Tower of God - 1F

[FragsBunny]

Welcome to the Tower, dear regulars (and irregulars as well). You have been chosen, you have been not chosen to climb this tower by passing multitide of difficult tests. You will pass the test, you will not pass the test. The game will end, the game will never end. Some of tests will be easy, others as downright difficult, some are very silly, while others are extremely harsh and may result in your death. Some tests can encourage people to work together with each other. Other tests make then to challenge, fight, or betray their former allies - all of the sake of their own need of climbing the tower. What about you? Do you have any nessesary qualities to open the door and be able to climb the Tower of God? It's time to find out.

You will play the minority rule, where the majority will lose and the minority will remain; you will forge alliance with people around you, then get to find your allies in the dark room while avoiding the impresonators; you will play a game of chess where each of you takes the role of a chess piece; you will play a pandemic game, where you have to make vaccines against infection by contacting each other; you will draft a team and then battle each other at Pokemon Showdown; some of you will be involved in the deadly game of chicken; the cults of Rocks, Papers and Scissors will fight each other for supremacy; and many more other tests and trials avait you in the future...

So, welcome to the first floor of the Tower of God! Your very first test will commence here shortly. Until then, make sure to read the test rules again and prepare yourself! (Note - you have to sign-up in the separate thread in order to participate)

Tower of God - 1F: Poker Auction

In this test we will be using standard 52 playing cards that are commonly used in poker games. You know, those cards with 13 ranks of four French suits - clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. There will be around 52 cards total, but depending on the number of participating regulars, a wild card "Joker" might also be possibly included in this test.

As you might have probably guessed, your goal in this test is form a decent poker hand. The common poker hands (in the order of weakest to strongest) are: High card, One pair, Two pair, Three of a kind, Straight, Flush, Full house, Four of a kind, Straight flush and Royal flush. Another hand, Five of a kind is only possible if the Joker card is also included in the deck. So, how you can collect cards for your hand?

The answer is really simple: Through auction. Everyone starts with $100. The entire test will be split into several periods. Up to 5 cards will be placed for trade during each period, and players can bid on each card individually. You can place multiple bids during a single period - for example, if there are 2 cards that you want, you just need to place 2 separate bids on those cards and hope that no one can outbid you. The starting bid is 5$ for Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks, 10$ for Joker, and 3$ for all other cards. Just $1 difference is enough to outbid your opponent. But make sure not to throw away most of your money for one particular card, or you will be most likely be unable to outbid others while trying to purchase the remaining cards for your hand.

Your objective of this test is to purchase 5 cards from the auction. You can then arrange the cards you purchased to form your poker hand. Remember that you must purchase 5 cards in order for your hand to be completed, otherwise you will fail this test be unable to access the sceond floor of the Tower. For example, having just 4 cards in your hand will not allow you to pass this test, even if those cards are Four of a Kind. You need all five cards. Your hand also cannot contain more then five cards - once you have bought five cards, you can't make any futher bids and must wait until the test is finished.

Check the Wikipedia article "List of Poker hands" to give you better understanding on how to make poker hands. Regulars who have succesfully completed one of the following hands will receive a certain amount of Test Points:

Five of a Kind - 500 TP (only with Joker)
Royal Flush - 300 TP
Straight Flush - 250 TP
Four of a Kind - 200 TP
Full House - 150 TP
Flush - 100 TP
Straight - 75 TP
Three of a Kind - 50 TP
Two Pair - 25 TP
One Pair - 10 TP

Having just High Card will not allow you to pass this test, so make sure that you can build One Pair or higher. And that brings us to the main rule that will make this test more challenging.

For each type of poker hand, only the person holding the strongest rank of cards can pass this test. Let's say two regulars made Three of Kings and Three of 7s each. Due to this rule, only the person with Three Kings can pass this test. The other person will fail this test and be unable to climb the next floor. So, when you build your hand, ensure that other regulars are not building the same kind of hand as you do, or try to make your hand's rank stronger. You can also purposely buy cards that can disrupt your potential opponent's flow - for example if you are building Four of a Kind with 5s and the other regular is just a few cards short from Four of 8s, you can just simply bid on one of 8s as your fifth card - to prevent him from forming his Four of a kind. Likewise, if your Four of a Kind can be possibly ruined, you can also try for one of the weaker hands - such as Full House or Two Pair. But once again, ensure that your hand will be stronger then anyone else's hand of the same type. Note that this rule was specifically made to prevent regulars from collecting the same kind of hand (without it, each regular would have easily construsted his own Four of a Kind, for example). Hands like Straight Flush are very difficult to construct, as you will most likely unable to disrupt your opponents flow while trying to wait for specific cards. If things go wrong, just switch to Flush or Straight if possible.

Be aware that if no one bids on a card it will stay in the pool. There are 52 cards in total (not counting the Joker), so it will be enough to fill 10 hands (if 10 players get to participate). If, for example one purchases several during auction periods, then one regular can end up with just 4 cards in his hands at the end of the test. Will that person be you? You have been warned. I might add a Joker, but only if there will be 11 or more participants. But even with that, only 10 hands can be completed, and only up to 10 regulars can earn Test Points. Because "there won't be just enough for everyone", expect a HEAVY competition in this test, especially regarding stronger hands. Try to follow with weaker hand that no one else would build (such as One Pair or Straight).

It is possible to use cooperation in order to make it through test, but genereally your primary goal should be to make your hand as strong as possible to have better odds of prevailing in this test. You will be tested for your courage, intellect, teamwork, adaptability, and of course, luck! If you fail to pass thevery first test, then you'll have to deal with it - you were probably not chosen by the tower! Best of luck!

Current participants (to be updated soon):

Yash

Author

Nick

Damiano

Drummer

Patrick

Firewidow

The test is scheduled to start at this Saturday. The exact date will be posted later. Good luck!

Edited January 28, 2015 by FragsBunny

[FragsBunny]

I should clarify more on the rules on this test.

First, all bids will be public. You bid on cards by making a post like this, for example:

I bid $25 on the Jack of Spades.

And bids will keep going until the bidding period ends. Think carefully about your future poker hands. As the test progresses, don't try to buy a card you like too early, but don't be late with your bids either, bause there will be less cards remaining for trade!

With this, there are currently 6 participants in Auction Poker already. Of course I would like to see more, though. So I myself, will also take part in Poker Auction, and just like other regulars, I will use the same starting amount of money. But, in addition to the general rules listed above, at least one regular must collect a better hand than my own. If nobody manages to form stronger hand than mine, then everyone will fil this test, even if your remaining hands meet the nessesary criteria. On top of that, if your hand has the same type as mine, you will need to ensure that your hand is stronger - the same rules will apply as well, otherwise you will lose this test. And I might try to compete with one of your hands on purpose, so watch out! I'm going to show you and example of hands soon to demonstrate you possible results after all rounds are over (with 7 players). Think of me as an obstacle that you need to overcome in order to pass this test.

So let's say in this test there would be 7 players, including myself. In that case, only 36 cards, starting from 6s, will be used in Poker Auction. Note that you can, for example, buy Queen of Clubs first, then the rest of cards for Royal Flush later - and it will still count as Royal Flush if all nessesary cards are in your hand!

Regular 1's hand:



Regular 2's hand:



Regular 3's hand:



Regular 4's hand:



Regular 5's hand:



Regular 6's hand:



Regular 7's hand:



Take a good look at those hands if you please. Let's just say those were the hands of regulars that have finished this test.

Regular 1 has the strongest hand - Royal Flush! If that person would be me, everyone else would fail the test for sure. But if you are the lucky person, congratulations! You have earned the maximum amount of points possible in this test!

Regular 2's hand is Four of a Kind. He will earn a decent amount of Test points for creating such a difficult hand. If I end up in Regular 2's place, don't worry - as long as there is at least one regular that has stronger hand than mine, each of you should be able to pass this test!

Regular 3's hand is Full House. But so is Regular 4's hand! Unfortunately, No. 3 has King-High Full house - because three of a kind on his part of Full House are kings - higher then 7-high Full house of Regular 4. So, No.3 can pass this test, while Regular 4 fails this test - for being unable to make stronger Full house. He should have tried better to buy that ace instead of one of the 7s...

Regular 5's hand is just Straight. His hand competes with Regular 6, who also has Straight. But No. 6's Straight is Queen-high, so No. 5 loses the test in the same way as No. 4.

Regular 7's hand is nothing but Ace-high. It can't be ranked for points! Constructing such a bad hand will also end in your failure. Depending on the circumstances, I might also exclude One-Pair set as well, so keep that in mind!

There is another question that you might ask: What role does your Trainer card plays here? I'll give you that answer shortly before the test begins.

[FragsBunny]

Now, the most important thing is - your Trainer Cards. Each of your Trainer Cards should have all six Pokemon in it. So here's how rules of Tower of God in Pokemon Reborn will work.

When a regular loses the test, he is not eleiminated immediately (unlike how it was in Tower on SC2 Mafia or Marriland). Instead, he will permanently lose one Pokemon from his team. This is very important, as a Pokemon battle will inevitable come out at some point during the progression of tests in the Tower of God. While battles does not cause you to lose right away, the reduced number of availible Pokemon will put you at disadvantage while climbing the Tower. Of course, if you lose all six Pokemon for not passing enough tests, you are eliminated from the Tower from good. However, regulars who have showed exceptional results during the test, might be awarded with a different Pokemon to replace the on that was previously lost. Regarding your Pokemon, I'm going to change some rulings of the game. Such as:

• You lose one Pokemon of your choice if you fail to build a proper poker hand;
• You lose one Pokemon of your opponent's choice if your hand was weaker then a hand of that regular of the same type (having 3 of 7s opposed to 3 of Kings, for example).
• Finally, each regular loses one Pokemon if I (as the guardian of tower) manage to build stronger hand than everyone else. You will also lose 2 Pokemon instead of one if you still fail to build a proper poker hand (but not with hand competitions).

This should sum up everything that you should know about the test rules. Remember that the test is shceduled to start on this Saturday, so get yourself ready!

[FragsBunny]

The first test is scheduled to start at this time:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=31.01.2015+12.00+pm+MSK

Those of you who have signed up, get yourselves ready! The test will be split up in several periods. Each period will last 24 hours, and only 36 cards, starting from 6s, will be used in this game. During each period, 5 cards will be placed from trade on the auction.

[FragsBunny]

Actually, including me, there will be 8 regulars, so 40 cards, starting from 5s, will be used in this test (with ace being the highest ranking card)? traded over the course of eight periods. If you miss to purchase even one card in any period, then someone is bound to be left with just 4 cards and be unable to finish his/her hand. You have been warned.

I'll send a Private message to each praticipant to signal the beginning of the first test.

[FragsBunny]

Well, since we are not seeing any more sign-ups now, it's better to start the test as soon as possible. Those of you tho are not participatining in this test should watch thise game closely - because I might restart this test again with different regulars. And so, let's begin the first period of...

Tower of God - 8F: Poker Auction

In the first period the following cards will be availible for trade:

You may now place your first bids on any of the following cards. If no one places a bid on a card during the next 24 hours, that card will remain in the pool. If any one of those cards end up being untraded, then someone will be unable to construct his hand of 5 cards. Every card here is valuable, so make good use of then! And don't forget that you can place multiple bids at the same time. You can even try to buy all 5 cards here separetely, but that will only turn your hand into Ace-high (which is not even a nrmal hand).

Make decisions for your future hand early! There will be 40 cards total - but only up to 5 cards will be traded at a time. There is a certain element of strategy in this game... find that out by yourself! Good luck and have fun! And keep in mind - I will be pariticpating in this test as well! At least one regular needs to obtain stronger hand than mine.

[Damiano]

I'd like to start the bidding a five bucks for the jack and another five for the queen.

[NickCrash]

2$ for the 10 and 3$ for the 7.

bonus bid: 5$ Ace

Edited January 31, 2015 by nickcrash

[Yash]

10$ for Q

Edited January 31, 2015 by Yash

[Damiano]

Sorry, Nick I might need that Ace later. $6 dollars on Ace, still $5 on Jack. Yash, you can keep the queen, for now.

[NickCrash]

By taking the Jack you've eliminated the Royal Flush anyway. Anyway, I don't really need it, but you're trying to mess up with my plans there...

I'd like to raise my bet to 4$ for both cards ( 10 of diamonds and 7 of spades).

[FragsBunny]

I bet $15 on the Ace of Spades

I bet $15 on the Jack of Spades

[Damiano]

I'm not trying to mess up anyone's plans (except Frags cuz I'd rather take him down with me than all of us lose)

Uh. $17 on the Jack another $17 on the Ace

[NickCrash]

I know. Frags what time does the auction end?

[FragsBunny]

I bid $19 on Ace of Spades

[Damiano]

I know. Frags what time does the auction end?

Tomorrow at 4 am EST (24 hours passed the start)

Same $17 on Jack, raise to $20 on Ace. Big risk, big reward!

[FragsBunny]

The first round of bidding has ended! Here are the results:

Ace of Spades and Jack of Spades goes to Damiano, with $20 and 17$ bet, respectively.

The Queen of Hearts goes to Yash for $10.

Ten of Diamonds and Seven of Clubs (NOT Spades, be careful next time please) goes to Nick for $4 on each card.

Current money:

Fragos - $100

Yash - $90, one card

Author - $100

Nick - $92, 2 cards

Damiano - $63, 2 cards

Drummer - $100

Patrick - $100

Firewidow - $100

So, let's start the second round! This time, there will be the following cards availible for trade:

You may now place your first bids on any of the following cards. If no one places a bid on a card during the next 24 hours, that card will remain in the pool. As usually, every card here is valuable, so make good use of then! Now's let's get going again!

[Patrick]

$15 for the "Jack of Clubs", and $10 for the "9 of Clubs"

[Damiano]

$16 for the jack, $10 for the ace

[FragsBunny]

So no one is going to take 5 of clubs?

[Yash]

12$ for the Ace

EDIT: Yay 500 posts

Edited February 2, 2015 by Yash

[Patrick]

$20 for the Jack of Clubs!

[FragsBunny]

The second round of bidding has ended! Here are the results:

The Jack of Clubs goes to Patrick for $20, as well as Nine of Clubs for $10.

The Ace of Hearts goes to Yash for $12.

Six of Diamonds and Five of Clubs will remain in the pool for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, this will also mean that someone is going to be short of crucial cards required to pass this test. Of course, everyone can still pass if you can prevent me from building a full hand.

Current money:

Fragos - $100

Yash - $78, 2 cards

Author - $100

Nick - $92, 2 cards

Damiano - $63, 2 cards

Drummer - $100

Patrick - $70, 2 cards

Firewidow - $100

So, let's start the third round! This time, there will be the following cards availible for trade:

You may now place your bids on any of the following cards. As usually, if no one places a bid on a card during the next 24 hours, that card will remain in the pool. Every card here is valuable, so make good use of then!

[Patrick]

$10 for Queen of Clubs!

[FragsBunny]

I bet $10 for the King of Hearts.