Sabacc

[jmanski]

[atgxtg]

[Mojomoe]

[jmanski]

[Dromdarr_Alark]

This is also Star Wars, and gamblers have almost supernatural luck (just read The Adventures of Lando Calrissian). This could be tied to the Force.

That's why I think the gambling skill is more than just the ability to think quickly, read people, and lie well. I think another component of it is just how plain lucky your character is.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[Random_Axe]

[Random_Axe]

Introduction:
Sabacc is played with a deck of 76 card-chips; there are four suits in the deck: Sabers, Staves, Flasks And Coins. Generally, each suit consists of eleven numbered cards (marked one to eleven) and four ranked cards: the Commander, the Mistress, the Master and the Ace (numbered 12 to 15). There are also sixteen face cards (two each of eight different cards), with special names, symbols and unique negative values.

The object of sabacc is to have the highest card total which is less than or equal to twenty-three. A total which is more than twenty-three, less than negative twenty-three, or equal to zero is a bomb out, wherein that player pays an additional penalty into the sabacc pot (in addition to losing that hand’s normal wager).

Through the use of micro-circuitry in the cardchips, card values change randomly, triggered by electronic impulses sent out by the dealer. Through several rounds of bluffing and betting, players draw or exchange cards, and watch and wait for their card-chips to shift. When a hand is called, a player will lock all of their card-chip values by placing them in the table's interference field (located at the center of the playing surface) — the cards are "frozen" at that value.

The game is thus ruled not only by gambling ability and skill, but sometimes also by blind luck. Even if you play the best hand of your life, a deadly shift in the holographic values can turn it into crap; similarly, a twist of fate can turn a garbage hand into a sudden winner.

RP Mechanics:
Players roll their Gambling skill, while the GM rolls 3d6 (2d + 1 WD). The players’ skill rolls determine both the amount of credits wagered, as well as who will eventually win the hand; while the GM roll determines the ultimate value of the hand (note the Wild Die is only counted on an extreme roll of the other 2d):

[the table goes here, it doesn't translate well in text mode, but it describes what actually happens to the hand and how much its worth becomes, and even when a winner's roll turns into trash]

Note: a “bomb out” is a penalty paid into the sabacc pot, which is designed to grow and grow over the course of several hands and is only won by a roll of three 6’s on the GM dice.

The initial value of a hand is the simple total of all the gambling rolls of the participating players. If four players roll 10, 12, 14 and 16 respectively, the first player would lose 10 credits, the second player would lose 12 credits, etc, while the fourth player with the highest roll wins the total of the four rolls (eg. 52 credits). The final value of the hand is further modified by the multiplier determined by the GM’s roll of 2d, as seen in the table above.

Non-winning players may attempt to reduce the amount of a loss in a given hand. Make a second gambling skill roll; if this second roll is better than the initial roll, reduce your loss by 50%. This option does not apply to the worst 2 rollers of a hand, and the reduction does not count against the winner's take (except in a high-stakes game, see below).

High Stakes: if the players are expressly seeking out a high stakes game or table, multiply all hand values above (losses and wins) by x10. A successful loss-reduction (see above) reduces the victor’s winnings by the same amount saved.

Long term play: above rules assume a set of skill rolls for each hand dealt, which may get tedious after a bit. For longer-term generalizations, make one set of rolls per hour of play and multiply the resulting hand values by x10. If a high-stakes game is abstracted in this way, obviously multiply all hand values per hour by x100.

Casual or secondary play: occasionally a player may get involved in a sabacc table not for the winnings, but as a secondary activity during information-gathering or other streetwise activities (ie. to horn in on local rumours or scuttlebutt). Since his heart isn't fully in the game, multiply all hand values for that player (only) by 1/2. This player can not attempt to further reduce his losses as noted above, since he is not actually fully concentrating on the game play.

[DougRed4]

That all seems quite reasonable and a solid way to play using just Gambling skill (i.e., without cards).

Thanks for posting it, Random_ Axe!
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[atgxtg]

[quote="jmanski"]

[jmanski]

You're right, poker is a game of skill and luck. But so is any sport. The same team doesn't win the championship in any sport every year, just like the same gambler doesn't win the world series of poker every year.

Luck plays an important part in all things, and I believe the dice roll helps to portray that. In poker the skill is to reduce the effects of bad luck and to maximize the effects of good luck. A good gambler will play a strong hand to make more money by slow-playing, while a novice will bet big early and scare everyone out of the pot. Also, bluffing makes it possible for a non-winning hand to win based simply on skill.

It seems to me that the 10d gambler is a problem simply because he has 10d in gambling. Like any other skill, if you get too good at something, someone will notice. Maybe better gamblers want to beat him (in sabaac, of course), while others will want him beaten . He won't be allowed in some casinos. He will be scrutinized in most. He will have enemies.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[atgxtg]

Yeah 1)D in anything is hitting the problematic stage in D6. Perhaps more so with gambling since there is no reason to multitask the way you do with other skills, or much of a reason to sacrifice dice for a better effect, like with some skills.

One game I came up with for gambling that was popular with my players was one where the players had to roll to beat a difficulty. Each round the difficulty would go up by 5, and the player had the choice of standing pat or risking all by rolling to beat the new difficulty. It worked out fairly well since that was a risk in trying for the best result. With multiple rolls over multiple turns the risk of "zeroing out" as we called it increased.

[jmanski]

Now that's an interesting idea.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[atgxtg]