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LORE BUILDER: TWENTY-FIVE: More Free Time. Spectrum Dispatch - Comm-Link
Hello and welcome back to this week’s installment of Lore Builder, where we work with the community to develop previously unexplored areas of the Star Citizen lore. As always, if you are new to this feature, we highly recommend reviewing the updated caveats and suggested background reading described in this previous issue, so you can get a clear understanding of what’s already been established.
Now on to where we last left off:
FREE TIME
This is getting a little nuts. You all keep giving us way too many fun and creative suggestions! As we often note, even if we don’t mention your suggestion specifically we still record all the posts and continue to reference them for ideas. It is very helpful to see what all of you are thinking. It seems that a good number of you imagine that in the year 2944 a lot of the games that exist today would still carry on, albeit in sometimes a more futuristic 3D / holographic / to the death fashion. There were suggestions of such classics as chess, billiards, darts, and a favorite hobby of writers, drinking.
It also seems that some of you imagine leisure activities getting more violent, with calls for five-finger fillet, fighting, wrestling, crashing, shooting, as well as all of the above with pets, robots and robot-pets.
A few specific posts that captured our interest were: Vermillion’s game of Bound which had people ricocheting a rubber ball around a low-grav room to score points. _Squint talked about the folk art that crewmen could make out of salvaged ship parts. JD.Bane had a wonderfully detailed Tevarin board game, Shatshidjun, that was a cross between backgammon and parcheesi with full rules available. Simon Jax imagined a storytelling game called Wadi for Church of the Journey Travelers that put their collected souvenirs on the line. Honorable mention for making us smile goes to S0V3R31GN for suggesting Pogs.
The second group of suggestions that we wanted to highlight were fun-sounding card and dice game ideas that felt like they were about ready to play. The talent of our community continually impresses:
FROM: Hoban Washburne
NAME OF ACTIVITY: Crown and Anchor
PARTICIPANTS: Pirates, merchants, individuals with free time and something to bet, con-artists and tourists
EQUIPMENT: Three to six six-sided dice labeled with images of a Crown, Diamond, Club, Heart, Spade and Anchor, as well as a cloth or mat with each of the images printed on it.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: For each game there is one banker and at least two players. Players ante up with their bets of what the dice will land on, and then roll. If player A bet on Heart and player B bet on Anchor, and the dice show one of each then the bets stay where they are. If Heart is rolled, but Anchor is not, the player who bet on Heart takes the prize. If both dice show the same image the bet is taken by the winner, and doubled by the banker. It is important to remember that the banker is playing as well, but he does not bet, and he does not roll. Instead if for example bets have been placed on Crown, Anchor, Heart and Diamond, and the die shows two Diamond, the player who bet on Diamond gets double his bet, but the banker takes everything else. In smaller games it’s desirable to be the banker, but in larger games it is not desirable, so one variant is to have everyone put in an amount to work as the bank, and then whatever is left in the bank is divided evenly and given back.
FROM: Orbital
NAME OF ACTIVITY: Slamming Jacks (for the workers); 25’s to everyone else.
PARTICIPANTS: 3 players: Played by all and sundry, high-stake games or just for bragging rights. Traditional salvager’s game.
EQUIPMENT: Deck of 52 cards
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Pick the duration limit, pick the credit bet, 10 cards each, 1/2 credits into pot, 1/2 credits into hand. Play cards, cards can’t add up to more than 25 unless the person is playing a Jack. Less than 15, you must play a card. Player of the last card wins the turn. Most turns won wins hand. Most hands won wins the pot, but 3 jacks in a row scoops the pot early.
RULES: [1]
FROM: Bzerker01
NAME OF ACTIVITY: Stellar
PARTICIPANTS: Popular among spacers on long voyages.
EQUIPMENT: Deck of playing cards and two six-sided dice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Stellar is a card and dice game meant for 2 or more players. The goal of the game is to acquire a Baron/Bastard/Admiral, or a Bank and 42 points. The players get 5 cards to start and have to acquire a queen or a jack, called a “Bank,” and points from number cards. Players can attack other players to reduce their points or even steal the points to build their own bank up. However, players can also use their points to build up defense against attacks which are only successful if the roll of the dice exceeds the defense offered. The art of the game is to balance offense, defense and steady supply of points to win.
RULES: [2]
FROM: Conrad Larson
NAME OF ACTIVITY: Trigger (1)
PARTICIPANTS: Any Citizens or Civilians who have money to gamble and think they’re lucky, punk. For two players.
EQUIPMENT: Deck of cards.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Trigger gets its name from developing as a sort of card game version of Russian Roulette. The dealer lays six cards out between the players. The players, and anyone else, gamble and bet on who will ‘pull the trigger.’ To pull the trigger all six cards must be picked and turned over. The highest value card in play is the trigger, and the player who pulls it loses the round. Cards are valued from Ace to King ascending, with suits coming into play for equal value cards. Suits value based on how many of that suit are in play, with more cards of a suit in play meaning that said suit is higher value. Once bets are made, each player turns over a card. More money can now be gambled based on the cards turned and who thinks they may have pulled the trigger. This continues until all six cards are turned over, at which point the trigger must have been pulled. A player may fold at any time, particularly after turning a King, though it is still possible to win. Cheating is rife in Trigger, from counting cards to sleight of hand and ‘Aces up the sleeves’.
FROM: Kinshadow, Waffle Captain
NAME OF ACTIVITY: Trigger (A)
PARTICIPANTS: Card players and gamblers of all ilk. Variants are played from the lowest pirate dive to the highest levels of professional gambling.
EQUIPMENT: 52 card standard Earth card deck is all that is needed, but custom / themed decks, OptiGlass-enhanced tables, and anti-cheat accessories are popular.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Trigger is a card game with strategic play and gambling. Common in bars and gambling facilities, Trigger has trumped the game of Poker as ’verse’s most popular card game. Players must not only judge their opponents and strategically wage (as with poker), they must also play cards beneficial to other players and form multi-hand plans. The emphasis on betting while keeping play interesting and in full view on the tabletop has also made Trigger a popular spectator sport.
RULES: [3]
For this week’s homework assignment we thought it would be awesome if we could get all of you to actually give playing some of these five games a shot! You then could come back to give us feedback and thoughts on the gameplay and rules. (Note: Crown and Anchor can be played with standard dice. Just substitute numbers for the symbols.)
Please, please keep in mind that these games were posted in the spirit of fun and sharing and we want to keep the comments the same. Constructive and friendly feedback only!
Also, since we have two games named Trigger, feel free to help us brainstorm whether one of them should have a different name.
Can’t wait to hear what you all thought next week.
Until next time …