Dragon Poker
The most popular game to play in taverns, on long travels, or juts when bored is Dragon Poker. The game is structured like regular poker but with a few changes.
The suits are replaced with colors of chromatic dragons Red, Blue, Geen, and White. But there is also a fifth suit Black, this leads to much more interesting hands. The cards are numbered from High Dragon Priest, a replacement for the ace and not part of any one color, then 1-10 the, Wyrmling, Young, Adult, and Ancient. Yes there are five face cards per suits, this is why a Dragon Poker deck contains 87cards not 52. The extra two cards are filled by two Shadow dragons who act a wild cards.
The cards are often depicted as dragon priests with the number in the corner. The dragons are the life cycle of each color, Images taken from Volo's Guide to Dragons. Some special decks have been made with moving images, with the more powerful hand attacking the weaker hand until the winner is revealed.
There are also special hands one can have in addition to the regular hands. A clutch means having all 5 Wyrmlings, a Flight is all 5 Young dragons, a Wing means all Adult dragons, and a Tiamat means having all five Ancient dragons. The last one is named after the evil god of Chromatic dragons Tiamat and is the highest hand in the game being a royal flush.
Other special hands are a Coven meaning all High Priest cards. A Teacher or Baby Sitter meaning two or more Wyrmlings and one or more Priest, this is in-between three of a kind and four of a kind. A parent meaning one Adult dragon and the same color Wyrmlings, this is better than two of a kind but worse than three of a kind. And the ever popular Bad Influence which is both Shadow Dragons and a Wyrmling, this hand is worse than everything except high card and has the special rule that it can beat a Tiamat and nothing else.
This game is so popular that legislation has been instituted to curb the conflict that inevitably arise from its play. In The Yawning Portal rules about betting amounts are strictly enforced as to not have bands of adventurers fighting over cards. In Waterdeep itself laws about cheating are in effect, thirty gold or a tenday in jal for convicted cheaters.
The suits are replaced with colors of chromatic dragons Red, Blue, Geen, and White. But there is also a fifth suit Black, this leads to much more interesting hands. The cards are numbered from High Dragon Priest, a replacement for the ace and not part of any one color, then 1-10 the, Wyrmling, Young, Adult, and Ancient. Yes there are five face cards per suits, this is why a Dragon Poker deck contains 87cards not 52. The extra two cards are filled by two Shadow dragons who act a wild cards.
The cards are often depicted as dragon priests with the number in the corner. The dragons are the life cycle of each color, Images taken from Volo's Guide to Dragons. Some special decks have been made with moving images, with the more powerful hand attacking the weaker hand until the winner is revealed.
There are also special hands one can have in addition to the regular hands. A clutch means having all 5 Wyrmlings, a Flight is all 5 Young dragons, a Wing means all Adult dragons, and a Tiamat means having all five Ancient dragons. The last one is named after the evil god of Chromatic dragons Tiamat and is the highest hand in the game being a royal flush.
Other special hands are a Coven meaning all High Priest cards. A Teacher or Baby Sitter meaning two or more Wyrmlings and one or more Priest, this is in-between three of a kind and four of a kind. A parent meaning one Adult dragon and the same color Wyrmlings, this is better than two of a kind but worse than three of a kind. And the ever popular Bad Influence which is both Shadow Dragons and a Wyrmling, this hand is worse than everything except high card and has the special rule that it can beat a Tiamat and nothing else.
This game is so popular that legislation has been instituted to curb the conflict that inevitably arise from its play. In The Yawning Portal rules about betting amounts are strictly enforced as to not have bands of adventurers fighting over cards. In Waterdeep itself laws about cheating are in effect, thirty gold or a tenday in jal for convicted cheaters.
Variants
>Three Dragon Poker where one can only use three colors and no more, except for four of a kind. This was created to curtail ridiculous games and make it easier to play without having to deal with tracking as many cards.
>Daggerford Holdem was created when dealers started to complain about sore wrists from dealing large five card hands. Each player gets two cards and the Flop of five cards was introduced to give more verity, the players can still only use five out of the seven cards though.
>Flight Poker in which the deck is split into its respective colors and everyone is dealt one of each. Created to make the game move faster and as a byproduct got rid of flushes in their entirety.
History of Dragon Poker
The game of dragon poker was first reported to be played by a King of the Imaskar nearly three millennia ago around −2500 DR. It spread to the neighboring kingdoms and became a staple game throughout the Sword Coast. The first manger change in the game came in -1602 DR when General Matick, creator of the spell General Matick's Missile which through generations of corrupting became the spell Magic Missile, instituted a army wide set of rules for Dragon Poker as to dissuade cheating by changing the rules. This was the first time the game was standardized. Over the next two millennia the game has changed little other than better artwork, a few house rules which became standard like the Bad Influence, and years of rulings to help flesh out disagreements. The most recent thing to happen was the introduction of animated cards by Tym Waterdeep Limited in 1457.
>Three Dragon Poker where one can only use three colors and no more, except for four of a kind. This was created to curtail ridiculous games and make it easier to play without having to deal with tracking as many cards.
>Daggerford Holdem was created when dealers started to complain about sore wrists from dealing large five card hands. Each player gets two cards and the Flop of five cards was introduced to give more verity, the players can still only use five out of the seven cards though.
>Flight Poker in which the deck is split into its respective colors and everyone is dealt one of each. Created to make the game move faster and as a byproduct got rid of flushes in their entirety.
The game of dragon poker was first reported to be played by a King of the Imaskar nearly three millennia ago around −2500 DR. It spread to the neighboring kingdoms and became a staple game throughout the Sword Coast. The first manger change in the game came in -1602 DR when General Matick, creator of the spell General Matick's Missile which through generations of corrupting became the spell Magic Missile, instituted a army wide set of rules for Dragon Poker as to dissuade cheating by changing the rules. This was the first time the game was standardized. Over the next two millennia the game has changed little other than better artwork, a few house rules which became standard like the Bad Influence, and years of rulings to help flesh out disagreements. The most recent thing to happen was the introduction of animated cards by Tym Waterdeep Limited in 1457.
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