Pazaak

By Seam, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Hello!

Did anyone make up some rules to simulate a game of Pazaak? I believe there are rules for a Sabacc game but can't find one for Pazaak.

Thanks in advance!

1 hour ago, Seam said:

Hello!

Did anyone make up some rules to simulate a game of Pazaak? I believe there are rules for a Sabacc game but can't find one for Pazaak.

Thanks in advance!

Fly casual might have some. Sabacc is i. Jewell of Yavin

I will look into it, thanks.

I plan a side mission in which the players hunt for one or more old and very rare Pazaak card(s) from the Old Republic. But without proper rules I have no idea which influence those card(s) might have eventually.

Maybe it might be easy enough to start from the Sabacc rules...

Im pretty sure someone has done Pazaak Rules but I dont know who...

Odd. I've never heard of this game and it mechanically sounds similar to Blackjack.

This looks like a relatively recent addition to the 'verse?

I can however recommend the recent version of Disney's Sabaac game. Mechanically it's a pretty good version of Poker.

32 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

This looks like a relatively recent addition to the 'verse?

As recent as late 2003, it was introduced in Bioware's highly acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic RPG for XBox.

It is Star Wars blackjack, the difference is players have a side deck that can add or subtract, or other things, to help get them to 20, the winning number.

7 minutes ago, AustinKatan said:

As recent as late 2003, it was introduced in Bioware's highly acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic RPG for XBox.

It is Star Wars blackjack, the difference is players have a side deck that can add or subtract, or other things, to help get them to 20, the winning number.

It's blackjack on easy mode with legal cheating. But then IIRC the computer cheated to the high heavens when playing the more advanced opponents you could win the better cards from.

You could easily emulate a real game with normal cards. The main thing though is the player's side deck. I'd just treat this like in RL, a game like Magic or something, where there is a central repository of "valid" cards...you can't just show up with a side deck with counterfeits and expect to live to the end of the game...

  • Each player has a default side deck of: 2x +1; 2x +2; 2x + 3; 2x +4; 2x + 5. Like Magic, it's your first deck.
  • Each player can find/purchase/steal additional side-deck cards. The least valuable are the default ones, though there is no reason you can't run a side-deck of all +1s or all +5s or whatever, though you still have to acquired the extra ones to make that happen.
  • Additional cards include: +6; -1 through -6; +/-1 through +/- 6. The +/- cards are the most valuable. In the KoTOR game the rarity and prices are off compared to what is actually valuable in the game. +/-1 isn't actually that useful, while +/-4 or 5 is probably the most useful. Serious pazaak-playing types would probably kill for those...

To play

  1. Players agree on a bet, like, you know, a planet.
  2. Each player presents their side deck of 10 cards. From this, 4 are chosen by the dealer/GM at random. These cards are good for a bet.
  3. From a normal card deck, remove all the face cards and joker, Aces are 1
  4. Both players start at a total of zero each.
  5. The dealer deals a card from the deck, the value of that card is added to the player's total. The player can decide to stand, or receive another card. They can also play a card from their side deck, though it is then removed from play after the round.
  6. The dealer switches to the next player, and deals a card from the deck for them, with the same process as step 5.
  7. Steps 5 and 6 are repeated until one player's total goes above 20, both players stand with a tie, or one player's total is higher than the other. Going above 20 is an automatic loss, though a player can play a side-deck card to fix that.
  8. The first player to win 3 rounds wins the bet.

Example:

  • After the random side deck selection, P1 has a side-deck of +/-1, +3, -4, +4
  • After the random side deck selection, P2 has a side-deck of +/-3, +/-2, -1, +5
  • Dealer shuffles the deck at the start of the bet.
  • Dealer deals an 8 to P1. He elects to receive another card.
  • Dealer deals an Ace (1) to P2. He elects to receive another card. Totals are P1: 8; P2: 1
  • P1 gets a 10. This puts his total at 18. It's usually best to stand at 17+. Using his +/-1 is too valuable to waste on the first round. If he elects to get another card, he will bust if he gets a 7+. But the 10 spooks him, so he stands at 18.
  • P2 gets a 6, for a total of 7. P1 is standing, so the rest of the cards for this round go to P2.
  • P2 gets a 9, for a total of 16. Choices, choices: He can go again and hope for a 4 or less, though he can still do well with 5 through 7 (he can use his -1 through -3 to turn the 21-23 into a 20); or he can spend his +/-3 with the "+" value right now, and get 19 and win this round. Being the cautious type, that's what P2 does.
  • P2 has now won a round, but he's used up a card in his side deck.
  • Repeat until somebody has won 3 rounds. If the dealer runs out of cards, gather up the discards, shuffle, and start over.

That could all be amusing for about 1/2 an hour, but the real fun in an RPG is getting your hands on the valuable side-deck cards, and/or finding a way to cheat in the game.

2 hours ago, Mark Caliber said:

Odd. I've never heard of this game and it mechanically sounds similar to Blackjack.

This looks like a relatively recent addition to the 'verse?

I can however recommend the recent version of Disney's Sabaac game. Mechanically it's a pretty good version of Poker.

It's from the Knights of the Old Republic games.

Thanks all! Great advice.

I got a couple of physical Pazaak decks off of etsy. They weren't oo badly priced, iirc.