Gambler

*"It’s not those who always win you’ve got to be afraid of… it’s those who always seem to lose."*

## Basic

(SH) Gamblers eschew the hard work of the lower and middle classes. After all, why toil for such small rewards when a month’s income can be made with one well-played hand? Gamblers use their skill at games of chance to make money from the wealthy and the slow-witted. They haunt coaching inns and game houses, ready to part the gullible from their coins. Sometimes things go wrong and gamblers lose large sums of money. In these cases, a swift escape is in order, before the creditors discover that the debts can’t be paid. Gamblers tend to be drifters by nature, always moving on to avoid old debts and sore losers.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Blather, Charm, Evaluate, Gamble, Gossip or Secret Language (Thieves’ Tongue), Perception, Sleight of Hand, Read/Write or Secret Signs (Thief )

**Talents:** Etiquette or Streetwise, Flee! or Luck

**Trappings:** Dice, Deck of Cards, Leather Jerkin

### **Career Entries**

Entertainer, Noble, Rogue, Mercenary, Student, Thief, Vagabond

### **Career Exits**

Charlatan, Demagogue, Entertainer, Highwayman, Rapscallion, Rogue

## Games of Chance

Taverns are a favourite haunt of the professional gambler. He might join a game of jackstones, rolling knucklebones for a few coins, or might try to fleece patrons at dice games such as Blackheart or Devil Eyes. Most gamblers prefer to play for higher stakes among fellow cardsharks: Dead Queen or the cut-throat Five Knives are popular games. Sometimes a tavern has a cockfighting pit, or a yard reserved for bull baiting, which attract rowdy crowds. One of the entertainments of a travelling fair are the pugilists, whose bloody sport inspires frenzied gambling. Some towns have fighting pits, where fortunes can be won or lost with the thrust of a blade.

Establishments must pay a license to allow gambling on the premises, but a renowned gambler may be invited to a clandestine game run by the criminal fraternity. Security is high and the result of cheating is fatal. Should the watch gatecrash the event,the participants face weeks mouldering in gaol, but the high stakes involved prove irresistible to seasoned gamers.

## King of Gamblers

The most amount won in a game of Five Knives was after an epic contest in the Dog’s Bark tavern, Nuln, in 2511. After weeding out the small fry in the opening hour of the game, the remaining players were Milo Speer, a gambler from Bogenhafen, Baron Ranulf von Bildeburger, Kleber Blume, a merchant from Averland, and Captain Antonio Cimino, a Tilean mercenary officer. A mound of gold and jeweller had piled between them on the table.

Speer opened with a pair of Towers, an excellent hand. Captain Cimino followed suit with an admirable run of Knights, but the Baron flunked out with a Troll. Blume played three Emperors, claiming victory. As Speer threw down his cards in disgust, Captain Cimino drew his pistol and shot the merchant. Before the shocked onlookers, he calmly drew another Emperor from the dead man’s sleeve.

As the cheat’s body was disposed of, the game continued. Speer and the Captain attacked, parried and feinted. The kitty grew. After two hours, bootless and bare-chested, their ears and fingers denuded of rings, Speer reluctantly placed his dead father’s pocket watch in the centre of the table. The Captain surrendered his regimental badge. A final hand was played. The crowd gasped as the Tilean delivered four Skulls: Morr’s Blessing. Only a hand of Khaine, five Knives, could trump that. When Speer revealed his hand, the Captain stood, saluted and marched smartly out of the inn. A single pistol shot followed his departure.

Speer’s winnings included over a thousand Crowns, innumerable heirlooms, the title deeds to the Bilderburger family mansion and captaincy of the Flashing Blades, Cimino’s mercenary regiment. From itinerant gambler, Speer became a renowned officer, and years later was decorated by the Emperor for his regiment’s efforts at the Siege of Middenheim. Milo Speer is regarded by gamblers as a living legend, the embodiment of their dreams.