Rub A Khali's Gaming Table: Camel Racing

by Rub A Khali (James Murphy)

Greetings my friends

At the upcoming feast in Verai I will be presenting camel racing very similar to what you have seen before. However there will be a few changes that I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of. In the interest of everybody having fun and celebrating our successes over the last year.

Now here is how Camel Racing will go this year:

Up to 4 players will sponsor a camel each per race. If only one player wants to sponsor a camel then you would play against the house, with a minor change (my many, many children need to eat after all). The change is that the “house camel” starts one spot further then the non-house camel and that there will be no “rake.”

But let’s assume a full table, here is how it will go:

• Each player will select a camel; they will place it on the starting grid. 
• I will be shuffling and distribution 1 set of cards to each player, each deck is 1-9 of a suit. 
• At the start each player puts one gold coin in the pot.
• In turn each player selects one card from their deck and their camel will move that many spaces around the track. UNLESS, two or more players draw the same number - then, may the gods alone know why, neither camel moves any spaces. [This is new, my friends; the camels have decided that they all want to be different, so if two or more camels need to move the same amount neither will move.]

Now once the first turn has completed the players have a decision to make, do they wish to continue sponsoring the camel or give up. Each player secretly puts gold in their hand and on a count reveals it.

If a player does not have gold in their hand they are done with the race. They are not required to put any more gold in this race, but can participate in the next race.

If a player does have gold in their hand, then they put it in the pot, they each pick a card from their pile, and their camel moves that many spaces (unless the gods have cursed your fate and it’s a tie).

This will continue until one of the camels crosses the finish line. If two camels cross the finish line at the same time then the win goes to the camel that goes furthest. If they are tied then the two players continue to draw cards without adding any more gold until one is the winner, if they run out of cards then they split the pot.

Now as much as I would love to do this for free, my wife and children would look on me in shame if I did not bring something home. So with deep sorrow I must take 1 gold if the pot is greater than 4 gold, 1 additional gold if the pot gets to 15 gold, and then 1 gold for every additional 10 gold in the pot. Now most games will probably not have more than 10 or so gold.

I should mention that if all players at the table wish to play for more than one gold a round, that can be accommodated. However, all players must agree.

Now sometimes all the spots are full but people still wish to bet on the race. This can also be accommodated. Any player can make a one time bet on any camel to win before the race starts. The payouts to be figured at the time of the bet based on the number of camels in the race (if there are 4 camels then the bet on a single camel would pay 3 to 1)

And that, my friends, will be camel racing. I look forward to seeing all my friends at the feast!