Familia Gladiatoria

The Games of Anceint Rome

Familia Gladiatorius is a simple gaming system for recreating the murrus, the gladiatorial combat, using miniature figures. In the larger campaign game, the player takes the role of a ludus, the operator of a gladiatorial school. The ludus owned a number of slaves trained to fight as gladiators. These slaves and their trainers (often retired gladiators themselves) made up the familia gladiatorius of the ludus. Normally, the ludus was contracted by the editor to provide fighters for the murrus. It was a risky business, and its practitioners were reviled by Roman society. Yet fortunes could be made by providing a bloodthirsty populace with bloody entertainment.