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2011-01-24, 06:12 PM
Alright, GitP forums, please give me some advise.
I will soon be launching into running a new Pathfinder campaign with my group, with a highly urbanized focus (I'm taking Ptolus basically and converting as needed). One of the areas I'd like to steer the campaign (or at least give the players the option of exploring) into is concerning the major crime factions of the massive city, and of course one of their major sources of income are the illegally run casinos in the backrooms of shops or in unused warehouses. Well, and prostitutes, but there's the BoEF for that.
Anyway, simply put, there is going to be a fair bit of games of chance going around and I'm pretty sure players are going to want to have a few games now and then, if not trying to become regular gamblers themselves, potentially anyway.
This leads me to a question of how I should run them? While I don't want the game to turn into a 3-hour poker night, I also want it to be a little interesting and exciting, not just "Roll a profession:Gambler check" or something.
Now some games like blackjack could be easy enough to run quickly, I'm wondering if there are any other games like this for cards or dice that can be used? How much should I allow players to win? If a player does put ranks in profession:gambler and we do it with real play, should a good profession check allow them to move a chip after the game? Change the amount they bet slightly afterwards? Allow them to outright cheat in some fashion?
TL;DR Looking for success and failure stories of gambling games in RPGs, so I can learn and plan (and steal good game ideas) from them.
I will soon be launching into running a new Pathfinder campaign with my group, with a highly urbanized focus (I'm taking Ptolus basically and converting as needed). One of the areas I'd like to steer the campaign (or at least give the players the option of exploring) into is concerning the major crime factions of the massive city, and of course one of their major sources of income are the illegally run casinos in the backrooms of shops or in unused warehouses. Well, and prostitutes, but there's the BoEF for that.
Anyway, simply put, there is going to be a fair bit of games of chance going around and I'm pretty sure players are going to want to have a few games now and then, if not trying to become regular gamblers themselves, potentially anyway.
This leads me to a question of how I should run them? While I don't want the game to turn into a 3-hour poker night, I also want it to be a little interesting and exciting, not just "Roll a profession:Gambler check" or something.
Now some games like blackjack could be easy enough to run quickly, I'm wondering if there are any other games like this for cards or dice that can be used? How much should I allow players to win? If a player does put ranks in profession:gambler and we do it with real play, should a good profession check allow them to move a chip after the game? Change the amount they bet slightly afterwards? Allow them to outright cheat in some fashion?
TL;DR Looking for success and failure stories of gambling games in RPGs, so I can learn and plan (and steal good game ideas) from them.