Pazaak

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In the era of the Old Republic, Pazaak was the most popular card game of an enormous number of sentiently creatures.

It was played in cantinas where spacers, smugglers, and other denizens of the nearby area came to drink and searched for amusement. Mostly the players played for high stakes and not seldom the wager even was a starship. In the most popular cantinas often tournaments took place, which were not only arranged by crime lords and local regimes, but also by the Galactic Republic. The crime lords lured with high prizes and therefore earned loads of money by demanding very high entry fees.

When played just to waste only time (and not money), Pazaak players used Republic Senate Rules, in which nothing was bet and no one came on top. The name was mockingly derived from the way that bureaucrats babbled on while taking no risks and accomplishing nothing. There was also a Nar Shaddaa version, in which the players are removing clothing or have their blasters out of their holsters.

Object of the game

A regular Pazaak board

The object of the game is to have the face up cards total higher than the opponent's hand without exceeding a total of 20. If a player's total is greater than 20 at the end of the turn (a 'BUST'), the opponent wins the set. A player must win three sets to win the match. When the match begins, four of the cards from the sidedeck will be randomly drawn from to the player's HAND during the match. Additional sidedeck cards can be found with values from +/- 1 to +/- 6. During your game, you will also come across some special advanced cards: 3&6, 2&4, a Tie Breaker card, a Pazaak Card Double and a +/- 1/2 card.

  • 3&6 cards: these cards will change the sign (positive or negative) of all all the 3s and the 6s you've played. Example: if you use the 3&6 card while your total is 21 and you've already played a 6 card, the value of the 6 card will be changed to -6. Which means your new total will be 9. Why not 15? Simple: That doesn't just subtract 6 from your total, it changes the initial value of the 6 card you've played as if you were playing it for the first time. In other words, the 6 points that was added for playing that card initally are taken away, and an another 6 points are deducted.
  • 2&4 cards: works the same way as the 3&6 cards but it will change the values of your 2s and 4s.
  • Pazaak Card Double: this card doubles the value of last flipped card.
  • Tie Breaker: if the score is tied (and the opponent has chosen to stand), then playing this card results in a win.
  • +/- 1/2 card: this card can change both its sign and its value.

The first player draws a card from the main deck and plays it face up to begin the turn. This is done automatically. After each card is played, an additional card can be played from the HAND. Playing a HAND card is optional. Also, you can only play one HAND card per turn. The player can also chose to END the turn, or STAND with the current total. This continues until one player wins the set. Ties do not count.

Cards from the player's hand can only be used once, so the four cards must last the entire match.

Tip: If the total is over 20 after the draw and there is a negative card in the side deck, you can play it to bring your total back under 20. Also, you automatically win the game if you play all 9 cards without bringing your total over 20.

Pazaak Cantina

The Pazaak Cantina software is used by the Rebel Squadrons at this time. Pazaak Cantina is a standalone Pazaak game. Some of the best features are:
- Multiplayer mode
- Comprehensive online statistics. Compare yourself to Pazaak players from all over the world!
- New singleplayer mode: Highscore
- Campaign with tournaments on different planets
- Earn medals for special achievements
- Multilingual: English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Magyar
- No need to have Knights of the Old Republic I or II installed

Playing Pazaak on a starship

When you visit the Pazaak Cantina website, you will be able to play choosing two different ways: 1. Play online, without downloading the client (requires a browser with WebSocket support) 2. Play by downloading the client

Playing online without downloading the program will only allow for basic Multiplayer games. Installing Pazaak Cantina v2.1.6 will unlock the following features:
- Single Player and Campaign modes
- Personalized settings, such as background music, sound effects, general options
- Automatically saved sidedeck selection, so you don't have to set up your deck ater each login
- Easily accessible Statistics window

Because of the small size of the client (around 10 megabytes zipped), it is strongly advised to all Pazaak players to download and install the software instead of playing in the browser. No compatibility issues have been detected so far, the game runs fine on all Windows from XP to 8.

If you have any questions about Pazaak (or anything else), shoot me a mail (Adam Mieter)