It occurred to me that I never actually wrote down the actual rules for this game, since I had been so focused on character creation that I didn't really think about it. So here I am going to go ahead and just write everything down, since we need it for the playtest coming up.
Introduction:
First of all, you need to create a character - all that has been detailed in the wonderful little Character Creation post I did, and it even has all the hyperlinks so you know exactly what to do. I'll go ahead and copy all that over to a new document and hyperlink it so it's easily searchable.
Next you begin playing the game, much like any RPG, the game is a cooperative storytelling game, so essentially, you have created your characters and now you are going to tell a story with all the other players starring your characters. When doing this, you need to act like your character, now that doesn't mean you need to dress up like them or talk in old English, but you do need to think like your character would and act that out in game.
Cards and Basic Gameplay:
Now when the game starts, someone needs to grab a standard deck of 52 playing cards (if playing with 3 or less people) or 2 standard decks of 52 playing cards (if playing with 4 to 6 players. You can potentially play with more people by adding one deck for every 3 people playing, but we recommend against more than 6 as it becomes unwieldy.) Then remove all the face cards (aces do not count as face cards) from the decks and set those aside, these will become "Destiny Cards" and will be addressed later. Shuffle the remaining cards and put them face down in an easy to reach pile in the middle of all the players.
Each player draws five cards this is their hand. When their character performs any action that is opposed (explained here), they must play a card down from their hand, add it to the relevant skill/power on their character sheet and compare the total to whatever they are trying to overcome. If the number they play is greater than the opposed number, they are successful. If the number played is less than or equal to the opposed number, it is a failure. If an action is failed, no other character in the party can attempt the action for 24 hours.
If a player lays down a 10, it is an automatic success. If a player lays down an ace (or one), it is an automatic failure.
After the player plays their card(s), they do not draw a new one. They only draw a new hand after they have no more cards in their hand. This represents the inevitability of failure, as, no matter how good we are, we will all eventually fail. However the player does have the agency to determine when they fail.
When there are no more cards left to draw in the center pile, shuffle all the cards in the discard pile together and create a new pile in the center with them. Play proceeds as before.
Destiny Cards, Opposed Actions, and Cyclical DMing:
Earlier the term "Destiny Cards" was mentioned referring to the face cards that were removed from the deck prior to play. Before the game starts, deal 3 of these face cards to each player. The player may play these cards at any time to alter the in game world, to help shape it, to create an interesting story. Generally Destiny Cards are used to add challenges and encounters to the game, in order to make it more interesting. Here is what Destiny Cards can be used for:
- Add an enemy, enemies, encounter
- Add an NPC, town, location, etc.
- Add a trap, riddle, non-combat encounter
- Add an item of importance
- Alter something already in existence (such as lock a door, make a sword magical, etc. Note: this should only be used to create conflict or a problem for the player's to resolve, not to make the game easier. No using dice to unlock doors, etc.)
- Keep an NPC or Enemy alive
- Add a quest
- Add an opposed action
- Destroy a location, item, etc. (You do have to explain why reasonably. You can't just say, "Suddenly the town of Etheria was gone!" but rather "You arrive at the town of Etheria but it appears to have been raped and pillaged. The cottages are still smoking from smoldering coals, bodies hang from spikes in the streets. In the town square there is a red banner with a skull on it..." See how one adds to the story? Do that.)
- Alter something another player created with a Destiny Card (for instance, let's say Player 1 creates an Elf Wizard as a friendly NPC, another player can play a Destiny Card and say that the Elf Wizard has been working as a saboteur, trying to destroy the kingdom from the inside out. Whereas it would be incorrect to use a story dice to say, "Well, he's not really an elf, or a wizard for that matter, but rather an orc barbarian. Fooled you!" Although if you can make this logical and make it add to the story, go ahead.)
Destiny Cards do have limits though, some things they cannot be used for:
- Avoiding negative effects inflicted onto the player's characters
- Giving oneself an item
- Improving one's rolls
- Avoiding death or damage to your player characters
- Giving your character a power they would not normally have
- Improving any sort of player score
The easiest way to think of Destiny Cards is to essentially ask yourself, "What can I do to add to the story in a meaningful way? What interesting things could I add? What would I enjoy to add to the game?"
Once a Destiny Card is used up, it is gone for good that session. The player can turn it face down to symbolize it's gone or find some other way to get rid of it. New Destiny Cards can be earned in game: every 24 hours that passes in game, the players gain 1 more Destiny Card, however, they can not at any point have more Destiny Cards in their hand than 4 at any time. So even if the player hasn't used any cards, he can still only ever have 4.
Destiny Cards can also be given to another player. For instance, say Player 1 doesn't really know how to use his Destiny Cards but he really likes what Player 2 seems to be doing with his, so Player 1 can give Player 2 one of his Destiny Cards to use. Once again, the hand limit of 4 Destiny Cards still applies in this case as well.
Now, when using Destiny Cards to create an encounter, enemy, NPC, or anything that the party would interact with, you must then follow through and play it, or run it. Essentially for the moment, you become the DM, and you control how the game runs for a short amount of time. The easiest way to think about this is instead of just worrying about and playing your character, for a short amount of time you are worrying and playing all the monsters, enemies, etc. Because everyone has the ability to play Destiny Cards and create encounters, chances are, during the session, several people will end up being in control at different parts, this is what we refer to as cyclical DMing, because the DM shifts so often.
It may sound confusing at first but after playing one or two encounters it is very easy to pick up.
One last thing, you remember how earlier I was talking about Opposed Actions? Those are any action that involves another character or something that your character would not easily be able to do. For instance, anything involving combat is an Opposed Action, because your enemy doesn't want to die and so they will try everything they can to survive. For a non combat example buying goods from a merchant or ordering an pint from the tavern would not be opposed actions, because that is something anyone can do and requires no effort. However tracking another person or looking up a spell in a foreign language requires more effort and would probably be considered an opposed action. Just use common sense on this, remember you are all in charge of the game as a group, and these rules are more guidelines, so find the middle ground that you like with how many opposed actions there are.
How to calculate the opposed actions is simple enough. During combat, when attacking an enemy, play one of your cards from your hand, add it to your attack score. The enemy then draws a card from the top of the deck, reveals it, and adds it to his defensive score. If your attack is greater than the enemy's defense, your attack is successful and you roll for damage. If your attack is equal to or lesser than the enemy's defense, your attack fails, roll no damage. If an enemy is attacking you, just reverse this process.
As for opposed actions that occur out of combat, whoever is creating the opposed action gets to decide the difficulty. For quick reference, 14 is the absolute highest score a character can get for a skill and that is rare, so the average is about a 6 or 7 for an opposed action outside of combat.
To easily create stats for challenges, enemies, NPCs, etc., see the Tome of Challenges.
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