Pit Fighting

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Run Cursed Scroll 2's pit fights in the book's intended order: roll the venue, determine the stakes against party level, choose the danger level, draw the foe, and manage a secret twist until the bout begins.

Open it from the Crawl Bar's Forge & Loot menu → Pit Fighting (GM only).

Before you start: import the tables

The pit fight roller provides the dice logic and threshold math. All narrative text—venues, twists, stake descriptions, prize tables, and monster rosters—is read directly from RollTables you import from your copy of Cursed Scroll 2 via the Importer Hub.

The roller looks for six table sets:

Venue and Twist (2d6 tables)
Pit Fight encounters: Solo and group encounter tables across three danger tiers (6 tables total)
Prize tables: Low, Mid, High, and Epic Stakes (4 tables total)

CS2 also prints Stakes and Tonight's Crowd. The module calculates stakes thresholds mathematically (Party APL + 1d6), so importing that lookup table is optional. Tonight's Crowd provides flavor text you can roll manually.

If any tables are missing, the window lists them with direct links to the importer. You can still roll without imported tables; missing text simply falls back to raw die rolls and row numbers.

Setting up a bout

The offer & party level

The bout window builds the offer before individual fighters volunteer:

Party APL: The roller calculates the average player level across your entire active party (displayed with unrounded numbers for reference).
Roll the whole offer: Rolls venue, stakes, foe, and twist in one click. You can also roll or select individual elements separately.

Element	Dice	What it determines
Venue	2d6	The fighting arena
Stakes	Party APL + 1d6	Value tier: Low, Mid, High, or Epic
Size	Toggle	Solo or Group bout (selects encounter table)
Danger	Selector	Danger tier (pre-set to stakes suggestion)
Foe	Table draw	Opponents faced (click Draw to redraw)
Twist	2d6	Secret complication (kept hidden until revealed)

Stakes, size, and danger

Size (Solo vs Group): Toggle this button to pick between CS2's solo and group encounter tables.
Danger tier: The dropdown suggests a danger level based on stakes, but you can change it to fit your narrative. Choosing a different tier redraws the foe from that tier's table.

Who steps up (accepting or declining)

Under Who steps up, check the boxes for each character entering the ring:

Click Accept the bout to commit the fighters.
Click Decline if they refuse. The refusal is recorded on screen because CS2 rules note that refusing bouts may impact future invitations.

Putting it on the table

Resolving and placing foes

The drawn foe displays CS2's raw text (for example, 2 hero* | 2 lion | 30' deep pits) and matches creatures against your installed compendium packs.

Review the creature list below the foe description. Matched creatures show a green checkmark.
Click Place to drop tokens directly onto your active scene.
Click on the canvas to place each creature in sequence. Notifications announce what the next click will place.
Press Escape at any time to cancel remaining placements.

Name matching accommodates CS2 abbreviations automatically (such as Gt. centipede matching Centipede, Giant and 2 hero* stripping footnotes and counts). Rival adventuring parties (such as 2d4 rival crawlers) are narrative NPCs and are skipped by automated token placement.

Choosing an arena battle map

Click Arena map… to open one of twelve bundled battle maps (2-Minute Tabletop, CC BY-NC 4.0; see CREDITS) created as dedicated scenes in your world.

The map picker prioritizes maps matching your rolled venue:

Rolled Venue	Recommended Maps
Shady back alley or tavern cellar	Back Alley (Day/Night), Tavern Cellar, Small Arena
Cage fight, small arena	Small Arena
Open-air, large arena	Large Arena, Open-Air Arena: Greybanner, Desert (Day/Night)
Luxurious private arena	Private Arena (Day/Night)
Glorious coliseum	Glorious Coliseum (Day/Night)

Other maps remain selectable under Other maps.

Re-selecting a previously opened arena map loads your existing, customized scene rather than duplicating it.

The Tavern Cellar (multi-level pit)

Selecting Tavern Cellar creates a two-level scene using Foundry scene levels:

Vault level: 0–20 ft elevation.
Fighting pit: 20–40 ft elevation, with a central opening looking down into the vault below.
Cellar Stair region: Spans both levels. Walking a token into the stair prompts Foundry's native level transition without switching scenes.

Foundry triggers region transitions on standard token moves; teleporting or dragging tokens across the canvas bypasses the trigger.

The secret twist

Keeping it hidden

The twist is rolled during setup and kept hidden from chat, even when the outcome is nothing happens. This prevents players from deducing whether a surprise is waiting.

Revealing and mechanical effects

Click Reveal to post the twist to chat when the moment arrives.
If the twist requires a sub-roll (such as rolling 1d4 for details), it is pre-rolled and included automatically.
Donor twists: If a twist raises the stakes, the roller automatically steps up the prize table tier without altering the agreed combat danger.

Resolving the fight & rewards

Outcome & prize tables

Once the combat concludes:

Mark the bout Won or Lost.
Roll the Prize table button for the final stakes tier.

Renown awards

CS2 awards fame for pit fights without fixing a strict number. The roller defaults to:

+1 Renown each for a victory.
0 Renown for a defeat.

You can adjust the Renown each field to match the fight's significance.

Applying the result

Click Apply the result to:

Post a summary card to chat.
Award renown to participating characters through the module's single write path.
Log renown awards directly to the Session Recap.

Award XP and physical loot separately using Party XP and standard item distribution.

Rules & rulings at the table

Setting lethality

CS2 links lethality to venue and stakes (such as fights to half HP, knockouts, or rare bouts to the death). Lethality is left to GM adjudication; the roller tracks encounters and rewards without forcing death saves.

CS2 arena monsters (page 39)

Three arena creatures—Rookie, Hero, and Canyon Ape—are published in Cursed Scroll 2 (page 39) rather than the core rules. Import their stat blocks via the Importer Hub to enable automatic token placement.

State persistence & rerolls

Bouts survive window closure: You can close the pit fighting window, run the entire battle on the canvas, and reopen it later. The active bout, stakes, and volunteer status remain stored in world state.
New offer: Clears the active bout and generates a fresh setup.
Draw: Redraws only the monster encounter without altering venue or stakes.