Has anyone ever seen or heard of a good physical version of Sabacc?
It's fairly simple game to show rules and I have tried to look for cards in the past but couldn't find anything good.
Best i can find is;
http://leviticus-blade.deviantart.com/art/Custom-Sabacc-Cards-213485094
But id hope to find something i dont have to figure how to cut and print.
It seems simple until you take into account the issue of the card randomizer that occasionally alters everyone's hands, unless you have your cards in the field that keeps them intact.
IIRC WEG put out the Sabacc rules and they can probably be found online somewhere.
With Todays technology Sabacc is totally doable. basically you could do it with NFC, and basically the equivilant of cell phones and a server in the table. NFC zones in the table. etc.
If we go by the the very small glimpse we see in Rebels, I'm sure it would be simple enough to make. That game scene didn't feature a random element, but obviously that doesn't mean there wasn't one.
Whoever invented that randomizer feature was on glue. The minute you do that it becomes a lottery game, not a game of bluffing and skill. Sabaac is supposed to be the Star Wars equivalent of poker, but nobody who plays poker would play Sabaac if their cards could shift at random.
Anyway, the game could easily be written for today's smart phones. In iOS you could use Game Center, or you could use Bluetooth for local phone network connections. It would be fun to work on, but I don't know how you get around the licensing issues.
All card games already have a chance element to them; you have to deal with the cards you've been dealt. If the randomizer isn't too overt, I see it working fine.
All card games already have a chance element to them; you have to deal with the cards you've been dealt. If the randomizer isn't too overt, I see it working fine.
That's different. The problem here is that you're betting on the cards you have (or might build up to). If you had a spade flush in poker, and your 8 changes to a 2 of hearts next turn, your previous bet is useless.
Whoever invented that randomizer feature was on glue.
Haha that made me laugh. Yeah I wouldn't want to include a randomizer I can't see how it adds fun, except for maybe just to add a sci fi element.
Probably all you could do for licensing is keep it for personal use.
Or sell the game you invented for $20 to disney then buy your individual product for $30.
You can always add-in Static Field rules to freeze the shifting (granted, the other players will then know what you're holding).
This thread has inspired me... I'm working on a deck based on what we saw in Rebels.
Whoever invented that randomizer feature was on glue. The minute you do that it becomes a lottery game, not a game of bluffing and skill. Sabaac is supposed to be the Star Wars equivalent of poker, but nobody who plays poker would play Sabaac if their cards could shift at random.
Anyway, the game could easily be written for today's smart phones. In iOS you could use Game Center, or you could use Bluetooth for local phone network connections. It would be fun to work on, but I don't know how you get around the licensing issues.
It is a little like texas hold em. If you want to keep a card you have to put it in the open. Be interesting to make a working set to see how well it really does work. We have the tech to do it.
I've played the "real" version of Sabacc on and off ever since Crisis at Cloud City. I've also probably made 3-4 full decks before... I'm a glutton for punishment.
These are "works in progress".
First, based directly on what was shown in Rebels (note the light blue border is not part of the card):
Card back:
"Tech" front:
There’s also the Kickstarter set at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/107767241/sabacc-card-game/posts
the cards in Rebels were almost childish. Very abstract in the artwork. I had a hard time figuring out which was when even when I had a freeze frame
I always thought it to be similar to a Tarot deck.
The other problem is there has been no "standard" in the novels on how it was played. We can only guess and hope we have some way to approximate
If you want it for your games just use the rules from the Free RPG module released in 2013, if it's to actually play then I'm not sure how an app would replicate the cheating elements that are supposed to be there
I always thought it to be similar to a Tarot deck.
If you read the history of the game, it was actually used that way when it was first introduced.
The other problem is there has been no "standard" in the novels on how it was played. We can only guess and hope we have some way to approximate
Again, if you read the history (thanks to Wookieepedia), there is a version of the game that was considered Canon at the time, and several people have actually produced real-world card decks.
Even real world card games have endless numbers of variants. The advent of Internet (and TV, and radio before that) certainly helped normalize a lot of things. The Star Wars Universe has a lot of information segregation (no Internet, state controlled HoloNet), and a lot more room for variant rules (a frightening "galactic" scale). It all makes sense in the end that Sabacc wouldn't be the exception.
I think I would just play it like a variant of blackjack
the cards in Rebels were almost childish. Very abstract in the artwork. I had a hard time figuring out which was when even when I had a freeze frame
I don't disagree... I'm still going to finish the deck, but I don't think I'll get one printed.
I always thought it to be similar to a Tarot deck.
Yes, but I've never thought of them as being specialized artwork like a Tarot... Always thought of the cards as being highly symbolic (maybe less so than Rebels portrayed).
The other problem is there has been no "standard" in the novels on how it was played. We can only guess and hope we have some way to approximate
No, but there are "official" rules (created by WEG for the Crisis on Cloud City adventure, so no need to approximate anything.
here we go with a discussion what is canon and what is not.
SW Rebels i think, is the first time Sabacc has appeared visually in anyform, in what Disney now considers "Canon". It didn't even show the shifting that was referred to in some of the novels. From what I saw it was just a simple deck of cards, and play a version of Blackjack where you try to reach 23 or close to it, without going over
So that means there is not much to go on as far as canonicity "official rules" Yes we have, Fan made, and references to WEG or inspirations. But no canon version "Game of Sabacc" has been put out
Edited by kinnisonhere we go with a discussion what is canon and what is not.
SW Rebels i think, is the first time Sabacc has appeared visually in anyform, in what Disney now considers "Canon". It didn't even show the shifting that was referred to in some of the novels. From what I saw it was just a simple deck of cards, and play a version of Blackjack where you try to reach 23 or close to it, without going over
So that means there is not much to go on as far as canonicity "official rules" Yes we have, Fan made, and references to WEG or inspirations. But no canon version "Game of Sabacc" has been put out
Actually it is +/-23.
and FFG has put out rules for Sabacc: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/18/ff/18ff8afe-bf19-47a3-97e5-a313ded3d6b3/under_a_black_sun_lores.pdf
As they note, the values shift up and down until the cards are played.
I thought he gambling rules in CRB worked just fine
I thought he gambling rules in CRB worked just fine
Right, but those are generic "rules" about gambling in general and not the specific rules of how to play a specific game for someone wanting to have the actual fun of playing Sabacc. Kind of like the difference between just rolling dice, or actually playing hands of Texas Hold'em.
Whoever invented that randomizer feature was on glue. The minute you do that it becomes a lottery game, not a game of bluffing and skill. Sabaac is supposed to be the Star Wars equivalent of poker, but nobody who plays poker would play Sabaac if their cards could shift at random.
Anyway, the game could easily be written for today's smart phones. In iOS you could use Game Center, or you could use Bluetooth for local phone network connections. It would be fun to work on, but I don't know how you get around the licensing issues.
As I understood the rules the skill comes from 2 sources: You can show cards by playing them in the disruptor field so they don´t change, but you can only play one at a time and must show thrm to the other players.
The second is a really hard thing to simulate, and I had trouble weapping my head around as a teenager in West End Days how to simulate it in a physical game: As far as I can see, the "faces" like the Idiot have a fixed value and don´t change in the shift. Presenting the shift with a die roll is fine, it´s also a good idea to exchange randomly cards or redraw the hand, how to represent the faces without giving away how many you have of them in a game and preserving this skill factor of the game is complicated, my past selv couldn´t find a solution, nor do my present selv.