The Gaming Outpost

Pick up your local yellow pages. Look up the word “Gaming.”

No, seriously, go do it.

“Sure Thing” casino supplies. “Las Vegas Today” casino parties. “Gamblers Central,” “Gamblers HQ,” “Gamblers Inc.”

All this is next to “Dragon Games,” “Wizard’s Dungeon Comics,” and “Hobbit’s Hobbies.”

I don’t want to guess how many times a company like Steve Jackson Games, Atlas Games, or Alderac Entertainment Group get calls looking for slot machines and decks of playing cards (the ones with kings, aces, and tens of spades, not 2/3 flying for three red mana).

As long as we’re stuck in the phone book together, why don’t we try and find something in common? Heck, maybe some time in the future, they’ll be some guy, nervously standing up in the back row at a Gamblers Anonymous meeting proclaiming, “Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m a addicted to gambling. I’ve lost over 40,000$ playing Dungeons and Dungeons.”

Gambling: The RPG

Gambling: The RPG is an add-on to any roleplaying game, again in the vein of Hogshead’s “New Style” meta-RPGs.

The same as when playing a roleplaying game “normally,” there is one game master and multiple players running characters. However, Gambling introduces a new role: the (aptly-named) Gamblers. The number of Gamblers in a game is completely variable, to a minimum of two. A good rule of thumb would be to have at least one more player than the number of Gamblers; more Gamblers would bog down the game. (Alternatively, the All Out Warfare variant can be used, which is at the bottom of this article.)

The Gamblers do not actually play created characters or run a story; instead, each of the gamblers’ goal is to have their conclusion to the adventure occur. When the GM creates an adventure, she must anticipate and detail a number of possible outcomes to the scenario equal to the number of Gamblers there are. These outcomes must be specific, varied from one another, and relatively balanced (i.e., each of the endings must be equally likely to happen). Once the adventure and outcomes are created, the GM gives one to each of the Gamblers. Each Gambler only gets to see their own outcome; it is kept secret from other Gamblers and the players.

After this, the GM and players running characters, for their part, play the RPG in question as they would any other time. The only difference is that occasionally the game will be interrupted by a Gambler wishing to manipulate the current events.

The point of the game for the Gamblers is to manipulate the player characters and events to steer the adventure to the outcome that they have. To do this, they each have a certain number of points, called Chips. They can use the Chips to give characters advice, allow characters failing at a test to re-roll, or even take control of a character outright for a short amount of time. The amount of Chips the Gamblers get are determined before play; 100 is a standard number. (100 what? Well, I’d say quarters, or dollars, or maybe even expensive Warhammer miniatures. But as Gaming Outpost does not promote illegal gambling, the recommendation is to use tokens or counters of some sort.)

Before the game begins, after each Gambler has received their outcome, there is an Ante. One Gambler places a wager with their Chips on the winner of the game. Each Gambler can call or raise that bet, or fold from the Ante. The Chips from the Ante are unavailable to the Gamblers for the game and put into the pot. At the end of the game, the winning Gambler (the one whose Outcome most closely matched how the adventure ended) wins the pot.

To manipulate events in the adventure, Gamblers can play Tricks (types of Tricks are listed below). When a Gambler plays a Trick, he starts the Open Wager by announcing which Trick he is using and placing a bet of Chips on the table. Each Gambler then announces whether they will oppose or support the Trick, and places an amount of Chips down to bet (it can be zero, if they choose). The amount of Chips Supporting and the amount Opposing are counted. The next round is the Closed Wager; every Gambler discretely wagers more Chips, placing them off to the side where no one else can see them (again, anyone can wager zero). Once every Gambler has done this, the bets are revealed, and the Supporting Chips from both Wagers are added, as are the Opposing ones.

If the number of Chips wagered to Support the Trick are more than the number wagered to Oppose it, the Gambler can play the Trick as indicated. If there is a tie, whichever side had more Gamblers on it wins. If there is still a tie, the player whose character would be affected gets to decide if the Trick occurs.

A Gambler, if he is out of Chips, can still try to play a Trick; other Gamblers might want the same outcome and wager enough Chips for the Trick to succeed.

Listed below are the types of Tricks Gamblers can use during a game. It should be decided before the game how many of each Trick can be used by each Gambler; a standard game would allow two uses of each Trick per Gambler per game, except Advice, which can be used three times, and Pulling the Strings and Hive Mind, where each can only be used once. Even if the Trick fails to have a high enough wager to succeed, it counts as a use.

TYPES OF TRICKS

(Note: A lot of the words is these descriptions are based on the “typical” roleplaying game. Substitute whatever terms are most applicable to your game system. For example, while the Tricks here use the word “roll,” if your game is diceless or uses cards (or spinners or coins or a game of darts or whatever), replace it with whatever your system uses to determine success or failure.

Advice: A Gambler can tell one PC one sentence of information. The sentence must be written down or otherwise told to the other Gambler(s) before bidding begins. Even after bidding is over and Chips are spent, the GM can refuse any sentence that is abusive or otherwise invalid.

Allow Re-roll / Force Re-roll: A Gambler can allow a player to re-roll a failed test, or force a player to re-roll a successful test. Any Gambler may place this Trick again, if the re-roll does not result in a desired outcome.

Cause Phenomenon / Cause Catastrophe: After a test is rolled, the player re-rolls the same test over. On a successful test, if the re-roll is also successful, then it is considered an amazing success. On a failed test, if the re-roll is also a failure, then treat the roll as an extreme failure. (Many games already have rules to apply for this, i.e. critical hits, extraordinary successes, critical failures, etc.) This roll won’t turn successes into failures or vice versa, they just have the opportunity to intensify what already happened.

Boon / Cripple: For one test, a PC’s score in a skill, attribute, ability, etc. is either doubled or halved, as requested by the Gambler. The Gambler does not have to tell the other Gambler(s) which way he is going to manipulate the ability before bidding begins.

Pulling the Strings: For one moment (however your game system handles a basic unit of time; approximately two to five seconds of combat, or two to five minutes of non-combat), a Gambler can take control of a PC. The actions the Gambler takes while controlling the PC cannot directly harm themselves or the other PCs. It comes down to GM discretion of what can and can’t be allowed.

Hive Mind: As Pulling the Strings, except that the Gambler can control all of the PCs for the one moment.

At the end of the adventure, each Gambler reveals his Outcome. The GM and players decide which Outcome was most like the actual ending of the adventure. The winning Gambler receives the Chips from the ante and all the Chips used during the game. Chips unused during the game are kept by their Gambler.

VARIANTS

Handicaps: When the GM creates the Outcomes, she puts a Chip Value on it. This is the amount of Chips that the Gambler gets if they take that Outcome. Outcomes that are less likely to occur would have higher Chip Values, while more probable Outcomes would get lower ones. This variant puts more work on the GM, who has to gauge the likelihood of each Outcome carefully and score it accordingly to preserve game balance.

Show Yer Hands: Every Gambler gets to see every Outcome before the game starts. They then bid their Chips, auction-style, on the Outcome they want. Obviously, the last Outcome will cost a Gambler nothing, as there won’t be anyone else left to bid on it. The Chips from each winning bid are put into the ante, to be won at the end of the game.

All Out Warfare: Everyone, besides the GM, is both a Player and a Gambler. Each player can use their Chips to influence themselves or another PC. This game can be really fun, as long as the GM makes sure to be very careful when writing up Outcomes. Preventing the PCs from killing or maiming one another should be standard issue on every Outcome, for the sake of the game!

Have fun, and milk lots of cash from your friends!