Instant Upgrades (september 2003)

Each time a gladiator earns Battle Honors, he gets to spend them immediately, without stopping play. This has the effect of speeding up the enhancement process and gives powerful teams very quickly. Team total earned Battle Honors must be retabulated every time a Gladiator gets a Battle Honor. This makes the amount of Battle Honors awarded for an elimination vary as the game progresses.

We use this method whenever we run demo games at game conventions, just to give players an idea about how the upgrades rules work, and to reward players who take risks.

AutoHit Rule (september 2003) (now printed in Space Orx and Spiders)

Sudden Death! Whenever a game is running out of time, and a resolution has not been reached, apply the Auto Hit Rule. Make all attacks as normal, but assume that they always hit. Apply the damage, adding or subtracting damage depending on the to hit die roll. A die roll that exceeded the TN to hit would get bonus damage, as usual, and a shot that would have missed gets damage taken off by the same procedure. It is possible for damage tobe reduced to 0 by this method: the target was hit, but took no damage.

Example: Harman fires his Blaster Rifle on zone fire at two Orx that are advancing on him. His total TN, after modifications, is 8 for each target. He makes his two attack rolls, and gets a 10 and a 6. The 10 hits, and if the target fails its saves, will take 1d12+2 damage, since it was a hit +2. The 6, however, would have been a miss but for the automatic hit rule. If the Orx fails its save, the damage would be 1d12-2, because it was a hit -2.

No Squad Leader Rule (september 2003)

Whenever you want to run a much simplified version of the game, simply remove the Squad Leaders from each team of gladiators. This will remove the need to teach how command points work and how to activate a Squad Leader. This optional rule works well when teaching the game to younger kids.

Corner Deployment (september 2003)

There's nothing that says you can't start your teams out on the four corners of the map. If everyone agrees, try it out. See Rectangular Starting Zones, below, for different ways of setting up your Gladiators. Too see what the Starting Zones look like, go to the Downloads Page, Miscellaneous Downloads.

Standard Map

Corner Map

Square Starting Zones (september 2003)

Instead of 4 starting zones in a line across the back of the playing area, this option allows the 4 starting zones to be in a square configuration, with one row in from the outer edge. Recommended for games where the players want to start in the corners, or for players who want to start alittle bit closer to their opponents across the table. To see what the rectangular zones look like up close, go to the Downloads Page, Miscellaneous Downloads.

Square Setup Map

Square Setup Corner Map