Two roads
The Laurel Road is the game: twelve stops to the Grand Arena in three stretches, a gatekeeper at the end of each. At most stops the road forks and you choose on the map: an arena, a market town (an armourer, an alchemist, an enchanter), a camp, or a stranger by the road with a choice to make. After a camp or a town the next stop is a fight: a place's card says where the road leads from it. Health carries from stop to stop. Your best run of the season goes on the board if you were logged in when it began; a run counts from the moment its first fight begins. The Proving is the quick way to play: a champion, an elite, and after a night at the camp the gatekeeper.
An exchange
You and your opponent each commit one action at the same moment. A champion shows what he is about to do above his name: read it, then answer it. His nameplate keeps his card, the rule he fights by and every move of his: press it to read it again. A Guard blocks about half of every hit. A cast is begun in one exchange and lands in the next: hit the caster or interrupt him and it breaks.
Your bar
1 Strike · 2 Guard · 3 to 6 your skills · 7 your racial, once a fight · 8 9 the potions on your belt: one drink a fight. The first press selects and shows the true numbers; the same key again, Space or Enter locks it in. Esc clears.
The hard rules
The chance on a button is the true one, never under 20% or over 95%, and nobody misses three times in a row. Nobody is dazed or stunned two exchanges running. No hit takes more than two fifths of your health. Sudden death begins at exchange 9: every hit deals more with each exchange, and Guards, dodges and healing give half. Exchange 15 is the last, and the larger share of health wins.
Second Wind
Once a run, when your health would reach zero, you stand up again with two fifths of it.
Loot, bags and levels
The body stays on the sand. Its sparkle is the colour of the best thing on it; click it to see. Take what you want into your bags of ten; what you leave is sold for you. Outside a fight, C opens your gladiator: wear, take off, use or drop anything. Every win is a level here: more health, harder class skills, and at an even level a talent, one of three.
The Square
Everybody who is signed in and has the Arena open stands in the Square with the gladiator he brings: the one of his road. Press a player to duel him, whisper, inspect him or watch his fight. A duel is fought live: both pick at the same moment, on a clock, and a pick is hidden until both are in. A friendly duel changes nothing. In a duel for stakes each puts one thing of his on the table, and the winner takes the other's off the body. Nobody dies in a duel.
Where it is kept
Everything is decided and saved by the server after every step: close the page at any moment and you are back in the same exchange. Everyone can play; log in with Discord and your gladiator comes along.
Aplexo Tools
Gladiator's Arena
