EVERYWAY & THE GLORANTHAN TAROT Thanks to those of you who have commented on the new WOTC "Everyway" roleplaying system. I had not previously heard of it, but have been experimenting for some time with a Gloranthan "Tarot" card system. From the description of Everyway, it seems that it too is based on traditional tarot decks. I've been using tarot as story and incident generating aids to my campaigns for quite a while, especially the Arthurian Tarot (which has a vaguely '"Orlanthi" high fantasy "feel" to it) and the Elemental Tarot (which I find great for assisting players find a story in the scattered symbols).
My nascent "Power Way" deck (which is specifically Far Point Orlanthi in focus) works on several levels. Every card has a number from 1 to 20, so the deck can be used as instead of dice. (Obviously, we're playing Pendragon Pass). Every card has a name, god and symbolic meaning which is summarised on the card itself. There are also cards that relate to game, storytelling, and character development functions such as FLASHBACK, PROJECTION, SHADOW, MEMORY and PASSION.
I have 5 minor decks each with a god or spirit identity. (As Nils suggested, I've added darkness to the traditional earth, air fire and water). The minor decks each have the traditional ten cards, though eventually I want to reduce them to the more Orlanthi seven. (In developing, I started with traditional tarot concepts cause they were easy to use, and gradually mutated them into Gloranthan terms).
I also use a whole host of "major arcana" equivalents that cover Gloranthan gods, themes and images. It is these major cards that I'm still experimenting with. At the moment I'm using Runes, Animal Totems and their (Far Point) archetypal equivalents (i.e. Bearded Raven the Trickster, Jumping Mouse the Vision Quester), Pendragon Pass Personality Traits, and an ever-changing variety of "Theme" cards (The Warrior At the Ford, The Cattle Raid, The Stead Tree etc).
These cards specifically tie in with the Archetype hero-quest system I'm playing with, where mastery of cultural archetypes (Lover, Caregiver, Warrior, Shaman, Trickster, Beast Child, Thane, Innocent etc) at various levels generates both WILL (for game purposes) and Shadows (for storytelling/characterisation purposes). While its still early days, I will be demonstrating the card deck and archetype system at RQ Con Down Under, where I will be using it in "Music of the Spears".
The card deck exists as a Macintosh HyperCard stack, which I simply print out and glue to index cards. Obviously, finding the right graphics is the really slow bit, and that's where I've still got a long way to go. (Dan Barker, please emmigrate!).
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else playing (ah yes, that's the term) around with Gloranthan card systems. And if anyone coming to RQ Con Down Under has a copy of Everyway, obviously I'd love to see it.
Cheers
John
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