[Regimental Book Discussion] Games and Luck

[Nikonis]

July is the third month of the year when The Archers get to host The Band's monthly book discussion. Material from all books, including AMoL may be used however please remember that some members may not have read the final book yet so try to use spoiler tags or omit any huge events from the final book as an attempt to give everyone the ability to participate.  For your participation in the discussion you will be awarded points.  To earn these points you must be an active participant throughout the month. You will not receive points for "Yes, I agree" or "That's a neat idea", etc... however you may begin your post with this if you follow up with your additions to the theory and/or idea as well as comment on it specifically.

As always the topic must relate to The Band of the Red Hand from content shown in or relating to the Wheel of Time books. This month the Archers have decided that, though the origin of Mat's luck (Taveren or Part of Mat) has been discussed there hasn't, to our knowledge, been a real discussion involving which real world games Mat would be good at.

 

TOPIC

What games do you think Mat would be good at and why?

What games would he be terrible at and why?

[F Horn of Valere]

At first I thought this would be easy, but the more I think about it, the more I am realizing Mat would be good at any game I can think of. Due to his luck, he would be good at any game involving guessing, dice, or cards. I would never face him at Clue, Sorry, Risk, Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc. Due to his military genius, I wouldn't sit at a chess board with him to save my life! Well, maybe I would to save my life, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

What games don't require strategy, but require zero luck? 

 

All I can think of is that Mat would be terrible at Tic-Tac-Toe, if he went second behind a good player.

[Thane Vakarian]

i think Mat would be good at betting games (card, dice etc)

 

Now, i have some doubts he'd do as well at chess. That requires a lot of strategy from your first move on, you can't win it by sheer luck imo.

 

and.... drinking games, no luck required, he'd get hammered

[dicetosser1]

Im thinking he would be both bad and good at Poker. His Luck would get him good hands but his impatience may lead him to have problems reading people .

 

 

Other then that how about Twister?  No luck in that one!

[Thane Vakarian]

ofcourse there's luck involved with twister.... either you get the girl, or....  not....

[Thane Vakarian]

personally, i think Mat would be an excellent poker player. If you have the cards, you will have little problems winning

[dicetosser1]

theres more to poker then that. Its reading your opponents as well and his luck in cards only seems to kick in on the REALLY unlikely. So he might get a flush when hes low on chips but not all the time.

 

 

Chess   luck may not help him but those Battle Memories would.

[Thane Vakarian]

well, i never played poker before. It's just a cardgame for me.

 

You have to read your opponents in every game.... wether it's cards, dice or else....

[dicetosser1]

not in dice you dont   especially not mat!

[Thane Vakarian]

so, dicegames require luck, and Mat has tons of it....

 

would he be good at, let's say.. russian roulette?

[dicetosser1]

hmmmm  that ones interesting. 1 in 6 isnt huge odds. and thats what works best for him....long shots.  He very well may get shot i think

[Thane Vakarian]

i would think that, with all his luck, he'd surely survive. 1 in 6 isn't huge indeed, but there's little to no manipulation to be done in the game.

[Hayl3y]

*adjusts her shin guard*

 

I totally agree with Dice (for once) about Chess, Mat's memories would help him greatly.

For Poker, he'll have the luck and he'll be wearing his silly grin all the time, producing a lot of wifom lol

Russian Roulette, he'd survive that is a certainty

 

 

pictionary is a whole other story though

[Thane Vakarian]

there's an interesting one.... pictionary....

 

pure skills, no luck... would Mat do well?

[F Horn of Valere]

Oooo Pictionary.... yeah, that one would work. Basically any party games.... Mat would only be normal at party games.

[Bela_theDo]

On the gaming side:

 

I do think Mat's chars would always hit critical shoots in a MMORPG or RPG, and he would usually dodge the attacks. He would be pretty good in games like Counter Strike, Call of Duty etc. because of his luck. He would do really good in a table-rpg as well.

 

I think he would be fine at chess and Go but he would suck at contract bridge for sure. :)  

[Davrick]

There is a game sorta like risk called Twilight Imperium.  While he'd be good at the dice rolling part and the battling and strategy.  Each race you play has different tech and abilities that can help or hinder them.  There is also politics in the game!  You can get certain things made into laws which may end up hurting certain play types at times.

[F Horn of Valere]

Ooooo... Mat could potentially lose big time in Cash & Guns!

 

 

In the game, there are several (6?) turns. Players only can fire on 2 of their 6 turns... so everyone has 2 bullets and 4 blanks. The only chance is determined by player choice. The risk is not knowing if your opponent used a loaded gun to fire at you. Each opponent can choose who to aim at, and the person who has the most money AND is still alive at the end wins.

 

I still think Mat would win if playing random people, but if they set out to purposely get him (as is common anyways in board games), he could be toast.

[Davrick]

I still think Mat would win if playing random people, but if they set out to purposely get him (as is common anyways in board games), he could be toast.

Not trying to brag here (well not much anyways) I'm fairly good with games, so much so that some of my friends I play with say I steal their luck and use it for my own.  During games people would usually try to gang up on me to stop me from winning.  I've gotten really good at being able to win despite that.

[F Horn of Valere]

Wouldn't work in this game! Two choices: stay in, stay out. If always out, no money is own and you lose. Stay in, if they arrange so that there is always a real bullet pointed at him, no money is won.

[Thane Vakarian]

Partygames: you play them to have fun, ofcourse... but... seeing Mat is used to winning a lot, would he also play those to win, or just play for fun? And, would everybody want to play with the guy that can't lose?

 

as for the videogames.... i doubt it has a lot to do with luck. You still need skills and tactics. Mat would do good, with his battlememories, but his luck, in this case, wouldn't be a large factor in the game.

 

Politics has nothing to do with luck, so he's be a 'normal' player in anything that involved even the slightest politics. In my opinion, that is

[Cass]

I'm with Horn, Dice and Chae - I think the strategic and military memories would make Mat a formidible oponent in a game of Chess, unless potentially it was his very, very first game and he was still learning the moves/concept of each piece. But even then, I'd be pretty hesitant to bet against him, seeing as his luck would probably see him through...

 

Still trying to come up with a game I don't think his luck would help out with - although I kind of agree with party games, Pictionary and Charades maybe? Or Scrabble since that requires a good vocab as well as luck with letters?

[dicetosser1]

Scrabble could work   hes a terrible speller!! lol

 

and remember he could beat Thom and Tuon at Stones  and Stones is like chess

[Cass]

*nods*

 

Yep then, Scrabble. I'd probably take him on in a game of Scrabble, or Words With Friends

[dicetosser1]

i like the idea of that word with friends thing