Moskher's Lottery

Moskher Heszche · Post by **Moskher Heszche** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:43 pm

Greetings good men and women of Trollsbane,

If you have not met me before, I am Moskher Heszche, a scholar but also a gambler. I come before you and post this on the town wall to offer you a proposition.

You see, I have found myself recently out of work, and I must fund my research into the Arcane Arts.

In the past, in my homeland of Shisaar, I ran a bi-weekly lottery and I'd be interested in doing so again. I understand that you already have a yearly lottery, and I promise that I will not run my lottery during the time in which that is played. I would not want to interfere in local business, of course.

This is how my lottery would work:

Tickets are twenty-five gold coins each. For each ticket, you give yourself one chance to win the lottery. There is no limit to the amount of tickets you can purchase.

For each ticket you buy, you increase the amount of gold that can be won. Twenty gold coins out of every ticket is added to the pot.

Five gold per ticket goes to my own fund, to help in my research. In the name of honesty, I will disclose the sum of my own earnings for each game, if so desired.

I, and anyone else who works for the lottery, will be ineligible to win the lottery.

If you are interested, have doubts about my honesty, or have any comments at all, feel free to write below.

My hope is that all citizens of Trollsbane get rich with this lottery!

~~Moskher Heszche

((Edited for spelling errors.))

Nilo · Post by **Nilo** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 10:39 pm

Nilo writes below:
How do we know that it's not fixed to where YOU will win, or your "friend" will win and you just get rich off of thise scheme??

Yours truly,
Nilo

Moskher Heszche · Post by **Moskher Heszche** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:45 am

Nilo,

This is a good question, and I was looking forward to answering it.

1. If this were a scam, it would be foolish for me to steal the money on the first lottery. Afterall, people will start by being cautious and eventually build trust. Eventually the take would be much higher.

2. As for subsequent lotteries, it would be foolish for me to steal the money simply because I would already be making a cut from each ticket. I could make more on the long run by not cheating than I would in the short run by cheating. If I cheat, the trust will be broken and I would no longer be able to make money on the lottery at all.

3. I, myself, and anyone working on the lottery are ineligible for winning, thus I could not announce myself as a winner.

4. It is well known that I am not strong. I measure at just taller than a dwarf and near as thin as an elf, although I am a human. Neither am I fast on my feet, for I am burdened with these short legs. This is evident. Even if I were foolish enough to make a run for the docks with the people of Trollsbane's money, there are those who are fast enough to catch me and strong enough to pummel me.

In summation, if I were running a scam, it would be analogous to firing a crossbow upon my own feet. I would surely lose more than I would gain.

Thank you, Nilo, for asking this question. I had been awaiting it.

~~Moskher Heszche

Hermie · Post by **Hermie** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:27 am

You say you are not only a scholar but also a gambler. This sceme is not a gamble as you take a definate cut from each pot. It is only the ticket buyers that take the risk.
Twenty percent is far too big a cut for you to be taking, that is my opinion at least. If there were ten ingots of ticket sales you would take two of them! That is the only problem I have with this lottery.

Hermie of Greenbriar.

Selgoth · Post by **Selgoth** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 2:47 am

A lizard with a red staff walks toward the wall, his staff makes a tapping sound on the stone road as he steps.

Interesting to see two people accuse a man of stealing, especially since they are halflings.

-Selgoth

Hermie · Post by **Hermie** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:06 am

Did you anger the Gods? Clearly they took away your sight as you are truely blind. Neither Nilo or I accused this man of stealing. You should really think before you put ink to parchment.

Nilo asked why he should be trusted and I merely voiced the opinion he is taking too much of the money. Do you understand? Would you like me to point out more clearly, using small words why we are not calling him a thief?

And if you are so eager and small minded to suggest that all Halflings are thieves why not bring each and every one of us before Lyrenzia so we may be punished? Obviously you have no evidence or even reasoning behind what you say so perhaps you should just not speak, Selgoth.

Hermie of Greenbriar.

Moskher Heszche · Post by **Moskher Heszche** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:08 pm

Please, let's be civil. I won't tolerate bigotry nor insults here. Neither of these halflings have insulted my honor. Why is it that they have offended you, Selgoth, if their words have not offended me?

As to Hermie's consideration, I suppose you may be right that a cut of one in five coins could be too much.

At the same time, I would not want to go too low, for the lottery will indeed be work that, ultimately, will take away from my studies while, at the same time, paying for them.

Tell me, Hermie, if I raised the price of tickets to 30 gold and took five gold per ticket, then would that be more acceptable? This makes my take one in six parts. If that is not acceptable, what would be?

I seek solutions as well as friendly criticism.

In any case, no matter which of these methods would be used, the winner will always take a large majority of the money. I am sure that you would not complain if you won, that you got only four in five parts.

Perhaps if the pot started with an ingot from my own pockets, would that make a take of one part in five acceptable? This would make it so that I need to sell a certain amount of tickets to break even, let alone make a profit. It seems fair.

I will most definately take this all into consideration.

~~Moskher Heszche

P.S. I did not mean to imply that this would be any sort of gamble for myself. Rather, I meant to show that I am one who loves games of chance, and that I wanted to bring the games which I enjoyed in Shisaar here to share with the folks on this isle.

Chronch Ra · Post by **Chronch Ra** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 4:51 pm

-deleted by Keikan-

Absolutly wrong Board.
No OOC on RPG.

Moathia · Post by **Moathia** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:45 pm

Logically, he can take as much of the money he wants so long as the winners gets enough money to make it worth while.

Selgoth · Post by **Selgoth** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 8:44 pm

The accusation of ill-doings was implied, not directly stated little one.

Hermie wrote: And if you are so eager and small minded to suggest that all Halflings are thieves why not bring each and every one of us before Lyrenzia so we may be punished?

Why would I want to involve myself with them?

Hermie · Post by **Hermie** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 9:40 pm

Well, I suppose Moathia is correct. You should arragne your lottery how you like it, Moskher.

Selgoth, nor did I state directly or imply he was a thief. Go and waste someone else's time with your childish games. You might not want to play with children though, they might be too challenging for you.

Hermie or Greenbriar.

Moskher Heszche · Post by **Moskher Heszche** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:25 pm

Hm, yes.

Very well. No one has stated wether they would play or not, so there is only one way to find out.

The lottery begins tomorrow. A winner will be named in two weeks on Sunday. I will begin selling tickets as of now. The rules will be as follows:

The Pot begins at one ingot, provided by myself.

Tickets are twenty and five gold each.

Twenty (4 in 5) gold from each ticket is added to the Pot.

Five (1 in 5) gold goes to pay for the lottery.

The winner must claim the money in person as to protect from fraudulence.

Winner will be announced one fortnight from this Sunday.

Enjoy the game,

~~Moskher Heszche

Gurik Elvenstar · Post by **Gurik Elvenstar** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 8:26 pm

Just to see how this goes me buy 4 tickets

Moskher Heszche · Post by **Moskher Heszche** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 9:16 pm

Good folks of Trollsbane,

I have only sold tickets for an hour today, and already there has been a very positive reaction to the lottery. The pot has expanded to twice it's original size, and we still have two more weeks to go.

~~Moskher Heszche

Gerhalt · Post by **Gerhalt** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 8:00 am

I too have purchased 4 tickets. As for Moshker's honesty, I will vouch for him. Although 1 out of every 5 gold does seem a bit high, he is still being honest and telling us how much he is getting.