Maybe you can do Treehouse betting as in Backgammon. Use a doubling cube. - At the beginning of the game, the cube starts at "1" in the middle of the table. - Before each turn, if the cube isn't infront of the current player, he/she may flip the cube to the next multiple of 2 and place it in front of him/herself. At this point, each other player decides whether to stay in and play at the new higher stakes, or fold/drop out. - If the player with the cube ends up winning the game, each other player pays the winner the amount currently shown on the cube. If someone else wins, just the person with the cube pays the winner the amount shown on the cube. - If the cube stays at a 1 in the middle for the whole game, every loser pays the winner 1 (As though the cube were a 1 in front of the winner). e.g. Four players. After a few turns, Alice thinks she's closer to winning than anyone else, so she changes the 1 to a 2 and puts it in front of herself. Everyone stays in. For a few turns Alice remains confident but can't double again, because the cube is already in fron of her. Later Ben pulls ahead and changes the two to a 4 and puts the cube in front of himself. Charley decides she has little chance of winning and decides to drop out, leaving three players. With a one-in-six DIG, Darlene ends up winning. Alice owes Darlene nothing, but Ben owes Darlene 4 Hershey Kisses. Given this scheme, the person deciding whether or not to double stands to lose the number that would be shown on the cube or win <players>-1 times that. That means it's a good idea to double if you think you have a better than 1 in likelyRemainingPlayers chance of winning. If Ben could foresee Charley dropping out when Ben doubles, he should do it if he has at least a 33% chance of beating the remaining two players. By changing the amount the doubler would have to pay if he ends up losing you can change the decision parameters. e.g. If Ben had to pay Darlene 4 kisses for each loser (Ben + Alice), then the win and lose amounts are equal (8 kisses), so Ben would double in this new case only if he thinks his chances of winning are better than 50%. Ryan -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Brian Campbell <lambda@xxxxxxx> > Well, with any game that has any sort of randomness where it's OK if > people drop out of the game (as in, someone leaving the game doesn't > suddenly create a big empty space on the board), you can just let > people bet at certain points in the game, such as before each turn. > Everyone in turn gets a chance to either see the bet or "fold" (drop > out of the game). You then take your turn as normal, and when someone > wins, they win the pot. Not too different than the betting in poker. > It will be a little odd, in that there's a turn order dependence that > doesn't exist in poker, but I think it could still work. > > For example, do this with Treehouse. You start with some sort of > ante, and start playing. At first, you probably don't want to bet too > much, since everyone has an equal position. Once you think your > position is stronger than the other players', though, you might want > to start betting before your turn. Especially if you think you can > win the next turn, you'll want to bet a lot, and then other people > might fold or might decide to bet on you not getting the roll you need. > > I've never tried this out, but I think it should work for adding a > little light betting to the games. > > On Dec 1, 2006, at 12:01 PM, Laurie J. Rich wrote: > > > Hey all! > > > > I'm going to be making an attempt to insinuate some Looney Labs games > > in place of the usual poker that goes on at my gaming night (LARP). > > There's one problem... we usually play poker because we have things to > > bet -- jobs, chores, secrets. It's sort of like truth or dare poker, > > except that occasionally you win the right to not do the dishes. > > Sometimes you win candy. > > > > Anyone have thoughts on how I might incorporate betting or pots into > > any Looney Labs games? Or auction/bidding type wars? > > > > Laurie. > > > > -- > > "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, > > signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not > > fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." > > President Dwight D. Eisenhower > > April 16, 1953 > > _______________________________________________ > > Rabbits mailing list > > Rabbits@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/rabbits > > _______________________________________________ > Rabbits mailing list > Rabbits@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/rabbits