Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm working on my own adventure, and the plot demands a game of dejarik. I wasn't able to find any rules for this or any previous version (I haven't checked previous source books).

Just sitting at my desk I threw together some quick rules (haven't had a chance to playtest yet - next Friday!). The skill check is based on this being a core world activity that learned people would be more likely to play. I would appreciate any input to the below rules!

Dejarik Rules – Dejarik (holochess) is an opposed game of skill between two individuals. It can be played simply for leisure, or for gambling purposes.

Dejarik is played until one player achieves 3 successes . A success is determined from winning an opposed Knowledge (education) or Knowledge (core worlds) check . Each player assembles the pool of dice for each round – if both players succeed, there are no net successes (exception if one succeeds with triumph). Same if both fail. A net success occurs only if one player succeeds his check and the other fails. A success or failure with despair negates a previous success. Additional uncancelled successes do not contribute to this check. GM's can assign threat/advantage as seen appropriate.

To start a round, each player rolls a simple cool check . Whoever has more successes goes first. This is important because as soon as someone gets 3 net successful rounds, the game is immediately over .

You could use Coerce, instead of Knowledge, if you play like Chewbacca

I wouldn't mind seeing an option that allows cunning to come into play.

Knowledge skills sound like your ability to employ "tried and true" strategies, but Cunning sounds more like your "think on your feat" type of strategy that some Dejarik players would rely on.

I wasn't sure what to make of this post at first, but the second reading through I think I like it.

Even with your explanation of this being a game for learned folks, Knowledge (Education) just seems like a wierd skill to use for this.

Now I'm no chessmaster, but it seems to me that Deception, Vigilance, and Perception are also words that might be used to describe some features of particularly skilled chess matches. So those might have some type of role to play in a game of Dejarik, assuming it could be done without slowing your game to a crawl.

I started and stopped a post several times because, even though Knowledge skills seemed like the wrong choice, I could think of a better one.

I do agree that Cunning should play a part, though. If you'd dead set on Knowledge, then perhaps one of the Knowledge skills but with the Cunning as the statistic?

Or perhaps the player could just choose between Deception, Vigilance and Perception for each of their rolls. This would determine what kind of strategy their character was using.

I think if it comes up for us (we do have a Dejarik table in the group's ship), I'll use the rules you outline here, avicell, but allow the player to choose from those three skills each turn.

Well now here's something. There's another RPG, the version I played was called Mouse Guard (based on the graphic novels), while it wasn't totally my cup of tea, it did have a narrative ruleset (The Burning Wheel ruleset) that was kind of unique.

In a nutshell, your game mechanics were not dice rolls but as a selection of options you could employ in a conflict. It worked rather like a sort of game of rock paper scissors. Each sort of action would beat one of the others, tie with another, and lose to something else.

Something like that might work in a game of Dejarik.

I like Perception. Maybe a player can make a Perception check (difficulty set by the GM based on the skill of the opponent) to gain insight into an opponent's strategy, with a successful outcome yielding a boost die. A failure on this roll would have no consequences (save strain on threat). Now a player could also attempt a feign move and try to trap/trick his opponent. This could be a Deception check opposed by Vigilance. A successful deceit could give your opponent a setback die on his next round, while a failure could give you a setback die, OR upgrade the difficulty of your next Dejarik Round check (your opponent didn't fall for it and now you are in a bit of hot water!). Perhaps these checks can occur between the rounds.

Also, maybe if someone drops to half their strain, they are unable to continue playing at the level they were playing at, and all checks become daunting. They could then resign if they wish.

I'd also like to put on some gambling side rules, but for now (in my encounter), this is just going to be a simple 'plot device'.

I think you're onto something with a game of wits dealing damage to Strain.

Suns of Fortune has rules for Sabacc - Use Cool for playing the game straight up, Deception, Computers, or Skullduggery to cheat (depending on how the person chooses to cheat). I guess one could say Dejarik is a bit of a more "refined" game than Sabacc, but there's some guidelines to start with.

If you're using a Knowledge skill, Warfare would seem to be a good fit. A lot of military types play chess for the strategy and tactics.

I dunno, the pieces for Dejarik are based off of creatures from the Star Wars Universe. When I think of playing Chess, I associate winning and strategy to working out in advance the movement possibilities of the pieces and knowing the pieces strengths and weaknesses. That being the case, I would think that Knowledge (Xenology) would be the skill used but the Cunning attribute would be chosen instead of Intelligence. This makes it an "Educated" game but still a thinking game.

I dunno, the pieces for Dejarik are based off of creatures from the Star Wars Universe. When I think of playing Chess, I associate winning and strategy to working out in advance the movement possibilities of the pieces and knowing the pieces strengths and weaknesses. That being the case, I would think that Knowledge (Xenology) would be the skill used but the Cunning attribute would be chosen instead of Intelligence. This makes it an "Educated" game but still a thinking game.

I like this too but your point does assume that the Djarik pieces move like thier "animal" counterparts and I'm not sure if that's really the case. Might make for a cool game though, and it would work with Knowledge Xenobiology as the skill!

here is a good stab and explaining the rules of the game http://dhost.info/rissa/Holochess/

See below for my revised rules, incorporating a lot of the great ideas in this thread.

Dejarik Rules – Dejarik (holochess) is an opposed game of skill between two individuals. It can be played simply for leisure, or for gambling purposes. Dejarik is considered a game of skill many coreworlders/educated folk play to pass the time. It is also a simulation of battle. Therefore, to play Dejarik, a dice pool is always assembled using Cunning as the core characteristic.

Dejarik is played until one player achieves 3 successes . A success is determined from winning an opposed Knowledge (education) or Knowledge (core worlds) check . If a PC gives a compelling reason to the GM to use a different skill, by all means the GM should allow it. Each player assembles the pool of dice for each round – if both players succeed, there are no net successes (exception if one succeeds with triumph). Same if both fail. A net success occurs only if one player succeeds his check and the other fails. A success or failure with despair negates a previous success. Additional uncancelled successes do not contribute to this check. GM's can assign threat/advantage as seen appropriate.

Threats should always lead to 1-2 strain per round. When a PC drops to half his strain, he is unable to think clearly, and all checks become daunting . He could then resign if they wish.

There is also the opportunity between rounds for side checks . A side check can be a player attempting to gain insight into his opponent's attacks, or to attempt a feigned attack of his own. A player can make a Perception check (difficulty set by the GM based on the skill of the opponent) to gain insight into an opponent's strategy, with a successful outcome yielding a boost die. A failure on this roll would have no consequences (while he would suffer strain on threat). A player can also attempt a feign move and try to trap/trick his opponent. This is a Deception check opposed by Vigilance . A successful deceit could give your opponent a setback die on his next round, while a failure could give you a setback die, OR upgrade the difficulty of your next Dejarik Round check (your opponent didn't fall for it and now you are in a bit of hot water!). Additional side checks per the GM's discretion.

To start a round, each player rolls a simple cool check . Whoever has more successes goes first. This is important because as soon as someone gets 3 net successful rounds, the game is immediately over .

I like this too but your point does assume that the Djarik pieces move like thier "animal" counterparts and I'm not sure if that's really the case. Might make for a cool game though, and it would work with Knowledge Xenobiology as the skill!

Not moves, behaves. Look at the game R2 and Chewie played in A New Hope. The monsters fought each other and one was victorious. Since you only see 1 of any monster on the holotable, it can be assumed one or more of the following is true: Each player has a unique pen of monsters, Each player chooses what monsters to use when the game is played, or The monsters are all the same and they are for show only.

If we relate those possibilities to chess, the third option of them being cosmetic only holds water if both players have the same monsters, or all monsters are the same. This is unlikely in that there is no clearly distinguishing characteristic differentiating R2's monsters from Chewies. It would be very difficult to keep track of your beasties from your opponents if there's no difference in appearance.

In the case of either of the first two options, we can extrapolate that choosing your monster, or choosing your side, presents several inherent strategies (just as White vs Black presents different inherent strategies in chess). If this is the case, then if the game was designed with thought to these strategies (as we are led to believe Dejarik was) then it stands to reason some aptitude of the individual pieces relates to their non-dejarik counterparts - power, defense, movement style.

Regardless of this, both options can be represented by knowing a little about the species itself (Knowledge Xenology) and how best to use it's holochess properties to your advantage over the immediate and subsequent movements and battles (Cunning)

There's a really neat site where someone put together rules for playing Dejarik itself:

http://dhost.info/rissa/Holochess/

here is a good stab and explaining the rules of the game http://dhost.info/rissa/Holochess/

lol, I totally didn't notice you liked the same site I did lol, sorry!

I like the earlier suggestion of Vigilance, Perception, and Deception. To me, Vigilance would be trying to predict and directly oppose the broader strategy of your opponent, Perception would be understanding the board state and playing the game relatively straight based on that, and Deception would be setting up feints and traps against your opponent. You could then arrange these in a rock-paper-scissors fashion (Vigilance beats Deception beats Perception beats Vigilance), have the competitors reveal their choice at the same time, and then assign boosts or setbacks or upgrades based on the matchup and then have them make a competitive check. Winner wins the round and play continues until a predetermined number of wins (or the winner deals 5 strain to the loser plus the winners uncancelled successes minus the losers uncancelled successes). Something like that.