Games of Chance

Many similar games of chance and shady skill are played across Faerun. Knowing subtle differences of etiquette and play from place to place is an essential survival skill for travelers. Here are three gambling games played in Cormyr alongside chess and more familiar card and dice games.

Toss the Dagger

Played in cruder ways elsewhere, this game gets the full treatment at the Lucky Dragon: Two daggers are thrown upward simultaneously by A blindfolded maiden, who then steps back. She hurls them up into a hanging forest of old scraps of armor, fragments of blades, and the like that dangles from the ceiling on cords and chains. Both daggers must strike something on their upward trip or both must be thrown again. The floor of the throwing area is made of damp sand. Players bet on whether one, both, or none of the daggers will strike point downward when they reach the ground. Bets are placed before the daggers are thrown and continue until only one player can afford to continue or (by prior agreement) for six, seven, nine, or twelve bets.

Traitor's Heads

Five dice are shaken inside a skull and then dropped out of it onto a second skull that has been placed on A large dark cloak or velvet cloth. To count, a die must strike the second skull and come to rest on the cloth. Dice that miss the skull or roll off the cloth must be shaken and dropped again. Casting the dice alternately, players seek to reach an exact total. Doubles, triples, and quartets can be taken at face value or rerolled at the caster’s choice. One die or both may be rerolled in the case of duplicates, but if the player chooses to reroll a triple or quartet, all of the matching dice must be rolled. Any casting where all five dice land displaying the same number wins the game instantly. Bets are placed per game and some- times modified by the number of rolls required to achieve the target total. Players who go over the needed total (usually 36) get A free roll of all five dice and drop from their over-total the number of points the dice show. There- after, they take their turn casting a single die only. When they approach the needed total, all rolls that take them over the total again are ignored, and they must continue to roll in their turn until the exact total is met.

Swords and Shields

This card game is played with two identical decks that may be of any sort, so long as they have at least 20 cards. One player chooses a single card from his or her hand and puts it face downad on the table. The other player puts an array (called a tableau) of 20 cards face down on the table with a coin atop each one. One of these cards must be the second player’s king or dragon or crown card, depending on what deck is used. (The sole top-value card of the deck.) The player who is dealt one card (a “shield”) tries to find the king by turning over cards. Each card turned over that isn’t the king costs him or her a coin to match the one atop the card, except the card that matches the shield card, which must then be immediately shown to the player who laid down the 20-card tableau. The match between the overturned card and the turning player’s shield card must be exact in suit and type. If so, the turning player pays nothing for flipping the card over; instead, the player who laid out the tableau pays the turning player double the value of the coin on the flipped card. If the king is discovered before only four cards are left, the player who dealt the tableau must pay the turning player double the value of the most valuable coin on any card on the table. This simple gambling game is sometimes enlivened in two ways: “calling the hounds” and “telling.” Call- ing the hounds is the practice of allowing the turning player to call out any two cards except the king by name, including suit and type, after all coins and cards are laid out in the tableau but before any card has been turned over. If these cards are in the tableau, the player who laid out the tableau must turn them over at this time. Neither player pays anything at this time, but the turning player’s odds are bettered. In telling, a favorite practice in Cormyr, the turning player must tell a joke, incident, or tale leading up to each card turnover. An example follows:
Tis said that the hero Ambrangarr of Tsurlagol once found a mirror in a wizard’s tower, boldly stepped through it, and found himself in the lair of a dragon. The dragon asked him a riddle: “Fits in my mouth but fills a cavern. What is it?” Ambrangarr, being a hero, and therefore not overly quick or keen of wit, knew not the answer (“smoke”), so the dragon tried to slay him. Ambrangarr swept up a chest from the dragon’s heaped, glittering treasure hoard, and jammed it into the dragon’s jaws. Then he slew it by plunging his sword deep into both its eyes. The dragon died, crushing the chest as its jaws convulsed, and out of the shattered chest fell a card.
At this point the turning player chooses a card and turns it over with a flourish.