: Posted by Lieutenant Valerie Pain (Chief Medical Officer) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge
: : Posted by 2nd Lieutenant Chester "Chessman" George Burke (Alpha 3) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge
: : : Posted by Lieutenant Valerie Pain (Chief Medical Officer) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge
: : : : Posted by Civilian Lok (Performer/Card Dealer) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge
: : : : : Posted by Lieutenant Valerie Pain (Chief Medical Officer) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge
: : : : : : Posted by Civilian Lok (Performer/Card Dealer) in Falcon's Maze - Lounge

<SNIP>

: : : : Lok just looked at the cards - two of them were black, another was blue, the fourth was white - and pulled a PADD from his jacket. He set up a quick tally sheet, did some mental calculations, and chalked up one point for Player 1, two points for Player 2, one point for Player 3, and one point for Player 4.
: : : :
: : : : "Admittedly, you don't see too many decks with one-hundred twenty cards, but the rules are easy to figure out, once you understand the basics," Lok said. "Have a seat, and I'll explain them. In fact, feel free to stay standing if you want."
: : : :
: : : : He paused, took the hands back in to the deck, and shuffled the deck, first as two sixty-card decks, and then as one large deck. He dealt four hands again, but this time, he placed all of the cards face-up.
: : : :
: : : : "The game is called The Gathering. It's based off of an old card game from Pre-Third World War Earth, but the deck is standardized, and much simpler." He pushed the deck forward, pointing to the back of the card, which had the name of the game, as well as five colored spheres in a pentagram - white on the top point, and, going clockwise, blue, black, red, and green to finalize it.
: : : :
: : : : "The colors on the back signify strengths and weaknesses - the color to the left is stronger than the color to the right, and a color that is one sphere separated on the left is stronger than a color one sphere separated to the right. Hence white trumps blue and black, blue trumps black and red, black trumps red and green, red trumps green and white, and green trumps white and blue. However, this only matters where cards have a draw on both sides."
: : : :
: : : : He looked at each hand, which had five cards a piece, and drew the cards with what appeared to have the lowest number values in the lower right hand corner, placing them in a similar configuration. They each had different names, and he'd placed a white card with a value of 1/2, a green card with a value of 2/3, a black card with a value of 2/3, and a red card with a value of 1/1 on the table.
: : : :
: : : : "The first number is the card's strength, the second number is the card's will. Like the circle, the cards attack to the left and defend to the right. Strength is compared to each will ranking. If the strength number of the attacking card is equal to the will number of the defending card, a draw ensues, and color becomes the deciding factor. If the strength number is lower than the defending card's will, the defender gets one point. If the strength number is higher than the defending card's will, the attacker gets two points. In the event of a total draw - only possible when both individuals have placed cards of the same color - both players get one point. Cards are played face-down during regular play, and the reveal occurs after betting. There are five rounds of play, and each round involves betting, as well as an ante before cards are dealt. Each color has twenty cards, with card strengths from no strength and one will point to ten strength points and ten will points. The cards at intervals always have a higher will value, so you have an 8/9, but never a 9/8, unless you play with a variant deck, which has 144 cards - I don't have that deck, just so you know. Pretty easy to play, and it's for two to five people."
: : : :
: : : : Lok paused, looked at the hands, and then said, "Player four would probably would win. Few misplay a red eight/nine."
: : : :
: : : : "Care to play?" Lok said.
: : : :
: : : : ~ Lok
: : :
: : : "I'm always up for a challenge." Valerie replied, taking a seat, and putting her drink down on the table.
: : :
: : : - Val
: :
: : "Alright," Lok said, reaching in to his bag and pulling out a smaller bag. "Play money, for now. We each start with a thousand in chips - reds are five, greens twenty-five, blues are fifty, blacks are one-hundred."
: :
: : He counted out twenty red chips, ten green chips, five blue chips, and four black chips. He slid them over to Valerie, and then counted out the same amount for herself.
: :
: : "The ante is five, bets begin after the first card goes in," he said, taking his PADD and wiping it clean, and then putting only "Player 1" and "Player 2". He tossed in a red chip, and then took the deck and shuffled it as he had previously.
: :
: Valerie picked up one of her red chips from the pile, and put it in the middle of the table.
:
: : "Okay then, let's play," he said, and dealt out five cards to each of them, starting with Val.
: :
: : When he got his hand, he showed nothing, but he'd gotten three weak cards, one mid-level card, and one ultimate card. The names on the cards were different from the source material, since they focused upon Earth's Greek mythology, but for the most part, it made sense, especially given the ultimate cards. Red had Haephestus, green had Gaia, White had Zeus, Blue had Poseidon, and Black had Hades - the last of which Lok happened to hold. However, besides that, he had an Eagle (2/2 White), a Merman (4/4 Blue), a Hellhound (4/5 Black), and, as the only other formidable card, a Submarine (8/8 Red - as the God of manufacture, and something of a male counterpart to Athena, goddess of crafts, who had few myths about him, Haephestus instead had increasingly powerful soldiers and weaponry, though the mid-level cards were of heroes such as Ajax and Hector). It wasn't much to play with, but seeing as Hades could get him three points if he didn't save it until late in the game, along with the Submarine, he figured that the rest could at least work to his advantage.
: :
: : What Lok didn't know was that Valerie had gotten a much better hand. Her lowest card was The Ghost King, Minos (4/4 Black), followed by a Lesser Cyclops (6/6 Blue), a Long-Range Bomber (7/8 Red), the Goddess Amphitrite (8/9 Blue), and Charon (9/10 Black). If she played right, she could slaughter him.
: :
: : "Place the card face-down, and we'll begin betting."
: :
: : Instead of immediately getting behind in points, Lok played the Hellhound, hoping that he'd at least tie something.
: :
: : ~ Lok
: : OOC: I used two regular decks of cards with a somewhat complicated way of computation to figure the card values, just to let you know.
:
: Valerie paused for a moment to look at her cards. As with any unfamiliar game it was going to take her a few turns to get the feel of it. With any new game she tended to pick a low to mid range card first. Then she could make any mistakes on those so she wasn't wasting good cards. Well, that was the theory anyway, not that it always worked.
:
: Going with that normal plan, she played the Lesser Cyclops.
:
: - Val

Lok knew that the first couple of rounds were going to be rough, so he decided that he might as well just save himself some play money. The betting in each Gathering round was the same as the final round of poker - bet back-and-forth until the reveal. He just hoped the woman bet low, because he was probably only going to call her.

"Your bet, miss," Lok said.

He placed his other cards by his chips, face-down, waiting to see what she would do. He ran his fingers through his hair - a luxury not many Orion men had - and leaned back. True, he was trying to hard to appear nonchalant, but he also realized his hair probably looked like a mess.

~ Lok