Located along the main street running across the first habitation zone, Starcade is the oldest and the best known arcade in the Shiro Yoake. The worn facade of the arcade is covered with flickering red and orange neon lights depicting Daikuku beating a large drum, though because of faulty wiring the drum itself is never lit. In the deep of the night this gives an allusion of Daikoku beating thin air.
Inside the arcade the air is hot and humid as the air conditioning barely works. The inner walls and the floor of the arcade have been lined with glossy plastic panels which reflect the red and blue lights that illuminate the arcade. Rows of arcade machines running an old, computerized version of Fortunes and Winds cover one of the walls. Their worn screens are dim, barely providing enough light for the players.
Several skill based games are also present, including both outdated spaceflight and iaijutsu simulators. The latter are particularly popular among the young bushi who sometimes spend hours on these machines, trying to lay claim to the high score. Two old Hyper Dance Stars, along with their slightly faulty dance pads are usually surrounded by the local youth. The game has two modes, competitive and cooperative one. The cooperative mode yields price tickets while the competitive mode does not, only giving the user the bragging rights of being the smoothest dancer of the city.
One of the corners of the arcade is dedicated to a variety vending machines selling refreshments and cheap collectible items as well as chewing gum containing nicotine. An old note, printed years ago hangs on the wall, apologizing the lack of alcoholic drinks.
禁煙
Smoking forbidden
Location rules: Gambling and cooperative dancing
Gambling: Players may try their luck with Fortunes and Winds by spending a bu and rolling Games: Fortunes and Winds (duh) for each time slot spent at the arcade against TN 20. Success and each successful raise called earns the character a bu. This roll cannot be made if the character has rolled for Cooperative Dancing at this time slot. Experienced gamblers can tell that the machines have been rigged to give the house a rather large advantage while the bets have kept rather low, ostensibly to avoid gambling problems. Sticker of a cutesy lizard mascot on the side of each machine reminds the players of the risks of gambling.
Cooperative dancing: Once per any given timeslot, two characters may play the Hyper Dance Stars. Both characters roll Dancing / Agility twice and pick one of their rolls. If the difference between the chosen rolls is three or less, the characters win two of the eight different Hyper Dance Stars pins. This roll cannot be made if either of the characters has rolled for Gambling at this time slot. Characters may chose to keep highest dice or lowest dice, but they cannot pick the dice they keep as this gets both tricky to resolve and demands the players to work math which I don't want to force on them. Decision which set of dice to keep must be done on orokos before rolling.
Example. Kakita Mai and Bayushi Makoto play the Hyper Dance Stars. Mai rolls 23 and 19. Makoto rolls 14 and 17. Mai picks the roll of 19, Makoto picks the roll of 17. The difference between the rolls is 3 or less and so they both win pins.