fighting heavily armoured gladiators, to contrast their speed of movement. On the other hand the heavily armoured gladiators were supposed to be hampered by that weight… so I guess no armur training makes sense 
Here are my 2 cents.
Give your Gladiator LP no Leads out. Once you’re in, the only way out is to become a Champion.
Create a Gladiator Champion LP. This leads out to City, Outcast, Villager, Noble Court, Professional Soldier.
Also, Cold-hearted, Merciless, and Cold-Blooded would be lower-powered replacements for Fearless. Give Fearless to the Champion LP.
Dammit, Don, I told you, the weapons are supposed to be Inappropriate! 
Matt
That’s excellent advice, Pete, thanks! I can split out a goodly amount of that stuff. In fact maybe even three differentiated LPs - retired, honored, and beloved. Dude, I’m loving this idea. Creating that differentiation really hits upon how important they are in society and I don’t have to make the one so diverse.
Alejandro, I’m with you on this now with Pete’s suggestion. Just out of curiosity do you understand why I don’t start the skill list with weapons? I appreciate that you may not agree but I am just curious if I communicated well enough why I didn’t mechanically.
Thanks,
- Don
Duly noted! I will immediately change the LP to reflect Two Fisting Training and Fish-You-Can-Hold-by-Their-Tails-wise.
Wow, and I just realized that I don’t know what setting the LP should be in. Maybe a couple different options or a Gladiator sub-setting… hmmmm.
Thoughts? Two different Gladiator oriented LPs per human setting (including stable hands, trainers, presenters and managers) as well as two Roden and one great Spider Gladiator LP (since they are the races in our world)
OR
A single Gladiator Sub-setting?
I edited my post for clarity. I meant that the base Gladiator LP should have no Leads out. The only way out of the LP is to take the Champion LP.
Maybe that requires a special Trait?
One Way Out
Once the Gladiator LP is taken, the character may not take any other LPs besides Gladiator or Gladiator Champion. It’s either death or glory from now on!
I don’t understand the balance thing. But I put Apropiate Weapons first because I could not think of any other skill to put there. Maybe a wise?
I don’t think a trait is necessary. You can burn a gladiator and then leave the fights during play. (Maybe some senator hires you as a bodyguard or something.) But if you want to burn a character that was once a gladiator, the player should take another serviture lifepath first. (Or maybe you should make Gladiator a short sub-setting, and only Champion has leads to other settings.)
Or you can make a restriction:
Restrictions: If chosen, Gladiator must be the last lifepath chosen, or the player should pick another gladiator type lifepath, like Champion.