Festival Attractions – Shells game

Slab

The classic shells game, like all festival games, is rigged to make it just about impossible to win. The barker demonstrates that beneath one of three shells is a small ball. He shuffles them around and offers a prize to whoever can select the shell with the ball beneath it. A simple DC 10 Perception (Wisdom) check allows the PC to select the shell that the ball was in initially. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. The ball is never under that shell.

A barker who is good with their hands might make a sleight of hand check to slip the ball into another shell. Alternately, the more magically inclined might simply use cantrip to teleport the ball to whatever shell they wish, which requires no check at all and since there is no transfer to see, the player’s perception doesn’t matter. They always lose unless the barker chooses otherwise.