The Dog Days Concept

Dog Days was an idea I had for a series of themed games centering around various historical gambling games as the core mechanic. The idea came from a post on Story Games about Cho-Han, a dice game popular with the Yakuza and samurai of Japan.

Roleplaying games almost always include a randomization mechanic like dice or cards. This mechanic introduces chance into the tactics or story of the game. Playing most rpgs can be boiled down to gambling (via the randomization mechanic) with your character's stats or the player's narration rights. If so many rpgs involve 'gambling' anyway, why not base them around authentic gambling games to introduce a touch of theme, history, and realism? It works so well with Dust Devils...

Dog Days was to be a grand project involving many different settings using many different historical games as their base. Cho-Han would be used to tell samurai tales, Poker could tell gunslinger stories, and so on.

With Game Chef this year pushing me towards creating a nautical game, I'm considering the plausibility of Liar's Dice as a core mechanic. Being a bluffing game, it may be a fun way to introduce intrigue whether in the fiction or at the actual table. If I don't stick with pirates as a concept, I'll have to shelve this idea for later...