How do we make a gladiatorial arena more interesting than a hole

put a moat full of killer fish around the edges. cover the ground in ice.

Uh, by making it something other than a pit full of sand?

you could have an arena with artificial hills or ponds or any manner of other terrain difficulties and natural hazards. Historically gladiatorial games often took on a theatrical element, so you could have the arena set up for battle reenactments or what have you. you could put traps and stuff too.

>>53186574
Tits, big juicy tits! Some cute butts too.

>>53186574
NAVAL COMBAT!

GOOD PEOPLE OF THE IMPERIAL CITY

Hole in the ground filled with water.

>>53186574
The loser is kept alive and gets raped.

Hold it on top of someone's rooftop. The first person to fall off the roof loses.

Hole in the ground filled with hobbits.

>>53186574
Instead of sand, grass, and instead of fighting, have groups of people trying to kick a ball into a rectangle at the other side.

>>53186574
>Labirinth inside the "Arena"
>Instead of walls you have moats
>Filled with piranhas

>>53186574
sandWURMS!

>>53186828
>gladiator combat to the death causes less violence than football fans
makes you thunk

To be honest I'm not even sure where you're getting this hole in the ground business from. Do you know about walls, OP?

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>>53186574
Just fill the sand with something else other than sand and lions, retard.

Pitfall traps
Obstacles
Wooden structures

>>53186883
Chariot racing was worse.

>>53186574
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oq6vztcjgg

>>53186574
By flooding it and staging naval battles

By doing it like that actual collesieum which often had fortifications, obstacles, and could be filled with water for naval battles.

>>53186574
traps, surprise combatants, and some shit you would see in Madworld like Man Darts.

Trampolines.

The competitors fight over magical artifacts, while aided by various wonderous items of their own. Each warrior wagers one of his magical artifacts on the duel, with the winner keeping both. The battle may be a fight, a race to the prize artifact, or a puzzle to solve. The arena can be wildly different, based on the nature of the challenge.

>>53186774
OP was talking about the arena, not the gladiators I think. You might rape the building though if you want.

>>53187463
so Xaolin Showdown?

>>53186574
Unironically use all the show and spectacle surrounding modern wrassling. The stronger/more famous gladiators all have nicknames and a gimmick and all conform to either the heel or the face archetype, making them either loved or hated. Imagine a Roman crowd booing as some young Thracian lad gets his neck snapped by Dirk Vanderhuge, which only serves to get them excited for the next round where the righteous Biff Hardabs will wreck his shit.

Have the arena be a series of elevated platforms (ideally lethal fall height) barely wide enough for 2 persons to stand on it
5 of them, at varying heights, should do the trick for a duel
Alternatively, just a wide pillar (5 to 10m span) on the town square

>>53188528
Are you pretending ro be retarded ?
Because that is actually exactly how it went

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>>53188555
I know, pleb. OP was asking how to make it more interesting than a hole filled with sand, so taking inspiration from the Romans is only natural in answering this question.

>>53188572
You are embarassing yourself

>>53186665
>>53186756
>>53186774
>>53187237
All of these at the same time.

/asp/ here

Make'em fight in a sharkcage

>>53188662
Keijo?

Make it a ring of stone with no floor hovering in the sky, spectated by angels. The courage of the combatants keeps them from falling. The moment the unworthy lose their nerve, they plummet.

Build the floor out of wind and the walls out of lightning

Maybe add some tree hazards for good measure

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>>53189386
>This masterpiece is getting canceled because Japan has shit taste

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>>53186574
Maze in the arena with a fort at one end. Could have defend the fort, or capture the flag brutal blood bath style, etc.

>>53186734
Victor from the blue team, leave the arena now and rest. YOU'VE earned it!

>>53186952
Sir, I feel that the photographer of that particular image had less than forthright intentions

>>53186574

Gladiators fight in your typical sand pit. Once a victor is found, the sandpit begins to draw in all the sand, like a sand watch.

The victor falls to the next circle, and so on.

Once a whole tier is finished, begin with the hole in the water section, followed by hole in the air and hole in the fire.

Eventually, the soldier becomes void of soul from all the fighting, making the final hole in himself.

>>53189386
Are there traps in Keijo! ?

A number of stone tablets with the ability to call forth monstrous creatures from another world
The combatants wager their strongest beast for their opponent to claim if they win, and on occasion their very souls

>>53186696
Fun fact. That happened.

>>53186574
Zero-G gladiator arena. Either via magic shenanigans or sci nonsense, whatever you can get away with.

>>53186574
Hole in the ground filled with quicksand that turns into radioactive permafrost when stepped on, then suddenly becomes greek fire when blood is added.

>>53194449
But where do you put the piranhas?

>>53194470
In the permafrost, which melts when it becomes greek fire
Yeah, that's right.
Piranhas that can swim in liquid fire.

Thunderdome

>>53186574
>How do we make a gladiatorial arena more interesting than a hole in the ground filled with sand?

Have the entire arena floor on a kind of revolving mechanism that will allow it to swap places with other floors: One of the floors allows the arena to be submerged, another is a small jungle/forested area cultivated by the arena workers.

Have monsters fight other monsters in it, like: wyverns, manticores, lions, chimeras, hippopotamuses, rhinos, interesting creatures, you know? Like, an entire pack of hyenas vs a stegosaurus or something.