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Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:28 am
by madunkieg
I'm trying to design or steal a gambling game for Metropole Luxury Coffin (MLC). It needs to be playable by a mixture of individuals and teams. I've been reading about lots of games and have yet to find one that fulfills that requirement. I'd prefer to use regular playing cards, but I'm open to other ideas, a long as it's not too strange.

Something I'd like to avoid is having to shuffle multiple decks together. Smaller hands combined with communal cards (like Texas Hold 'em) is a possibility. I also like how Poker builds up tension. Unfortunately, that game only deals with individuals, not teams. I also don't like having to remember the various ways to win at Poker. It adds unnecessary complexity to the resolution.

Any other game suggestions?

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 4:18 am
by Onix
Spades? You have two teams of two. The problem with that is you're not supposed to talk to your partner in spades which kind of goes against the whole social aspect of an RPG.

is similar to Spades (ok sort of, not really) but doesn't require communication black out. Unfortunately you get a 13 card hand.

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:41 pm
by Rob Lang
I've seen gambling using dice where you roll 'em under a bowl or cup and then it's all about eyeballing each other.

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 6:03 pm
by madunkieg
Thank you. I'll keep searching and thinking.

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:28 pm
by madunkieg
A little while ago, I finally started to design a card game that fit all of my criteria. To celebrate J.K. Mosher's card mechanics, I've decided to post my own, much simpler, resolution rules.

The goal is to make as many pairs (cards of the same rank) as you can. Each pair has to use at least one of the cards from your hand, but can also pull from the community cards.

For each contest, you start with a hand of 1-3 cards (depending upon the character's skill) if you're the leader, and 0-2 cards if you're an assistant.

The GM starts drawing and playing the community cards into the center of the table, representing their ability to be used by everyone (like in Texas Hold'em). After each round, in which every character gets the chance to act, another community card is drawn.

There are two types of contests: tasks and conflicts.

- A task resolution succeeds if the character and any assistants cumulatively create at least as many pairs as the GM desires. The limit to these types of contests is the number of pairs needed +2 actions per task.

Example: A character is trying to climb a wall, something that he's relatively skilled at. The player is dealt two cards, an ace and a 3. The GM decides that only 1 success is needed (it's a low wall), and draws the first community card, a 4. The player frowns and says that he'd like to take a running start before climbing the wall. The GM deals the second community card, which is a 3 and the character succeeds.

- A conflict resolution is resolved in favor of whichever side gets more pairs. Players may bet their reputation points on the conflict, forcing all other characters to either match what was bid, or withdraw from the contest, losing all the rep they bid thus far.

If everyone matches, there is an option to call for resolution, at which point everyone reveals their hands. If a player stays into the bitter end, and then loses, he or she gets to add a "...but..." modifier to the outcome. Only one player can do this for each contest.

Example: Yeesh, this'll take a while to go through. Keep an eye on this thread for a future post.

"Everything goes wrong, even when you think it's going right."
Over-successes occur whenever a pair uses a joker, whether it's a community card or a card in someone's hand. Jokers can pair with any rank, but don't have to be used. Over-successes result in the character doing something too well, such as accidentally seducing an entire crowd when just trying to seduce the one person.

Of course, this is just a start. I still need to figure out how to work in reshuffling, and test it, but it's a start. What do you think?

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:41 am
by Onix
PC skill level can be represented by how many cards the player holds, but what about skill specialization?

I think that pairing is going to be hard with the low number of cards you're talking about here. That gets easier the more cards that are on the table, but most card pairing games have large hands (7-13 cards).

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:03 pm
by madunkieg

Re: Gambling Mechanics

PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:13 pm
by madunkieg
Do you think Keeton would mind if I included him (or rather his likeness) in the published game?