[HOE] Hucksters and Cheating

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

Hey all, new guy to the list and all that.

On the subject of hucksters and cheating I thought I might post some rules
I made up for the hexslinger in my DL game (I run DL with him playing, he
runs HoE with me playing):

I've trying to come up with some new rules to simulate bluffing for hexes
(basically a way for you to try and trick the manitou into giving you a
little something extra, or getting screwed) this is what I've come up
with:

For each hand you can do one of three things:
Bluff, Stand or Call
Likewise the manitou (marshall) can do one of the same three things.
A CALL beats a BLUFF
A BLUFF beats a STAND
A STAND beats a CALL

This can be represented by chips held in the hand and revealed 
at the same time (blue=bluff, red=call, white=stand) or in the time
honored tradition of scissors (bluff), rock (call), paper (stand).

So what does this do?
It all depends on who wins and what the HEXSLINGER did.
A bluff has the biggest pay off, but also the biggest risk:
- if the hexer wins on a bluff you raise your hand by one level (pair ->
  jacks, jacks -> two pair, etc.)
- if you lose on a bluff you lower your hand by one, but if your hand
  can't go any lower you suffer backlash instead (if you don't even have
  an ace)

A call is the next most aggresive move, you challenge the manitou to show
his hand before you:
- if you win on a call you get to draw one extra card
- if you lose on a call you have to discard one RANDOM card

Finally a stand is the safest choice, you'll rarely lose big, but you'll
never win big:
- if you win on a stand you can increase your hexslinging roll by one
  (this MAY let you draw an extra card)
- if you lose on a stand you have to decrease your hexslinging roll by one
  (this MAY cause you to lose a card, at RANDOM)

There's more:
The hexslinger gets to decide AFTER he draws his card which move he wants
to do, but he always has to do one of the three. Naturally with this
you'll want to keep your hand and hexslinging roll a secret from the
Marshall until after the duel.

Two additional things:

1. Just to clear up any confusion, if there is a tie then nothing happens
(you both bluffed with equally bad hands, or stood on good ones).

2. A perceptive huckster can try to read the manitou and get a feel for
him, but he has to be careful or he might wind up giving information
instead of getting it.
You can try to make a hard(7) scrutinize roll. If you make it nothing
happens, if you get a raise then the marshall has to tell you one move he
won't do. If you get two raises then the marshall's move must be
determined randomly and revealed to you.
The draw back is that if you get no successes you have to tell the
marshall one move you won't do. If you botch the roll then the marshall
gets to decide what move you do and what move the manitou does.

I had originally thought of more complicated rules but settled on these
rules because they were simple and staight forward. I thought they would
be good because then those times when you get total crap for a hand you
can gamble and maybe pull off a little win (or lose your shirt).


-Theo McGuckin, operations
"We waste more electrons by 6am then most labs make all day. Be all you
can be!"