Better Hintaro

You step into the Lost Hand Cantina looking for something. While mostly empty, a group of players sit around a table rolling chance cubes. Some are checking datapads, making transactions. This is the table you are looking for. The trades and deals happening here have consequences elsewhere. And you have just enough credits to join the game.

Summary

Hintaro players roll pairs of dice with special symbols on them, hoping to get a winning set. Players can reroll a die after betting for a chance to improve their standing, and after all that, a modifier die is rolled by the dealer that removes one matching symbol from player’s rolls, possibly setting some back. Winner takes the pot.

While playing Hintaro, players are also trying to complete the most bounties. Players are using their winnings to purchase items and complete bounties for syndicates and certain individuals.

The gold Hintaro die has the following symbols on it (and a blank):

Hin	Taro

The silver player dice have these symbols on them (and a blank):

Tukar	Kulro

Note: die face Images from Hyperspace Props (see References) 

Equipment

• 1 gold Hintaro die (sides are blank, or Hin or Taro symbols

• 2 silver dice (sides have Tukar, Kulro, blank or double symbols)

• 1000 Credits per player (20 bronze, 8 silver, 4 gold)

• 1000 credits for the bank (20 bronze, 8 silver, 4 gold)

• 10x 1000 credit chips for the bank (black?)

• 10x 500 credit chips for the bank (white?)

• Raising the Stakes deck from Hyperspace Props

Setup

1. Choose a dealer (called the Hintaron) and hand them the gold Hintaro die.

2. Each player gets a pair of silver dice

3. Set the minimum bet of 10 credits (1 Bronze)

4. Pull out all the Orange (350 credit) and Green (50) credit Item cards and shuffle them separately

5. Deal 1 Green and 1 Orange Item card to each player

6. Put the remaining Greeen/Orange Item cards back into the Item deck and shuffle

7. Shuffle the Bounty deck

8. Draw and place 3 bounty cards into the Bounty area

9. Set a round or time limit to end the game by (ex 20 rounds or 2 hours or a shorter game)

   
   

Start the Round, Ante and Roll

Players put the minimum bet into the pot and once that’s done, everyone rolls their dice

Place Your Bets

Starting to the Hintaron’s right (going counterclockwise). The starting bet is zero, so you can call, which means match the current bet (of zero initially). You can raise, by setting at least the minimum bet out (or if you are later in the betting order, place an even higher amount). Or you can drop, and pay nothing more into the pot. When the Hintaron takes their turn to call, raise, or drop, the remaining players must decide to call or drop.

Unlike Sabacc (or poker), the raising stops at the dealer.

Item cards can be used for betting, at face value (meaning a 150 credit item is worth 150 credits in the pot).

Players Re-Roll

Any player can decide to re-roll a single die to improve their standing.

Hintaron Rolls the Hintaro

Lastly, the Hintaron rolls the Hintaro die. The result on the die determines who loses what.

• If a Hin is rolled, players lose a Tukar

• If  Taro is rolled, players lose a Kulro

If you can’t remember which is which, we found the following to be helpful:

The Hin looks like a fancy crosshair, and the Tukar looks like an explosion. Crosshairs nuke explosions.

The Taro symbol looks kind of like a Jedi symbol, as does the Kulro. Jedi’s cover Jedi’s.

Determine Winner

Whoever has the best hand takes the pot, ties are split. Rankings are in order from top to bottom in the table below:

1. two tukar and two kulro

2. quad kulro

3. two tukar

4. two kulro

Your goal is to get pairs and even numbers of symbols. If the Hintaron matches one of your symbols, put your finger over one of them. Having an odd number of symbols of any kind means you lose, because you don’t perfectly have one or two pairs.

If no one has a winning hand (2 or 4 symbols total with best ranking), the pot remains for the next round.

Players Do Business

The Shop area consists of 2 rows of Item cards, Newest, and Oldest. Initially, there’s nothing in these rows, but by round 3 there will be. The first stage is updating the Shop area

1. Any Items in the Oldest row go into the Discard pile (there are none in 1^st round)

2. Any Items in the Newest row slide to the Oldest row (there are none in 1^st round)

3. Add 3 Items cards to the Newest row

4. If a container card comes up, place it in the pot area for the next round, and replace it

Now, going from the first player to the right of the current Hintaron, take turns performing any of the following actions:

• Buy an item from the shop

  • Purchase must be in credits

  • Credits come from the bank

  • Limit 1 item per round

• Take a bounty card (limit 2 active bounties)

  • Limit 1 bounty per round

• Turn in a completed bounty

  • Items go to the draw deck and it is reshuffled

  • Turn the completed bounty sidewise to show that it is done.

• Sell an items to the bank for ½ value

  • The bank does not accept Items for purchasing or trade

  • Items go to the draw deck and it is reshuffled

  • can be done in the middle of other actions to facilitate paying

• Call for an auction on an item from the Item discard pile

  • Once the player chooses an item, they are committed

  • Opening bid is ½ value of the Item

  • Player must have the credits to support their bid (or it goes to the next highest bid)

  • Winner takes the item and pays the bank

• Trade with another player

  • Whatever both sides agree to in item or credit exchange

Any time a bounty card is removed from the Bounty area, replace it with a new one.

Any time an Item is removed from the Shop area, replace it with a new Item in the Newest row.

Bounties must be turned in during this stage as soon as the qualifying Items are collected.

Item and Bounty cards in players’ possession are public knowledge, anyone can ask what you have and you must show/tell them.

Next Round

Move the Hintaro die to the player to the Hintaron’s right. They are the next Hintaron. Loop back to starting a round.

If the round limit or time limit is reached, the game is over. Proceed to the Victory Conditions.

Victory Conditions

If anyone has container cards:

1. Combine and shuffle all the Item cards from the discard, draw, and Shop area.

2. Each player with a container card draws a number of cards equal to their container size

If any additional items complete a bounty, turn them in.

The winner is the player with the most completed bounties. Tie breaker being (in this order):

1. Highest single bounty value

2. most physical credits

3. most expensive single item

4. most items

5. winner of a shootout (rock-paper-scissors)

   
   

Miscellaneous Rules

These cover situations we might not have explicitly covered in the game play but absolutely apply when the situation arises.

Items in the Pot are worth their value

You can bet items, and they are worth their card value. This also means, that if you don’t have enough to call a bet (and want to stay in the round), you need to bet your Items to cover it.

How to Run the Auction

The hintaron always acts for the shop/bank, even if they are also interested in bidding.

Bidding starts at half value of the Item, rounded to the nearest ten.

Starting with asking if you hear that amount, if some one says yes/raises a hand point at them and say “I hear AMOUNT, do I hear AMOUNT+100” with the applicable numbers where it says AMOUNT.

If no one counter bids, start the close out count-down with “going, once, twice, sold to PLAYER for AMOUNT.”

If no one bids on the opening AMOUNT, decrease it by 100 (or 50 if it is less than 400) until you get a bid. Reduce by tens when you get to less than 150.

This is common auctioneering, and it should go smoothly. Note that signaling yes, raising your hand, calling out a number is a bid, and all deals are binding. Players not wanting to bid should remain silent and sit still lest they unwittingly become the proud new owner of a case of self-sealing stem bolts

Start a Side Pot if someone goes All-In

This is standard practice in betting games. If you only have 100 credits and the bet is 500, a side pot is started for the players with more money.  Your 100 (and theirs) go into the original pot, and the side pot holds 400 per player staying in the round.  If you win, you get the original pot that your bet covered. The next place winner takes the side pot. If you lose the hand, the winner takes the original pot and the side pot. It is possible to have a series of side pots, based on multiple players going all-in at different amounts.

Deals are Binding and cannot be broken

For the sake of game play, an agreement to trade, bid, sell, buy, or pool a resource must be honored. It keeps the game going, and as we don’t have blasters to resolve differences and keeps the pool of players available for future games.

The Shop is the bank

Whomever is sitting near the box of credit, market, and decks runs the Shop. There’s no bonus to doing so, but somebody needs to and proximity dictates efficiency.

Purchases from the Shop must be in credits, they don’t take Items during a sale.

The Shop acts like a business to make a profit, so they will only buy Items at half value (so they can be sold at full price).

The player running the Shop must be honest and not steal. We know that’d be funny (and lucrative), but we need the game to work.

If you had a watcher of the games (not playing/out), they could run the shop.

Maximum Bet

To constrain bet bullying from richer players, a total bet may not be more than ten times the minimum bet (ex. Initial 10 credit minimum, means 1000 credit maximum). A player betting Items (or a mix), must come to as low as they can to the maximum if they have to exceed it.

They also lose that excess in the bet, no side-pot for it or making change from the pot.

Credit Values

We operate under the same chip color/values as the Outer Rim Sabacc League (ORSL) and Sabacc for Charity. With the addition of higher value tiers. I have a bag of plastic gems from Michaels so we’re using those as 500credit value (because I don’t have white chips made yet).

·       Bronze/Copper – 10

·       Silver – 50

·       Gold – 100

·       White (or gem) – 500

·       Black – 1000

·       Beskar Ingot - 5000

Optional Rules

These ideas might add some spice to your game. Or make it harder. Some of these are from the Raising the Stakes, adjusted to fit our wording here.

Increase Minumum Bet every Lap

Every time the Hintaron returns to where it started, the minimum bet should increase as the player’s overall wealth is growing. Or shrinking. This makes players running low on credits get more desperate.

Use the following increase cycle (and upgrade credits)

Lap	Minimum Bet	Upgrade (Round up)
1	10
2	20
3	50	Every 5 Bronze/copper replaced with 1 silver (50 credit)
4	100
5	200
6	500	Every 5 silver replaced with 1 white (500 credit)
7	1000
8	2000
9	5000	Every 10 white replaced with 1 beskar ingot (5000 credit)

The Upgrade consists of making stacks of 5 of your smallest credit type (ex. bronze), and getting the next credit type worth that stack amount. This includes rounding up on the last partial stack, so you get a bit of a boost.

Take a Loan to buy back in

If you don’t have enough to cover a bet (or have lost a shootout), the house will loan you 500 credits and take one of your bounties (random) if you have one. When the game is over, deduct the loaned amount from the player’s credit total.

High Stakes Showdown

When we’ve reached the round/time limit (and played that round), there’s one more round. Skip the Business stage. Each player MUST bet an Item (if they have one). This can cause quite a dramatic shift at the end.

The Shootout

Let’s say a player wants to break a deal or doesn’t like the final outcome of the dice. They can draw their blaster (or lightsaber) which signals a shootout. The player chooses their target and both proceed through rounds of Ro-Sham-Bo until there’s a winner (first to win, not best of).

Consider ties to mean the contestants are auditioning to be Storm Troopers and try again.

The winner doesn’t lose to the opponent if it was over the final dice results, or gets the Items they expected. The loser is quite dead, and is out of the game, their items and credits go to the Shop.

Discard Items Into the Pot

As the Shop cycles the Old row out, place one random item into the Pot. This means the winner of the next round gets the Item for “free”.

High End Items and New Credits

Raising the Stakes introduces Item cards worth 15K or more, the value is…fuzzy. We also introduce 500 credit (white, or gem), 1000 credit (black), and the 5000 credit beskar ingot. This allows us to accommodate the influx of currency as players pick up expensive items at discount and possibly trade them in.

All the Item cards are worth 15K, and if named as a plural, represent enough of those items totaling that figure. Thus, the Beskar Ingots card represents 3 ingots.

This keeps things simple, while allowing for specific props or in the case of beskar ingots, used as direct currency in the game by the Shop.

We advise using 3d printed Casino7 for the black and white high value chips. These octagon chips with the 7 embossed are literally house credits and not government issue. Since they are the least fancy, players will start play with the cooler credits, working their way up to these when selling to the shop or upgrading chips.

Real Props Worth It

If a player brings a prop worth less than 15K, they may introduce it into the game when the value of the item is less-equal to ten times the Minumum Bet. At that point, they can use it in the Pot for bets (or sell it to the Shop, following the normal rules for Items).

Items are returned to their actual owners at the end of the game. As the item changes hands, players should take care of it, it is not theirs and may be fragile/one of a kind.

Each player is limited to one prop for this purpose, think of it as a desperate move to risk their special item.

Payment On Completion

When you turn in a bounty, ignore the original printed value, and instead collect the following amount which accounts for the value of the items and a profit margin. Many of the original printed bounty values would yield a loss to the player if we didn’t recompute this.

This will add a lot of cash to the game, which is why we added more credit values. Note these payouts include value of items, so turn in the items and the bounty, get this amount.

• A Savi Customer – 25,500

• Bantha’s Wild – 1,500

• Boonta Speeder Bike - 10,500

• Change of Face – 6,500

• Code Heist – 3,000

• Dark Designs – 21,500

• Doc Evazen’s Orders – 7,000

• Dok Ondar’s Agent – 19,500

• Droid Saving Surgery – 4,000

• Grogu's Trade – Mando Helmet

• Honest Prospects – 17,000

• Kessel Runner – 16,500

• Lando’s Seduction – 5,000

• Perilous Mission (Personal Transponder) – 3,000

• Perilous Mission (Stim Canister) - 3,000

• Secret Recipe – 5,000

• Spice Cartel – 7,000

• The Great Navigator – 11,500

• The Starhunters – 5,000

• Whole Heap of Junk – 36,500

• 
  

References

Hyperspace Props

• https://hyperspaceprops.com/how-to-play-hintaro/

• https://hyperspaceprops.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Hintaro-Rules.pdf

• https://hyperspaceprops.com/raise-the-stakes/

• https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Hintaro/Legends

Playtest Notes

These rules are in development. The actual Hintaro parts are standard, but we're fine tuning the Raise the Stakes component to integrate them into the Hintaro ruleset and smooth out some bits we found unclear or clunky during early games.

Playtest One: Done

misread the the rules (and found an important one about adding cards to the market on a card, not the rules) and we only used 350 credit or less and corresponding bounties. We noticed deadlock early on as players held items the other needed and had no good reason to let them fall into enemy hands.

We also discovered most bounty payouts is less than the value of the items, making completing them a bad idea if the goal is “most credits + Item value”.

It was unclear if items are turned into collect bounties, but that would make sense and also unlock other bounties if the Items recirculate.

Playtest Two: Soon

Adjustments:

Hand out a single 350 and single 150 Item to each player and reshuffle the entire Items deck. This is what we think the original rules were trying to say. There’s not enough of any single value level to hand out two with 5 or more players, so we mixed it but kept it fair.

Newest/Oldest rows to keep cards moving and allow for auction on stale goods (because nobody has enough money for the higher value items needed for bounties). We think this will work out fine and keep from getting too big.

Change the victory conditions to be completed bounties, not credits. We hope this solves the problem of items being worth more in total than the bounty, as it changes why a player is chasing bounties.

Playtest Three: TBD

See how the economics work out, if we reduce bounty deadlock, and players have fun

We have a fallback plan of recalculating the bounty payouts (see last optional rule) where I did math, averaged the value of the quantity of required items per bounty, and added a 20% ROI.

While fun is the inherent goal, we want players to have a good reason to pursue goals, not unbalance the betting parts of the game, and avoid logjams where players basically ignore the bounties because it’s not worth it. We also want to avoid a player winning a cheap bid for an expensive item to not throw off the betting economics (hence the maximum bet rule).