Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 10:50:00 -0500
From: "Czaplinski, Mike" <czaplm@UF4725P02.WASHINGTONDC.NCR.COM>
Subject: [SW-RPG] [STATS]: Sabacc dice simulator
Sender: Star Wars Role Playing Game Discussion Group <SW-RPG@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
To: SW-RPG@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Reply-to: "Czaplinski, Mike" <czaplm@UF4725P02.WASHINGTONDC.NCR.COM>
Message-id: <199802131539.KAA20644@listserv.aol.com>
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BACKGROUND:
One of the major NPC's in my game is a Failed Jedi/Gambler, who uses
Receptive
Telepathy & Mangify Senses to gather information on what his opponents
Sabacc
hands are (he doesn't have TK, and doesn't overtly cheat unless absolutely
necessary, and then only with normal Gambling skill).

Last night, finally, my players got to the casino on Hosk Station (their
base of
operations for this campaign), and sat down to play Sabacc.

Now, I didn't have any Sabacc cards or rules off the 'net, and frankly I
found the
gambling simulation rules in the resource pool a bit too complex & number
crunchy
for my taste, so I figured out a quick-and-dirty simulation system that can
be tinkered
with to account for the legendary Sabacc rules variations, but is still
basically simple
and even enjoyable (at various points in the evening, the players were
putting actual
character interaction and plot advancement on hold to play more Sabacc,
which
told me that whatever I did was working well).

This also allowed DuKane (my NPC) to use his Force Abilities to watch the
game
without disrupting the flow, and also allow players to use Gambling skill to
affect
the outcome.

CAVEAT:
This is purely something I threw together, and though it worked well, it is
by no means
a complete simulator.

BASIC RULES:
<*This is basically an adaptation of Yahtzee or Poker Dice, but with a few
     SWRPG-specific refinements*>

Each player needs 5 6-sided dice; these are NOT normal skill dice; they
represent
your sabacc hand, and should be kept seperate from the dice you may use to
use your Gambling skill (a different color, preferably).

STEP 1:
Each player antes up (the ante varies depending on the agreed upon limits at
the table).

Each player then rolls their hand (their 'Come Out', to borrow a term from
craps)
behind a screen.  Hands are scored poker style (2, 3, 4, 5 of a kind, 2
pair, full house
(3 of a kind and two of a kind), straights (1 through 5 or 2 through 6)).

STEP 2:
Any character with Force Powers (such as Receptive Telepath or clairvoyance)
or
who wishes to cheat (with a Very Difficult Gambling roll) or who had
prepared the
playing area before hand can attempt to see other players' hands.  They may
make
one attempt per player per hand, and may do it either at this time or later.

STEP 3:
Each character can now raise the pot if they choose.  The chance goes around
the
table once, poker style (IE, raise, check, see etc.).

If a character wishes, they can try to change any or all of their dice with
a gambling
skill roll against the following difficulty numbers:

                Change 1 Die    10
                Change 2 Dice   15
                Change 3 Dice   20
                Change 4 Dice   25
                Change 5 Dice   30

When making the skill roll, the player declares if they're playing it
'straight' or if
they are 'cheating'.  If they are using external aids such as a skifter
device, they are
automatically cheating:

'Straight':
        *If the player succeeds, they re-roll the die/dice they choose.
        *If the player fails, they cannot re-roll any die/dice
        *If the player gets an extra re-roll for each '6' they roll on the
         wild die (IE, if they roll 2 sixes in a roll on the wild die, they
can
         reroll their chosen number of dice up to 3 times).  They must
         keep whatever they roll if they choose to re-roll, and cannot
         save previous rolls.
        *If the player rolls a '1' on the wild die, they will be accused of
cheating
         by the house or another player.

'Cheating':
        *If the player succeeds, they re-roll the die/dice they choose.
        *If the player fails, they are caught cheating
        *If the player gets an extra re-roll for each '6' they roll on the
         wild die (IE, if they roll 2 sixes in a roll on the wild die, they
can
         reroll their chosen number of dice up to 3 times).  A cheating
         player may 'keep' their previous rolls if they get multiple rerolls
         and choose the best of them to keep.
        *If the player rolls a '1' on the wild die, they will be accused of
cheating
         by the house or another player and suffer the consequences.

STEP 4:
Any character with Force Powers (such as Receptive Telepath or clairvoyance)
or
who wishes to cheat (with a Very Difficult Gambling roll) or who had
prepared the
playing area beforehand gets a second chance to see the other players (if
they have
not already done so).

STEP 5:
Each player now reveals their hand, and the highest hand takes the pot.

RULES VARIANTS SIMULATION:
 -"Smuggler's Rules":  repeat Steps 3 & 4 multiple times to bring up the pot
to
   astronomically  high levels.

 -"Corellian Rules":  Each player rolls 7 Dice for their hand, but can
choose the
   best 5 (similar to 7 card poker).

 -"Imperial Rules":  Instead of rolling the hand all at once, each player
rolls 1 die,
   antes up, then rolls each additional dice (up to 5 or, if they're REALLY
feeling
   lucky, mixing in Corellian rules and going up to 7), with a round of
betting in
   between each roll.  Basic Imperial rules doesn't allow for re-rolls, but
there is an
   Imperial Senate rules variant that allows for rerolls.

GM's are encouraged to come up with any rules variant they want.  Go to
town!

FINAL NOTES:
Like I said above:  this isn't perfect, and I pretty much made it up as I
went along, but
I was pleasantly suprised at how well it worked, and wanted to share it with
my
friends on the SWRPG Mailing List.

What I really like about it is that it is cohesive enough to be played on
its own without
being too complex, yet it is open enough to allow for players to creatively
cheat
(assuming they make their skill rolls, that is) or for outside activities to
distract the
participants (in my game, the Brash Pilot beat the ex-Stormtrooper General
NPC
villain out of 6500cr when one of the other characters (whom the NPC had a
vendetta
against because she'd been caught smuggling for him) let herself be seen,
causing
an angered Mr. Villain to discard the wrong card and lose not only his
money, but
his beautiful female companion).