Heroes’ Plunder for Gambling? I’m In!
Hey Slugfans!
The Rogues and Warriors deck from Gambling? I’m In! (GII) is one of the staples of SlugFest Staff road trips. We played a ton of games of chance throughout the trip to Gen Con and back home. We are always trying out new games and variants, and are proud to release yet another game for GII: Heroes’ Plunder!
Heroes’ Plunder
In Heroes’ Plunder, you are a member of a band of adventurers who are divvying up the loot from a recent quest. During the game, you will be passing piles of loot between players, taking one piece at a time for yourself. The player with the most lucrative sets of loot wins.
Order of Play:
- Wager
- Each player is dealt a hand of 8 cards from the Rogues and Warriors Deck.
- Each player picks one card from their hand and adds it face down to their pool.
- Each player passes their remaining hand to the left.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until players are passed a hand of exactly 2 cards.
- Each player picks one of these two cards, adds it to their pool, and then discards the second one face down to a common pile.
- Each player is then dealt a second hand of 8 cards from the Rogues and Warriors Deck.
- Repeat steps 3 through 6 passing to the right instead of to the left.
- Players reveal their pool of 14 cards and the winner is determined.
Scoring:
- The player with the highest scoring pool wins. Cards score points based on how well they combine with other cards in your hand.
- Tiebreaker: Rank
Rank Sets:
Players earn 1 point for each card belonging to a completed Rank Set. A Rank Set is complete if it has exactly as many cards in it as there are pips on its rank (1 for Warriors, 2 for Ladies, 3 for Bards and so on). It is possible to have multiple completed Rank Sets of the same rank (10 Rogues would be two complete Rank Sets).
Penalty:
Each set of cards of a given rank that is not part of a complete Rank Set reduces your total score by 1, regardless of how many cards are in that incomplete set. So, for example, 4 Rogues only causes you to lose 1 point.
It is possible to have both a complete Rank Set and an incomplete one for a given rank. So, for example, 7 Rogues would be one complete Rank Set worth 5 points and one incomplete set worth -1 point.
Color Sets:
Each card in your pool belonging to a rank with which you have scored AT LEAST ONE complete Rank Set can contribute to a Color Set. Score 3 points for each set of three colors you can build in each rank. (i.e. 2 blue Rogues, 2 red Rogues, and 2 green Rogues would score you 5 points for the Rank Set, -1 point for the incomplete set, and 6 more points for the two color sets of blue, red, and green).
Scoring Examples
In this example, only three of the five Bards score for a completed Rank Set, providing a total score of 3. If this pool had just one more Bard, the two extras would have scored for a second complete Rank Set.
Because there are two Bards that do not belong to a completed Rank Set, this pool suffers a penalty of -1 point. Notice that regardless of how many extra Bards there are in this pool, there is only one penalty point earned for the incomplete rank.
Because this pool contains at least one complete Rank Set of five Rogues, Rogues will score for color sets. There are two complete sets of three colors among the six Rogues so this pool earns 6 points for its color sets.
In this example, there is a complete Rank Set of Rogues (5 points), Bards (3 points) and Ladies (2 points) for a total of 10 points on Rank Sets. Among the Rogues, Bards and Ladies there are also four complete Color Sets earning the pool another 12 points. Unfortunately, there is also an extra Rogue, Lady and two Merchants making three incomplete Rank Sets for a total penalty of -3 points. This pool of cards is worth a total of 19 points.
Variants:
Dragon Cards
- A Dragon in your pool does not belong to any Rank Sets.
- A Dragon can be added to a Color Set of any rank. It counts as a card of that rank in that Dragon’s color.
- Dragons never cause you to take Penalty points.
Three Dragons
- The Three Dragons rule gives each dragon its own unique ability:
- The Red Dragon allows you to steal a non-Dragon card from another player’s pool. However, the stolen card may only come from a rank that has at least one incomplete Rank Set. Player’s may rearrange their Rank Sets after the Red Dragon’s Effect. A player that has no incomplete Rank Sets is immune to the Red Dragon! For example, you can take the sixth Rogue from a player’s pool.
- The Green Dragon counts as any rank for completing one Rank Set. For example, you can make a Rank Set of Rogues with 4 Rogues and the Green Dragon.
- The Blue Dragon allows you to score Color Sets using any combination of ranks. For example, you can make a Color Set with a Blue Rogue, Red Merchant, and Green Lady.
- The three dragons resolve in the following order: Red first, Green second and Blue last.
- Dragons never cause you to take Penalty points.