Stakes
A simple betting game I created with three goals:
1: It should be easily explained in text, in a .txt file.
2: It should be easy to run by the “dealer”, for example, a GM playing a TTRPG.
3: It should create the feeling of suspense and surprise that gambling games have.
1: Simplicity
Now, the main reason I wanted the game to be simple enough to explain just through text is because I wanted to create something that felt like it had existed for a long time. Like Hearts, or Liar’s Dice.
I want to use the game in my own personal DnD campaigns, so I really wanted it to have the same feeling as a game that fits into a preexisting world. So really, I wanted the rules to feel simple enough to be explained with just words.
Design
2: Easy to run
This is similar to goal 1, but what I really wanted was something that didn’t require the person running it, or the “dealer”, to have to keep track of too many things in their head that weren’t tracked by the game pieces.
Often times, things that seem like they would be simple to play become cumbersome, simply because you have to remember numbers. It’s my biggest challenge personally when running TTRPGs, so I wanted to reduce that as much as possible.
3: The Reveal
Finally, a goal about the game itself. In my opinion, the most fun part of a game involving betting is the moment of reveal. It should be sudden, i.e. seeing the number on a rolled dice, or, as I’ve chosen here, the reveal of a card.
Also, to keep the game interesting over several rounds, the player should have the option to continue under riskier odds or walk away. The game is playable using the standard 7-die set used in TTRPGs, but in this version, this is done by adding cards to play.
Example Gameplay:
Iteration + Final Thoughts
This game started out as a dice game. When I was making a card version, I was trying to figure out how to both capture the feeling of rolling the dice, but also take advantage of the differences between cards and dice. What I landed on was pretty similar, but basically, it’s that within a round, cards that are drawn stay out of the deck until the round is over. This keeps the quickness of rolling the dice, but also lets you strategize a bit more about what cards you are picking. The original version of the card game left the drawn cards out of the deck permanently, but after the first playtest it became clear that that kept the odds too similar between rounds, so I changed that.