Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is a blackjack-based video game being developed by Purple Moss Collectors since April 2022.
You play as someone who notices that a local tavern is degrading the lives of those who repeatedly visit, and takes it up on themselves to investigate the wretched place. They are soon exposed to the strange variant of blackjack that is played down below, and must endure it if they are to learn the truth...but how long can they hold out?
While the basic concept is not unlike regular blackjack, in that both the player and their opponent (who has the restriction of the Dealer in that they must stand at 17 or above) are both trying to get as close to 21 as possible, it also plays like an RPG: the difference between the two scores is dealt as damage to the loser. (Going above 21, or busting, sets your score for the round to 0.) In addition, there are many cards that are not found in a typical 52-card deck that may be added to your deck after a successful round, or found in your opponent's deck.
You can play a demo in your browser here.
Tropes that occur in Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers include:
- Ambiguous Gender: The recurring Gambler opponent is difficult to identify the gender of, and
Word of God isn't clarifying things. - Death or Glory Attack: Having a 21 of any suit generally gives a player this. Either it's topdecked (or played only after 0-value cards) and you get an instant Blackjack, or it's 'not' and you're Busted six ways from Sunday.
- Deck Clogger: Nearly any card that isn't 0 value can be this if it doesn't work with your build, but cards of a value fixed above 10 tend to serve this most often. This results in a viable if unreliable strat of packing your own deck full of these Cloggers...alongside cards that can put your cards in the other deck.
- The Gambling Addict: This tavern in particular seems to forge these from the innocent. More specifically, the recurring Gambler opponent has dialogue indicating they're in far over their head...
- Gambling Ruins Lives: Most of the characters who aren't in the employ of the tavern or some kind of supernatural entity don't seem to be doing so well. The Drunk is so out of it he doesn't realize he's lost the round, the Gambler keeps playing against you even as they lament their debt to the Manager, and the Teacher uses her last chips against you—and laments that she couldn't possibly explain this to her family once defeated. The only reason you're here is to stop the whole operation.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: The Luck Pusher foe looks pretty rough-and-tumble, but Word of God says she's a she.
- Luck-Based Mission: Ultimately, it's still all down to luck of the draw. If you lose 50 health to the initial Bartender fight, that's just how it goes. A good reminder not to apply your prowess in later-game to a real casino.
- Manipulating the Opponent's Deck: Several cards allow this to be done.
- The Yellow Card, when played, applies a flag to one of the cards in the other player's play pile and spawns a Red Card. If the Red Card is drawn while the flagged card is in the play pile, said card is Burned and eliminated from play.
- Gerald from Riviera allows you to straight-up burn any card in your opponent's play pile.
- The Reverse Card flips the play piles of the two players (including itself).
- The Business Card, when played, swaps itself with a card on the opponent's play pile. Interestingly, since it puts itself into the deck from there, it's likely to permit the victim the same opportunity later.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
- The Luck Pusher is one of the few opponents who doesn't stand at 17 (he stands at 18) and doesn't have a deck that works around that fact, as the Witch and Wizard do. The Drunk is in the same boat but has a lower standing value of 13.
- Several opponents have gimmicky decks designed around a particular strategy. The Witch has nothing but cards valued 13 (with a stand limit of 13 to match). The Wizard uses only a Memory Card (copies a targeted card in your own deck every time it's played) and Ones of Nothings, which means he'll start out unable to build much of a score, but if you let the game against him drag out, he'll start getting regular 20s as his Memory Card adds more and more Ones. The Bouncer has exactly three cards: a 21 of Spades and two Tens of Nothings, which means that (if you don't alter his deck or situation somehow) he'll build a lot of shields off an effortless Blackjack and require your own Blackjacks to beat his doubled Tens... or bust by drawing the 21 after one of the Tens.
- Retraux: The entire game is rendered in pixel art, giving it the feel of a much older title.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: One of your opponents in the Basement is a Giant Rat.
