Background: Kévuk is a game within a game -- a dice invented by MAR Barker within his world of Tékumel. The game is detailed in "The Game of Kévuk" (DTRP link).
The game uses two asymmetric dice:
Die A: Blue 1, White 2, Silver 3, Yellow 4, Black 5, God A
Die B: Black 1, Yellow 2, Silver 3, White 4, Blue 5, God B
Blue
vs. Black, and White vs. Yellow, are pairs of opposing colors.
Non-oppositional colors are "neutral" to each other. Silver is special
-- not neutral, not a color.
A thrower (/kevúmokoi/) is determined. The thrower picks a god and a color. Other players then around the table pick a god and a color.
Then the thrower makes a bet. Barker's writeup say a standardized bet is common, I will just call that one chip. Other players may then make a bet or pass.
There is also a treasury or kitty (/kumesukán/). Throwers may win money from this, or, apparently, directly from other players.
The
thrower then throws, and the pair of dice are interpreted relative to
the thrower's choice of god and color, yielding a result. These are
coded with, "Own God (OG)", "Enemy God (EG)", "Own Color (OC)", "Enemy
Color (EC)", "Neutral Color (NC)", and "3" for Silver 3s.
For
example, if the thrower picked "God A, Yellow", and the dice came up
(Black 1, Yellow 4) that is read as: "Own Color, Neutral Color" or
OC-NC. The corresponding result is: the higher numbered color wins the difference times the bet, from the lower number. In this case, the yellow number is 3 higher, and it's the thrower's color, so the thrower would win 3 chips from each backer of black.
Problems With the Game, or My Misunderstandings
It's not clear where the bet money goes. Almost all results seem to win a multiple of the bet from other players so it does not seem like money put up or set aside.
Wherever it goes, in most gambling, it is expected that when one "bets" or "wagers" an amount of money, then the most one can lose in one play is exactly that amount of money. In Kévuk, however you can win or lose multiples of a bet (the thrower's bet, it seems). If you are the thrower, you can lose up to 5 times your bet per opposing colored player which is quite wild. As the non-thrower, you can lose 5 times the amount of the thrower's bet, which is also wild if they can bet anything they want.
It's not clear where the kitty comes from. Maybe it's where the bets go, which makes it more of a running pot. It can't be the house, because players may dice for what's left in it at the end of the game. (Also because: throwers are favored against the kitty! "OG-EG" wins 5 chips from the kitty, while "3-3" loses only 3 chips to the kitty.)
It's not clear how non-throwers' bets matter, especially with non-standard bets. If I am not the thrower and payouts scale only by what the thrower bets, why should I want to bet anything.
It's not totally clear that the results are only processed one time per throw, relative to the thrower. That seems the only sane way to go, but it's not clear. If you as thrower pick "God A, Yellow" and I pick "God A, White", then you roll (God A, Yellow 2), for you that's OG-OC, and you win 5 chips from me. For me, that would be OG-EC and I would win N=2 chips back from you? Surely not. And with more players at the table this would be onerous, especially since order of operations would matter -- in the previous example, if I had 1 chip to my name, would you win 1 from me (all I had), then I win 2 from you? Or would I need to scribble out an IOU for two chips? (Actually this may not be so bad; experienced players may get so good at "solving" this web of debts that inexperienced players would be utterly baffled.. But no surely not.)
If results are only taken relative to the thrower's call, then there's no point in other players picking a god.
It's not clear if players who pass on a bet are out of the game. It would seem not, but being able to "fold" in light of a thrower's high bet seems like a good option. Not that non-thrower bets seem to matter.
OG-EG ("Own god, Enemy god") says it wins "all bets from other players", which seems to be taking their betted chips, though other results will win chip(s) directly "from" other players. This "OG-EG" result also wins from the kitty which perhaps indicates bets don't go in the kitty?
The OC-EC ("Own Color, Enemy Color") result says that the higher numbered color earns the difference, but OC-EC will always be doubles, so the difference will always be zero.
OC-3 ("Own Color, 3") says it wins N x Bet from kitty, but what is N?
If you back the thrower's color (and only the thrower's result is processed), this is a pretty tepid choice, and you will only win or lose money on two rolls out of 36 possibilities.
Making my best guesses, I analyzed how things would go for backing either god with black. Assuming a 4 player game where each player backs a different color, after 36 turns expected chip total changes are:
(God A, Black) : Black -6, Yellow +3, White +1, Blue +4, Kitty -2.
(God B, Black) : Black -6, Yellow -1, White +5, Blue +4, Kitty -2.
The yellow/white asymmetry is because white is "strong" against God A: the thrower wins 2 in (OG-NC) against white but loses 4 in (EG-NC). Blue comes out ahead compared to Black because (EC-NC) is pure loss for the thrower.
Conclusion
Assuming that only the thrower's result is processed, the game can probably work as a casual game if played with a pretty big pile of chips. Ignore the whole idea of the "bet", just work multiples of 1 chip and understand that much of your stash is always in play. Maybe seed the kitty with some money like "Free Parking" in Monopoly.
Analysis
of black's odds suggests if you're trying to win you should just always
oppose the thrower's color -- and don't be the thrower.
If you change the EC-NC rule so that the higher pays the lower (and the thrower is not involved) then the thrower's losses disappear and they end up expected +2 over 36 plays. It's good to be the thrower, which fits to letting the highest ranked person go first and passing the throw with (3-3) feeling like a calamity.
This would bring the opposite color into parity with the thrower's color, and it makes the neutral colors closer and in balance -- either +2 or -2 depending on the thrower's god. A savvy player might know "against black God A take white" but that's more complex than just always picking the opposing color and still closer to an even game. To remove even this, the thrower could announce their color, but select their god secretly (by holding the corresponding die closed in their hand). Then after other players pick their colors, the thrower reveals their choice of god. This would be fair on average but allow for experienced players to try to guess which god the thrower has chosen and shift to the advantageous neutral color.
If
the kitty is the house, they expect to be down 2 over 36 throws, but
this could be recouped any number of ways. The simplest would be a fee
to sit at the table, but gambling houses would probably say their Kévuk
was free to play but recover the losses in some other way.
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