I am not a modder, so I haven't faintest clue how this could be done, or if it could be done; but I have a fairly simple idea that I think would enhance Oblivion, specifically the Arena. Anyone who wants to use any idea or text that I enter here, feel free to do whatever you want with it. I'm freely offering ideas and text here in the hopes that someone who finds modding to be a breeze might run with this idea.

It makes no sense to me that I cannot bet on my own life when I enter the Arena. The idea that Owyn doesn't handle bets, sure that makes sense.

But why couldn't a character just find someone in Imperial City who would give me odds on my chance to survive, take my money, and then (perhaps begrudgingly) payout when I show up having won the fight?

A complex way to realize this would be if there were a whole network of bookies, kingpins, thugs, etc.

A simple way would be "Vinny the Bookie." He stands on the left side of the Arena Bets chest. He could be any type of NPC. When you speak to him he says:

"I'm Vinny duh Bookie. You plannin' on goin' down thar and fightin' in the Arena, yuz awtah be talkin' ta me furst. Take out a liddl 'Life Insurance Policy,' Know whatta mean!?"

You get the following choices to respond:

"What do you mean? Bet on my own life as a gladiator!?" [progresses dialoque with Vinny]
"I'm not interestd tough guy." [closes dialogue with Vinny]


Vinny progresses "Say, ewer a smaht kid! Yeah brainiac, dats exackly what I mean! I give you odds on your chance ta survive your next fight, you place yur bet--meaning you hand me dah money--if you win, den you come back and collect on your wise investment."

The Player then has the following response options
"That sounds totally barbaric Vinny. I am shocked and repulsed." [closes dialogue with Vinny]
"Hmmm, that does sound interesting. What kinda odds would you give me Vinny?"

I would think that all of that above might not be too difficult to implement in a mod. For the next parts, there are simple and complex ways it could be done.

Simple: Vinny calculates your odds based on some measure of your power (hit points or magicka or something) * Septims Vinny has lost on you previously. I'm fiddling with Excel to try to figure out an algorithm that would effectively make him unwilling to give you better than 1:1 odds if he had already lost some relatively large amount on your for any given Level (say for example 3000 septims).

So to wrap up this post, after he tells you your odds, you get a choice to bet perhaps with amounts like those you can get with the other guy, then if you survive you can come back and collect.

Of course, you can simulate this using the console commands and some dice to randomly allocate odds for yourself which is exactly what I've been doing myself. But I thought that a simple mod like this might be neat, so I'd toss the idea out there.

Happy to try to work with anyone who is capable of implementing this by hashing out more ideas.

I LOVE THIS! This sounds like actual fun, for a change. Oblivion has not one interesting character in it, but this guy won my heart with the wiseguy accent

I'd be thrilled to put this guy in the game. Hell, I'd even voice act him if I've got time. The only challenge I see is that player responses can only be a puny 38 characters long, so there won't be any real conversation going on.

Right, here's some thoughts:

When you start winning a lot, Vinnie will up the ante. He'll give you a rock that's crazy heavy and ask you to carry it with you at the fight. While you're carrying it, you can't run, jump or Power Attack. If you drop it, you lose the bet.

You can increase the odds dramatically by getting Vinny to pay someone off to release a Mud Crab into the arena. "Yeah, youz heard me the first time, kid. Just a plain ol' crab, and if you smash it, I'll double the odds. Easy money, huh?" Nope. This one's a big boy the size of a Volkswagen, and grew up in a cave full of radioactive green rocks somewhere. Vinny got some wizard egghead to conjure him into the Arena, as he barely fits through the door. Before you go in, Vinnie will give you some Crab Meat to stuff in your pockets, this will make the Monster Crab furiously enraged by the smell of his dead crab brethren, so he'll attack only you. If you... accidentally lose... the meat in the Fountain of Victory on your way up, the crab will instead break the door to the Bloodworks, and go bananas in there. This will obviously necessitate a lot of extra smooth talking and back rubbing from Vinny's part to make the [censored]storm blow over nicely, and is as such not a good idea if you want to continue any business with him, but it would be hella fun to watch. If you instead knock down your opponent and put the meat in their inventory, the crab will viciously rip off his arm and bludgeon him to death with it. While this is going on, you have the opportunity to encourage it. If you do so, and at the end throw him some food, you'll tame it and it'll follow you around to help you in your quest for glory and riches. Vinny will be too scared to do anything about it.

You know what? I think we may have something here....

It's a nice idea, but I think it won't work very well in a singleplayer game like Oblivion. If you die in the Arena the game is over and you need to reload. Otherwise you win. So in the end you will always win. If you can place bets on your own fights you could as well simply increase the money you get after each fight.

So maybe it would be a good idea to add some conditions for winning money. Like killing the next opponent in less than 60 seconds (or 90 or 120 etc). Or killing him without getting hit (or without getting hit more than once/twice etc). Or any other condition you can think of. Would make it more interesting and you could also lose money.

@Phitt: yeah, if you don't play "dead is dead" then Vinny the Bookie would just be another way to exploit the game for money.

I've transformed into a dead is dead style player and it was at that point that the idea of Vinny came to me. The ideas to make the bets have additional conditions are an interesting way to spice it up though!

@Nekhanimal:

That is an awesome idea!



ROFL! That would be hilarious

So Nekhanimal, you're a modder, go for it! I'll help out with ideas or text or whatever.

So you saying that those response I typed up were too short? The player responses need to be no more than 38 characters? I'll shorten 'em if you want.
Send me a PM if you really wanna run with this and want any assistance from me. Like I say, I don't know the first thing about modding in this game, but I'm full of ideas, and can generate text or run calculations and algorithms and such (I teach intro statistics).

While we are talking about upping the ante -- Why stop with those negative conditions on the rock? An intelligence hit/endurance/willpower or even a -1 point mana drain. Just a heavy rock with run/power attack debuff wouldn't really mess with a mage. Assuming running around like a chicken with your head cut off isn't part of your strat*wink*. *note* I didnt suggest a str debuff as that would be unduly harsh combined with the weight of the stone.

If your feeling even more fancy, if you win enough make a small chance at him arranging people to kill you. Idea being its cheaper to kill you then pay you. I can see him saying "No hard feelings pal! Its all business" No real pay-off for fending off those attackers, other then getting your money from vinny and staying alive

Hope you run with it Nekhanimal!