🎲 Since I’m hosting a micro-con this weekend I had to get out the shirts. #ttrpg

Left: The Real Thing Right: Monster Burner Not pictured: Eclipse Phase faction shirt

Two black t-shirts are laid out on a wooden surface, one with a hand design and the other with a detailed illustration.
  1. First #ttrpg you ever played? AD&D
  2. First you ever ran? WEG Star Wars
  3. Played the most? Burning Wheel
  4. Run the most? Burning Wheel
  5. Favorite? whatever is in front of us
  6. Most recently played? Legend of the Five Rings 5th ed.
  7. Most recently run? Whitehack 4th ed.

🎲 via @juddthelibrarian.bsky.social

🎲 last year, local gamers went to #GaryCon together. The best fun we had was the time we played at our own table.

Thus, we created #HeronCon to run the same weekend. Open #ttrpg gaming and each attendee has to bring a game (or more) to run.

I’m running the Undying Sands with Vaults of Vaarn.

🎲🃏🎭 New page: Games in Development.

(These are very-slow-moving developments, mind you!)

If one of these is interesting to you, feel free to ask questions or send ideas.

🃏 Euchre: Going Under

Like a lot of card games, there are variants depending on where you grew up, who you played with, etc.

Tonight, I learned a somewhat boggling (but also interesting) one: “going under”.

“Going under” means that when it is your term to bid (which is a yes/no or suit declaration in Euchre, rather than a number), you can sacrifice your bid to take three 9s or 10s from your hand and exchange them with the kitty. The extra interesting part of this is that the people I learned it from say you never show the cards you exchange with the kitty. I’m sure many players have taken advantage of that fact.

I grew up with something a little different. If you had all 9s and 10s, you could show them and declare “Farmers Hand” which became a misdeal, and thus, the deal passed to the next player.

Have you used any rules like this? What was your variation?

🃏 Tens

Learned another game this weekend: Tens.

Setup

You need enough decks (without Jokers) for all players to have 19 cards. Shuffle ’em up.

Each player grabs a pile of cards from the deck and makes 4 stacks in front of them, as well as a hand of cards. Each stack has one face-down card on the bottom and one face-up card on the top. The other 11 cards go in their hand. Anyone who grabbed exactly 19 cards, gets -10 points (this is good!) for this round. Any player that didn’t pull exactly 19 cards makes up the difference using the deck.

Play starts with whoever pulled closest to 19 cards, and goes clockwise. The first player is suggested to be whoever had closest to 19 cards.

Eligible Plays

Cards are played into a central pile. A player may play as many cards of a rank as they like, using a combination of their face-up cards and cards in their hand. They may alternatively play an uncovered 1 face down card, and, after seeing what it is, add as many matching face-up or hand cards as they like.

Results of a Play

Any time the count of cards of the current rank on the pile becomes 4 or more (e.g. five Jacks), or a Ten is played, the current player discards the entire pile and takes an additional turn.

If they played at the current rank or lower (and there are still less than 4 of that rank on top), play moves to the next player.

However, if they played a card higher than the current rank (other than a Ten), the player must take the whole pile into their hand and play another turn.

Ending the Round and Scoring

Once a player gets rid of all their cards (stacks and hand), play stops for the round. That player gets 0 points for the round, and everyone else is penalized for all of their remaining cards. Cards are scored by their rank value, with Aces being 1, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13, and Tens 20. (Don’t forget the -10 for any player that pulled exactly 19 cards when setting up the round.)

Winning

Play more rounds, but one suggestion is to play until someone has hit 100 (ten tens).

Whoever has the fewest points at the end wins!

Have you played this (or something like it)? How did your version differ?

  1. because the face-up card on it has already been played ↩︎

🎲 Resistance - Bundle of Holding

🎲 Putting some of my #ttrpg books up for sale.

Most of these are being sold simply because I need more space (and maybe I have the digital version).

Some are because I can’t (or won’t) bring them to the game table.

Let me know if you have questions!

🎲📚 Following up from my last post:

My top shelf is coming along. It’s got the “really phenomenal physical artifact” books. Tag yourself! #TTRPG

Not shown:

  • Trilemma Adventures 1 (it’s sideways)
  • Vaults of Vaarn (currently being used for inspiration)
  • solo or BWHQ books (have their own shelves)
A collection of role-playing game books and sourcebooks is neatly arranged on a wooden shelf.

🎲 What’s the best place to resell RPG books these days? #TTRPG

For perspective, these are everything from “still in the wrapper” to “classic and gently used”