Gladiators
A competitive card-based board game built around pacts, betrayal, and tactical duels.
Project Materials
Pacts. Betrayal. Duels. Glory.
Gladiators is a competitive tabletop game where players negotiate, bluff, form temporary alliances, and challenge each other to tactical duels.
What began as an experiment to test one key multiplayer mechanic gradually proved strong enough to become a game of its own.
At the heart of Gladiators is a simple but powerful tension: Who will you support, who will you betray, and who is the right to fight?
How the game began
Gladiators originally emerged during the development of a much larger board game project inspired by the now-defunct online strategy game Red Dragon.
At the time, one particular mechanic stood out as both interesting and uncertain: the system of declaring pacts and duels between players.
To test whether that idea could truly work at the table, we built a smaller prototype around it — a stripped-down competitive duel game focused on negotiation, tactical card play, and player psychology.
The result worked far better than expected.
Instead of remaining only a prototype, the game developed its own identity, and eventually became strong enough to stand on its own as a separate board game project.
What kind of game is it?
Gladiators is a competitive card-based board game for multiple players, built around a loop of:
- secret declarations
- temporary alliances
- betrayal
- tactical duels
- adaptation over time
Players balance three combat disciplines:
- Archery
- Spear
- Cavalry
Throughout the game, they form pacts, challenge opponents, play maneuver cards, and gradually adapt their character build in response to victories and defeats.
What makes Gladiators different?
Gladiators is not just about combat strength. Its core tension comes from the layer before the duel even begins.
The game is built around decisions such as:
- Who should I challenge?
- Who can I trust this round?
- Which pact should I offer?
- Is my opponent being honest?
- Should I prepare for a fair duel or for betrayal?
That means much of the strategy happens in the social and tactical space between players — not only in the cards themselves.
The duel system then turns those decisions into direct confrontation.
Core gameplay ideas
Pact declaration
Each round, players secretly assign pact cards, empty pacts, or duel cards to opponents.
Some pacts are mutually successful and grant bonuses. Others fail, create mistrust, or lead directly to betrayal and conflict.
Duel system
When a duel is established, the players involved select combat disciplines and play maneuver cards from hand.
Each duel is resolved using:
- chosen combat skills
- card modifiers
- pact bonuses
- betrayal penalties
Character adaptation
After losing a duel, a player may adjust their skill distribution.
This means the game is not static. Players gradually adapt to what is happening at the table and can reshape their build over time.
Victory through repeated success
Players gain victory points by winning duels. The first player to reach the required number of victory points wins the game.
Design direction
The goal of Gladiators is to create a game that feels:
- easy to understand
- socially interactive
- tactically tense
- highly replayable
- strong in both casual and competitive settings
It is designed to create memorable table moments through negotiation, suspicion, surprise, and rivalry.
Project status
Gladiators is currently being developed as a standalone tabletop game project.
The game already has a working playable core, and the long-term ambition is to develop it into a polished release suitable for a future Kickstarter campaign.
You can download Rules and cards to play, besides that you will need 6-sided dice. Play and send us feedback on our discort or email
Learn more
More materials may be added over time as the project develops.
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