How to run the gambling tournament?


Second Darkness

Scarab Sages

I admit I'm not much of a gambler in real life and am having trouble running the gambling tournament.

For one thing, Saul says in his speech that as you play games, you get a gold eye for coming in first, a silver tooth for coming in second and a copper heart for coming in third. But all of the games look like you make wagers and the amount you win (or lose) depends on your wager. Am I right, or am I missing something?

Also, it says gamblers can buy chips from the house. By my count, someone could just walk in, spend about 270 gp on gold eyes to buy all the badges and get into the final Golem round for the grand prize. I realize, of course, that even if a gambler buys his way into the final round, he still could lose, but it seems plausible.

The Exchange

In the contract each participant has to sign he agrees to play through all rounds(hells). Additionally participants not gambling can be disqualified (get the Devil's Mark). So I think that buying into the final round is not allowed. You actually have to win to gain accesss to the next round (at least that's my interpretation).

Dark Archive

The speech, the games presented and the contract itself seem to offer three different-sounding (and kinda confusing) notions as to how the tournament works.

I would go with the 1 gp entry fee being 'the stake,' and the only money that the gamblers can start with. If they lose that stake, they get the Devil's Mark, are stripped of any Badges they've gained and are shown the door. (They can pay another gp to start again, however, but having to start at the beginning, as they've been stripped of their Badges they've earned.)

Though building up the stake by winning various low-cost games, the player can purchase the Badges. Using the winnings, the player can also play bigger games. (Most beginners are going to be stuck making cheap bets on Ghoulette, if they want to not be kicked out in the first 10 minutes!)


Well I was under the impression that the tournament got busted up before they really got deep into it. When my group played the game we rolled for a few rounds of gambling and then the party got busted up. I guess that sort of makes a lot of the material extraneous so it was probably wrong.

Incidentally our group of 5 players barely succeeded and they only succeeded because Thuvia got shot and I decided that Angvar would rather surrender than let her die.

Also, it's a good think the rogues who were helping with the heist were using saps because 2 of them flanked the fighter and would have killed him had they been using lethal weapons.


yeah I agree with Denis that the tournament wasn't really meant to get to far

the rules and running of the tournament is fairly convoluted and hopefully busted up before the players notice that your not exactly sure how to run it

Scarab Sages

Yeah, good point. But some of my players were really getting into it. I just wanted to run it as long as they were interested. It worked out ok.

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