The Lethe

A betting game. This time an exercise in efficient incentive structures and monetising the slow compromisation of your morals. I promise not all of the games involve money or money-adjacent materials.

How the game works:

Setup

Every player starts with tokens of assigned wealth. Agree on a fixed amount that must be paid to add or change words in statements (see paragraph 2 of gameplay).

Gameplay

Through the randomised selection process, an Inquisitor and an Arbiter are assigned. Then, the Inquisitor formulates the “Would you Rather” statements for all to hear.

The remaining players may at this point bet on which statement will be chosen. After the bets are placed the gamblers may each pay the agreed-upon amount to the Inquisitor to change or add a word to either of the statements. They can only do this once per person and they are carried out in order of the lowest better to the highest.

After the statements are solidified, the Arbiter chooses which statement they “would rather” and the winners split the pot proportionally to their bet amount. The Arbiter becomes the next Inquisitor and a new Arbiter is randomly chosen from the available pool of people who have yet to arbitrate. 

Example of Play

Blammo, Jimbo, Glorp, Camplur, Tronimo and Dan are on their third round of Would You Rather?

Jimbo is selected by a random number generator to be the Arbiter of the round. Last round, Blammo was the Arbiter and as such, is the Inquisitor this round. Blammo poses the question “Would you rather find a rat in your kitchen or find a cockroach in your bed?” 

Glorp bets 500 units that the first statement will be chosen (rat). Camplur and Dan each bet 300 units that the second statement will be chosen (cockroach). Tronimo bets 600 units on the same statement as Camplur and Dan.

Then, they each pay 100 to Blammo to add/alter a word from either of the statements. With the lowest bets, Camplur and Dan add words first, deciding to coordinate their efforts by changing the second statement to “find a hot person in your bed”. Then, Glorp decides to make the first statement more enticing by changing it to “find a powerful rat in your kitchen” – after all, who wouldn’t want Charles Entertainment Cheese in their kitchen? However Tronimo, with the highest bet, changes the first statement to “kill a powerful rat in your kitchen”. 

As a result, Jimbo decides that they would rather “find a hot person in your bed” and declares the second statement the winner. Tronimo, with a 600 units bet, comprises 50% of the total winner’s betting pool and as such, gets 50% of the winnings; 250 units. Correspondingly, Camplur and Dan get 125 of Glorp’s units each. Blammo collects the 400 units that the other players spent on adding and changing words.