“Pull up a seat and cast the runes.”
- heard at the table, more often than not
RunesGame
A dice-poker table, played with cast rune stones instead of cards. Ante up, roll, bet on what you’re holding, choose what to keep and what to throw back, bet again - twice - and show your hand. Simple to learn. Easy to lose.
Finding the Table
Runes is played at the Ruston Inn and Tavern at Ban Jal. Walk up to it and you’ll be told how to get seated.
Sitting Down
/runesgame join- takes a seat and deals you in for the table’s buy-in, paid straight out of the Iron Notes and Nuggets you’re carrying (any mix that adds up works; you’ll get change back if you overpay). You have to be standing at the table to do this./runesgame deal-in- buy back in if you’ve busted out while still seated, without having to leave and rejoin./runesgame leave- cash out whatever’s left in your stack and free your seat. Only works between hands - you can’t walk away mid-hand with your cards in the air.
Joining while a hand’s already running doesn’t interrupt it - you take your seat and get dealt in at the start of the next one.
The table seats three at a time - you, one other player, and a house player who’s always at the table filling out the game. If the house player busts out, a fresh one sits down before the next hand.
Leaving the Table’s Ground Forfeits Your Stack
This is the one rule worth remembering before you sit down: /runesgame leave is the only safe way to walk away with your money. If you physically leave the table’s area for any other reason - wandering off, knocked back, anything - while you’re seated, you forfeit your entire stack immediately. Not just your bet in the current hand - everything sitting in front of you, gone into the pot. There’s no grace period and nothing is returned.
If you want out, use the command. Don’t just walk.
How a Hand Plays Out
- Ante- everyone at the table pays in before the stones are cast.
- Initial roll- all 5 of your stones are cast.
- Betting round.
- Hold or reroll- privately choose which stones to keep; everything else gets recast.
- Betting round.
- Hold or reroll, again- one more chance to shape your hand.
- Final betting round.
- Showdown- best hand still standing takes the pot.
Each phase pauses for a short beat before the next thing opens up - the table has its own pace, it isn’t an instant menu.
If your stack hits zero mid-hand, you’re auto-folded and watch the rest of the hand play out. Once the hand ends, you’ll get the choice to deal back in or leave.
The Stones
Every stone lands on one of six symbols, ranked low to high:
Stone → Wave → Flame → Storm → Blood → Wyrm
They’re not equally likely. Stone turns up often; Wyrm is genuinely rare. A hand full of Wyrm is a real occasion, not just a lucky roll of an ordinary die.
SEE ALSO
Hand Rankings (low to high)
- Pair- two stones matching.
- Two Pair- two separate pairs.
- Three of a Kind- three stones matching.
- Rune Circle- five stones in an unbroken run (Stone-Wave-Flame-Storm-Blood, or Wave-Flame-Storm-Blood-Wyrm). Five different symbols alone isn’t enough - they have to run in sequence.
- Full Set- three of a kind plus a pair.
- Four of a Kind- four stones matching.
- True Casting- all five stones the same symbol. The rarest hand at the table, and rarer still the higher the symbol.
Nothing above? Highest symbol wins, same as any tiebreak.