Sydney Life

So I read a vicious (but well deserved) takedown of a creepypasta today and it reminded me of a game that's always in the back of my mind but I can never find any details for. Maybe you know something.

Poker Fire

The fire in his eyes had gone long before this point. He'd started, like they all do, full of piss and vinegar, and then been worn down by the grind. Like they all are.

But every so often, once in a month of Sunday's blue moon, they'd gain that fire back for a night. A pretty girl showing an interest, a death, or birth, just a lucky streak, suddenly the fire would be back, and they'd play amazingly, and start winning.

Those were the good nights. I so rarely get to break someone twice, after all. It's oh so sweeter.

Long Lasting Battle

The arrow landed just next to my mp3 player.

"We're under attack!?" I said, incredulously.

The old hand shook his head.

"Relax greenhorn. This arrow has been going back and forth over No Person's Land for decades now. There's a bow in the mess hall, go get it."

I fetched the bow, but when I came back I ran. Thus I saw him trying to hide the message in the arrow.

Triumphantly, I grabbed it and looked at what I was sure was a code.

"You sunk my battleship!

B8"

I gave it back to a spy, I learned later.

Check

We played every day, or rather, every day I crushed him.

It wasn't that he kept doing the same thing over and over again, he always did something different, it was just never good.

Until today.

Today, every move was brilliant, I was tossed around like a leaf in a tornado.

When he got checkmate, I stared at him and demanded to know how the hell he got good overnight.

He claimed he'd sold his soul to the devil for skill with chess.

We laughed, me much more than him.

I knew damn well I hadn't bought shit off him.

The Game

The games people play against each other have gotten far more complicated. It used to be simple, hit them over the head with a stick first, you win.

Then came power that didn't derive from mere strength. Suddenly you had to plan for food, and shelter, and gods.

Then came money, and everything became even more complicated, with stakes suddenly a lot higher, and failures worse than death.

Since then, the game hasn't become more complex, it's just more people playing, against more opponents, across the world.

But in the end, one rule stays true.

A bigger stick is better.

Victory Conditions

Joamna probably could have explained the basic rules of the Elven game Bleason in a few minutes, but given I asked about it, they insisted on a two hour complete explanation and tactic analysis. At the end, he asked if I had questions.

"So you can always regrow your forest counters, and die drawing is a free action, how can a game ever end?"

"By victory, when you prove you are favored by the spirits."

"That'd take, what, a hundred exact rolls?"

"That's a rare win. Ususlly it ends when one player dies. Then clearly their opponent is obviously favored."

Playing A Trump Card

We had just beaten the last of the Mad Queen's guards, just outside her antechamber. As we had discussed earlier, I spoke in code to the Wizard.

"Why didn't you do that thing?"

"What?"

"That thing you can do, your trump card. Why didn't you use it?"

"If you can win without playing it, why waste it? Besides, the big battle is coming up."

I shrugged, and we went to take out the Queen.

She, of course, had been listening, and concentrated on the Wizard, thus allowing us to win.

Only thing better than a trump card is a bluff.

Algebraic Notation

I had only one casting of Word-Send left for the day after several moves in the chess game I was playing with The King. By the time I could cast anything more powerful, it would be too late. I had to tell the King that if he did as planned, and retreated to his summer castle, he would be ambushed. But I had only three words, and I couldn't be sure a traitor wouldn't be there when he received it in smoke.

But then, we were chess players.

"O-O is Checkmate" was just enough to get the message across safely.

Seen Through

They spent a year on planning and setting it up. Finding where the underground poker game was held, sneaking in cameras across five months, crafting the backstory just right to get an invite, everything was building to this night, they were a well oiled machine in the lead up.

Coming to blows, bullets, afterwards was likely, sure, but you'd have thought that was because they failed.

Instead they fell apart after their guy didn't need to cheat as he got lucky, and they argued about if they should take the money and run or cheat in the next game instead.

Waiting Room

The Tomb of Opex-Legida is famous for being one of the first attempts by the Torelok to temporally lock their deceased rulers. It doesn't work as intended, as instead of locking, it loops, every 46 hours the contents of the tomb are replenished, and there is a 46 second window to get into through the antechsmber. Fail, and you get stuck until the next opening, although for you and anyone else in status with you, it feels like 46 years.

So yeah, bit of a wait, but we'll get through..I got the Holy Cards last time, who's up for Poker?

Trick Card Monty

"Follow the queen, get the green!"

The call would go out every few minutes, over the noise of the marketplace. Another sucker would wander over and lose their money. I would shake my head, but never try to stop them. People gotta make their own choices.

But then one day, the sucker didn't leave after losing, instead they stayed and won, again and again. They just seemed to know where the right card was, again and again.

Once they managed to clear out the dealer I asked them the secret to working out the trick.

"What trick?" they asked me.

Secret Viewer

He was one of the best poker players ever. Mainly because he was one of the few psychics that had existed so far.

It wasn't like in the movies, he couldn't do much but see a glimpse of what they were seeing. Enough to know what an opponent had in his hand, at least.

Random chance and multi-player hands kept anyone from finding out the secret, until the day when someone's cards didn't match what they'd seen at the start of the hand.

He kept his secret, but the world's first known mentalist that could change matter was found out.

Small Blind

As i sat opposite him, I pulled out the deck of cards he'd given to me as a child.

"Of all the lessons you taught me, Old Man, none have shaped me more than when you explained how life was like Poker. That only those with a stake in the game are truly playing, that you must always watch your opposition, and how any lead can be overcome with luck, skill, and balls.

Of course, there's one lesson you didn't teach me, about how the house can cheat."

I tossed the marked cards at him before taking his heart, flush.

Not In The Cards

This land here could have remained as it was, with the native population living on it for a few months of the year. But that wasn't in the cards.

This land here could have been a balanced community, with just the right amount of greenery to balance the needed population density in acceptable harmony. But that wasn't in the cards.

This land could have been covered in factories, or farmland, or even parkland. But none of those were in the cards.

Because the government saw too much tax revenue to be had in the dealing of cards in a casino.

The Mechanical Turkey

It was the talk of the court, a mechanical wonder that could play a dozen grandmasters of chess at once, and be competitive at it.

Once I was finally able to see the device for myself, although of course its designers refused to let me see the inner workings.

I pointed out to the court that given it needed an even number of players, of white and black, it was merely transferring moves.

So they sat me down and played a solo game.

I was amazed, until I quickly started a second game and it made the exact same moves.

Unwilling Lifebond

The Fairyfolk have by now removed any threat humans could pose to them. They long ago mastered passing as humans, then invisibility came soon after. Every human weapon was useless against them, and they could now just wait them out and then fix the planet.

However, there was one possible problem, as a human could, in theory, create an Unwilling Lifebond and forever link their destiny and life with a Fairyfolk. But any human who studied long enough to know the correct spell they would sense.

Unless a papercut caused a gamer to draw a Spiritsymbol as they chanted in-character.

Stream Transcript

"Um, so hi, welcome to the Spin Cycle. On today's stream, I'm going to, like, be playing through Sonic 2 as Knuckles, and-"

*splash*

"Oh, thank you Al_Scarface for the donation of ten thousand dollars, very generous. Anyway, as I was-"

*splash*

"Tommy_DeLay with the five thousand dollars , thank you so much!"

*splash*

"Swiss_Banker420 with the twenty thousand, man you are all so kind to the stream tonight, so why don't we-"

*knocking*

"Uh, be right back, someone's at my door."

*smashing*

"Mayer Plansky, you are under arrest for money laundering, you have the right to, wait turn that off!"

Non-Drabble: "Discworld: Streets Of Anhk-Morpork" (Fiasco Game Module)

Previously on this blog, I have shared with you Fiasco game modules I have written/run at RPG cons down here in Australia, Star Trek - Fargo Station and Fallout: New Vegas - Dishonest Hearts specifically. Well, time has come for another one, this one set in the Discworld universe. Intro and link just over the page break...

(Tilt and aftermath tables are the same as the base game.)

Life Ends At 40

April 6

Another pleasant, if slightly boring day today. Played some cards with Mrs Snow over at #44, but I suspect she was cheating by using the reflection from the wall.

April 7

I must have meant Mrs Singh at #42 yesterday, obviously. That's why I was making her a cake, mint choc. Has to be, sure as the wall.

April 8

I hate mint choc, but I suppose it must have been all I could make yesterday. Why did I write yesterday's entry in code though? The wall stops at #40, always has, always will. Must have gotten wallstroke.

Battlefield Assumptions

My Trainer always told me to never assume my opponents are weak or unskilled, no matter how much evidence there was to prove it. You must always be on guard for sudden brilliance, either by subterfuge or sheer dumb luck.

I've kept this advice close, always on the look out for a sudden reversal or nasty trick. I'm sure I've taken much longer to defeat my opponents than I could have with a more aggressive attack, but I still win most times, i almost never get trapped or sneak attacked, and I usually get a pawn promoted every single game.