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Shinizak
2010-05-19, 07:23 PM
My friend and I are thinking about making an rpg in our free time (just as a thing to think about) and it came to mind that there were no systems based on playing cards. We've been taking leads from oWoD as far as mechanics go, but I was wondering what your thoughts and ideas were.

PanNarrans
2010-05-19, 07:25 PM
I believe Deadlands used playing cards to determine initiative.

Icewalker
2010-05-19, 07:47 PM
Can I toss out a general suggestion? Tarot cards. They're awesome. :smallbiggrin:

Also, I love card based systems. I think Fax Celestis' Cartomancer for d20r involves actually using a deck of cards.

Milskidasith
2010-05-19, 07:53 PM
Can I toss out a general suggestion? Tarot cards. They're awesome. :smallbiggrin:

Also, I love card based systems. I think Fax Celestis' Cartomancer for d20r involves actually using a deck of cards.

It was also incredibly broken, with the ability to reliably (through taking 20) ressurect people at level 3, while being unable to reliably (100% of the time) blast for 2d6 until level 15, at least in the last update I read. Even then, it was mostly just a skill based caster, so it was a truenamer, but instead of requiring items to buy to get your skills up to effective level, you just used your ranks + stat mod, so you were essentially on a completely fixed progression, which made skill based casting pointless.

n00b killa
2010-05-20, 01:56 PM
A couple of months ago I was working on a sistem based off Magic: The Gathering that used d10s for most checks.

You chose you class, race and color/s and picked from a variety of cards (Commons, unncommons, rares and eventually mythic rares).

Each character had his own 60-card deck (With combat manuvers and stances for martial-type characters and spells for casters) and was dealt a hand of 7 cards when combat started.

It was quite fun, but never got around to finishing it.

PM me if you want me to send you what I got.

P.D: Nothing of this will make much sense if you are not quite familiar with MTG.

Darth Stabber
2010-05-20, 02:32 PM
I've actually been trying to work out an RPG out of MTG. And I also tried to reason out a D&D class based on magic the gathering style magic. Neither has ended up making sense so far.

Jack of Spades
2010-05-20, 02:35 PM
Can I toss out a general suggestion? Tarot cards. They're awesome. :smallbiggrin:

While they are fun for flavor and atmosphere, I don't think that tarot cards (at least the trumps) would work for a rolling system. But if you take out the trumps, all you have is a regular deck of cards. So there's that.


Each character had his own 60-card deck (With combat manuvers and stances for martial-type characters and spells for casters) and was dealt a hand of 7 cards when combat started.

Interesting. Did you homebrew these "combat maneuvers"? Since every magi card with a mana cost (read: all of them that do anything) is a spell, I'm not sure how that would work.

Now then, to Shinizak:
Assuming you are using a standard 52-card deck, It would be interesting to have the suit of a card be a factor. I'm not sure how I would implement this, but it would likely be in the form of stat increases depending on suit or some sort of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock game for the initiative. Or, for something convoluted and probably impractical:
-Each player (side, team, group, not sure what the scale should be) secretly chooses which suit to draw from.
-Simultaneously, each player draws from the chosen suit.
-The suit from which the highest card is drawn is first in initiative order, with individual players taking their turns in descending order according to the card they drew. This continues for each suit in descending order according to the highest card drawn.
For example, :elan::haley::miko::mitd::nale::redcloak::durkon: enter combat. :elan: draws a two of clubs. :haley: draws a four of spades. :miko: draws a queen of hearts. :mitd: draws a four of clubs. :nale: draws an eight of hearts. :redcloak: draws a two of diamonds. :durkon: draws a jack of clubs.
The turn order would be as follows:
Hearts (Queen): :miko::nale:
Clubs (Jack): :durkon::mitd::elan:
Spades (4): :haley:
Diamonds (2): :redcloak:

As I said, convoluted and impractical. But still slightly more spicy than rolling d20s.

TheLonelyScribe
2010-05-20, 03:14 PM
This could allow very interesting spells and abilities, like looking at the top card of a the 'rolling' deck and being able to put it at the bottom if you dislike it. Or just looking at the top card and making sure that the next 'roll' you make is insignificant. Re-rolls would simply work by drawing another card and either choosing one or having to choose the one you drew. Fits a 'fate' flavour very well.

Moose Fisher
2010-05-20, 03:20 PM
CthulhuTech/FrameWerk system uses 'poker dice'.

As far as I can remember, the ranks in the skill determine how many dice a player rolls. The players can submit straights or matches as their result.

One of the books has a card based variant where they draw a hand of cards from a deck ranging from 1 to 10 from each set. Their 'rolls' are submitted from these hands and the player draws new cards.

EDIT: Players make a test adding their base score to the die rolls. Ranks in the skill used determine how many dice are used, to a maximum of 5 (Student, Novice, Adept, Expert, Master).

Players can take:

Highest single roll
Highest set of multiples of a number
largest straight

Dairun Cates
2010-05-20, 03:35 PM
Actually, Cards HAVE been used as a rolling mechanic a few times before, it's just less common and harder to find. Deadlands was already mentioned.

Here's a thread that gives a few more like Savage Worlds, Aces and Eights, etc. (http://www.enworld.org/forum/other-rpg-discussion/266507-looking-playing-card-based-rpg.html)

It's also been used in a few homebrews here and there. You just have to look for it.

Obviously, a few board games do this as well (dating back as early as candy land). A few LARP systems here and there use cards too.

Hell. I even had a friend make a Psychonauts system with cards for a class (the same one the homebrew in my signature was initially made for).

Actually, it seems to be most common in non-english Tabletop RPGs according to wikipedia (there's a french and japanese one).

That's not to say that you shouldn't try it because it's not as original as you think, but I'd do a bit of research before implementing it. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages of playing cards and how they deal with randomization. For instance, unless you shuffle after each hand, there's an inherent statistical balance (ie. every card must be drawn once) that really messes with statistics. Know what other people have done and what succeeded and failed. It'll help in the long run.

Also, find a reason WHY you're using cards. It shouldn't just be a nifty gimmick. Is there a mechanical reason in game that favors cards over dice (such as said balanced randomization and how it plays out in later rounds of combat), or is it for flavor (most Card based RPGs are Westerns)? This is more important than anything when using an alternate rolling mechanic. The randomization mechanic should serve the system, not the other way around. Otherwise, the thing can feel very hodge podge and messy in nature.

Anyway, that's not very specific, but I hope that helps a bit with your endeavor.

Roland St. Jude
2010-05-20, 09:52 PM
On thread per topic, please don't cross-post to multiple subforums.