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Scriego’s Guide to Gambling

One of the new developments in Elanthia has been the implementation of Gaming Halls into the towns. This guide is only really geared toward the gaming hall in Icemule, because I have never gone to the gaming hall in Wehnimer. The hall in Icemule has a betting wheel with different odds for different payoffs. This guide should be helpful in increasing your winnings, but if I’ve learned one thing about the wheel it is that it can be very erratic... It giveth and it taketh away. The techniques in this guide have helped me to gamble successfully. At the current posting of this guide I have won about 350k without any kind of cheating, but with a little luck. I have seen over 1,000 spins on the wheel, and my observations are included later in this guide, but first, a little background on the wheel...

Each bet on the wheel costs 1,000 silvers. You bet by the command PLAY (moral). What are morals you say? Well, the morals you can bet on are Honor, Truth, Fidelity, Loyalty, Obedience, Courage and Foolishness. If you bet on a moral and it comes up on the wheel, you receive your 1k back and a payoff depending on the moral. The payoffs are as such.. Honor-1,000; Truth-5,000, Fidelity- 7,000; Loyalty- 10,000, Obedience- 25,000, Courage- 50,000, and Foolishness- 100,000 (yes I have hit this one ::beam::).

Now that you know how to play, what about the odds? I’m not completely sure how the wheel works, but I suspect it works on a die 100 roll. There is a 2:1 chance of hitting Honor (50%), a 5:1 chance of Truth (20%), a 7:1 for Fidelity (approx. 14%), 10:1 on Loyalty (10%), 25:1 on Obedience (4%), 50:1 on Courage (2%), and 100:1 on Foolishness (1%).. Now, a little about strategy..

When you first get into the wheel room, I recommend just playing Honor, or not betting at all. Wait until you can see the workings of the wheel and look for a few things. What do I look for you ask? Well, one of the key things is to see how honest Honor is playing. It should come up about one out of every two rolls. It is my observation that honor can be streaky.. I’ve seen it hit 13 times in a row, and not once for eight turns.. So first, figure out what honor is doing.. and wait for one of the other Morals to get ripe. What do I mean by ripe? Well, about every statistician from Wehnimer to Icemule will argue with me on this one, but it is my theory that after a certain amount of turns a moral is due. So, let’s say you’ve been playing a while and there hasn’t been a Fidelity on the wheel for 15 turns... It would be my opinion that it would be coming up pretty soon and would most likely bet it. At the same time though, you have to trust your instincts. There are two main problems with the above strategy..1- how long do you wait before playing one of the other morals and 2- how long do you keep playing that moral over and over until you hit it (how long do you stay on a sinking ship). Well, I can only offer my own strategies as far as this is concerned..

1) Remember when I said to watch honor? Well, this is another reason why.. it is my opinion that when honor is plentiful and there are lots coming up in a row, there is more space between Morals coming up. You may want to wait longer under these circumstances and maybe shorter if honor is scarce.

2) If I’ve been waiting for a moral coming up... let’s say there hasn’t been a Loyalty in around 20 turns, and I play it another ten turns and there is no Loyalty.. Well, then I re-evaluate the wheel. I look to see why it hasn’t come up.. Has there been a ton of honors in a row? and I look possibly for another play, because at this point I need to hit the loyalty to just break even. I also might start playing honor again, let it get a little more ripe, make some money back (Hopefully), and then go back to Loyalty if it still hasn’t come up.

Another thing to mention quickly is if you’re gonna take chances, make the payoff count.. you may not want to play Loyalty when it’s dry especially if something like Obedience is due as well.

3) Look at the whole picture. You may not want to play Loyalty, even if it hasn’t come up in a while, if when it did come up it hit three times in a row.. If I assume that the distribution over a number of rolls should about equal the odds, then this would mean that Loyalty (or any other moral) maybe isn’t due at that time..

Alright, the last few paragraphs outline my basic strategy as far as playing the odds. However, it is also my opinion that there are some common sense type tips I can give that, combined with the above strategy, will make you a good gambler.

1) NEVER, never, never, bet what you cannot afford to lose. If you need money or want to make money, the best way is to go out and kill critters. Gambling for me is only recreational, although I joke that I don’t have a gambling problem because I win.... LOSING!!, now that’s a gambling problem. (The truth is my character is an addict.. but I choose to role play him as a professional gambler. If I were playing a Cleric, now then I probably wouldn’t gamble.... that often..)

2) Always, Always, always quit while you’re ahead. Nothing makes you more depressed than winning a lot, being 40k up, then losing it all because you "Feel" a Courage is coming up.. I know, I’ve been there.

3) Trust your instincts. After you play the wheel as long as I have you develop this "Spidey Sense" for what is about to come up.. Lemme give you an example... Once I was playing with Menkar, a good friend of mine, and there hadn’t been a Courage in over 90 rolls.. so it’s due right. Well, we play that *&%@! thing for 30 straight turns and there is no courage. Menkar during this time ran out of money, then borrowed 30k from me.. Menkar left and hunted silverbacks, all while I continued to play. I was fed up with courage and had abandoned it.. Well, Menkar returns with a chest and I pick it for him.. He gets the last few rolls from me and then says confident as saying the sun will rise tomorrow.. "The next one is going to be a courage." He didn’t have enough money in his chest to place a 1,000 bet, so he runs to the pawnshop and sells the only thing he can.. his crystal amulet. He runs back, we both play Courage with about 30 seconds left, and sure enough.. it hits!! Also, the one time I hit Foolishness I kept playing it when it hadn’t shown in over 140 turns, got down to the last K I had on me, bet it and it hit.

4) The last thing I want to say as far as common sense is concerned is remember that it’s only money. I know that’s pretty strange to say when I’ve been telling stories of wealth right around the corner, but it’s true. The key to Gemstone is having fun, and if losing money is going to make you so mad you won’t be having fun, then don’t bet.

I guess that’s it, so get out there and make some money!!! I’d like to thank all the people who helped with this guide especially Menkar, Soulwyn, and Aldaberon. Thank you especially for not thumping me when I go crazy, do some dancing and jump around like a 12 year old when I win..

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