Gauntlet

Willing participants who arrive in the Coliseum find the Coliseum more than willing and able to present a challenge. The Coliseum even anticipates it, conjuring an audience from unknown places and unknown realms to watch the show. Mortal realms might even find their local coliseums somehow wrapped up in the event, blissfully unaware that something more significant is happening around them and before their very eyes.
To victory!

An Arduous Challenge

No matter how many encounters you have planned for your Gauntlet, the Coliseum is expected to have prepared whatever is necessary to support your fight. In addition to creatures of your choosing, the Coliseum alters itself to include any number of traps or hazards you desire to make for a thrilling fight and experience. Consider traps and tricks that could work to either side's benefit, encouraging your party to come up with clever solutions that aren't necessary limited to "hit it better than it hits you".

• You cannot use named or otherwise unique creatures (including great wyrms) as part of the Coliseum challenge. However, you may use creatures of any CR up to CR 20, even if you lack enough approvals to do so yet (you may still exceed CR 20 if you have enough approvals). As a GM, take this as your opportunity to practice running stronger encounters for future parties.
• If you choose to use a battlemap, one has already been provided on the Coliseum page (right-click or long-press the banner image and save it to your device, then load it in whatever medium you choose for combat).
• As a rule of thumb, save your hardest for the last encounter your Tale. Or don't, I'm not a cop.

Deadly without the Dead Part

The Coliseum provides a waiting room between encounters with light refreshments and a place to take a breather. A party member reduced to 0 hit points in the Coliseum is immediately stabilized as if by the effects of the spare the dying spell, and assuming at least one party member survives the encounter, all party members are magically brought back to the waiting room. Unconscious party members are restored to 1 hit point, and all party members are permitted to complete a short rest before beginning the next encounter.
Feel free to provide supporting NPCs for your party's visits to the waiting room. NPCs used this way are generally informative and helpful, but lack the ability to answer detailed questions. At your discretion, they can offer the party hints about the next encounter ("Your next opponent is a warrior of iron and steel who fears no flame!" [An iron golem]).
If all party members are defeated, they have the option of resting and trying again. The opposition is also granted the benefits of a short rest, if necessary, before combat begins.

Survival Gauntlet

While most go for a tournament-style combat series, you may instead choose to run a Survival Gauntlet. Survival Gauntlets are endless challenges that put your party members to the test in exchange for wealth and fame.

Minimum Participation

A Survival Gauntlet requires a minimum party size of four players, not counting yourself as the GM.

Survival Encounters

Rather than basing your experience budget off your party, a Survival Gauntlet has a fixed budget that grows with each consecutive victory. The Coliseum still stabillzes unconscious party members and grants a short rest between matches, but if all party members go down, the challenge is over and the party will have to restart from Wave 1 if they wish to challenge it again.
After the sixth encounter, the party must win two consecutive encounters before going back to the ready room. After the tenth encounter, the party must win three before being granted a short rest.
The first encounter has a budget of 1,000 experience points. Double this budget with each consecutive victory, up to a maximum of 512,000 experience points. You must use as much of this budget as possible for each wave (remember, this is the adjusted experience budget, not what the party gets when they win they finish the Tale).

Special Rewards

In addition to a Tale's normal rewards, award an additional Pure Chromatite for every three encounters the party wins.
For Survival Gauntlets, instead of a normal treasure hoard, the party gains GP based on the sum of each consecutive round's experience budget (so 1,000 GP for the first round, +2,000 GP for the second round, +4,000 GP for third round, etc). If the party wipes out (loses before forfeiting), they do not gain any rewards other than any experience earned for completing encounters.