WarWalker! The Arena of Death!

I'm writing a Module! Hopefully for sale at some point, but mostly for funzies. Here is a carnival game I came up with for PCs to play before the main event.

Arena of Death!

This booth appears to be a large puppet theatre, constructed and painted to resemble an ancient gladiatorial arena. There are two wooden consoles bolted to the front: one with five, red-painted levers and buttons, the other with five green levers and buttons.

Jesska, a red haired gnome dressed in an oversized purple toga will try and sell them on “Experience a "Gladiator Fight To The Death!", "DEATH! MAYHEM! MAGNETS!" "Just like Olden Tymes!” It is one gold per play per PC. 

Once the gnome has been paid, she will disappear behind the curtain and blow a short, off-key trumpet blast. Then she will pull back the curtain revealing two marionettes: one a dented wooden gladiator with a sword and shield both painted green. The other is a wooden Minotaur pained red.  The backdrop to the theatre is an old fashioned arena, complete with spectators bedecked in togas and a corpulent emperor standing with his arm outstretched and thumb pointed with down.

A quick experimentation reveals that the levers on the console, cause the marionettes to move and jerk. The green console controls the Gladiator, the red console controls the Minotaur.

To play the game, print or copy the following cards onto paper or (10) index cards.

HEAD	ARM, RIGHT	ARM, LEFT	LEG, RIGHT	LEG LEFT
DEFEATS Arm, Right Leg, Left	DEFATS Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right	DEFEATS Head Leg, Left	DEFEATS Arm, Left Head	DEFEATS Arm, Right Leg, Right
BEATEN BY Head Arm, Left Leg, Right	BEATEN BY Head Leg, Left	BEATEN BY Arm, Right Leg, Right	BEATEN BY Arm, Left Leg, Left	BEATEN BY Arm, Left Arm, Right

HEAD	ARM, RIGHT	ARM, LEFT	LEG, RIGHT	LEG LEFT
DEFEATS Head Arm, Right Leg, Left	DEFATS Arm, Left Leg, Right	DEFEATS Head Leg, Left	DEFEATS Arm, Left Head	DEFEATS Arm, Right Leg, Right
BEATEN BY Arm, Left Leg, Right	BEATEN BY Head Arm, Right Leg, Left	BEATEN BY Arm, Right Leg, Right	BEATEN BY Arm, Left Leg, Left	BEATEN BY Arm, Left Arm, Right

The game is played when the characters throw a lever (a mechanism does not allow more than one lever to be pushed forward at a time), and the the marionettes slam into each other.  Magnets tied to the end of the strings (connected to other magnets hidden in the marionette’s joints), disconnect when struck hard enough, causing that part of the marionette to go slack.

In game turns, each side chooses a card from their hand and plays it (if the gnome is playing one “side”, she draws randomly).The two cards are compared and the losing side must drop their card. The winning side can reshuffle their card back into their hand. The game can be played until one side has no cards left, or for a set number of hands Hands (5 recommended) and the side with the most cards left, wins.

If the Knight and the Minotaur play the SAME card, there is a tie:

•The Minotaur’s horns allow it to automatically WIN if the Minotaur Head card is played against the Knight’s Head Card.

•The Knight’s Right Hand card is carrying a sword and allow it to automatically WIN if the Knight’s Right Arm card is played against the Minotaur’s Right Hand Card.
•All other ties are settled with a Sleight of Hand roll. The Carny gnome running the booth has a SoH skill roll of (+6 +OR equal to +2 over the player’s Sleight of Hand Skill/Dex Attribute; whichever number is highest.)

Beaten By	Beaten By	Location/Lever	Beats	Beats
Arm Left	Leg Right	Torso / Head	Arm Right	Leg Left
Torso	Leg Left	Arm Right	Arm Left	Leg Right
Arm Right	Leg Right	Arm Left	Torso	Leg Left
Arm Left	Leg Left	Leg Right	Arm Left	Torso
Arm Right	Torso	Leg Left	Arm Right	Leg Right