Time to have a bit of a chunter about some game mechanics, I think. In no particular order:
First of all, Prestige is one of the key stats in the game. The higher pretige you have, the more slaves the arena will let you house and train. High prestige means you can let one slave recover, while fielding another, for instance. On the other hand, too low a prestige means that you may have to fight personally to satisfy your obligations to the league- which could mean death or slavery for your character, and you starting over with a new character sheet. There are also some opportunities that only occur above certain levles of prestige.
You get prestige by winning fights, through social activities, and by owning prestigious fighters. You don't gain any prestige from broodmares, but since they are still technically the property of the trainer from whom you won them, you can reduce their prestige through public humiliation, which in turn lowers the prestige of their owner.
There are three catagories of combat: Heavy, Light and Magic. Heavy means heavy armour: slow but well defended. Light is little or no armor - quick and agile. Magic is unarmored and relying on magic. I'm going to say that these run on a scissors-paper-stone basis, so heavy gets bonuses against light (because there's only so much you can do to plate armour with your bare hands), light gets bonuses against magic (because they're fast enough to dodge spells and disrupt casting) and magic has bonuses against heavy (wearing metal armour can be a positive liability when your opponent can turn it red hot).
Combatants will have a skill level in each of these, and the player can choose which style to employ for any given match. Fight schedules are posted ahead of time, so if you can guess which slave your opponent will field, and using which style, then you can gain an advantage.
Other stats: Flair is a measure of a combatat's showmanship. A slave with high flair is more likely to please the crowd, which can result in them being given a "thumbs up" by the crowd after losing a bout. It also improves the chance that a slave will gain prestige from a match.
Sexual is a measure of the slaves skill at sex, and is useful both to avoid pregnancy in the arena, and outside of it, to please others in bed.
Looks are about the same as in WM. Have an effect on prestige. I'm considering stipulating that all girls in the league are automatically considered knockouts, and using the space for something else. Like motivation, maybe...
OK. That'll do for now. More on the subject later.
