Rummageables #2
So, to be clear, there wasn’t much of a #Rummageables #1. We gave away a Pairs test deck to the first person who replied on Twitter, and it was over in five minutes. But the second game was much more involved. It lasted two weeks and involved haikus.
The Setup
Back in 2008, I led the team that made the pub games in Fable II. The main RPG was produced at Lionhead Studios in the UK, but my group was at Carbonated Games in Seattle. We released the Pub Games a separate retail product, as well as incorporating them into the RPG.
These cards are for a game called Fortune’s Tower, a press-your-luck game that occupied the space of “blackjack” in our fantasy casino. Except these specific cards were never used for anything. I printed them after the game came out. They were an experiment.
We tested Fortune’s Tower with normal playing cards, of course. I remember playing this game with my teammates on the train from London to Guildford, on the way to argue with Peter Molyneux about whether the Pub Games should favor the house or the player. (The house, obv.)
Back in those days I was printing a lot of free stuff (“free”) at VistaPrint, a print-on-demand resource that made business cards, letterhead, postcards, and so forth. So I printed a stack of postcards with this artwork, and cut them to size on my fancy printer’s guillotine.
They are small - less than an inch and a half wide. They have uncoated plain white backs. They can survive a delicate shuffling, but they’re not durable in any way, because they are printed on postcard stock. And they are in crisp new condition, since as far as I can remember, I never played with them.
I printed enough postcards to make four decks (this is a “Diamond” deck, with eight of each number and four Knights). So for this #rummageables giveaway, I’m giving one deck to for random people, who send me a haiku about gambling. Here’s mine:
O, chattering ball.
Just fall into any hole,
As long as it’s black.
The Results
This game ran for two weeks, from launch on Friday, Jan 14, to Friday, Jan 28 2022. We had about 20 entries and chose the top four at random. Those winners have been notified of their victories. Meanwhile, here are some of our favorite submissions. See if you identify any common themes.
K. Brown:
Kids playing poker
Halloween candy as bets
We don’t know the rules
S. Dee:
The risk I took was
Calculated but it seems
I am bad at math
J. Fitch:
Bought in to win cash
Holding aces tight to my chest
Lost it all trip twos
S. Bucak:
I know the odds and
Strategies but I still lose.
My poker face sucks.
J. Shirai:
Bet the odds in craps
Though it takes a worse bet first —
The house always wins
@wonmoregames:
The gambler ne’er ends
their spree at victory,
only at defeat
T. Snyder:
Should I fold or push?
My cards say drop, brain says raise…
“I’m all in, baby!”
S. Ingram:
Dealt one up one down
keep what's thrown and take no more
ace jack wins the hand
D. Bradshaw:
Movies and TV
Never seem to get it right
They always string bet
A. Wood:
Waterfall of chips
River flowing into view
Money down the drain
J. Schmidt:
The Moon Rolls the sky
The Earth around the sun, and stars
damn, dice, roll a six
and
Life is a gamble
Bet on the sun and the fun
of Crab Fragment Labs.
M.Schoonmaker
Should I ante up?
Good hand, good luck, confident…
Crap. I’m out of chips.
J. Orbach
If your enjoyment
Is greater than the ante,
You've already won.
Sonia Lyris, @slyris
Coins, cards, and your face
I know what you hold: fool's hope
Also my money
B. DeDea
Put it all on black!
Spin that damn capricious wheel....
Suffer consequence.
G. Whitehead
Don't be a sucker,
This game is rigged against you.
Do you feel lucky?
S. Davis
gambling or gaming
can the play sustain itself
beyond the wager?
R. Bååth
Like leaves in the fall,
my chips are scattered and few,
lost on the river.
C. Frye
The house advantage
Grinds away at my bankroll
Inexorably
M. Brooks:
Cards take and they give
Pain and money, both fleeting
Deal me one more row
C. Kallenbach
games are my sister
then i went to las vegas
sister is a whore
A. Klemer
Despite all hunches
Despite your sure thing systems
The house always wins
Mad props to M. Brooks for writing a haiku specifically about Fortune’s Tower, and J. Schmidt for throwing in a second one about Crab Fragment Labs. Many of these haikus are appropriately cautionary tales about the dangers of gambling - including two that end with “the house always wins.”
Thanks to everyone who shared their poetry with us, and we hope you’ll come back for the next #rummageables game, whenever it might be.