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Pazaak Basics


Amrekel

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Pazaak is a game introduced to players in the Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) series, which acts as predecessor to SWTOR. It was frequently found in cantinas, and is frequently used as a gambling game (but it can be played just for fun). In the KOTOR series, many of those who were best at Pazaak were heavily involved in underworld activities (smuggling, bounty hunting, spice running, etc.).

 

The mechanics of the game are fairly simple. Two players take turns drawing cards numbered 1 through 10, with the numbers adding to a “total” for each round. Each player starts the game with four playable cards that can change the total. These playable cards will have a number between 1 and 6, and will either be positive (adding the corresponding number to the total), negative (subtracting the corresponding number from the total), or plus/minus (the player can choose whether it is used to subtract or add the corresponding number from the total when playing the card). A player can have repeats in his/her deck (i.e. a player could potentially have four +1 cards for their playable cards). Once the card is played, it is discarded, and not replaced.

 

To determine these four cards, there are two approaches that the player may choose to take: LIMITED CHOICE and RANDOM GENERATION.

 

LIMITED CHOICE gives the player the ability to choose his/her cards, but presents a limitation – the player is limited to strictly positive or negative cards (no plus/minus cards). Therefore, their choices would be: -6, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, +6. Again, they may repeat cards, so a player could feasibly choose multiples of a certain card.

PROS: this approach gives the ability to control exactly what cards they have, allows a player to adopt a “standard deck” that they use for all games, and is quicker to come up with.

CONS: this approach gives the player no possibility of having the plus/minus cards; and as this game is a game of chance, there is no guarantee that certain choices will prove useful.

 

RANDOM GENERATION is determined strictly using rolls. For each card, there are two rolls. First, a /roll 3 to determine whether the card is positive, negative, or plus/minus. Second, a /roll 6 to determine the number on the card.

For the /roll 3, a result of 1 means it would be a positive (+) card, 2 means it would a negative (-) card, and 3 means it would be a plus/minus (±) card.

Therefore, the possible cards generated would be: -6, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, +6, ±1, ±2, ±3, ±4, ±5, ±6.

PROS: this approach allows the possibility to have flippable plus/minus cards (which the player may choose to use as either positive or negative as they see fit).

CONS: this approach does not guarantee you will get flippable plus/minus cards; a player’s cards via this approach will likely be different every time.

 

If a dealer is involved, then the dealer will be made aware of the cards of both players while the players will be ignorant of the other’s hand. The dealer would make sure that the players do not “make up” their cards in their hand as they go to gain an advantage. If no dealer is involved, then it is suggested that the players reveal to each other what their cards are, and thereby prevent each other from cheating.

 

To determine which player’s turn will be first in the first round, both players do a /roll 100. The higher roll will go first. After that, the players will alternate who starts the round (i.e. if player 1 starts the first round, then player 2 will start the second round, then player 1 for round three, then player 2 for round 4, etc.). Who begins a round is not affected by who wins the previous round.

 

Each turn begins with a draw (/roll 10). After each draw, a player has two choices to make in this order:

1 – to play (or not play) a card from their hand

2 – to “end turn” (meaning you will continue to receive draws), or to stand (finalize your total, with no possibility to draw more cards or play a card for the rest of this round)

 

The players’ goal for each round is to get a total of 20 or as close to 20 as possible without going over. A total of 21 or higher at the end of a turn (meaning the player either chooses to end their turn or stand) will result in a “bust” and lead to an automatic loss of the round. If one player stands at any total less than 20, then the opposing player has only to get to either a total of 20 or closer to 20 to win the round (i.e. if Player 1 stands at 18, Player 2 can win by standing at 19). If the round is a tie (i.e. Player 1 stands at 19, Player 2 stands at 19), then neither player is credited with a win, and a new round begins. If by drawing or playing a card, a player reaches a total of 20, the player automatically stands, as it would not make sense to do any further draws or plays.

 

To win the overall game (or match), a player needs to win three rounds. The first player to win three rounds is declared the winner of the match.

 

RULES:

1. Each turn starts with the drawing of a card (via /roll 10). You cannot play a card before you draw during your turn, or choose to stand at the beginning of a new turn.

2. You may play only ONE of your four playable cards per turn.

3. When choosing how to generate your four playable cards, you cannot mix the two approaches – you MUST either randomly generate all four cards, or choose from the limited selections all of your four cards.

4. If a round is tied, neither player is credited with the win. There is no limit to how many rounds are played – the game ends when one player wins a total of three rounds.

5. Even if both players use all four of their playable cards, there is no replacing them during the match.

 

ADAPTATIONS TO THE GAME FOR SWTOR

1. For those of you who played KOTOR, you may recognize that not all the cards a player could possess are represented. There is a reason for this: I am keeping the game as simple as possible. The specialized cards (such as the tiebreaker ±1 card, cards that changed the values of drawn cards, etc.) would be at the very least difficult to implement in this game without making it more complex than it needs to be. Remember – you would be the one totaling your score for a round, not a computer! If cards such as “flip 2s and 4s” were to be introduced, YOU would have to go back and do the math, meaning you would have to have remembered all your draws for that round. As well, introducing such specialized cards into the /roll system did not seem to work well – it made the option to randomly generate too appealing. Right now, you have four chances via random generation to get a “special” card – with each card having a one-third chance of producing a ± card. That potential advantage is not so overwhelming that everyone will choose it, nor so underwhelming that it would be quickly ignored. If further specialized cards were introduced by changing the /roll 3 to a /roll 4, with 4 being further specialized cards, the chance of a specialized card for random generation would now be one-half, which I felt would be too significant.

2. Again for those who played KOTOR, you may recall that there was a “rule of nine” – a player who had nine cards contributing to their total during one round without busting would automatically win. Here is why this is NOT implemented: in KOTOR, there were limited cards to be chosen. You were drawing from a deck with limited options – usually (as I understand it) there were four of each drawable card. This means that you could NOT have a sequence of 5 drawn cards with all 5 being the same number. However, with the SWTOR /roll system, that is a possibility (albeit minute). You could potentially have a high number of /roll 10s resulting in 1’s, thereby giving you the chance to get that rule of nine and win. Therefore, it would not work the way the rule was intended to work in KOTOR. As well, it would again require further monitoring on the players’ and dealer’s part – they would need to keep track of how many cards were drawn per round. I think keeping it simple in this case is appropriate.

 

For further examples, you can see another post I had made regarding Pazaak:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=992831

 

And a very amateur YouTube video I made so you can see the game in action:

 

 

If you are on the Star Forge server, I am helping host Pazaak tournaments and games from time to time. You may message me via discord (username Mahonical#2618). If you are on other servers and would like help hosting a set of Pazaak games, I would gladly assist - just let me know!

Edited by Amrekel
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