The first version had teams of 5 in a ring about 30′ diameter, with a few wicker screens up. Only 3 per team are allowed in the ring at any one time, no ranged weapons, magic is allowed so long as there’s no chance to hurt the crowd (fireball might be inappropriate) or disappoint the crowd (Darkness is out). When one team has 3 unconscious they lose. There was an entry fee of at least 100 gp. Winnings were three times whatever you put in for entry fee (your amount back matched by the other team, and matched by the house). Clerics were available to heal everyone up at the end. We were level 2. The DM ran the opposition.

Later we had a different style of Fight Club, in the same town run by the same people. In the mud flats that resulted from an extreme low tide (half movement) a 100′ square is marked out and magicly illuminated. The DM had prerolled a bunch of NPCs and we were randomly assigned one each, so long as it was basically the same class (two fighter types would be unfair, two mages wouldn’t last long). We were level three. This time is was Player vs Player as we ran the NPC team-mate.

It was a lot of fun, but you’d have to be careful with the group you did this too. It wasn’t particularly good for group bonding. Round two was rather spiteful.

The prize was 300 gp to share with your NPC for first, 100 gp to share for 2nd, and 20 gp to share for 3rd.

I forgot to mention that we played the throne war games in Amber – the world of diceless roleplaying.

If you’re gonna split the party, you might want to speed things up by rolling few dice.

As a twist, the king might not actually be dead and is just trying to weed out those who would betray him. Or there’s another stronger guy with aspirations to the throne and the PC’s have to work together to get rid of him AND still make sure they don’t get backstabbed.

Aw hell now you’ve done it…. you turned on my idea generator! IT WON’T STOP! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!