>>A very nice idea, but only works if cards exist in your Glorantha. >>IMG they don't because the paper/card making tech doesn't exist. >>Historically, playing cards were a Renaissance invention.
(I heard that Tarot was developed around 1200 in Alexandria, from an interpretation of Kabbalist methods, and degenerated quickly into a card game Tarock. I don't know if this was a well-recherched source, but someone else might.)
> The way faro is played the traditional pasteboard cards could be replaced
> by domino or mah jongg-like tiles made of wood, ivory or clay and the
> spring-loaded "shoe" replaced with any number of containers.
Don't forget the classic material, Papyrus, for a working surface, possibly backed or pocketed with leather.
> Has anyone done any work on which games of chance are associated with
> the different cultures/nations of Glorantha? I sort of have my plate
> full with food.
Dicing is pretty much a given - Griffin Mountain has a pair of giant dice (cube-shaped) in Gonn Orta's Pass. Variations of this form - like those fairly irregular shaped bones used by the Romans - might make up variations. Symbols other than numbers may change the game, too. Variations in the number of dice will do, as well.
Even more primitively one player may grab a number of stones from a hidden reservoir, and the other players have to guess the number, or colour and shape of the stones in the toss.
Betting on the cast of rune stones, upside down clay tablets, etc. will do. As will bets on any kind of combat or racing, who counts coup, or whatever. Many gamblers don't care what the mechanism of the game is, as long as money can be made (or lost). I once met someone who claimed that any skill or knowledge involved in gambling just detracts from the point of gambling. Which was, according to him, the thrill whether to win or lose the stakes.
I guess that to most people in the hobby of roleplaying, this view is fairly alien. Your average barracks soldier might share it, though.
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