Three-Dragon Ante
| Three-Dragon Ante | |
|---|---|
 Several Three-Dragon Ante cards, showing card faces and powers. | |
| General information | |
| Type: | Card Game |
| Rules | |
| Value: | 1 gp |
| Weight: | Negligible |
| Publishing | |
| First published: | Age of Worms |
Three-Dragon Ante or 3DA is both a physical, real-world card game and an in-world game played by PCs. It is intended played as a game in its own right or as an element in a role-playing campaign. The game is a combination of luck and skill, and blends concepts from traditional card games such as poker, hearts, and rummy.
It is played in many taverns across the Flanaess, including the City of Greyhawk,[1] Diamond Lake, and Alhaster.[2]
Played across all levels of society, the game is sometimes called copper dragons or three-copper when played by those who can only afford the stakes in copper pieces, as well as golds or plats when played by adventurers and aristocrats who can afford to play with gold and platinum coins. Merchants and crafters are more likely to play with silver.[3]
Description
The dedicated deck of Three-Dragon Ante consists of eighty cards. Of those, seventy are standard dragon cards, divided in ten suits of seven cards, each representing one type of chromatic or metallic dragon. The remaining ten cards depict other types of creatures, which included stronger dragon cards, draconic deities such as Bahamut and Tiamat, and non-draconic creatures, collectively called "mortals" in the game. The many existing variants of the game mainly differ in the choice of those additional cards.[4]
The game consists of rounds called "gambits" which involve betting and building sets of cards that compete with one another. The first phase of the gambit is a round of betting, or "ante", when players plac bets determined by random card draws on the stakes at the center of the table. It then proceeds to the second phase, when players take turns placing cards in front of them to form "flights". At the end of three rounds, the player with the strongest flight collects the stakes. In addition, certain cards grant special moves whose effects could shape a single play or the dynamics of the entire gambit.[5]
Variants
Three-Dragon Ante is played in many different ways, most of which diverge only in the way the additional ten cards are chosen or which are revealed.
- Druid's Party —the "Druid" card is added automatically, instead of being drawn randomly along with other Mortals and Legendary Dragons.[6]
- Pick'em—Mortals and Legendary Dragons are chosen by the players instead of chosen randomly by being drawn facedown.[6]
- Show'em—the Mortals and Dragons are shown to the players when drawn, instead of being simply added to the deck.[6]
- Among friends—The standard way of drawing Mortals and Legendary Dragons face down, shuffling them into the deck unseen. It is called this because no one is worried about cheaters placing cards into the deck.[6]
- Traditional set—played with only the ten classic Mortals cards, instead of drawing ten from additional optional Mortals and Legendary Dragons.[6]
- Game-and-a-half—playing a game which takes longer, by starting with more gold (or copper) in their horde.[6]
Cost
A set of Three-Dragon Ante is typically sold for 1gp.[7][8][9]
History
Appearances
Three-Dragon Ante has been mentioned by name in Greyhawk as being in played in parlors across the Flanaess. In addition, Three-Dragon Ante has been specifically noted in places like Diamond Lake and the Free City of Greyhawk. It was referred to as commonly played in the adventure Spire of Long Shadows (2006), with games held at the All-Seeing Eye (inn) in the village of Magepoint on the shore near Tenser's Fortress of Unknown Depths.[2]
A night of playing Three-Dragon Ante games is the focus of Luck of the Draw (2006). The adventurers encounter Sirius Regulan at the Black Dragon Inn and continue playing Three-Dragon Ante at his residence.
A Three-Dragon Ante set makes a minor appearance in Lost Laboratry of Kwalish (2018), being in a personal treasure stash, hidded inside a hidden compartment of the furninshings of a monks cell. It is a magically enchanted deck, "with one card enchanted to appear as whatever specific card its owner commands. This magic works only 25 percent of the time, but the deck is worth 500 gp to any serious gambler who doesn’t mind the risk."[10] A dice-method of resolving a game of TDA is included if a physical TDA deck is not present.[11]
In fifth edition, a TDA tournament is featured in Keys from the Golden Vault (2023), in "The Sytgian Gambit" (a 2nd-level adventure). The Grand Minauros Invitational is held at the Afterlife Casino (in the Nine Hells.[12] in which "a gambler who wasn't invited to participate in the three-dragon ante tournament, hires the rivals to steal the [trophy]."[13]
There have also been Three-Dragon Ante sets mentioned or appearing in other fifth edition adventures, not directly related to Greyhawk, such as Book of Many Things, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Vecna: Eve of Ruin, Wild Beyond the Witchlight, Tomb of Annihilation, Storm King's Thunder, Desecnt Into Avernus, Waterdeep:Dragon Hesit. Candlekeep Mysteries,
Publishing History
Rob Heinsoo designed the base game and both later editions. The original Three-Dragon Ante was published by Wizards of the Coast in November 2005 (ISBN 0-7869-4072-7). There have been two additional updates adding more cards and different card abilitites: Emperor's Gambit (April 2010) which added additional dragon types, and the Legendary Edition (2019) which added more "Mortals" cards.
Artists for the original edition included Mia Brooks, Craig Phillips, and Trish Yochum. The Legendary edition was illustrated by Olga Drebas, Brian Lee, and Craig Phillips.
In fifth edition, a Three-Dragon Ante deck is listed in the "Equipment" sections of the Basic Rules (2014) and Player's Handbook (2015) for 1gp. It is also listed in the same chapter of the Free Rules (2024) and Player's Handbook (2024) for 1gp.
External links
Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.
- Three-Dragon Ante at RPGgeek.com.
- Three-Dragon Ante: Legendary Edition Rulebook at Wizkids.com—official rulebook.
- Three-Dragon Ante at Wikipedia. (for gameplay and card description)
References
Notes
Citations
- ↑ Luck of the Draw (2006) , p.4.
- ↑ a b "Spire of Long Shadows". Dungeon #130 (Jan 2006), p.63
- ↑ Three-Dragon Ante: Legendary Edition, Rulbook, p.15.
- ↑ Three-Dragon Ante: Legendary Edition, Rulebook, p.4,14.
- ↑ Three-Dragon Ante: Legendary Edition, Rulebook, p.3,6.
- ↑ a b c d e f Three-Dragon Ante: Legendary Edition, Rulebook, p.14.
- ↑ Player's Handbook (2014), p.154.
- ↑ Player's Handbook (2024), p.221.
- ↑ D&D Free Rules (2024) , Equipment—Other tools.
- ↑ Lost Laboratory of Kwalish (2018), p.15.
- ↑ Keys from the Golden Vault 2023) , p.32.
- ↑ Keys from the Golden Vault 2023) , p.26-39.
- ↑ Keys from the Golden Vault 2023) , p.9.
Bibliography
- Wiese, Robert. Luck of the Draw: A Web Enhancement for Three-Dragon Ante. Wizards of the Coast. 2006.
- Decker, Jessee. "Spire of Long Shadows". Dungeon #130. Bellvue, WA: Paizo Publishing, Jan 2006.
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Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
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