How Many People Marked These Cards, Anyway?

One loophole opened up by the Empire’s lack of any gambling regulation is that it is entirely legal to run crooked games, provided that you tell people that they are crooked games (and therefore are not committing fraud by doing so; whether or not there is money or other property involved).

Some curious institutions that has grown up in this loophole are the urlisdaër (“false-games”) and the associations which exist to play them.  The urlisdaër variant of a game – most commonly ómith, larileth, or iandaër, although any game with rules can be played in the urlisdaër manner – is played exactly as it usually is, save that the players are permitted by the metarules to cheat, and indeed, are encouraged to do so as effectively as possible.

When one player detects another cheating, he may either “call” the second player out on it, in which case that player loses his gains from it and the use of that method for the remainder of the game; remain silent and cheat using his own methods to nullify that player’s advantage, while letting him continue to have it versus other players in the game; or find a technique to turn the second player’s cheating to his own advantage directly.  This latter is the most difficult option, but considered the most estimable among masters of urlisdaër gaming.

At the end of such a game, each player retains the profits made from his individual skill.  In association play, many groups additionally discuss each player’s techniques and award additional rewards from the table to those deemed most subtle and elegant.

– Exávé’s Treasury of Skill and Chance