Tavern Games & Gambling¶

The realm's houses keep games, and the games keep the houses. Every table below runs on the same rules: step in with the PLAY verb, and your typed words belong to the game until you LEAVE (looking, talking, and checking your own sheets stay live; walking off mid-hand is walking off). The house is not responsible for empty purses.

The Crooked Flagon — Emberford¶

The flagship house: three games and a bar, advertised on the chalk slate by the door.

Darts (common room)¶

PLAY DARTS      step to the chalk line
THROW           5 silver a throw

One d20 throw, tiered payout: 17+ pays 10 silver, a 20 pays 30 and the room cheers. Cheap, fast, and exactly as fair as it looks.

Cut (common room)¶

PLAY CUT        call for the deck
CUT <2-200>     stake and cut — high card pays double
WAR / FOLD      on a dead-even cut

You and the innkeep each cut a card, 1–13. High card takes double the stake. A tie puts the choice on the bar: WAR doubles your stake on one more cut — winner-take-all, and a second tie goes to the house, as the chalk says — or FOLD takes half your stake back and no hard feelings.

The Wheel (back room, through the curtain)¶

PLAY WHEEL
BET <silver> <0-36 | RED | BLACK | HIGH | LOW>
SPIN

A number straight up pays 35 to 1; the even-money fields pay double and the zero eats them all. Money moves only when the wheel does.

The Bar¶

PLAY BAR        belly up
ORDER ale | mead | wine

Not a game, unless you make it one.

Bones — Hammerdeep, the Hearthhall of the Held Flame¶

A chalked ring by the one fire that never goes out, and a housekeeper who has seen every count there is.

PLAY BONES      take a bench
ANTE <5-100>    stake goes into the ring
ROLL            throw 2d6 onto your count
HOLD            stand your count against the house

Push your luck toward 21: every ROLL adds two bones to your count. Exactly 21 pays triple on the spot. Past 21 the hand is dead and the ring keeps your ante. HOLD and the housekeeper tips her own cup — the house shows 15 to 21 — higher count pays double, a dead level pushes your ante back. The whole game is one question, asked repeatedly: one more throw?

Shells — Emberford, the flotsam bank¶

The fence keeps three walnut shells and a dried pea on an upturned crate, and will happily play you between transactions. It looks honest. It looks very honest.

PLAY SHELLS     squat down at the crate
STAKE <2-50>    the pea goes under, the shells go round
WATCH           free, once a round — trust your eye
PICK 1 | 2 | 3  find the pea: pays two and a half

WATCH is the trained eye's edge: a sharp enough look (Perception — every 2 ranks helps, and around 20 ranks the tuck can't hide from you at all) catches the half-beat where the pea rides the fence's thumb, and names one shell as certainly empty. Blind, the game robs you politely; watched, a perceptive player is the only person in the realm with an edge on the fence — which is why the stakes stay capped at 50.

House rules, everywhere¶

LEAVE (or STOP, DONE) quits any game. Mid-hand, the house keeps what's down.
Your silver moves when the game says it does — antes and stakes up front, payouts on the spot.
The games are data: fixtures, prose, and odds are all WorldBuilder-authorable scripts on the game-session primitive, so every house can keep its own table.