Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 5580693" data-attributes="member: 30022">Gambling tends to come up a fair bit in my games, and we've generally settled on three ways of dealing with it, depending on how much time is available:1) Short Method. Single roll using Bluff or Streetwise. Pick a DC level based on the difficulty of the opposition (e.g. typical players might be a skill check of equal level, while playing against experienced pros might be 4+ levels higher than the PC). If the PC fails to get even an Easy success, they lose their stakes. If the PC gets an Easy success, they break even. If they get a Medium success, they win back +50% of their stake. If they get a Hard success, they double their money. Given the simplicity of the method, the single roll represents the entire session of gambling, and the stakes are typically low.2) Long Method. We break out the Three Dragon Ante card game from WotC. We've found this is tremendously fun and thematic for representing a longer gaming session. There are specific rules in the game to represent PC abilities (e.g. Trained in Bluff, or Intuition, or Streetwise, etc), and the cards really bring home the fantasy theme (rather than just playing regular poker). Here's how we generally play it:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Every player gets a value of 50 chits (2x 10 chits, 4x 5 chits, 10x 1 chits).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The game ends as soon as any one player (including the DM) runs out of chits.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Count the chits for each remaining player.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Whoever has the most chits wins 2/3 of the total money put into the pool (e.g. if 3 PCs and 3 NPCs are playing, and each pushes in 200gp, the winner gains 900gp).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The second-place-getter wins their money back. All other players lose their stakes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Why not just give out winnings based on the chits that each player has remaining? Because it works against dramatic tension, and either leads to small winnings or player boredom. We've usually found that at least one player will lose all their chits long before any other one player has achieved a dominant position. In real poker games, you'll usually have weaker (or unluckier) players get knocked out long before it comes down to the high-stakes bids that make decide a single winner. That's a pain at the gaming table - you have one or more players sitting around bored while the lucky few players play out multiple hands to finish off the game. So, once any single player is knocked out, we prefer to abstract the rest based on chit count at the time.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Due to the length of this kind of thing, it's also important to award XP (win or lose). A typical Three Dragon Ante game, or even poker, may last as long or longer than a typical 4e combat. Hence, I always award XP as if the party fought an equal level combat.</li> </ul>3) Skill Challenge Method. And, if we don't have time for Three Dragon Ante but would still prefer something with more tension than a single roll, we go with a Skill Challenge. Here's what we use...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Typically, the Skill Challenge is of equal level to the PCs. However, the number of successes required depends on the competition. Typical opponents would be level 3 (8 successes), while pros might be level 5 (12 successes).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The optimal skills are:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bluff - usable any number of times; represents exactly what the skill implies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Intimidate - usable once only; unsettle opponents through either physical or mental intimidation</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Intuition - usable twice only; read the other players "tells"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Perception - usable twice only; used for card-counting (Hard DCs only)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Streetwise - usable any number of times; represents raw skill at playing the game (as opposed to bluffs, etc)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Thievery - usable any number of times, but risky; any failure with this skill results in an automatic failure for the entire skill challenge and probable consequences for cheating</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Given the stakes involved, I always work with Medium DCs at a minimum. Roughly half the checks (the latter half) should be Hard DCs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You can either run the challenge for the party as a whole (if they intend to split the winnings), or run it for each individual PC.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A PC who beats the challenge typically doubles their money; a PC who fails the challenge loses their stake. You might have different results based on number of successes or failures (e.g. a PC who succeeds with 0 failures might triple their money, and a PC who failed after getting 6 successes might break even rather than losing it all).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As with the other methods above, it's important to limit the possible winnings (i.e. have a limit to table stakes). It should never be possible to win more than a typical treasure packet for the level in any session of gambling. Otherwise, you'll get munchkins throwing down their entire accumulated wealth and riding their buffed skills to huge rewards.</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification