Three-Dragon Ante for 4e

For those who don’t know, Three-Dragon Ante is supposed to be a card game used in actual D&D worlds, including Eberron, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

I know that they’re coming out with an expansion to Three-Dragon Ante, Emperor’s Gambit, and there will probably be rules for playing the games in 4e, but I found 4e rules to them from Drew Spencer at BoardGameGeek.com. You can see the original post here.

“With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the rules presented for using skills as special abilities when playing Three-Dragon Ante in character are now out of date. I present the following modifications:

Withhold Funds
“One, two… hey, barkeep, more drinks over here… four, five.”
Bluff vs. Passive Insight
When paying 2 or more gold to another player, pay 1 fewer gold.

Under Pressure
“When things get tense, I’m at my best.”
Streetwise vs. DC 15
Whenever you ante, unless another player’s hoard has less gold than yours, pay 1 fewer gold to the stakes.

Grant Favor
“This could work out for everyone.”
Diplomacy vs. Will Defense
Before your turn this round, if you are the leader, you may choose another player to be the leader this round instead.

Intimidate
“Don’t even think about it.”
Intimidate vs. Will Defense
As long as you and any other player tie for the strongest flight, you can’t be chosen as the opponent with the strongest flight.

Sleight of Hand
“I’m just lucky sometimes.”
Stealth vs. Passive Perception*
After you discard the top card of the deck while buying cards, you may discard a second card from the top of the deck. If you do, pay the second card’s strength in gold to the stakes instead of the first card’s strength, even if it’s higher.

Read Face
“You can hide your cards but not your face”
Perception vs. Reflex Defense
When an opponent plays his or her second card, if both cards are the same color dragon, you may look at his or her hand before any powers trigger.

Snatch Gold
“If no one sees it, it’s not cheating”
Thievery vs. Passive Perception*
After you steal gold from the stakes with a card’s power or a strength flight, if the stakes have 2 or more gold, you may steal 1 more gold from the stakes.

Wild Card
“Trust me, I know exactly what I’m talking about.”
This special ability does not use a skill check. You may use it only if you are a dragonborn, half-dragon, or full dragon.
Once each game, if you played a mortal this turn, you may count the mortal as the third dragon of any color only to complete a color flight.

These are all just modifications of the abilities mentioned in the Three-Dragon Ante rulebook, only which skills are used and what they roll against are modified.

* Roll vs. the highest passive skill of all opponents, excluding any opponents who would not obstruct whatever shenanigans you’re trying.”

End of repost from boardgamegeek.com

Now, of course, if you were to fail your roll on, say, Snatch Gold or Withold Funds, whichever NPCs your playing against would probably notice, and won’t take kindly to your attempting to cheat them. It would be a great opportunity for a fight to break out, for example. If you use these rules, let me know!