gambling goblins

so i was just watching Supernatural and their were gambling for years of thier lives so of course i thought of throwing it into  the next game as  a "rumor" of  a simialer poker game goning on in the freehold seeing as there are two casinos 45 mins away from  the freehold.


          but i'm stuck as to how to do this:
                     + probarly the easist way  to do it is to just make it an Actor with a Aspect
                        for the years" transfer
                     + but i want to use a up and coming SpringCourtiur_pitboss who started
                        runing the game recently and need away to bestow the 'power' to him
                        as a token ........   i want to do it as a pledge so it becomes a real proble when  changelings who partitapaited in or witness it start running thier own games on the side with mortals



maybe it'll even draw the attention of  gambling goblin Actor who needs afew abuctees to fill in the seats of  his table{realm} back in Arcadia

Isn't there talk in one of the books of Gentry exiled for so long they forget they are Fae? Maybe this one believes he is a Changeling legitimately.
Or have a Contract with Fate, stolen from the Keeper in the way of a Promise Stone.
OR... Make the Spring Courtier a Loyalist who was sent out to pledge years of life to his Keeper through said Promise Stone, and he does so by having others pledge themselves to him on the shard of stone his Master had him do.

I don't know otherwise. Wiser and Smarter people than me will have better ideas.

Saerrian:

to pledge years of life to his Keeper through said Promise Stone,

Saerrian:

in the way of a Promise Stone.

a Promise Stone what book[s]  is this mentioned in?

Ohhhh... Umm.. Hang on, I'll check. Either my mind is sleepy and I made it up, Or it's in one I read earlier today... Rites of Spring, I think.

Page 151
"A promise token is different from the average token
in that a promise token is a mystical representation of
a changeling’s promise (or, in some cases, the oath of
a True Fae). In a way, each promise token represents a
truncated pledge in physical form: it provides gift and
debt. One enacts the token’s power and then must pay
some manner of price (usually to the changeling or Keeper
who offered the token to begin with).
Promise tokens are normal items sworn upon by
both present parties. Both parties must be made aware of
the stipulations of a promise token — though, a changeling
may certainly veil her language in imperfect terms,
thus cementing the sometimes untrustworthy reputation
that many Lost possess. When swearing upon a token,
the changeling must spend a point of Glamour, and the
other party (whether changeling, mortal, vampire, whatever)
must offer either a Glamour or a Willpower point.
At that point, the promise token binds both characters
and may be enacted by the target at any point. Enacting
a promise token’s power requires no roll and no expenditure
of Glamour or Willpower unless otherwise noted."

I intepreted it as being able to be used in this Context, with the Spring Courtier saying to other Changelings that it frees them of the Gentry; he isn't lying, just omitting three words "One of the". The pledge is they get freedom from him kidnapping them, and he gets their service stealing life.

Well, there's a Goblin Contract that allows you to spend a Willpower dot to extend another's life by 7 years (Contracts of Goblin Transformation 2, Seven-Year Gift, RoS 121).  It seems thematically appropriate that you could exchange years of life as part of a pledge, but I can't figure out how it would work, especially in regards to the duration -- is the exchange permanent (in which case there wouldn't really be a duration) or is it an ongoing thing (in which case it begs the question how someone might break the pledge).

Personally, if you want someone other than Gentry to be able to run/play the game, I'd have it be done through a token deck of cards.  They'd appear as a well-used deck of regular playing cards to mortal eyes, but those able to see through the Mask would notice that the suits change between games (e.g. Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds are just as likely as Rods, Wands, Cups, and Coins or something truly esoteric like Sorrows, Stones, Spiders, and Screams), that there are more face cards than there should be (similar to a deck of tarot cards), and that each of the face cards seems to depict one of the Gentry (which also change between games).  Just make it so that if the token deck is used in a game of chance, the players can wager years of their life.  Alternatively, perhaps the deck could allow the players to wager anything they please.  The latter would place the token squarely in the 5+ dot range.  Perhaps the catch could be that the deck punishes cheaters and/or liars, and if a player loses at the game after attempting to cheat and/or bluff, he loses double his wager.  (I was just reading some expanded gaming/gambling rules somewhere that included actions like bluffing and cheating, but I can't remember right now which book they were in.)  Of course, I'd require that each player ante up a Willpower each time the cards are used to make it clear that everyone sitting at the table is aware of and willing to pay the stakes.

At this juncture, I'd like to point to a book:

Last Call, by Tim Powers.   It's set in Las Vegas, and there's a game every 22 years or so, played on Lake Mead, with a very old deck of cards....

Absolutely fantastic for what you're talking about, and what if the deck itself is an Actor?

Seabhac:

Absolutely fantastic for what you're talking about, and what if the deck itself is an Actor?

...technically a Prop, but yeah.  Definitely something to think about.  Such a deck should definitely make Changelings uneasy about picking it up...

so i think i have it worked out

goblin vow: poker
 task:-3wager lifespan
 boon:+3gains the wagered years
 sanctions:-1 hell you're going to grow older one way or another, -1have to sit in the entire game or forfits{poisoning of boon},
                -1 the game has to be Texas hold'em
 duration:+3 lifelong 

I'm sure it doesn't have to be a goblin pledge but thats how I worked it out last night.

now the sanctions, the first i listed  i think is only worth  -1 'cuz growing old is a minor annoyance as your destined to grow old
 anyways    the second one i'm not sure the poisoning of the Boon works cuz the losers suffer it Auto-Magickly but they bring it upon themselves as they ante call n raise and they use all of thier wager years so I'll have to storytell it as a gruadural aging as they
throw thier chips in the pot and rejuverating as they rake in the pot but inflict the poisoning if they try to leave the table early as a fast crippling aging

let me know what you think and any help fine tuning would be appieccated

 

 

mb_webguy:

technically a Prop, but yeah.  Definitely something to think about.  Such a deck should definitely make Changelings uneasy about picking it up...

Actually, it CAN be an Actor.  The Actor could we a self aware and mobile set of cards, one that can go from immoble in the deck, to going along with a game, to becoming a flurry of cards (Ohhh, the paper cuts.)

Since my game is set in my Sinful little hometown, I adapted the Goblin Markets rules for use as a Goblin Casinos that exist scattered in the Strip-Hedge.  Because the Hedge on the Strip is a maze of clanking and dinging slot machines, empty game tables, and neon lights, I thought it would be appropriate for scattered Goblins to exist.  You can wager any thing you can use as a price in goblin markets--Years of life, skin/eye color, your memories, tokens, etc.  Similarly, the rewards can be anything you can get at a goblin market, including goblin contracts.  Despite how similar the mechanics are, it feels quite different than the bustle and din of the local Markets themselves (Especially since one of them is disguised as a Renaissance Faire and has human vendors alongside the goblins).  But Vegas wouldn't be complete without gambling somewhere in the system.

mb_webguy:

I was just reading some expanded gaming/gambling rules somewhere that included actions like bluffing and cheating, but I can't remember right now which book they were in.

Winter Masques, under the Gameplayer Kith.

As another possibility. Goblin Markets has the idea that stall owners can trade in non-material goods like memories, lifespan, skill, luck, etc.  So a gambling den in a Market might have a similar power.

Edit : Whoops, someone already mentioned it. Should have read through more throoughly.