Since I was planning on running the aforementioned Adventure Path, I decided to come up with my own gambling game for the PCs to play.
Ideally, it's best used in Numeria and adjacent regions due to the equipment described, but it can also be used for any Pathfinder setting (or even Starfinder).
I even did all the odds math on an Excel spreadsheet to come up with appropriate payouts (no small feat given there are over 60,000 possible combinations on the board). ^_^;
The odds ended up working out so well that I figured I should share it here, so let me know what you think!
A roulette-shaped slot game (inspired by Dabo from DS9 and Star Trek Online), named as such due to the scaling color symbols on the board.
The equipment: The game consisting of three spinning circles on a technological device (pulled from a recreational hall of the Divinity) , where symbols and colors must match to win a payout.
The two-outer most circles have 50 symbols each (one for each color and shape combination, plus two special symbols), while the inner-most wheel has 25 (4 of each shape, plus the wildcard symbol). The symbols of the inner-most wheel are all prismatic and count as any color for purposes of a match. The other 8 colors on the other two wheels (in ascending order of payout value) are brown, black, white, gray, green, red, blue, and orange (same as the tiers of technology colors from the Technology Guide).
The 6 shapes of the standard symbols (which all have the same value) are all somewhat stylized and futuristic-looking, but have a basic shape to them: triangle, circle, square, a hexagon, an X, and a crescent moon.
The two special symbols consist of a prismatic 7-pointed star (a wildcard symbol that counts as any shape and color) and a purple slitted eye (which matches with nothing except itself and the 7-pointed star).
When all three shapes on the board and the two outer colors match, it is customary for the gamblers at the table to yell out the name of the game, "Prismo!"
The mechanic: Players can bet as much as they like on any number of the 25 given landing positions of the wheel, though the minimum bet is 1 gp per position, and 1 silverdisk must be traded in per spin (thus, each spin means players allocate at least 10 gp across the board). The payouts are given on the table below:
- Grand Prismo!: All three rings are 7-point stars. (0.0016%)
- Prismo!: All three shapes match, outer ring colors match. (1.1952%)
- Three of a Kind: All three shapes are the same, but outer ring colors differ. (2.688%)
- Two of a Kind: Two shapes are the same and outer ring colors are the same. (8.064%)
- Mixed House: Two shapes are the same, but outer ring colors differ. (34.944%)
- No Match: No two shapes are the same. (49.152%)
- Purple Eye Loss: When a purple eye appears with anything other than another purple eye and/or 7-pointed star. (3.9552%)
To determine the positions of the symbols on the board when the spinning stops, roll a d% for each circle, referring to the following tables. In addition, the positions of the symbols on the circles shuffle with each spin of the board, so don't worry about trying to keep track of the position on each symbol of the board and just roll the dice, ignoring any duplicate results on the same wheel for a given spin (excluding the inner-most ring, which has four of each standard symbol and only one 7-pointed star).
Prismo Wheel (Outer Rings)
d% / Result
1-2 / 7-pointed star
3-4 / Purple eye
5-100 / Colored symbol (roll on Outer Color and Outer Symbol tables)
(Outer Color)
1d8 / Color
1 / Brown
2 / Black
3 / White
4 / Gray
5 / Green
6 / Red
7 / Blue
8 / Orange
(Outer Symbol)
1d6 / Symbol
1 / Triangle
2 / Circle
3 / Square
4 / Hexagon
5 / X
6 / Crescent moon
(Inner Ring)
d% / Symbol
1-4 / 7-pointed star
5-20 / Triangle
21-36 / Circle
37-52 / Square
53-68 / Hexagon
69-84 / X
85-100 / Crescent moon
The odds: The player has a 46.8928% chance of winning, though the odds of a Grand Prismo are only 0.0016%, so players shouldn't expect any real chance of winning the bingpot.
The payout: See the table below. Note that for most wins, the actual payout is determined by the colors that are rolled on the outer-most wheels, but the payout multiplier averages out to x2, so the base payouts are reduced to about half what they usually would be given the actual odds of winning, and includes the house's cut.
Type / Payout
Grand Prismo! / 1:30,000
Prismo! / Color multiplier x 1:40
Three of a kind / Average color multiplier x 1:15
Two of a kind / Color multiplier x 1:5
Mixed house / Average color multiplier x 1:2
No match / Lose
Purple eye loss / Lose
Color / Payout Multiplier
Brown / x0.5
Black / x0.75
White / x1
Gray / x1.25
Green / x1.5
Red / x2
Blue / x3
Orange / x6