To keep everyone fair, in official Rabid arena events, only premade characters by the team are allowed. That said, each character is specifically designed for a specific miniature. Only miniatures brought in via tournament entry will be allowed.
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How long is a session?
Sessions can take up to 4 hours. Most sessions include up to 8 players, each with 3 characters with varying levels of game experience. For this reason, we plan for a 4 hour session.
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Boss Battles have a standing planned session of 6 hours since the number of players jumps to 12 and the complexity of the Boss Battle mechanics requires more time.
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All games have the possibility of ending early. If a player leaves early, they still keep everything included in the Blind Box, they just will not win.
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I've never played D&D or Tales of the Valiant before, can I still play?
Absolutely! We welcome players of all experience levels, even if that experience is "none."
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Can I play at home?
Yes! We can provide you with our pdf of the Rules of Engagement upon request.
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I saw The Rabid Arena has Deathwish 5e cards in it, can I use those cards for Deathwish 5e games?
You can! Deathwish 5e and the rabid arena cards are compatible. But note that at least at this time, you cannot bring Deathwish 5e cards you already own to The Rabid Arena. Cards are catered so all are useful in the Arena.Â
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What's included in my ticket cost (GenCon 2026)?
For signing up and competing in the events at GenCon 2026 you'll get 3 miniatures from Lethal Shadows at random from a selection made by our team. You get a code for Rabid Arena virtual dice on dddice.com, only available to participants in the Rabid Arena. You get a random pack of 3 Deathwish 5e Cards and a Deathwish 5e rabid Arena Promo card.
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Newly added: A digital code for custom Djura dice on dddice.com (created by Turtle and Pheonix Games, see the Collaborators page for more information)
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Can I bring my own dice?
In an effort to keep everyone honest and fair, either our house dice or dddice will only be allowed for official Rabid Arena events.
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What can I win?
Depending on the event and ticket price prizes may vary.Â
For GenCon 2026, you can expect additional Deathwish 5e packs (digital), a small trophy, the title of Arena Champion and possible additional miniatures for the regular events.
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For the Boss Battle (Still GenCon 2026), you can expect all the above AND the person who deals the killing blow to the Boss that invades the Arena (to be revealed at the event) you get to keep an in box version of that Boss mini.
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Is this D&D?
We call this D&D adjacent. We have had many versions of the Rabid Arena over the years but this one is built on the bones of Tales of The Valiant. It plays like 5e, it merges with 5e well, but there are some basic rules and aspects we changed. The reference documentation used to build this version of the Rabid Arena was the Black Flag Reference Document (BFRD) made by Kobold Press for Tales of the Valiant.Â
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Additionally, certain aspects of the game have been modified and called out in our own documentation, available for all members on TenRabidBears games Patreon.
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Who gets the lamp? (Gencon 2026)
During the Boss Battle on Sunday there will be two winners.Â
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The person who kills the Boss - They will get to take home a miniature of (or related to) the Boss itself.
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The last one standing - Same as the normal sessions, they are the Arena Champion and will get the Lamp.
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What are the Miniatures/stats like?
The miniatures were selected from Lethal Shadows Catalog and have been scaled in our pool of miniatures to include the following rarities;
   - Common
   - Uncommon
   - Rare
   - Legendary
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Stats have been generated based on rarity. The higher rarity you pull, the slightly better the stats will be. This is random.
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How much better are the higher rarity stats? Will rarer always win?
We have a scale we used for rarity and power creep. It's a minor scale that keeps every miniature able to have a chance. Ultimately, no matter how good the paper stats are, it depends on dice rolls, strategy, other combatants and a number of other variables to say if any single miniature will be "better."Â
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We can say from first hand experience, in the past one of our common miniatures was our longest living ones and had the most kills. That player had good strategy and great dice rolls that year.
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Can we form alliances in game?
Alliances are encouraged! Form your strategies however you'd like (within the confines of the rules). However, only one player will be named the Arena Champion. So all alliances must eventually disband.
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If you make or join an alliance, it's co-op, until it's not.
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We do not mitigate or control alliances, join them at your own risk.
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