CyborGladiators is a fast paced, fun game of futuristic gladiatorial combat. The players each choose one of four races and apply various cybernetic enhancements on them to help them win their upcoming bouts. As warriors survive, they become more and more machine, until eventually only a few fleshy pieces remain.
The game is designed to play with either a hex map or mapless. Likewise, the figures can be counters, miniatures, or even action figures. The desire to modify a miniature or action figure to look like your custom made combatant is quite high and adds a fun dimension to this game.
The book is well written and provides plenty of flavor for the game down to each cyber part having its own manufacturer and little sales blurb in the listing. The continuing narrative that starts off each chapter lets you see what life is like for the combatants and also tells a fairly compelling story in a short amount of space.
The game itself plays quite nicely. Combatants roll 3d6, add their appropriate stats and modifiers, and try to roll over their target’s evade score. Some especially nice touches are the rules for maiming, knockdown, bleeding, decapitation, and stun. While there are many potential states for a target to be in, the rules for each are quick and easy to understand while still having significant impact on the tactical decisions the players make.
A lot of times games based on gladiatorial combat are fun for a little while but become boring when fighters face off on an empty field. CyborGladiators avoids this with an entire chapter devoted to different arena types. Imagine dueling on small platforms suspended over lava or with flamethrower traps mounted randomly along the walls. There is even a random arena table to generate the battlefield on the fly.
Finally, there are campaign rules, or “careers,” for your successful gladiator. While the fighting is brutal, it is not always to the death and with team events, it is possible that even a losing gladiator can stick around long enough for some much needed upgrades. With four different classes of gladiators, based on the amount spent on their cybernetic hardware and weaponry, there is plenty of time to develop a character akin to any professional wrestler. An entertaining afterthought is the table that is rolled on when the gladiator retires, listing what becomes of him.
One thing the game could really use is a one page reference sheet for all the combat rules. Each individual rule is simple and easy to understand, but having a checklist right at hand helps to smooth out the first few plays of the game. Likewise an easy to view list of all possible weapons and cyber enhancements with their costs would make creating a gladiator a little bit easier, especially if there is a group of people passing the book around to build their fighter. Still, both of these sheets are easy to create and do not detract greatly from this fun game.
Overall CyborGladiators is fun and fast playing game that definitely merits a continuing “campaign.” As fighters progress and are better equipped, the rules scale nicely and allow for a very entertaining evening of brutal science fiction combat.
