Thoth's Bluff

Death Match 9: Thoth's Bluff

Thoth, the god of knowledge, once gambled with the moon. He bargained for five extra days of the year and won, allowing four more gods to be born during those precious few days…

In this game, players will roll dice, rig them, and then spend them on actions in order to defeat their opponent.

SUMMARY

Players begin with 45 health, and lose health throughout the game. A player wins if their opponent's health is 0 or less. In the case of both players being dead, the player with more health wins. If this is still a tie, another 3 rounds are played, repeated until there is a winner.

This game is split into rounds. Each round has three phases: A rolling phase, in which players roll their dice (and optionally, choose to bluff), a rigging phase, in which players rig their dice (and optionally, challenge to declare their opponent was bluffing), and an action phase, in which players submit their dice to various actions.

ROLLING PHASE

During the rolling phase, players roll their dice, and may also choose to bluff their dice to get exactly the values they want.

This game features 5 dice, for the 5 platonic solids: d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20. You can also refer to these as “Tetra”, “Cube”, “Octo”, “Dodec”, “Ico”. Each player has their own set of 5 dice.

At any point, each die is in one of three possible states: either unrolled, rolled, or removed. An unrolled die has no value; a rolled die has a value between 1 and its maximum rollable value, and a removed die is currently not in play. All dice start out unrolled. Note that rolls persist through rounds if the die is not used in the action phase, so you can use it in the next round without rerolling.

During the rolling phase, you may roll any amount of your dice, in any order. You will be told what the die rolled (a randomly chosen number between 1 and its maximum value).

In addition, you may choose to bluff dice. To do so, you choose the die and the roll that you want to receive on it, and you will automatically receive that roll. However, once you start bluffing, you cannot go back to normal rolling.

At the end of the rolling phase, both players are told the order that each player rolled their dice and the values. (Bluffed dice will appear as if they were rolled normally.)

RIGGING PHASE

During the rigging phase, players change the values on their dice. They also may choose to challenge their opponent and potentially recover removed dice.

The rigging phase utilizes rigging tools. There are two rigging tools available each rigging phase. At the start of each round, players are told which rigging tools will be available for this round and the subsequent two rounds.

Each rigging tool uses two dice: The primary die, which will have its value altered, and the secondary die, which may or may not affect how that value is altered, depending on the specific tool. The secondary die will become unrolled after it is used in the tool.

Both dice must be rolled at the time of rigging. There is no restriction on the number of times you rig with a single tool. Note that dice can only have values that can be naturally obtained by rolling; e.g. a d6 cannot have a value of 7. Some tools may also include the word wrapping in them, which means that the value will wrap around. For example, on a d20, with wrapping, 1-1=20, and 17+5=2.

In addition to rigging, you may choose to challenge during this phase. When doing so, you declare that your opponent bluffed during the most recent rolling phase. To challenge, you must wager a single rolled die, (note this happens after the rigging phase, so you may not challenge and wager a die that you used as the secondary die while rigging).

If your challenge is correct, then your opponent’s corresponding die is removed, and all dice that your opponent bluffed on their previous rolling phase become unrolled. If your challenge is incorrect, then the die you wagered becomes unrolled.

Finally, in this phase, you can recover removed dice. To do so, you must have a double (two equal rolled values) after both rigging and challenges are processed. For each double that you have, you may set one of your removed dice back to unrolled, and you can start rolling it again the next round. Note that it is possible that you actually unlock fewer dice than you expect (if, say, you are challenged successfully), so if you have multiple dice removed, submit a priority list of the removed dice and you will recover as many as possible. You cannot recover a die that was just removed through a challenge in the current rigging phase.

At the end of this round, challenges are revealed to both players as follows: If a player challenges and was correct, it is announced which dice were removed or set to unrolled as a result of the challenge. If the challenge was incorrect, it is announced which die was wagered and lost. Rigging and recovery are not revealed.

ACTION PHASE

During the action phase, players submit their dice to various actions to deal damage to their opponent.

There are always three actions available. The short action uses 1 die, lasts for 1 round, and deals 1 damage. The medium action uses 2 dice, lasts for 2 rounds, and deals 2 damage. The long action uses 3 dice, lasts for 3 rounds, and deals 3 damage. At the start of each round, the actions for this round and the subsequent two rounds are all revealed.

You submit your rolled dice to actions; you cannot submit a single die to multiple actions, but you can submit multiple dice to a single action if you wish. You cannot submit more dice than is allowed by the action. Note that certain actions may have restrictions on which dice can be used. All dice used become unrolled at the end of the phase.

Actions are processed when their time is up (this is every round for a short action, et cetera). At this time, the values submitted by each player are compared, and the winner deals damage to their opponent. If a player doesn’t complete an action, then they cannot win, unless their opponent also doesn’t complete the action, in which case it is a tie. In the case of a tie, both players deal damage.

At the end of the action phase, the values submitted to each action by each player are revealed. The specific dice used are not revealed. For each action whose time is up, the winning player is revealed, as well as how much health each player currently has.

ADMINISTRATION

Players will get 1 minute per phase. During the rolling phase, players will be rolling in real time (using a bot). Players are not allowed to use any automated programs, but are allowed to take notes.

Clarification: Two uncompleted actions would tie; a completed action will always win against an uncompleted action.

BOT COMMANDS

/roll dX -- Roll the chosen die.

/bluff dX Y -- Bluff that die X rolled the value Y.

Examples:

/roll d6 -- Roll your d6.

/bluff d8 7 -- Bluff that your d8 rolled a 7.