Gambling In Dungeons and Dragons

Gambling in Dungeons and Dragons is a past time enjoyed by humans and humanoids alike. Games of chance have existed since the dawn of time. Even goblins and orcs like to gamble on occasion. Of course…..their games tend to be a little bloodier.

Gambling in 1st Edition AD&D

Gary Gygax certainly understood that games of chance would necessarily exist in a fantasy world like Dungeons and Dragons. He made an entire appendix on this subject in the 1st Edition Dungeon Masters Guide. Pages 215-216 cover several games that might be commonly played in your realm. These games could easily be used in 5th Edition as well.

Craps – This game is the same as played in the real world today. A shooter rolls 2D6. An initial roll of 7 or 11 wins. An initial roll of 2, 3 or 12 automatically loses. With further rolls the shooter is trying to match the point set on the first roll. If that number is met then the shooter wins. If a seven is rolled before that point is met again the shooter loses. Side bets are made on various other potential rolls.

Knuckle Bones – humanoids such as orcs and goblins love this game. This is a craps type of game with the object of rolling the highest total.

Slots – While the fancy mechanical slot machines found in Las Vegas would not be found in a fantasy realm there is still the possibility of a magical one. Such a slot might pay out on different types of rolls. Three eight sided dice would be rolled each pull of the one armed bandit. The type of icons that show up can be made up by the DM. My suggestions might be dragons, devils, demons, various monsters, etc. There is also the possibility that some permutations might have a magical effect as a payout and not just a cash payment.

Some possibilities might include:

  • Changes in gender
  • Changes in statistics upwards or downwards
  • Changes in experience levels upwards or downwards
  • Changes in vital statistics such as hit points
  • Magical effects that are beneficial or harmful

Payouts on the slots involving cash might be as follows:

6 6 6 Naturally this might be a good one for a really negative effect but the DMG suggests 24-1 payout

8 8 8 This should probably be the max payout. DMG says 100-1

7 7 7 50- 1

5 5 5 20-1

4 4 4 16-1

3 3 3 14-1

2 2 2 12-1

1 1 1 8-1

6 6 8 15-1

6 6 7 12-1

6 6 5 10-1

6 6 4 8-1

6 6 3 6-1

6 6 2 4-1

6 6 1 2-1

The DMG suggests that the following symbols correspond to each number:

1 Lemon

2 Orange

3 Bar

4 Bell

5 Plum

6 Cherries

7 Anchor

8 Crown

Dice Racing – Horse racing could be simulated with dice and a checker board using the pieces as horses. Dice are rolled for each horse using a six sided dice to see how many steps the horse runs that turn. The first horse to make it around the board wins.

Blackjack – Using cards the players play the real world game of 21. I won’t bother going into the rules of that game here as it is universally known.

A few other games of chance were mentioned in the DMG but those games are not of much interest. Other games could, of course, be invented.

Gambling in Dungeons and Dragons 5E

Again 5E rules seemed to avoid this topic like the plague. Why? Who knows. But others have suggested some possible gambling rules for 5E. But, to be perfectly honest, there is no reason that those 1st Edition games of chance could not be used in 5E. They clearly could.

One alternative suggestion was made regarding some potential games available in D&D. Those games are found in this link:

Gambling Games for Taverns

Games of Chance

Gambling in Dungeons and Dragons is inevitable. Sooner or later your players will want a chance to win money when they visit a tavern. Of course there are other potential games of chance that could be used in a Tavern. Darts comes to mind. Arm wrestling. Rat racing. Perhaps even fights between patrons in a pit for the entertainment of all. There are lots of possibilities.

Some gentlemen playing knuckle Bones or Craps

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3 Replies to “Gambling In Dungeons and Dragons”

  1. I would like to know more about Knuckle Bones and how to play it. As for Horse racing/Dice racing, I like how the race is shown to the players a little bit at a time rather than having the result of the race determined with a single roll of the dice. However, I real horse racing, some horses are faster than others or have a better winning record than others and so the people running the track offer different odds for the different horses. So the trick is to make the best educated guess as to which horse will win. I wish there was a way to simulate this.

    1. In 1st edition the game is describe on page 215 of the DMG. The description of the game, however, is short and probably inaccurate. It states that the object is to roll the highest total and it is similar to craps. So I would assume that two dice are rolled and then totaled. It then states that a variant allows a second roll but then the opponents are likewise entitled to roll again.

      Not particularly descriptive or helpful. A search on the web gives me this link which describes a game not involving dice at all but with five small objects which appear similar to dice. Knucklebones Wikipedia another link demonstrates a 5th edition version of this same game as suggested by a reader on reddit 5E Knucklebones suggestion. I hope this helps. I personally like the idea of lower minions playing the game but do not generally offer this for the players to use. I prefer craps since I understand that game well enough. I have also offered a slot variant to my players with some magical payouts for rare pulls.

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