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ship captain crew

ship captain crew a dice game of drunken gambling

Theres a dice game called ship captain crew thats near to my heart.

It's a very simple game and it's easy to gamble on. There isn't a whole lot of strategy, but there isn't no strategy at all. It's mostly luck but not entirely luck. We used to play it all the time at a bar I used to frequent. It was great fun, some people seemed to be especially lucky and win more often than probability would suggest they should, yet it's not exactly something someone can cheat at if you're watching them play it (unless they are very skilled at slight of hand) so it's one of those things that tends to make think that luck is a real thing. It's the sort of game you can play while increasingly intoxicated just riding the wave of fate maybe you'll lose a dollar maybe you'll get $NumberOfPlayers dollars

wikipedia here

The game is simple. You need 5 dice and preferably a dice cup.

You can play with any number of players. 5ish is the best imo.

Each player bets an equal amount at the start of the round.
Each player takes turns rolling the dice.
Each player gets three rolls.
You cannot hold a dice like you would in yahtzee.
After each roll you set aside a six (if you have rolled one) a five (if you have rolled one) and a 4 (if you have rolled one) in that order
You can't get a four before a five, or a five before a six
Once you have your 6,5,4 you're remain dice are your points.
You can reroll your point dice if you have rolls remaining but you must re-roll both
The player with the most points after everyone rolls wins
In case of a tie everyone justs bets again and the pot grows

It sounds kinda dumb and simple, but it's so much fun watching the pot grow. I've seen the pot get into the 50 dollar neighborhood. Thats enough money to buy everyone playing round. Theres no limit to how many times in a row the game can be tied.

So I suddenly had the idea one night to make it a video game, I'm vaguely familiar with the pico 8 and I've been meaning to get better at lua, so I started writing it friday night and made a basic playable version today.

I hope to make it have some rpg type elements with stats like "Luck" that will improve your rolls, "guile" that could help you cheat (maybe taking a 4th roll with a percentage chance of being caught) and alcohol which I think would short term improve your luck but long term make it worse, and obviously too much alcohol will lead to you waking up with no money.

Anyway, try it out sometime, if you've got a group of people and 5 dice it's a great way to have fun betting a buck at a time.

My video game version works and is playable but its more fun with real people and real dice.

pico 8 cartridge

pico 8 web player

code (sorry it looks awful it was written in pico 8 on a tiny screen)