The QuickStart Guide

"Welcome Traveler! You have just entered the City of Sagaris! If you wear your weapons and spell components for more than to impress the Ladies, enter the Core Coliseum, and prove it in front of cheering audiences, a place where you can find fame and fortune in no time, and death even quicker!


I am Alathar Vierce, former undefeated gladiator, now arena organizer. I will give you a tour through the Core Coliseum (CoCo) and assist you in helping to create a gladiator. Leave this window open as I explain the basics to you."

A Tour of Sagaris

Before we begin, allow me to give you a brief tour of the Core Coliseum, so you don't get lost.

• The Rules of Sagaris. This contains all the rules for the Core Coliseum. Don't panic! It may seem like a lot, but there's a lot you don't need to know, at least not for a long time First, you'll find a roster of every character there is; click on the name to see the sheet. Below the roster, you'll find other useful information: the week's pairings, the lists of pitlords and mercenaries, and the maps. After that is the full set of Core Coliseum rules. Beginning characters use only a small subset of these rules, which I'll explain a little later. For now, it's enough to know that this is where the full text of the rules can be found.
• Team Roster of Sagaris This contains the links to the character sheets of every gladiator in the Coliseum. This is where you will post your own character sheets later on, and where you will find the sheets of your opponents.
• Battles of Sagaris. Every fight that has ever been held in the Core Coliseum can be found here (or in one of its predecessor threads). When your character participates in a fight, that fight will be posted here. You can also browse older fights to see what kinds of tactics have worked (or not worked) in the past.
• The Core Coliseum Tavern. This should be where you make your first post, by dropping by and saying hello. Anything that doesn't belong in another thread goes here.
• Shouts from the Stands of Sagaris. This should be where the bulk of your questions should go. This is where you will find the Fights of the Week (FotW) threads as well as the Prison and any other discussion threads relating to Sagaris.
• The Prison of Sagaris. This is where we keep track of gladiators who have not... followed the straight and narrow, shall we say? If someone discovers an error on your character sheet, they will post that error here. If you don't correct it in a timely manner, the character will not be permitted to fight until the error is corrected. Sometimes people will report you and forget to let you know that they've done so, so you need to check the prison every once in a while to make sure you're not in it.
• Fights of the Week. There's a new one of these every week. This is where the fights are discussed, and will probably be where you spend most if your time. I'll tell you what do to here when we talk about fights a little later.
• The Courtroom of Sagaris. This is where we debate rules, putting them to an elder vote as necessary. The forum contains a large list of previous rule adjudications: rules that were ambiguous at one point, so the final ruling was recorded and is now official. These sometimes change in response to changes in the official FAQ or errata, or a particularly cogent argument, but otherwise you may consider these to be just as binding as the Player's Handbook.
• The Black Market of Sagaris. This is where you come to spend hard-earned credits, or make other requests that go beyond the scope of the core rules. If you have had a fight or two and realize that your character has a glaring flaw that you need to correct, you may post the request here (per the guidelines at the top of the thread) rather than scrapping the character and starting over. If the CoCo rules change and your character is affected, you can also post requests to make appropriate changes for that reason. Once you have some credits under your belt, you'll come here to spend them.
• The Council of Sagaris For beginners, it's enough to know that this forum exists. If you go away for a while and then return to us, you'll be able to check up on rule changes here. Otherwise, this is the thread where we debate and implement those changes.

Creating a Team

So, are you still interested in joining us? Good! Let's get you started.

• First, visit the Team Sheet Template. Click on the edit button at the top and copy the contents to a text editor.
• Click Cancel so that you can go back to the view of the page.
• Replace "Month Day" in the first line with the month and date of the upcoming Thursday.
• Now it's time to fill out the rest of the character sheet. The first thing you should see is that the sheet is actually 2 character sheets. In Sagaris, everyone fights in a team of 2 characters. You'll notice that there's a lot of showing your work required--we need that to make sure everyone's character is legal. Other than that, if you know how to create a character in D&D, you know how to do it here, although here are some general guidelines:
• You can use only material from the Player's Handbook, Player's Handbook 2, Player's Handbook 3, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. No other content is allowed. If there's a rule or piece of content that appears in one of those books, and an updated version exists in some other source, you may use only the original version that appears in the core rulebooks. Exception: Official errata (or "updates" as they're now called) apply if they can be found in a free, online source.
• Your first characters start at Level 1, with 0 XP and 100 GP. The budget of 100 GP applies to each character; they may not pool their resources. If you start with a free ritual book (cleric or wizard), you must keep that book rather than selling it.
• You may use Method 1 or Method 2 (array or point-buy) for your ability scores.
• There is only one restriction on how you can spend your money: you may not buy potions or poisons.
• When you are done, click on the Create Page link at the top. Give the page a name ({PlayerName}/{TeamName} is standard) and click Create Page. Now paste the contents of your team into the text box and click preview. Once you are satisfied with the formatting, click save.
• Now, head on over to the Tavern. Let us know that you've posted a new team and you'd like some more experienced players to look over it to make sure it's all legit. You can ask for character-building advice, too--we're happy to give it! When you make this post, you'll need to link to your character sheet.
• Send a PM to the GM (TelinArtho) with a link to your team, saying that the team is good to go.
• Wait until Thursday and get ready to fight!

Your First Fight

So, Thursday 2PM GMT is here. What do you do now?

• Do not edit your character sheet for any reason until the fight is complete. This will result in forfeiture of your fight this week.
• At some point around now, someone will create a new "Fights of the Week" (FotW) thread.
• When the pairings for the week are done, the GM (TelinArtho) will post them in this thread. You can also find them in the last post of the Battles thread.
• Look in the section headed "LEVEL 1 FIGHTS." Your character should appear somewhere in that section, looking something like this:* Fighter McFightsalot (Bob) vs. () : Somebody ^Arena If not, post in the FotW thread asking why, and someone will help you figure it out.
• You can see from that entry that your character is fighting Fighter McFightsalot (or whoever), whose player is Bob. You can now go to the Team Roster, find Fighter McFightsalot in the ECL 1 listings, and check out his character sheet to plan your strategy.
• On the far right is the word ^Arena. That's the map you'll be fighting on (at Level 1, it will always be the Small Arena or the Hedge). The different maps are covered here
• Remember that you'll be fighting four battles in a row, with only short rests (and one milestone) in between. Conserve your resources (daily powers, action points, healing surges, and ammunition) appropriately. You don't need to use your healing surges to heal up in between fights, but you do use them up for second wind, healing word, etc.
• On the right is the name of the pitlord in charge of running the match ("Somebody" in this example). When you've worked out a strategy for beating your opponent, send it to that person via PM. Remember to include:
• Your team name
• Your starting position within the starting box
• What items you'll be holding in your hands at the beginning
• Your specific plan of action
• Any contingencies or reminders you think might be appropriate. You have until Saturday 2PM GMT (9AM EST/10AM EDT) to get these tactics in, or else your default tactics will be used. If you have no defaults, you will forfeit the match.
• Some time before Wednesday 2PM GMT (9AM EST/10AM EDT), your pitlord will post the fight in the Battles thread. Read through it carefully to see what happened, and who won!
• Now it's finally time to update your character sheet. At the bottom of the sheet, there's a section labelled "Fight Summary," which includes "Current Fight Cycle" and "Results." Within the "Fight 1" section under "Current Fight Cycle," copy and paste the summary from your fight. This should indicate all resources you expended during the fight.
• Using the template in the standard character sheet, link the results of your fight in the "Results" section. Add one Victory Point if you lost, and two if you won.
• Change your title line to reflect the date of the next Thursday, and change "Fight 1" to "Fight 2." You're now ready to do it again next week!

Continuing your Career past level 1

Here are some things you'll want to keep in mind as you progress through the ranks on your way to the next league.

• When you finish your 4th fight, you need to update your sheet a little differently, because you finally get some downtime.
• If you didn't like the way you spent your money when you first created your character, you can change your equipment now. Pretend your original purchases never happened. Expended ammunition is restored for free.
• You can prepare different spells, if you are a wizard.
• Delete your existing "Current Fight Cycle" information. You get an extended rest, and all your expended resources are restored to you.
• For your next fight, you put "Fight 1" in the title again.
• When you accumulate 6 victory points, your characters will level up! To make sure that everyone has someone to fight, you'll be skipping level 2 and going straight to level 3.
• Your GP budget goes up to 1750 GP. At this time, you have to keep the equipment you already had (unless your level-up corresponds to the end if your fight cycle), but you can spend your new 1650 GP as you like. You'll have to wait until the end of your current cycle if you want to re-allocate the 100 GP you started with.
• You gain an utility power, a feat, and an encounter power, as usual for a level 3 character. If you choose a daily utility power, it's available to you now.
• Per the retraining rules (PHB p. 28), you can swap out any combination of two feats, powers, or skills. If you retrain a daily power that you already used during this fight cycle, the replacement power cannot be used until your next cycle.
• There will also be some other changes for you: you may face more than one team of opponents, you may be fighting in a different venue. We're always working on new ways to improve our game; other features may be implemented at a later date.

Congratulations, you're well on your way to becoming an arena legend! Be sure to share your experience with new players, or demonstrate your expertise (and earn credits) by becoming a pitlord or questlord!