Three-Bone Scraps

Three-Bone Scraps was a popular gambling game played with dice. It was a game of chance, sometimes just referred to as Scraps, and became very popular as a pastime in saloons and taverns and amongst the bored and crafty. There were many regional variations.
== Quick, Simple Rules for "Underdog" Scraps ==
Just for shorthand, here's a short list of how to play the Danderillonian version of Three-Bone Scraps.
* The "sheriff" is chosen at random. Their job is to be the first to act for all the rounds for this hand.
* Players roll their d8 in secret
* A poker-esque "round" ensues. You can check for "no action", bet into the pot, raise someone else's bet, fold if you don't like this, or call to just match a bet.
* Once everyone's on the same page, time to continue.
* Players roll their d6 in secret and play a round.
* Players roll their d4 in secret and play a round.
* Everyone reveals. The highest total wins the pot. If it's a tie, you split. 
** However, if someone has three ones, they have rolled "underdog", which beats everything except the maximum total of 18.
* If you're playing again, the next person in the circle is the next "sheriff".
== What's In A Name? ==
In Euluska, it was mostly referred to as artéva areka, meaning "bone dice". An alternate Euluska name was svão revo, meaning "Deer horns", referring to sets made of antlerbone. Its name of Three-Bone Scraps came from the translated Vortais, Vé-ardevves tâpes. 
== On The Origins of Scraps ==
The game of Three-Bone Scraps purportedly originated amongst the bored soldiers of the Lusken Empire on long marches, and its popularity is partly to blame of the resourceful army cooks.
When camp cooks prepared dinner, it was often a large stew, easy to make for hundreds of hungry mouths using enchanted saucepans that were meters deep inside. The stew would mostly be made of any local plants collected on the march, such as artichokes, sweet nettles, crosses (lettuces), potatoes, carrots and other tubers and roots.
To give it extra protein and sate the hunger of the eager warforce, the cooks would add meat in, which was mostly mutton from wild cornucopia bighorns, venison from wild trident pronghorns, and beef from wild giant aurox or gamey Lakayan bison. (depending on where the campaign was). The meat would be used for the stew, the horns for drinking and instruments, the bones for flavouring broth and making stock, and the hide would be repurposed for leathers and blankets. One of the few parts of the animal that was rarely used was the tiny bones, such as those found in the hooves, feet, knuckles, joints and neck. 
Bored and opportunistic soldiers took these geometric bones and filed down their curved edges to create small bone dice with four, six or eight sides and carved tally marks into each face. They would then bet small scraps (whether bronze coins from their wages, their hardtack rations, rum rations, or ammunition, and use their tin cups, empty ration boxes, or tankards to roll the dice under and bet with them in small games. 
The game became fairly ubiquitous everywhere as it was easy to play and had many variations. When it made its way to the Vortic Isles, its Vortais name stuck. There, you could fine ornate dice made of geometric gemstones, and rolling cups covered with engravings of exotic beasts and beautiful art noveau. 
== Fully Explained Rules ==
The original rules for Three-Bone Scraps were fairly simple. The goal was to bluff and bet your way to victory in a game of chance. If you know Texas Hold 'Em, you'll know Scraps. 
=== Preparation ===
* Each player begins with their three dice (d4, d6 and d8) and a rolling cup or bowl to cover the dice later, plus a small amount of material to bet with, such as coins.
* Using a hand to obscure the dice was seen as being too easy to cheat, by nudging dice to turn them.
=== One Hand, consisting of Three Rounds ===
* Players roll their eight-sided dice secretly and cover it to stop other players seeing. 
* Beginning with a chosen or random player, play moves in a circle around the group. This where a Round begins. The actions a player can take are:
** Check; if no bet has been made, the player allows play to move on.
** Bet; if the player likes their odds, they can put money into the pot in the middle. If a player bets, everyone else it comes to must call, raise, or fold.
** Fold; if the player does not like their odds or the bet that has been made, they turn their cup the right way up and declare they are no longer participating this hand. Their dice are ignored and they sit out. 
** Call; If the player is willing to match the bet, they do so.
** Raise; if the player wants to further bet on an existing bet, they can do so. If a bet was made of 2ƒ and a player wants to raise that to 4ƒ, they can do so.
*** The round continues until everyone is on the same page. So, if someone bets, everyone must either match it by calling, or refuse to pay and fold. They could also raise the bet even more, forcing everyone to match or refuse the new standard. Once play has gone round in a circle to just before the player who bet/raised, and everyone has acted, it is time to move on. Thus ends the Round. 
* Then, each player rolls their six-sided dice in secret next to their eight-sided dice. 
* Another round of play ensues, beginning with the same player as before
* Each player rolls their four-sided dice in secret. Now all of their dice have been rolled, so your final total is set in stone by now!
* Another round of play ensues, beginning with the same player again.
* Finally, each player reveals their dice. The pool of currency in the middle is given to the winner, or split if two players have the exact same hand. There were multiple methods to determine the winner here, depending on the regional variation of Scraps.
* To begin the next Hand of Scraps, the next player in the circle will be the starting player, but everything is the same otherwise. 
== Regional Varieties ==
=== Stew-Bone Scraps ===
The Lusken Army's original version of Scraps had extremely straightforward rules for winning; simply, the highest hand won.
=== Underdog Scraps ===
In the Danderillon's version of Scraps, the most famous version of the game, the dice combinations to win were fairly simple. 
# "Tops" - a 8,6,4 combination, totalling 18. The maximum total possible.
# "Underdog" - a 1,1,1 combination, totalling 3. The minimum total possible, by rolling all lows.
# After that, winning combinations were merely in descending totals. A tie meant that the pot was split evenly between winners.
=== Tumbleweed ===
The Lakayan variation of Scraps, known as Tumbleweed, had differing rules for winning dice combinations. It was also a tad more complex.
# The maximum possible total (8+6+4=18), known as "Tumbleweed"
# The minimum possible total (1+1+1=3), known as "Snake Eyes"
# Three fours, known as "Crosses"
# Three threes, known as "Triples"
# Three twos, known as "Coins"
# Any total in descending order, known as "Bones"
(Thus in Tumbleweed, rolling a 7+6+4=17 is actually worse than three twos).
In addition, in Tumbleweed, there was a big blind known as a "Deputy". They were the one to start the betting each round in a hand, and had to put in a certain amount at the start of that hand (say, 1 bronze piece). The deputy's existence ensured the flow of money, rather than games where everyone just checked.