Office #30, Tuesday

[suitablyheroic]

You could always tell by the loud music roaring through the halls that Atton was in for the day. If you were a Force sensitive, you might even be able to tell by the vast Force abuse going on in his office right now.

Of course, you could also just listen for the sound of darts hitting paper and quiet muttering about stupid droids and various

Comments

[nuclear_snide]

Clearly someone as grouchy as Atton needed an argument, then!

"I see the music's gone from bad to worse." Bob walked through the door and eyed the poster. "What did that robot ever do to you?"

[suitablyheroic]

"Besides cheat at pazaak and get everyone in trouble? And steal my ship?" Atton asked.

Atton, T3 hadn't stolen your ship. You even knew that.

[nuclear_snide]

"Fair enough; I'd probably throw things at someone who stole my ship, too." Damn it, so much for an argument. "What's pazaak?"

[suitablyheroic]

Damn it. So much for an argument.

"It's a card game," Atton said, dropping the latest dart to his desk. What? It was weird letting it float while he had Mr. Incorporeal visiting.

[nuclear_snide]

Bob wouldn't mind the floating, but he might be jealous. Hey, they could argue about it!

"Never heard of it. Is it one of your weird space things, or one of those 'kids these days' things I should say I disapprove of?"

[suitablyheroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. "Okay, one, it's not a 'weird space thing'," he said, "It's not my problem your world is completely backward. And two, yes, it's a card game from my galaxy."

He pulled a pazaak card out of his pocket and threw it onto the desk.

[nuclear_snide]

"You should've seen it a thousand years ago." Bob leaned close to peer at the card. "Chance, skill, or both?"

[suitablyheroic]

"Both," Atton said, shrugging lightly. "It's a little like your Earth game Blackjack, in that you play until someone hits 21, or you fold and see who's closest to 21. The skill comes in building your own personal deck and knowing when to put what card down."

[nuclear_snide]

"You don't all use the same deck?" Bob asked.

[suitablyheroic]

"There's a main deck, for both," Atton said, putting down another card to symbolize that. "Every turn, every player draws one card from the main deck. But they start off the game with four randomly drawn cards from their personal side deck in their hand, too. So after you draw, you can choose whether to put down one of your side deck cards, or go on to the next turn."

He shrugged. "So if your side deck is all -1's, you're not very good at this game."

[nuclear_snide]

"But then couldn't you just start the game with a winning hand?" Bob asked.

[suitablyheroic]

"No, because the four cards you get from your side deck, you have to pick randomly, unless you're cheating," Atton said. "Plus, you always have to get that card from the main deck every turn. Front-loading your deck with +10s or +9s seems like a great idea, but then you're pretty much screwed if the first main deck card you draw is a 3 and the next one is, say, a ten."