Faro Playing Cards

Complete deck of 1880's Faro style Playing Cards for my upcoming Western mod Dry Gulch. 

This hak uses two files to create a font, fnt_faro.txi and fnt_faro.tga and playing cards start at the letter A.  See the mod script for the example.  If this hak is too large for your liking you can reduce the size of the image and change the header on the txi file accordingly (font height size, texturewidth, etc. but leave the vectors alone) with your favourite text editor and it will work normally, albiet smaller and with lower resolution.

Faro, not Poker, was the most popular game in the Old West.  It had simple rules similar to the TV Game Show Card Sharks.  The chances of winning are greater than most card games which made it extremely popular and it was extremely easy to cheat for both the players and the bankers.

Faro cards are noted for their squared corners, lack of numbers and Jokers, and full, unflipped face cards. Their backs were typically green.  They were uncoated and made of linen paper that got easily soiled, bent, or dog eared - which also made for easy marking.  A simple fix for bending them back was recommended by pressing or ironing.

Faro is also called Pharo, Pharoah, Farobank, and Bucking the Tiger, Buck, Tiger, or Twisting the Tiger's Tale.  A gambling district would sometimes be known as Tiger Town or Tiger Alley.

A game of Faro has a banker who typically has a Dealing Box or Shoe (often rigged) and that holds the cards and an abacus like device called a Case Keeper where the banker can anticipate the next draw.  Players "purchase" their chips to play and and use them to guess high or low on the next draw.  There is a bid limit that can go as high as $10.