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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 4781777" data-attributes="member: 13966">If you're going with the sort of simple setup you suggested, I'd say a rating between 4 and 10 (2d4+2) for each deck would be good, and use a d20 roll with that rating to determine the match.  If the players roll a tie, neither wins and they get their anted cards back (no change in decks).  Otherwise, higher result (roll + rating) wins.  Say that a deck can go down to a minimum rating of 1 and up to a maximum rating of 20 (from losses or wins, respectively).Say that the Profession (Gambler) skill can provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the deck's roll, if you make a check with that skill as part of the match and your check beats the opponent's Profession (Gambler) or Wisdom check (if untrained).  An Intelligence check could be substituted for either (one or both players could choose to use an Intelligence check instead of a Prof.(Gam.)/Wis. check).  Maybe just allow a separate opposed Int check to contest a separate +2 circumstance bonus.For a more detailed alternative......Say each deck is 52 cards, so you can use normal playing cards to represent them.  Assign each card to a monster from the Monster Manual, of CR equal to the card's value, treating Jacks as CR 11 monsters, Queens as CR 12, and Kings as CR 13 or whatever.  Each player shuffles their deck and draws a card from it as ante, placing it face-down off to the side.  Have each player draw a hand of 4 (maybe 3?) cards from their deck at the start of a match, then they each take turns drawing a card and playing a card.After each has played 4 cards, total up the value of their played cards.  Highest total wins that round of the match; first to win 4 rounds (maybe 3?) wins the match.  Discard the played cards at the end of each round and continue play with the remaining cards in the deck and in hand.  If someone's 4 cards are of the same value or the same suite (all ones, or all hearts, or whatever), add 4 to that player's total value for the round.  If a round is tied, the tied players discard their 4 played cards and continue play until the tie is broken with a new set of 4 cards from each of those tied players.If a player runs out of cards in their deck, they turn their discarded cards face-down and shuffle them to refill their deck.  Whoever wins the match gets the ante cards and adds them to his or her deck, but replaces those cards with ones they choose from their deck (frex, if player A won the match against players B, C, and D, getting the king of spades, ace of hearts, and 5 of diamonds in ante, Player A would have to give players B, C, and D each one card from his or her deck in return, but Player A chooses; he might give back the ace of hearts to one of those players if he wanted, and given his own original ace of hearts to another of the players and his own ace of spades to the other).So deck size never really changes (any extra cards a player may obtain can only be swapped one-for-one with other cards in the deck, and not during play).  The game can only be played with 52-card decks.  Probably associate each suite with an element (heart = fire, diamond = air, spade = earth, clover = water) and call the game Four Element Face-Off or something.....?  The decks that the players found would probably be somewhat irregular from the previous owners' earlier games; swap a few random cards between the two initial decks.Say that the decks are made uniquely by someone that ensures each card is slightly unique and that people can't just make their own copies of cards to artificially improve their deck (the 'fakes' would be easily identifiable as such).  How doesn't matter; some silly gnomish archmage or something, using a silly epic spell he devised, maybe.QUICK EDIT: If you use that alternative, you might integrate skill checks by letting the players each roll a Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma check (whichever each player prefers) at the start of each round, and if any one player wins the opposed check, they can swap a card from their hand at the start of that round for the bottom card of their deck (they won't know what that card is until they make the swap, if they choose to make the swap).  This could represent a bit of legerdemain, a sneaky trick or distraction, a sneaky set-up in shuffling the deck, or the results of a strategy (since the game rules are supposed to be an abstraction).  Knowledge (local) could be substituted for an Intelligence check, Sleight of Hand for a Dexterity check, Sense Motive for a Wisdom check, or Bluff for a Charisma check.  So character skill or talent could play a role.</blockquote>

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