Two Heckadeck Games

So I couldn't resist any longer and ordered myself a Heckadeck earlier. It arrived sooner than I expected earlier today. And so I figured "Since February 29th comes only once every four years, I might as well try to make a game with the heckadeck before March begins." By the time I got around to actually writing the game, it was 10 o'clock at night. Let's call this a two-hour leap year one-person game jam.

I actually managed to write two games, because the first one I wasn't satisfied with. It was a tabletop game alright, but didn't feel like a TTRPG. Honestly, I don't feel like bothering with tables in CSS, so I'll just turn them into unnumbered lists for the sake of speed. The second one will be a lot simpler, but I can only do so much in two hours with an item I got earlier today. I'm posting both anyway.

Have a great day!

I might be in a hurry, but I can still afford to slap on a picture of a mage with cards on it. I don't know if I have time to find the source until midnight, so here's a link for my source, seems like someone who does commissions on Etsy.

The Wishstone

Players' characters are on a quest to obtain the Wishstone that can make their deepest desires real, represented by the Omnihedron. Take the Omnihedron out of the Heckadeck and put it in the middle of the table. It can only be taken by the player who discards Talismans of four different colors during their turn. The Omnihedron must always remain face-up on the table, even when possessed by a player.

Divide the remaining cards into two decks. The Character deck contains all Jokers, Jacks, Queens, Kings, Beasts, Hunters, and Travelers, as well as the Crone and the Watcher. The other one, simply referred to as the deck, contains all numbered cards, Arrows, Talismans, and the Darkness.

Each player draws three cards from the Character deck. They select which one is their character, and keep the rest as their Will, representing their close bonds. Once everyone has their cards, they can draw 7 cards from the deck. Before the game begins, anyone who holds a Talisman can reveal it. If any Talisman is revealed, the youngest holder of a Talisman starts the game. If none were revealed, the youngest player goes first.

At the start of your turn, a player by your left side draws two cards from the deck and chooses which one is your Challenge, as per the table below.

• Number: You need to discard cards with a total value of 6 or this card's value (whichever is higher).
• Arrow: There is no challenge. You can choose either the effect of success or failure.
• Talisman: You are overcome with a need to harm one character selected by the player who chose this card for you. To succeed, discard any 3 cards. You can keep this card only if you succeed.
• Darkness: You need to discard cards with a total value between 20 and 25. If you fail, you lose one Will. You can discard any number of cards.

To overcome a Challenge, you must discard enough cards, either from your hand or drawn from the deck. You can keep discarding cards this way until you discard a card that doesn't belong to your suit. Discarding the non-number cards has the following effects:

• Arrow counts as 1 or 11 (your choice).
• Talisman lets you automatically succeed.
• Darkness harms the character of the player who chose this challenge for you.

If you succeed, you can discard any number of cards from your hand. If you fail, you can take the challenge card into your hand. Either way, after a Challenge you can choose to discard cards for any of the following reasons:

• Arrow to attempt harming another Character.
• Talismans if you have Talismans of all four colors to obtain the Omnihedron.
• Darkness to end the game immediately.
• You can also discard cards at this time if a character ability you possess lets you.

You end your turn by drawing cards into your hand until you hold 7 cards.

When a character is harmed, they must discard one of their Will cards. A discarded Will always goes back to the Character deck. When one runs out of Will cards, they are eliminated from the game.

You get a special ability depending on what character you play.

• Joker: Select one additional Character card. You get its ability, but its suits are replaced by the suits that match your color.
• Jack: You start the game with 9 cards on your hand, and at the end of your turn you can draw up to 9 cards into your hand.
• Queen: You can discard one additional time in a challenge.
• King: Draw two additional cards from the Character deck for your Will.
• Beast: During your turn, you can discard two cards of your suit to harm one character of your choice.
• Hunter: Whenever you are harmed by a character, you can discard a card of your suits to harm the character too.
• Traveler: If you succeed on a challenge, you can give another player two cards of your choice from your hand, and take two random cards from their hand.
• Crone: You automatically succeed in a conflict resolution if you discard a non-numbered card (including your Will). You can discard five numbered cards during your turn and choose a player. They must switch their current character with one of their Will cards (their choice).
• Watcher: You can hold no cards. You fail your conflict resolution if the total you drew exceeds 13.

When the game ends, the player who holds Omnihedron wins along with all players whose characters' suits match the holder's.

HeckaRPG

This game requires a GM.

Take all Jacks, Queens, Kings, Beasts, Hunters, and Travelers out of the deck, and they stay out of the deck during the game. Every player chooses two random cards out of these and places them down on the table face up in front of them. The card on the top is their Body, and their Mind is the card on the bottom placed perpendicular. At the start of the game, draw 5 cards from the deck to represent your Determination. Keep them face down beneath both your Body and Mind. When you have 0 Determination, you are unconscious.

When you attempt to do something significant, the GM can challenge your Body or Mind. They tell you the difficulty, ranging from 1 (very easy) to 5 (nearly impossible). Taking someone's Determination away is 3, and giving someone Determination is 4. Draw 5 cards. Your success is measured by counting the cards with suits that match your attributes. You succeed if the number of matches equals or exceeds the difficulty, given by the GM.

• Crone has no suits.
• Darkness has no suits, and it costs you 1 Determination.
• Watcher has all suits, and the GM tells your character some new useful information.
• Omnihedron has all suits, and it gives you 1 Determination.
• Joker has both suits of its color. It also counts as a success for any single-suited card.
• Arrow has both suits of its color. It also counts as a success for any Jack or Beast.
• Talisman has both suits of its color. It also counts as a success for any King or Queen.

Replenish all Determination (max 5) when you get enough rest. Set yourself goals. Upon achieving them, the GM can let you draw additional characters and add them to your Body or Mind, keeping them parallel with the original Body and Mind to distinguish them.

That's all for today! February 29th article done, two-hour "game jam" finished, let's go!

Post-midnight edit: The second game is 300+ words too. Oh well!

3 Dice Mini-games

Gambling is part of many TTRPG tales. It's done with an imaginary currency, so how many players can genuinely say they have never enjoyed a good gamble? My go-to is usually the game I found on Reddit called "Kobold Knuckles" which I've also included an iteration of in D6 Feet Under. It's Blackjack played with d12s, but 11 and 12 count as a 10, and 1 can stand for 1 or 11, to reach 21. Simple, clean, good fun time. Well, lately I've been thinking about mechanics for downtime in my Runehack RPG, and my mind got hung up on the fact that rolling 5+ is twice as likely on a 1d12 than on 1d6. I had to get that out of my head to make space for something that would work way better, which is why I've put this premise into a classic game. Out of that was born another idea, and then one more.

In the end, I got three games of chance that are equally uncertain to the player as they are to the GM.

Shells Game

Three shells, one reward. The reward goes beneath one, and shuffling begins. The player rolls 1d6, or 1d12 if they know how the shells game tricks work. On a roll of 5+, they picked the correct shell and win.

Could it be played with more than three shells? Yes. There's a catch to their numbers though. You'll see later in this article.
Shell Game, by Zeon-in-a-tree

Quite simple, and effective. The chance of succeeding for most is 33%, and it's bumped up to 66% if you know the Shells game. Of course, this could be toyed with beyond the measure depicted. How about we go an extra step?

Monty Hall

Three doors, one reward. The player chooses one door, and the organizer opens one of the doors that do not have a reward. The player now gets a choice - swap to the other unopened door, or stay. Roll a 1d12 if they swapped their choice, or 1d6 if they stayed with their original choice. On a roll of 5+, they picked the correct door and win.

This is the shells game with a twist: You get to change your mind if you dare. It's also a probabilistic expression of the Monty Hall paradox, where switching the door is better than staying with the same door. If you don't believe me, think of it this way - imagine there are 10 doors, and after you pick one, I open 8 doors with no reward behind them. Is it better to switch or not? Of course, it is, the chance that you picked the right door on the first try was and still is 1 in 10.

That got me thinking about something else... could other pairs of regular polyhedral dice accurately represent this for different numbers of shells/doors, assuming there's a single prize every time? (In the case of Monty Hall, assume the organizer opens all but 2 doors.) Let's see!

• 2 doors: coin flip, impossible to open any doors after
• 3 doors: 1d6 on stay, 1d12 on switch, 5+ correct choice
• 4 doors: 1d4 on stay, 1d12 on switch, 4+ correct choice
• 10 doors: 1d10 on stay, 1d100 on switch, 10+ correct choice (treat 00 as zero instead of 100)

... and surprisingly, that's all the dice combinations I could find using regular dice. Maybe I could get Matt Parker on this if I send him a message. Until then, let's see how far we could go with irregular dice and a complete revamp of the game's concept!

Russian Roulette

Start by defining the number of chambers C and the number of bullets B. A player rolls 1dC on the turn (replace C by the current number of chambers), on a roll of B or less they were unlucky. Lower C by 1 after each turn, and lower B by 1 after each unfortunate turn.

Buckshot Roulette has been trending recently. I'm impressed at how they could turn the Russian Roulette into a whole game with actual tactical choices.

I don't know if it can get simpler than this. Highly intuitive, the stakes are clear. One would consider using a deck of cards to be easier, and it is. But... a deck of cards can be shuffled badly, or shuffled in a way to "load" it, keeping the top card the same throughout the whole shuffle. I used to do magic tricks, I know how things can be. Dice make it fair unless they've spent some time in the oven.

The disadvantage of using the dice should be clear by now. For a gun with six chambers, you're going to need 1d6, 1d5, 1d4, 1d3, and 1d2 (1d1 isn't a die, and 1d2 could be a coin). It is easy to do digitally, but not so easy in person. I know some companies sell such dice, but I'm not writing this as a how-to guide. This is just an article where I wanted to write down three ideas for tabletop mini-games to gamble with at the table. Well, four technically, since I described Kobold Knuckles at the top, but let this be the secret kept among everyone who finished reading this article.

That's all for today! I hope to get back to Runehack with my next article, but one never knows when a muse kicks them. Thank you all, and have a wonderful day!