“Welcome to the 13th annual Serial Bowl, streaming live on ESPN-VR4 from the Disney/CCA Nanodeath Arena. I’m your host, Stanley Milgram, and I’ll be providing play-by-play commentary with last year’s champion and sole survivor, Tagg Grinder.
“Tagg, we have quite a diverse array of challengers this year, and I think this year’s game will be more exciting than ever. What do you think, Tagg?”
“Let the blood flow!”
“Yes, indeed. Let the blood flow.”
BACKGROUND
You are a serial killer, mass murderer, terrorist, mob hit man, professional assassin, occult ritual killer, unhinged religious fanatic, or any other sort of psychotic and/or psychopathic murderer who kills for fun and/or profit. You have been sentenced to death, but our generous justice system has offered you the chance to give something back to society – entertainment!
You can pay your debt to society by competing in this year’s Serial Bowl, a battle to the death, which will only leave one survivor. If you are that survivor, you will be pardoned, allowed to go free, and given one million dollars in cash along with many lucrative opportunities for commercial endorsements.
You may bring a single (non-nuclear) weapon of your choice. NOTE: If you are submitting a character, include your weapon of choice in your character description. I will provide you with a stack of asset cards for that weapon. If you don’t specify a weapon of choice, you won’t receive any asset cards.
The Nanodeath Arena will reconfigure itself each round to provide a challenging and interesting environment that provides a wealth of opportunity for mayhem and product placement.
GAME DESCRIPTION
Serial Bowl 2114 will be a fast-paced, action-oriented, highly-lethal PvP Storium. Strong characterization is encouraged, but it won’t keep you from getting killed. A number of homicidal natures, strengths, weaknesses, and goals have been provided, but feel free to create your own.
Each scene will have two challenges DEFENSE and ATTACK. Cards played on each challenge have different values depending on the type of card:
Strength: 2 points
Asset: 1 point
Subplot: 1 point
Weakness: 0 points
Moves played on the DEFENSE challenge should describe the character’s attempt to fortify a position, hide from enemies, or run away.
Each move played on the ATTACK challenge must specify another player as the target. The move should describe an attack or a preparation for an attack against the target. Each ATTACK move may lightly injure or temporarily stun or distract the target.
If the DEFENSE challenge is completed with a strong outcome, then everyone who played at least as many points on DEFENSE as was played against them on ATTACK is immune from attack by either another player or the KILLBOT.
NOTE:
1) Multiple players can ATTACK the same target.
2) Additional points can be played on either ATTACK or DEFENSE at any time. This can change the protection status of the target, even after the DEFENSE challenge has been completed.
3) A single Weakness card on DEFENSE is sufficient to protect a player if no one plays any ATTACK cards against that player.
If a DEFENSE challenge results in a neutral outcome, only the player who gains control of the outcome is protected against attacks, and only if that player has played at least as many points on DEFENSE as were played in ATTACK against them. Other players who played cards on the challenge are not protected.
If the ATTACK challenge is completed with a strong outcome, the player who gains control of the outcome will be free to kill any other player, except those players who have participated in a successful DEFENSE and have played at least as many points in DEFENSE as have been played against them in ATTACK. Death is permanent and should be bloody. If the ATTACK challenge is completed with a weak outcome, the scene ends with no one dying.
If an ATTACK challenge results in a neutral outcome, the attacker can only choose to kill a player who hasn’t player any cards on any challenge during the current scene. If all players have played cards, the attack fails.
The scene also ends if every player has played every card that they can (3 per scene).
Four days after the scene starts, if the ATTACK challenge has not been completed and players have not played as many cards as they can, then a KILLBOT will be released into the arena.
After roughly 24 hours, the KILLBOT will select a player to kill. The KILLBOT will rank players into three tiers:
Tier 1: Players who haven’t played any cards in the current scene and who didn’t play any cards in the previous scene.
Tier 2: Players who haven’t played any cards in the current scene (but did play cards in the previous scene).
Tier 3: Players who have played some cards in the current scene, but not all 3 cards.
The KILLBOT will select a target randomly from Tier 1. If no Tier 1 targets are available, it will select a target randomly from Tier 2. If no Tier 1 or Tier 2 targets are available, it will select a target randomly from Tier 3. The KILLBOT will then kill the target with extreme prejudice.
Note that if you play the maximum number of cards for a scene, you are immune from being targeted by the KILLBOT during that scene. Also, if you have played a card in a DEFENSE challenge that ended with a strong outcome, and you played at least as many points in DEFENSE as were player against you in ATTACK, then you are also immune from being targeted by the KILLBOT during the current scene. If there are no valid targets, the KILLBOT will self-destruct and the scene will end.
Otherwise, the KILLBOT will then wait another 24 hours, after which it will select another target to kill and so on. This process will repeat until either the players kill the ATTACK challenge is completed (with any outcome), all remaining players have played 3 cards, there are no remaining valid targets, or the KILLBOT kills everyone (except the sole survivor). If any of these things happen, the scene will end.
I plan to accept a relatively large number of players for this game (10+), though that number will dwindle rapidly as the game progresses. In terms of general tone and level of violence, imagine a movie version of Borderlands 2 directed by Quentin Tarantino.
WHO CAN I KILL?
Since that was a bit complex, I’ve created the following handy reference chart in PowerPoint that lists valid targets for combinations of ATTACK and DEFENSE outcomes:
http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/s492/PeregrineX/kill-matrix_zps92da9978.png
THEME MUSIC
And finally, some music to set the mood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mj6GRrYmgI
Hosted and narrated by:
Brian Yamauchi (PeregrineX)
Completed 01/11/15.
Scenes played: 9
License: Community License
