Leugner – a Dice Game from ’00


So, while Googling myself, I stumbled across an old site of mine. It was a GeoCities site that lasted for a portion of 2000. I was stationed in Hawai’i at the time and was role-playing almost daily. Because of that, I had created quite a bit of things for D&D 3rd Edition. The site contained some reference sheets and monsters I created, a dice roller that I programmed, and to my surprise, a game I designed! Well, to be fair, I co-designed it apparently. The idea was to have a real life dice game that was a quick and simple game to simulate in-game gambling. We used it quite a bit if my memory serves correctly. I’m going to copy/paste it here:

Originally posted: October 17,2000

Leügner

Leügner is a simple dice game that I detailed for gambling purposes in Role Playing games. I have always found as a DM that my players enjoy a bit of ‘dicing’ in the Inns and Taverns but never really had a simple system that could be played IRL and directly relate to the IC game. This one is what I have come up with. Simple, yet effective for betting. The basic concept was inspired by Monadin Lichmaster (aka Red Dragon), from the Wizards of the Coast chatroom. I simply renamed it (he had called it Talda) and put it in writing… along with the betting system.

Leügner
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Leügner is a dice game played with two or more players (generally 5). In order to play the game, two six-sided dice and a dice-cup or small box is needed.

*The value of Silver is used for ease of explanation throughout this document. To play the game with different values of money, simply replace the occurrences of Silver with another coin type (Or even Real money if you want to play in real life)*

There are two basic ways to roll the dice in Leügner. One way is to cover the Cup with your hand and shake it, setting it down, finishing the roll. The second possibility is to shake the cup and placing it upside down on the playing surface, letting the dice fall on the playing surface below the cup.

Step 1 – Ante
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To begin the game, each player antes 1 Silver for each person playing (i.e. 5 Silver would be anted if 5 people were playing). After ante has been paid, randomly determine who will be the first Shooter. After the Shooter has been determined, the game can begin with him rolling the dice.

Step 2 – The Shooters Shot
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After the Shooter rolls, he secretly looks at the dice and determines his Shot. To score his Shot, he reads the number the dice have rolled with the highest number first (i.e. A roll of a 5 and a 3 would be a 53). By this system, the lowest Shot would be an 11 and the highest a 66. The only other possible Shot (which coincidentally is the highest Shot) is if one die lands on top of the other, which is called Leügner. After determining his Shot, the Shooter calls it out so all other players can hear (of course, lying about his Shot is part of the game).

Step 3 – Leügner
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After the Shot is called, the players, starting with the player right of the Shooter and proceeding in a counter-clockwise order have the opportunity to call Leügner. Calling Leügner means that the player believes the Shooter is lying. If a player calls Leügner, the Shooter must reveal his Shot. If he was indeed lying, each player that didn’t call Leügner gets 1 Silver from the Shooters ante, and the player whom called Leügner gets 2 Silver from the Shooters ante. If a player calls Leügner, and the Shooter was not lying, then the player looses his anti to the Shooter and cannot continue to play for this Shot.

Step 4 – The Bet
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After all players have been given the option to call Leügner, the Shooter has the option to up the bet. This can be any value of money he desires. Starting with the player on his right and again proceeding in a counter-clockwise direction, each player has the option to See his bet (match it with an equal ammount of money) or Drop. If the player Drops, the Shooter takes the players ante. If a player does not have enough money to See the Shooters bet, but wants to play, he can go All In (bets all the money he has).

Step 5 – Play
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After all bets are placed, play begins with the Player to the right of the Shooter, and again proceeds in a counter-clockwise direction. The players are each given one opportunity to beat the Shooters roll. Players’ rolls are revealed immediately after rolling and are thus not given the chance to Leügner. If a player beats the Shooters roll, he wins all antes and bets remaining on the table. Otherwise, if no Player beats the Shooter, the Shooter has won and he wins all antes and bets remaining on the table.

Continue Play
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If the Shooter wins the round, he remains the Shooter for the following round. If a Player wins, he becomes the Shooter and begins the next round. Begin the next round with Step 1 – The Ante.

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