Gaming in-game

Here's a little peek behind the curtain.

Dice naturally play a big part in driving the plot of Stories From The First Watch, but in episode 7 I decided that they would feature in-game too. One of the player characters, Elmander the fighter, plays a game of dice with the local bard, Gionna, in Hollow Hill's Winking Chicken Inn (that last name is an example of how much the dice drive the plot - there's no way I would have come up with that name without rolling on a random table of inn names!). I wanted them to play a game that would be relatively quick and simple enough to explain in the narration. Doing a bit of research, I came across the ancient Roman dice game Tali, which uses a scoring system quite similar to something like Yahtzee or Poker - different combinations of rolls create higher or lower points tallies. You can read more about Tali here.

I decided to customise the rules slightly, and rename the scoring points to fit around the theme of birds, hence I called my version, 'Feathers'. The rules for 'Feathers' are below:

In ‘Feathers’; each player rolls four four-sided dice. Scoring is as follows:

• The score that always wins is four dice that read: 4, 3, 2 and 1. This is known as the Eagle
• Next highest is 4 dice each showing 4. This is the Falcon , and can only be beaten by an Eagle.
• Next is four dice with at least one 4 showing, for example 4, 2, 1, 1. These are known as Buzzards. If more than one player gets a buzzard, the totals are compared, and the highest one wins.
• 4 dice all showing 3’s or 2’s are known as crows. These generally lose, unless another player rolls four 1’s, or four differing numbers with no 4’s whatsoever.
• 4 dice all showing 1’s is known as a chicken. These always lose, unless another player rolls 4 differing numbers with no 4’s whatsoever.
• Rolling four different-scored dice without fours, for example, 3, 2, 2, 1, always lose. This is known as a pigeon
• Play continues for a designated number of rounds, or until one player wins all of the pot.

Readers are encouraged to use these rules for their own in-game, er, games. Let me know if you come up with any alternatives or improvements!