What is Dragon Poker?
You can click here for the Wiki on it,
or here to see people playing,
or you can sit back whilst I give you my ramble
on the topic.
When I was building Opus Fest in Denver I populated it
with the guests I wanted to meet and hang out with.
Perks of running events :)
Well Robert Asprin had long been one of my favorite
authors, and I knew him from working with other shows,
so I invited him out. He was a great guest. Easy going and
entertaining. He did readings, worked on helping our
aspiring writers in the Lit track, and even Filked a bit.
We had a great time with him, and I got the added perk of getting to talk with him on a pretty regular basis both before and after the show. At some point in our relationship I asked him if he had rules for Dragon Poker somewhere. He laughed and told me that no, it was a plot device for Little Myth Marker and would basically be impossible to recreate.
For those that don't have context, it's just poker, but the rules change with each hand, depending on the place, the weather, and all manner of other ridiculousness. As such, according to the books there were Dragon Poker Scholars, and even they did not know all of the rules. Bob maintained that it would be functionally impossible to build something with that many obscure conditional rules that would be fun for anyone to play.
I don't think Bob ever played Star Fleet Battles.
Anyway, a couple months later, I came up with a way to make it work. I called Bob and told him I had it figured out. He told me that was impossible.
Stubbornly, I explained my idea anyway. He paused and then said, well... I guess I'm wrong, you do have it figured out.
I was elated to get that kind of accolade from one of my heroes. I immediately offered to write everything up and send it to him so that he could sell it to his fan base, and he, immediately refused. I argued that it was his idea, his game, and that he should profit from it. He again refused and told me since I had solved it, it was mine, to do with as I wished. There was more arguing. I lost. And suddenly found myself the owner of one of the most cherished games in Fandom.
That you have never played. Sorry about that.
I have tried various times with various groups and companies to get the game published and in to distribution. All of those efforts failed, and I got distracted with ex-wife, new-wife, bands, kid etc... So it simply sat taking up brain space and waiting for me to have the time and the right contacts with the right skills. I am tired of waiting though, and with all of the services available through the web, I think I can finally make it happen.
The Game "Launched" in 2019, appropriately at DragonCon. I found a team, manufacturers, distributors, and even found a company to do demos & tournaments internationally. My intent was to spend the summer at all the big shows getting people on board and then holding the first World wide Dragon Poker tour at DragonCon 2020. But... of course... Covid 19 trumped our plans.
We are stymied, but as yet, undaunted. If you are interested in the game or getting involved in making it a reality make sure you sign up on the contacts page so you can get updates. Once people can meet and play together again we will launch the Kickstarter.
