Profession (Gambling)

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Now I know that with most professions "You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the profession’s daily tasks, how to supervise helpers, and how to handle common problems." But unlike most professions, what you earn/lose is directly proportinal to your current wealth. It is also limited by the maxium value of the town, city, etc.

Therefore if two PCs find themself in the capital of a very wealthy kingdom, and they both use this profession at seperate location, as to not interfer with the others winnings {and lets assume they both roll a 27 and each has the skill at rank 10}; however PC1 only can afford to risk 500gp and PC2 can afford 1000gp. Assuming they did infact win, wouldn't PC1's winning be significantly less than PC2's?

Also, how would/have you set up a gambling system in your campaings?

 

[AZNtrogdor]

Well if he gambles with more money, theres a chance that he'll lose more money. It kind of equals out.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

yes, thats true; but im my example i stated they both won

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I steal the Star Wars d20 rules on Gambling; rather than a Profession, it is its own skill.

However, you can leave it in Profession (Gambling), and just say "This skill uses different rules."

Playing against the House: Determine your initial stake. This is what you are willing to wager over an evening of gambling. Make a Gamble check. Your result determines how much of your stake you keep:

1-4: Lose it all
5-9: Lose 75%
10-14: Lose 50%
15-19: Break even
20-24: Win 50%
25-29: Win 100%
30-34: Win 200%
25-39: Win 400%
40+: Win 900%

So, on an initial stake of 1,000gp, and a roll of 22, you'd win 500gp, and would walk away with 1,500gp total. On the same stake, and a roll of 6, you'd lose 750gp, and would walk away with 250gp total.

There are other rules for playing against other players, as well, but these should get you started.

 

[AZNtrogdor]

yes, thats true; but im my example i stated they both won

yea, I understand that, but law of large numbers, they'll be losing as much money as they're winning in the long run

 

[irdeggman]

Star Wars rules for gambling against other characters.

Highest roll is overall winner for the evening and wins the pot.

Use each of the “loser” player’s results to determine how much of their stake they keep or give to the winner.

The result of the difference between the character’s roll and the winner’s determines what happens (and how big the pot is).

Difference (result)
1-4 (break even, keep stake)
5-9 (give 1/10 of stake to winner)
10-14 (give ¼ of stake to winner)
15-19 (give 1/3 of stake to winner)
20-24 (give ½ of stake to winner)
25-29 (give 2/3 of stake to winner)
30-34 (give ¾ of stake to winner)
35+ (lose it all, give entire stake to winner)

I would not use profession (gambler) to work this way.

The reason is that "all" profession checks are done on a weekly basis and reflect the "profit" made during that time. If a profession involves higher stakes (like gambling) it also has higher swings and the net result at the end of the week is still the same - based onoverall performance.

 

[Huw]

I'd take profession: gambler to mean "how to run a casino/bookie", not "how to make money at games of chance".

So, a good roll will mean that you've set the right odds on the chariot races to draw in the punters and still make a profit regardless of who wins.

 

[Pielorinho]

If they've got the same skill, I wouldn't think one would make more money. ANd here's why:

You can gamble in one of two ways [assuming you don't cheat]: you can play against other gamblers, or you can play against the house.

If you play against the house, you're going to lose. Skill doesn't matter in most games; you're just going to lose, that's all there is to it. YOu could allow people to mimic this with a simple roll of percentiles. On 01-52, they lose their stake. On 53-00, they double it.

If you play against other gamblers, then skill does come into play. But the higher the stakes, the likelier you are to be playing against other professional gamblers. This should be an opposed check, not a flat check, with the highest result being the one that wins the pot.

You might get lucky and find a bunch of high-rolling idiots whom you can fleece. But then, among those high-rolling idiots, there might be another professional gambler, and you may discover that you're the one who's been shorn.

Low-stakes games have lower returns, but for that reason, professional gamblers are less common among them. You're pretty likely to win if you're the only pro sitting at the table.

Daniel

 

[ARandomGod]

If you play against the house, you're going to lose. Skill doesn't matter in most games; you're just going to lose, that's all there is to it. YOu could allow people to mimic this with a simple roll of percentiles. On 01-52, they lose their stake. On 53-00, they double it.

I use a 70 - 30 split, with the house winning 70% of the time. This is the general statistic for casino's nowdays anyhow.

If you play against other gamblers, then skill does come into play. But the higher the stakes, the likelier you are to be playing against other professional gamblers. This should be an opposed check, not a flat check, with the highest result being the one that wins the pot.

When someone wants to play for actual stakes, I will let them, but I'll vary the results myself, by varying the opponents based on a semi-random scale. Don't worry, where there's the potential for a pot as large as 1000 gold, there's a proportionally high potential for other professional gamblers to be present. And seriously, pots that large simply rarely happen outside of the nobility and possibly higher merchant areas. Some of those people, if you DO win big, start to notice you in ways you'd rather not be noticed. Sometimes.

You're safer "stealing" (and it is stealing) away a farmer's pouchful of silver he brings to the gambling table than winning too many high stakes hands, assuming you can even get access to those tables.

 

[ARandomGod]

You can gamble in one of two ways [assuming you don't cheat]: you can play against other gamblers, or you can play against the house.

Now, cheating's fun. I personally grant a synergy bonus to Profession: Gambler for ranks in Sleight of Hand. Additionally this is one of the few combinations where I'll let you run both moneymaking attempts at the same time.

Yes, you can not only try to make money from gambling, getting the synergy bonus, but simultaniously you can roll to try to get money from sleight. Although I do apply a minor penalty to the total amount gained thougth that means, as you tend to be stealing from the same pockets in two different ways. There's a limited amount of money IN those pockets.

But you can indeed get more out than they might be willing to gamble if you've got nimble fingers (feat not included).