Cash or Crash PbP - The Something Awful Forums

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xopods: Oct 26, 2010

Cash or Crash
A bluffing game for 2-8 players

This is my newest game, already out here in Quebec, coming out in the U.S. and elsewhere soon. Its development began after my publisher mentioned how much he likes Liar's Dice (aka Perudo), and how it's a shame that you can't really sell games for which standard dice are the main component. So, I asked myself what could change about the game if it were played with cards instead. The idea evolved from there, growing into its own thing, though they're undeniably in the same genre and it should be obvious to anyone who's played both where the inspiration came from.

Download the Rules PDF here!

The rules aren't particularly complicated, but given that I wrote that booklet myself, I doubt I can state them any more succinctly or clearly than I did there. If you're interested in playing, download them and read them.

The only thing that isn't mentioned in the book is a list of the cards each player has initially available, which are:

One Gold
One Wheat
One Oil
Three Gold
Three Wheat
Three Oil
Two Gold + Two Wheat
Two Gold + Two Oil
Two Wheat + Two Oil
One Gold + One Wheat + One Oil

If you wish, when messaging me the cards you're investing, you can use G, W and O as shorthand, e.g. GGWW = the card with Two Gold + Two Wheat.

The final player list and turn order is below. I'll let you know when I've got everyone's cards and we're ready to start. In the meantime, please read the rules. Let me know if there are any questions.

We're all full! If anyone wants to play and didn't get in, let me know and I'll see if there's enough interest to run two; it won't require much additional effort on my part.

Colon V
Clockwork Gadget
derp
Jon Joe
The Ninth Layer
Hal Incandenza
winvirus
Opopanax

------

A few rules for forums play

In case people want to engage in table talk and don't want to get "Hmm... there are probably ten Oils..." confused with an actual move, I suggest putting your final move in bold.
Don't edit your posts, don't talk out of thread, don't try to metagame with stupid toxx/truth-or-dare stuff, etc. All the usual things for forums game with hidden info.
When you're adding a card, send me a PM with the card you're adding before you post (or immediately thereafter, but at your own risk). In the interest of fairness, if you send it after your post and timestamps show that someone else's move came between your post and submitting your card, I'll pick one of your cards at random instead. (E.g. Hal posts adding a card and bidding 12 Oil, winvirus challenges, and subsequently I get a PM from Hal with a 3 Oil card, that's no good because I can't know that Hal didn't see winvirus' post before submitting.)
Not a hard rule, but I suggest remembering who comes after you in the turn order and calling them by name when you make your move. E.g. Colon V might say "3 Oil and Wheat. Clockwork Gadget's turn!

xopods fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 14:22

# ? Jan 25, 2013 22:39

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 19, 2013 13:35

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; MISCHARF and Maple Syrup

Hell yeah

# ? Jan 25, 2013 22:48

Jon Joe: Oct 19, 2011; I WAS INVESTIGATED AS SCUM BY DIVERTWIG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHITTY CUSTOM TITLE.

Could be fun.

Question: If the player before you chooses to play a card, and the player before them chose to bid, can you choose to challenge the bid of the bidding player? Or is challenging a bid no longer an option for you?

Jon Joe fucked around with this message at Jan 25, 2013 around 22:59

# ? Jan 25, 2013 22:50

winvirus: Jan 23, 2009; ~Best Mafia Player Ever~

put me in

# ? Jan 25, 2013 23:11

Hal Incandenza: Feb 12, 2004

Put me in!

# ? Jan 25, 2013 23:29

Clockwork Gadget: Oct 30, 2008; tick tock

Y'all goin' down it's gonna be clockwork city up in here.

# ? Jan 25, 2013 23:31

Colon V: Sep 30, 2009; Scraggy don' like your kind 'round these-here parts

Sweet.

# ? Jan 26, 2013 01:39

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

Jon Joe posted:

Question: If the player before you chooses to play a card, and the player before them chose to bid, can you choose to challenge the bid of the bidding player? Or is challenging a bid no longer an option for you?

In the standard game, you can only challenge the player before you. That includes players who've just added a card and changed the bid though.

Example:
Winvirus says 4 Wheat & Gold.
Clockwork Gadget adds a card and changes the bid to 5 Oil.
Jon Joe is up. His options would be:

Bid 6 (or more) Oil
Bid 5 (or more) Oil & Gold, or Oil & Wheat, or Everything
Challenge Clockwork Gadget's bid of 5 Oil
Add a card and bid 6 (or more) Gold, or 6 (or more) Wheat

------

However... with the full eight players, in forums format, maybe the Blitz version with out-of-turn play would be better? What do you guys think?

Even then, though, you can still only challenge the most recent bid. So in the above example, you could challenge Winvirus if you beat CG to the punch, but once CG has posted his move, you could only challenge him.

------

Can everyone else let me know when you're done reading the rules and whether you'd prefer to play regular or Blitz mode?

# ? Jan 26, 2013 01:42

winvirus: Jan 23, 2009; ~Best Mafia Player Ever~

I think I prefer regular since I want to get the hang of this by meticulously following the instructions

# ? Jan 26, 2013 04:02

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; MISCHARF and Maple Syrup

Yeah I'd say regular is best for a first run

# ? Jan 26, 2013 04:19

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

Regular it is. Should be fine as long as people remember to check the thread and make their moves quickly; my only worry is that at forum pace people might find it hard to get into the game waiting for 7 other people to take their turns between moves of their own. But it shouldn't be too hard to get through an orbit per day; it's not like Mafia where people need to build huge cases, just pop in and be like "Oh, uh, 7 Oil? Yeah, there are totally 7 Oil."

# ? Jan 26, 2013 04:22

Colon V: Sep 30, 2009; Scraggy don' like your kind 'round these-here parts

I don't care either way, but if that is the way the wind is blowing, let it not be said that I do not also blow!

# ? Jan 26, 2013 04:22

Jon Joe: Oct 19, 2011; I WAS INVESTIGATED AS SCUM BY DIVERTWIG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHITTY CUSTOM TITLE.

Should we PM you our two cards now?

# ? Jan 26, 2013 04:59

Auryn: Dec 20, 2004

If you re-run this I'd like to play.

# ? Jan 26, 2013 08:09

winvirus: Jan 23, 2009; ~Best Mafia Player Ever~

Wait so do I start with all of the cards

# ? Jan 26, 2013 13:02

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

Yes, everyone starts with the same set of ten cards.

Also, yeah, if you're ready to go, send your choice of cards for the first round to me by PM (I think everyone has PMs, right?) and I'll take that as a "yes, I've read and understood the rules."

Once I have everyone's cards, I'll post to announce that the game has begun.

Here is the RNGed player order. Colon V will make the first bid of the first round, but not until I announce the round has begun, of course.

Colon V
Clockwork Gadget
derp
Jon Joe
The Ninth Layer
Hal Incandenza
winvirus
Opopanax

-----

I've also added the following to the OP:

A few rules for forums play

In case people want to engage in table talk and don't want to get "Hmm... there are probably ten Oils..." confused with an actual move, I suggest putting your final move in bold.
Don't edit your posts, don't talk out of thread, don't try to metagame with stupid toxx/truth-or-dare stuff, etc. All the usual things for forums game with hidden info.
When you're adding a card, send me a PM with the card you're adding before you post (or immediately thereafter, but at your own risk). In the interest of fairness, if you send it after your post and timestamps show that someone else's move came between your post and submitting your card, I'll pick one of your cards at random instead. (E.g. Hal posts adding a card and bidding 12 Oil, winvirus challenges, and subsequently I get a PM from Hal with a 3 Oil card, that's no good because I can't know that Hal didn't see winvirus' post before submitting.)
Not a hard rule, but I suggest remembering who comes after you in the turn order and calling them by name when you make your move. E.g. Colon V might say "3 Oil and Wheat. Clockwork Gadget's move!" I suspect this will speed the game along, especially since I'm probably not going to be online in the evenings and thus unable to prod people swiftly.

xopods fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 14:20

# ? Jan 26, 2013 14:16

winvirus: Jan 23, 2009; ~Best Mafia Player Ever~

So can anyone yell SELL or only the player whose turn it is

# ? Jan 26, 2013 16:29

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

winvirus posted:

So can anyone yell SELL or only the player whose turn it is

Only the person who's turn it is, since we've decided we're not playing Blitz. (The main difference between Blitz and normal is that anyone can jump in with a bid or a challenge at any time, if they want... the turn order only determines who is obliged to make a move if no one else wants to).

# ? Jan 26, 2013 18:13

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

Got ~~6/8~~ 7/8 people in. Just need ~~winvirus and~~ Clockwork Gadget.

xopods fucked around with this message at Jan 26, 2013 around 21:25

# ? Jan 26, 2013 20:36

derp: Jan 21, 2010; i got it this cant fail

Hey guys, I put down five golds so you should probably buy oil.

# ? Jan 26, 2013 23:03

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

All cards in!

Let's make this interesting!

Winner gets a signed copy of the game (from my set of sample copies when I get them from the publisher).

Round 1 begins, Colon V to play first. I'll be keeping tabs on things of course, but my involvement should be minimal from here until someone calls "SELL," unless there are further questions.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 05:37

Colon V: Sep 30, 2009; Scraggy don' like your kind 'round these-here parts

## 3 Grain

Clockwork Gadget's move.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 05:41

Clockwork Gadget: Oct 30, 2008; tick tock

I reckon there's five wheat, consarnit!

derp, what say you???

# ? Jan 27, 2013 05:52

derp: Jan 21, 2010; i got it this cant fail

uhh.. five wheat, one oil. Go JJ!

# ? Jan 27, 2013 07:57

The Ninth Layer: Jun 19, 2007; Timothy
"DESERT STORM"
Bradley

140 Pound Champ

Gotta bid in equal numbers if you're going to add a commodity buddy.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:09

derp: Jan 21, 2010; i got it this cant fail

thats not what the rules said yo.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:12

Colon V: Sep 30, 2009; Scraggy don' like your kind 'round these-here parts

"While keeping the amount the same".

As in, from "4 Oil" to "4 Oil and Gold". Look at the example bids.

Colon V fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2013 around 08:22

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:15

Jon Joe: Oct 19, 2011; I WAS INVESTIGATED AS SCUM BY DIVERTWIG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHITTY CUSTOM TITLE.

Five wheat, three oil.

It's The Ninth Layer's turn.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:23

derp: Jan 21, 2010; i got it this cant fail

Well i'd assumed that an icon without a number next to it was 1.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:26

Colon V: Sep 30, 2009; Scraggy don' like your kind 'round these-here parts

That wouldn't make sense with the original 3G bid, would it?

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:28

Jon Joe: Oct 19, 2011; I WAS INVESTIGATED AS SCUM BY DIVERTWIG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHITTY CUSTOM TITLE.

I made the same assumption derp did. Guess we wait on xopods to tell us otherwise?

edit: wait no it's DEFINITELY the way TNL said it is. Look at page 3 of the rules, how it explains how bidding works.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:30

derp: Jan 21, 2010; i got it this cant fail

Alright, Then i guess my bid was 5wheat and oil

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:32

Jon Joe: Oct 19, 2011; I WAS INVESTIGATED AS SCUM BY DIVERTWIG AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHITTY CUSTOM TITLE.

Playing a card, turning the bid into 6 wheat.

# ? Jan 27, 2013 08:36

The Ninth Layer: Jun 19, 2007; Timothy
"DESERT STORM"
Bradley

140 Pound Champ

6 Wheat, 6 Oil!

# ? Jan 27, 2013 10:55

Hal Incandenza: Feb 12, 2004

7 of EVERYTHING

What say you, winvirus?

# ? Jan 27, 2013 14:12

xopods: Oct 26, 2010

MOD CLARIFICATIONS

May I draw your attention to Page 3: "How Bidding Works."

A combo bid is a bid on multiple commodities, but must always be the same amount of each, for instance �Two Gold and Wheat�, or �Four of Everything�. These bids mean that the player is betting that there will be at least that many icons of each type. It is not permitted to bid different quantities of different commodities.

Emphasis mine.

(EDIT: Don't feel bad though. Whether they've read the rules or had me explain it (and even if I repeat it three times and ask if they've understood), 30-50% of first-time players screw this up in the first round. I don't know what I could have done in the rules to make this clearer... sometimes it's just the case that one rule in a game goes against what most people find intuitive, and it's just going to be something everyone does wrong their first game.)

Also, note that you don't have to raise the count when you add a commodity, but you may.

So e.g. Hal could have gone from "6 Oil and Wheat" to "6 of Everything," if he wanted to. But "7 of Everything" is also a legal bid.

xopods fucked around with this message at Jan 27, 2013 around 14:54

# ? Jan 27, 2013 14:33