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I have a player who took this as part of his character backstory and the party will actually end up running across him in a jailcell paying back for the money he couldn't pay back.
The thing is, the way the normal profession rules work it just doesn't make much sense in the fact that the player has no REAL risk involved with the checks. This being the case I am looking to cook up something that has some various skill based challenges based around sense motive, bluff and of course profession.
What I am looking at here is some kind of system where the player has certain DC's and total results over the course of the thing result in a % lost or gained over a period of 8 hours like any other profession.
Any suggestions? Ideas? Recommended reading? TriOmegaZero, I am looking your way, you always have a few CP to throw in and a handy link or two.
I have a player who took this as part of his character backstory and the party will actually end up running across him in a jailcell paying back for the money he couldn't pay back.
The thing is, the way the normal profession rules work it just doesn't make much sense in the fact that the player has no REAL risk involved with the checks. This being the case I am looking to cook up something that has some various skill based challenges based around sense motive, bluff and of course profession.
What I am looking at here is some kind of system where the player has certain DC's and total results over the course of the thing result in a % lost or gained over a period of 8 hours like any other profession.
Any suggestions? Ideas? Recommended reading? TriOmegaZero, I am looking your way, you always have a few CP to throw in and a handy link or two.
The second Darkness AP has some rules for gambling, we didin´t use them since my dm didn´t want to invest the time, ans since no one had the skill, but it might be usefull.
I suggest watching every james bond movie with a casino in it.
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I am going to have it run in a single roll for a full 8 hours or either 2 hour blocks, so if the PC wants to play conservatively or want out early they have the opportunity.
Ok, so with each assisting skill there will be a group of other gamblers or just the house in general.The opposition will be given 1 communal roll to counter per 8 hour game.
Sense motive V Bluff- The winner in this situation will stack up a +4 circumstance modifier in their favor or +1 for every 2 hour session if the player wishes to play as thus.
-Example: The house wins 3 of the 4 checks, and the PC gets one. This adds +3 to the DC the PC needs to hit. The one check the PC did win grants him/her a +1 circumstance to the Profession roll.
Profession rolls are again made either for the 8 hours of regular work or the 2 hour intervals. Rolling every 2 hours results in the DC's being quadrupled and your roll results being cumulative over the 8 hour period.
The player may only wager up to 1/5th of the total local community GP limit per week.
The DC's for success or failure are as follows.
-DC 4 or Less - Catastrophic loss. All money entered wagered is lost and you owe an additional amount to the house equal to double what you started with. You may choose to leave the table with no additional debts if you forfeit your primary weapon or whatever armor you have with you at the time.
-DC 5-9 - Bad Run. You lose 100% of the starting funds you began with and walk away empty handed.
-DC 10-19 - Poor Run. You lose 10% of your starting funds, plus an additional 5% of your starting funds for every 1 in the final result below DC 19.
-DC 20-24 - Decent Run. You gain 10% on top of your initial starting funds and an additional 5% for each 1 in the result above 20.
-DC 25-29 - Good Run. You make 50% above your starting money at the table.
-DC 30-34 - Great Run. You double your starting money at the table.
-DC 35-39 - Amazing Run. You double your starting money at the table and may roll once on the magic item table for a minor magic item. Alternately you may choose to instead triple your money.
-DC 40+ - Legendary Run. You triple your starting money and may roll once on the magic item table for 1 medium magic item or 2 minor magic items. Alternately you may choose to quadruple your money.
Example: Gorjen the Half-elf cleric goes gambling with 100 gold pieces. He decides to leave the table after 4 hours. He gets a result of 22 on his first check and a 18 during the second. His total result is 40, this results in a poor run and he loses 60% of the starting gold he came to the table with meaning he leaves with only 40 gold remaining of the 100 he brought to gamble with.
I'd take his ranks in Profession (gambler) to be just that; his profession. He gets by day by day by hustling unsuspecting rubes, counting cards and perhaps even some simple cheating. All things being equal he can usually amass a steady weekly income if he pounds the pavement and works the angles consistently every day.
But that's only good for small stakes. If he gets greedy and chooses to go after a more substantial pot then he's going to end up facing other professional gamblers with the same goal. Then its a head to head competition using opposed profession (gambling) checks for all competitors. The first step is to determine the stakes each gambler has to put on the line to join the game. It can be any amount based on the level and wealth of the competitors; 50 gp, 500 gp, 5000 gp, etc. After that you can resolve the action with either one or multiple opposed checks to represent how many rounds of betting are involved in the game; simply determine how many rounds there will be beforehand. Each round the character with the highest profession check wins that round. Continue making opposed rolls for each round of betting then tally up which single player won the most rounds; say best out of five. That player wins back his initial stake along with all of the other players' stakes as well; winner take all. Coming up short after loosing a big pot is likely how your player's character ended up in trouble.
Possibly some players interested in cheating could substitute a sleight of hand check opposed by the other players' profession (gambling) or Perception skill checks (whichever is higher) to determine success. Another possibility is having some of the players secretly working together to win and later split the pot. In such circumstances those players could take the aid another action to boost the gambling checks of their partners. A successful Sense Motive vs Bluff opposed skill check would reveal the complicity of those players working together; which might then lead to angry accusations and violence.
The system can be fairly straightforward or as involved as you care to make it. You also control the amount of money the character can potentially win by setting the maximum stakes of any particular game. Eventually word gets around and the most renowned players start having trouble finding tables at which to play. Whole adventures could be spun out of the characters' search for a high stakes game.
Hope that helps.
The only comment I have about your system is that it seems a bit complicated. I guess it's all a matter of how much trouble you want to give yourself. The system I proposed can be boiled down to: set the stakes, make an opposed profession (gambling) check, winner takes all; repeat as desired.
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The only comment I have about your system is that it seems a bit complicated. I guess it's all a matter of how much trouble you want to give yourself. The system I proposed boils down to: Set the stakes, make an opposed profession (gambling) check, winner takes all; repeat as desired.
This is only for big high stakes type backroom charity or mafia run games. Invitation only things like the world poker tour and such. For everyday usage he is just using the normal profession rules.
He asked for some way to try the big stakes games and such, his backstory is heavily involved with this and spending 20 minutes throwing something together isn't all that hard esp if it enriches the game for my players.
:D
Fair enough. So is that it; you've settled on the system?
The only comment I have about your system is that it seems a bit complicated. I guess it's all a matter of how much trouble you want to give yourself. The system I proposed boils down to: Set the stakes, make an opposed profession (gambling) check, winner takes all; repeat as desired.This is only for big high stakes type backroom charity or mafia run games. Invitation only things like the world poker tour and such. For everyday usage he is just using the normal profession rules.
He asked for some way to try the big stakes games and such, his backstory is heavily involved with this and spending 20 minutes throwing something together isn't all that hard esp if it enriches the game for my players.
:D
Don't forget Slight of Hand, if you want to play dirty. :)
Don't forget Slight of Hand, if you want to play dirty. :)
I made allowances for that, along with illicit teamwork scams, in my original post. ;)
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So each game will incorporate a slight of hand V perception on the part of either party if they wish to take part. If you succeed you get an additional +2 circumstance. You may do this any number of times a game but the person who is countering the slight of hand get a cumulative +5 paranoia bonus for each previous successful cheat the opposition got off.
If the party is caught cheating the observer may choose to either call them out and insist they player be removed from the game losing his money (A counter diplomacy/intimidate check) or let it pass and instead take a +2 circumstance bonus themselves instead of the cheater.