Firstly, the handicap: how important is that really, in the balance of things? I'd feel more aesthetically pleased if I didn't have to bother with that.

Secondly, would things still be kosher if I gave each player at the table their own layout to put chips on, if forwhatever reason (room design, for example), it wouldn't be simple enough to share a single mat?

thanks,
d

The handicap is vitally important. Without it, when two players bid against one another, the one with more chips can just mimick the one with less chips on his bets, and therefore generally dominate the lesser player. With it, each player gets a separate value.

That said, if you were giving each player their own layout, then they wouldn't necessarily be able to see the bids of everyone else at the same time... which, in turn, might make it possible to get rid of the handicap. If you explicitly made the individual mats hidden (during bidding, at least) that might substitute for the handicap.

So, your second question/problem seems to possibly be the answer to the first.

Woah. Neat. I'll keep that in mind as a possibility for the game.

...although, without the Handicap in place, would it be possible that the Croupier would hit the zeroes, for *everyone*, giving everyone a very bad day at once? Meanwhile, there would be fewer instances of the zeroes coming up during the game (since, with the Handicap, it's like more random spins per conflict in the conflict; but without the Handicap, there sort of fewer spins going on in all, so overall there will be fewer juicy instances of the zeroes screwing over a character).

I guess the next thing would be to let everyone pick their own unlucky number, and figure out some other effect to do when the zeroes come up on the wheel. (At least I'm using an European wheel, without the 00.)

If I'm overthinking this, please do say so! I just worry a bit much about rules sounds complex when I'm showing them off.

Yes, that is the other reason for the Handicap - the zero would hit everyone at once, instead of hitting one person at a time. So the zero, yes, would be rarer, and would be felt more strongly when it happened (draining all the participating players, except the croupier). It'll probably even out in the end, but it DOES change the dynamics of the game.

It's a worthwhile experiment, though, and it makes more sense than having people pick an unlucky number. I think you're overthinking it on the unlucky-number side, but at least considering the fact that zeros would affect everyone is probably a good idea.