Cosmic Gamblers

[amnesiack]

The Cosmic Gamblers

A Game of Competitive Narration, Played In Fleeting Encounters

by Andrew Henderson & Lukas Myhan

Concept

(With apologies to Michael Moorcock and his brilliant book Blood: A Southern Fantasy, which I rip off shamelessly)

The world is populated by Gamblers. The games they play are the games of reality, creating fictional worlds and pitting their elements against one another for dominance. Such games are often fleeting, played in idle moments and brief passings between other activities until one or the other emerges victorious.

Beginning a Game

Each Gambler starts the game with five dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12.

Together, the Gamblers must determine the Scale and Characters of the game. These two items are interrelated. The Characters are the sentient beings which are the primary interfaces of the Gamblers with the game. The Scale determines what those Characters can be. The most common Scale of a game allows each Character to be a single person who represents the Gambler's interests within the game. However, the Scale can be adjusted up or down to an almost infinite degree, based on the desires of the Gamblers.

Some examples:

• Each Gambler controls part of a single person whose mind and body are divided against themselves
  
• Each Gambler controls a small group of people, such as the crew of a single starship
  
• Each Gambler controls an army of soldiers arrayed against one another
  
• Each Gambler controls an entire world of people

Once the Scale has been determined, the Gamblers describe their characters to one another, including whichever details seem pertinent in the moment.

The Gamblers then determine which of them will initiate the game. The method for this varies from game to game and Gambler to Gambler. Some defer based on age, experience, or past victories. Others prefer to use the tools of the game from the beginning, rolling dice to determine primacy.

The Gambler who initiates describes the opening Scene of the game. The Gambler may describe any desired elements within the following limitations:

• The setting of the Scene must be large enough to encompass the Scale of the Characters
  
• The setting of the Scene cannot provide any Character with an advantage over the other unless both Gamblers agree on it
  
• The Scene should include Environment, non-sentient setting material including geography, items, tools, etc.
  
• The Scene may include Temporary Characters, sentient setting material similar to (though potentially larger or smaller in Scale) the Gambler's characters, that are not controlled by either Gambler
  
• The initiating Gambler can describe a situation which has the potential to bring the Characters into conflict but cannot describe actions taken by the other Gambler's Character

Dice

Once the scene is set, the initiating Gambler describes an event occurring in the game. In order to do this, the Gambler must risk one die of his/her choice. The die chosen represents two things: Will and Sphere of Influence.

Will represents how much the Gambler wants the event to take place. The larger the die, the greater the Gambler's Will, and the higher the liklihood that the events will transpire as the Gambler wishes.

Sphere of Influence determines what the Gambler is allowed to describe within the event. The greater the Sphere of Influence, the higher the Will the Gambler must put forth and the larger the die the Gambler must risk. Each greater sphere of influence includes all actions in the levels before it.

• d4 - Personal: The Gambler may only describe the actions of the Gambler's Character and the direct results of those actions.
  
• d6 - Local: The Gambler may describe changes in and actions of the Scene's Environment and Temporary Characters, as long as new elements are not created within the Scene.
  
• d8 - Continental: The Gambler may add new elements to the Scene's Environment that have not been described before, but may not add new Temporary Characters.
  
• d10 - World-Wide: The Gambler may add new Temporary Characters to the Scene.
  
• d12 - Universal: The Gambler may describe anything, including actions taken by the other Gambler's Character, except the complete death, destruction, or removal of the other Gambler's Character. A Gambler can only describe the death/destruction/removal of a Gambler's Character if it belongs to him/her or if the Gambler who owns the character has no dice left.

After describing an event, the Gambler places the risked die in front of the other Gambler. The other Gambler has two options.

The first is to offer a Concession. In the Concession, the opposing Gambler accepts the first Gambler's event and may add an additional event or caveat that compliments, weakens, or reinforces the event. The opposing Gambler must have a die in hand that corresponds to the Sphere of Influence of the concession. If the original Gambler accepts the Concession, then the event transpires and no dice are rolled.

The second is to have a Contest. The opposing Gambler offers an event of his/her own, which may include elements of the original Gambler's event or not as the opposing Gambler sees fit, and risks a die to make that happen. When this occurs, after both events have been described, both Gamblers roll their dice. The Gambler whose die comes up highest gets to enact the event he/she original described but may incorporate elements of the other Gambler's event if desired. On a tie, the die with the largest number of sides wins. If the two dice are equal in number of sides, then each Gambler must either offer a Concession or choose a second die to risk. If the second die is smaller than the original, then it merely represents an increase in the Gambler's Will and the original events are kept. If the second die is bigger than the original, then the Gambler risking it may choose to modify his/her original event to match the new die's Sphere of Influence.

The winner of the Contest keeps all dice risked by both Gamblers in the Contest. The second Gambler then proposes a new event, and, once it is resolved, the two Gamblers alternate initiating events from this point forward.

The game continues, at the Gamblers' discretion and leisure, until one of the Gamblers no longer has any dice. When this happen, the Gambler who holds all the dice describes the closing of the Scene as he/she sees fit, which may include the complete death or destruction of any Characters involved, if desired. Because the winning Gambler holds all the dice, he/she may describe anything without opposition.

Once the Scene has closed, the Gamblers have three choices: part ways and play no more, begin a new game, or go for Double or Nothing. If the Gamblers choose Double or Nothing, then the Gambler with no dice gets a new set of five dice and the other Gambler keeps all the dice won in the previous Scene. If the previous Scene closed with the destruction or death of one or more Gambler's Characters, then the Gamblers describe new Characters, which may or may not be of the same Scale as the previous Characters. If the Characters from the previous scene are still viable within the game, then the Gamblers may choose to re-use them or establish new, related Characters and Scale. The Gambler who lost all dice in the previous Scene automatically becomes the initiator of the new Scene, and the game continues.

Notes

Scenes in The Cosmic Gamblers aren't meant to be played in a single sitting like most games. They are played piecemeal, in quick encounters between the Gamblers involved. You might start a game with your roommate 15 minutes before she leaves for work, exchange a single roll a few minutes before going to bed, and another over breakfast before leaving the house. It's designed to provide a tiny gaming/story fix in 3-5 minute bursts whenever the opportunity arises. As long as both Gamblers keep their dice with them and remember what has occurred earlier in the Scene, they can play anywhere, anytime.

Comments

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

This sounds like an interesting game. I can see it working really well with two or three players, but I'd be worried that more than that would create power disparities very quickly. I can really see it working well with a western or modern crime setting, where gambling is an integral part of the setting.

[amnesiack.livejournal.com]

Thanks! As written, each Scene is meant to be played only by two Gamblers. You could have multiple scenes going on with different people, each using a different set of dice, but any single scene is meant to be a collaboration/competition between only two people.

The "Gambler" aspect of it is more of a meta conceit than it is a representation of the setting in which play takes place. "Gambler" is really just another word for player in the game, not another word for character or PC. The actual fiction setting that the characters are acting in can be anything the Gamblers/players want and isn't tied to the gambling metaphor at all.

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

True, I was just thinking of tying the mechanics to the setting. Since the mechanics require gambling with every action I figured it would work well with that.

[oldentellus.livejournal.com]

I can see playing this game as a great way to bring the mundane up to the level of fantastic. Deciding which movie to watch suddenly becomes a war between Zombie King Lech and his Untouchables and Fairy Princess Morla and the Magnificent Seven. The only problem that I can see is that when Princess Morla wins the first game (even if she only wins one die), she would have such an advantage over her opponent that future games (such as what to have for dinner) would be pretty much a lost cause for King Lech. Would maybe a bell curve approach to dice distribution (1d4,2d6,4d8,2d10,1d12, for example) make a difference?

[oldentellus.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . I missed the last paragraph before the notes, but my comment still stands for the most part.

[amnesiack.livejournal.com]

Well, all you would need to do to keep it fair would be to start a new game each time, rather than playing double or nothing.

That said, you could easily modify the number of each type of die in order to encourage a certain style, depth, and breadth of play.