I hate gambling in games. It always ends up being a minigame between the referee and the player while everyone else sits around the table and waits or looks at their phone. In the end, the back and forth ends up being something as simple as "You lost X amount." or "Hey, you won X amount. Congratulations." Everyone goes "ooh" and we move on. Now, mind you, gambling can be a wonderful chance to make connections, look for information, and provide opportunities for world building and RPing. But if your player just wants to make a shit-load of money, gambling is one of the most boring ways to go about it.
This exact thing happened in my home game. First session, one of the players wants to bet all their money on a fight. We haphazardly roll some dice based on his character sheet and just as haphazardly divy out the winnings. He didn't get burned and we moved on but it felt hallow and weird to me. We are playing Stars without Number but really, this mechanic can be bolted onto any game that uses d20. The idea of the mini-system is to bring gambling to a fast abstraction so you can get in and get out quickly and move on to the fun stuff. It also takes into account assumed skill and provides opportunities for the rest of the group to get involved. Mind you, the spread for this is based on the idea that they are playing a game of chance or relying on an outside party's skill. Knowledge and experience can help you so far but at the end of the day, Lady Luck will have her say. So enough patter, let's get to it:
Abstracted Gambling System
Roll a d20 and if you get under...
08 -- (Rookie)
10 -- (Hobbiest)
12 -- (Shark)
14 -- (Pro)
...then you win!!! Or lose.
Winnings:
Figure for everyone amount they bet, they have the chance to get back what they bet plus an additional 1/2 of that amount. If they want to double or nothing then add a +1 modifier to their roll. They can keep pushing their luck and it'll add a +1 for each step. So the steps would be Double or Nothing, Triple, Quadruple, etc, etc.
Assistance:
Preparations/Research can provide -1/-2 modifiers depending on the amount of work that went into it. This includes things like learning someone's tell, the medical history of a horse, etc.
Cheating can provide -3/-4 modifiers but will come with consequences if you are not caught. Either the house will bar you from the gambling den for being suspicious or you are just not a good investment. Cheating includes things like having another person looking over your opponents shoulder and signalling you, doping the other horse/fighter you are betting against, hiding a spare Ace, etc.
Luck can also be subtracted from your roll if you are using a system that accounts for it.
Advancing:
Now, a player's starting ability is obviously subjective and determined mostly through a negotiation between them and you. Figure that their gambling acumen is no different than any other skill in that the more that they use it, it'll probably get better. Figure it'll improve a step every two levels of character advancement if they utilize it often enough.
And there you go! Simple enough. Obviously it can be tweaked to meet the kind of tone you are aiming for.
08 -- (Rookie)
10 -- (Hobbiest)
12 -- (Shark)
14 -- (Pro)
...then you win!!! Or lose.
Winnings:
Figure for everyone amount they bet, they have the chance to get back what they bet plus an additional 1/2 of that amount. If they want to double or nothing then add a +1 modifier to their roll. They can keep pushing their luck and it'll add a +1 for each step. So the steps would be Double or Nothing, Triple, Quadruple, etc, etc.
Assistance:
Preparations/Research can provide -1/-2 modifiers depending on the amount of work that went into it. This includes things like learning someone's tell, the medical history of a horse, etc.
Cheating can provide -3/-4 modifiers but will come with consequences if you are not caught. Either the house will bar you from the gambling den for being suspicious or you are just not a good investment. Cheating includes things like having another person looking over your opponents shoulder and signalling you, doping the other horse/fighter you are betting against, hiding a spare Ace, etc.
Luck can also be subtracted from your roll if you are using a system that accounts for it.
Advancing:
Now, a player's starting ability is obviously subjective and determined mostly through a negotiation between them and you. Figure that their gambling acumen is no different than any other skill in that the more that they use it, it'll probably get better. Figure it'll improve a step every two levels of character advancement if they utilize it often enough.
And there you go! Simple enough. Obviously it can be tweaked to meet the kind of tone you are aiming for.
Above Image: Master of the Haintz-Narr. Gamblers in the Ship of Fools. 1494. Woodcut
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