You walk into a shady tavern...

[GeekGirl]

The group I DM for found a tavern in the unsavory part of town and wanted to gamble. I didn't really have anything good for them to do. I don't want to use common games they would know (blackjack, poker of anything). So my question is this, What games to you use for gambling in game?

[Maquise]

I like to use Liar's Dice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_dice). Has the advantage that you already have the dice.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

I've been partial to chinchirorin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cee-lo) (also known as cee-lo) ever since I ran across it in an old console RPG. It has the advantages of being obscure enough (at least, among people I've met) that few people are familiar with it before you introduce them and all you need to play are three d6's which shouldn't be a problem at most any role-playing table.

[HunterOfJello]

Wait, all of the dirty hobgoblins, kobolds, and half-orcs don't play yahtzee in taverns all nights?

~~~~

Cityscape actually has a section on this on pages 44-45. It has rules for drinking games, games of skill, feats of strength, feats of accuracy, picking pockets, picking fights, and the escalation of bar brawls.


The ones I've used before in game for players are arm wrestling, darts, picking fights, and we started a drinking game once but it was interrupted by the fight. Darts is simple. The two contestants do ranged touch attacks at a target. Whoever gets a better score 5 times wins.

Arm wrestling is simple too. Do opposed strength checks but give characters of a larger size a +4 bonus per size category. The book suggests declaring a winner after 2 successful opposed strength checks, but I usually draw things out a bit and set the opposed checks as the degree at which the characters arms move. (Example: If the PC loses the first check, then their arm moves towards the NPC's side. After that, the PC will need to win 3 checks normally or win 1 or 2 checks by a significant margin to win since they're now running behind.)

The drinking game suggested is a big more complex, but fun. It suggests doing a DC 15 Constitution check against poison (alcohol). Each drink you take increases the DC check by 1 so that it becomes harder and harder to resist the effects of the alcohol. Each time you fail one of the checks, you take a -1 cumulative penalty on dexterity and wisdom along with a cumulative -1 penalty to Constitution. You don't take actual damage from any of these. Once your penalty to Constitution is equal to your actual constitution, you pass out for 2d4 hours and wake up fatigued.

[Cicciograna]

The group I DM for found a tavern in the unsavory part of town and wanted to gamble. I didn't really have anything good for them to do. I don't want to use common games they would know (blackjack, poker of anything). So my question is this, What games to you use for gambling in game?

Years ago, on WotC site many dice game were published. Some of them are really nice.

Here they are. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/dg)

[NNescio]

The group I DM for found a tavern in the unsavory part of town and wanted to gamble. I didn't really have anything good for them to do. I don't want to use common games they would know (blackjack, poker of anything). So my question is this, What games to you use for gambling in game?

Poker with a Deck of Many Things.

Just kidding ('though I've used it once in a joke campaign). As mentioned by Maquise, Liar Dice can be implemented fairly easily, and it has some degree of skill involved as well.

[Urpriest]

WotC also made some cool-looking cards and a card game awhile back called Three-Dragon Ante. Never got a chance to play it, so no idea how good it is.

[AzazelSephiroth]

WotC Three Dragon Ante is pretty fun and has that authentic fantasy vibe going for it... but you have to find a copy of the game and buy it. Optionally you could find the rules online...(not sure where, as I have limited access right now) and just explain what is going on to the players.
I also like Liar`s Dice and I have used both in my games before... be warned though, once a few heavy roleplayers spent an entire session trying to take the whole town`s collective pocket change:smallbiggrin:

[NNescio]

WotC Three Dragon Ante is pretty fun and has that authentic fantasy vibe going for it... but you have to find a copy of the game and buy it. Optionally you could find the rules online...(not sure where, as I have limited access right now) and just explain what is going on to the players.
I also like Liar`s Dice and I have used both in my games before... be warned though, once a few heavy roleplayers spent an entire session trying to take the whole town`s collective pocket change:smallbiggrin:

Did you mean rollplayers? :smallbiggrin:

[Strormer]

I second darts. It was my personal favorite because the rogues were always pushing the more inebriated barbarians into a match and whoopin' them for all the coins in their pockets.

I also had a seedy tavern where, if you went to the basement, there were strange spellbooks that even the wizards couldn't understand and sheets with the entire lives of people on them... if anyone's seen The Gamers you may laugh now. If anyone hasn't seen The Gamers, why haven't you seen The Gamers?

[AzazelSephiroth]

Did you mean rollplayers? :smallbiggrin:

What!? Never! My players are always acting entirely in character... it just so happened that the Cleric was building a new orphanage and that the fighter needed an expensive quest item for the town`s safety! :smallbiggrin::smallwink:

And the rogue wanted all the money in the tavern... well at least he was in character.

[JackRackham]

The group I DM for found a tavern in the unsavory part of town and wanted to gamble. I didn't really have anything good for them to do. I don't want to use common games they would know (blackjack, poker of anything). So my question is this, What games to you use for gambling in game?
Rogue with sleight of hand + Shell game = fun gambling-centric encounter. Hope they put ranks in spot or sense motive...

[Garwain]

Liar Dice is fun, but somewhat complex to explain before you get the gamble started.

An easy dice rolling game:
roll 2d6
if you roll a 1, your turn ends without points
if you roll a pair, you have to roll again (a pair of 1s counts a pair and doesn't end your turn)
else you can choose to stop and count the total amount of eyes rolled as your score or continue with another roll.

Lowest score loses.

PS: we made it into a drinking game: The lowest score has to drink and the portion of the drink was determined by the highest score.

[Serpentine]

One of the Dragon Magazines had a bunch of in-game games of chance. We used a couple of them - my ex even bought a set of dice specifically for one of them.

[Longcat]

I'd say let them play Fortune Cookie Poker. Each round, everyone gets handed a Fortune Cookie, containing one of the following (roll a d6):

1: "You shall have an energetic day": Explosive Runes inscribed on it.
2: "Soccer is like chess, except without dice": Symbol of Insanity
3: "That wasn't chicken": Symbol of Pain
4: "Good Fortune awaits you": Eating the cookie triggers Heroes' Feast
5: "Great deeds await those who perform great deeds": Cookie contains the deed to a local mansion filled with wealth
6: "Simply breathtaking": Symbol of Death

Feel free to modify the table to up/lower the stakes.

[Feytalist]

Those are some high-level cookies.

[Dr.Epic]

So my question is this, What games to you use for gambling in game?

A little game I call first person to find the guy named "Strider" wins 50 gp.

[NNescio]

I'd say let them play Fortune Cookie Poker. Each round, everyone gets handed a Fortune Cookie, containing one of the following (roll a d6):

1: "You shall have an energetic day": Explosive Runes inscribed on it.
2: "Soccer is like chess, except without dice": Symbol of Insanity
3: "That wasn't chicken": Symbol of Pain
4: "Good Fortune awaits you": Eating the cookie triggers Heroes' Feast
5: "Great deeds await those who perform great deeds": Cookie contains the deed to a local mansion filled with wealth
6: "Simply breathtaking": Symbol of Death

Feel free to modify the table to up/lower the stakes.

See, if you going to do that, you might as well go all the way by playing poker with a deck of many things.