Re: [HOE] Would you allow this man his character?

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>In a recent character creation session, a friend of mine drew the aces of
>spades, hearts, and Diamonds AS WELL AS the Red joker with a suit of
>spades....
>
>     Now, if you knew that this man, had, say, purchased a book of card 
>tricks
>last week and had spent the week practicing them, would you say I made the
>right call in making him re-draw for the character?
>
>

Speaking as a magician myself, he must be pretty darned good if he learned 
how to do that in a week with no prior experience.

A good magician does good tricks because he controls the deck.  I don't 
suspect my own players of cheating, but force of habit I just shuffle the 
cards and deal for them.  It's all random, right?

If you let the player use his own deck, and give him the opportunity to 
stack it (beforehand or whatever), and don't cut it or anything, then the 
scenario you outline is certainly possible.  On the other hand, you don't 
really need a book of card tricks to learn how to cheat four cards up to the 
top of your deck.  Put them on top.  Throw in a riffle shuffle holding the 
top four cards (did he draw the four cards you mentioned first?) back to the 
top of the deck.  Repeat a few times, and throw in an easy fake cut and 
you're set.

(Gotta admit, he doesn't sound like much of a cheater if he actually let you 
know he bought a book on how to cheat, though...  :) )

And finally, my understanding is that you draw the value for any Jokers from 
a fresh deck (i.e., after you shuffle the 12 cards originally drawn back 
into the deck).  In this way the result for the Joker is evenly random and 
all.  I don't believe there's anything in the rules that states this.  So he 
should have drawn the Spade for the Joker from a fresh deck.

*shrug* I've seen odder probabilities line up and occur, yes.  You're the 
only one who was actually there and can tell if he did the stuff above.

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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