Bright Blessings and Spiral Dreams to you all for Sacred Time. Turn back the Dark! (But don't drink and ride. And if a fat red-suited guy comes down your chimney, its probably a Mostali lynx-burglar. Or an exploding Ulerian were-hobbit. Yo ho BOOM!).
A CARD-BASED GAMING AID No I am not a sensitive new-age type of guy (though I have read Robert Bly). But I do want to vibe with you about the cards, man. They're cosmic. :-)
Or to put it a bit more lucidly, during the discussion of Gloranthan "tarot" and other card gaming techniques, I promised to post a description of the "Way of Power" deck being developed by Philippa and myself.
I apologise in advance for the length of these posts. However, the system is complete, and the cards themselves are available from me as a Macintosh Hypercard stack.
Here in several parts follows a description of the 144 cards that we use and some brief (brief!) notes on how they were derived. I'm posting this on the understanding that the deck is still evolving, but that others playing with similar ideas might find it useful. While Far Point in focus, the deck can be fairly easily adapted to other Orlanthi or tribal campaign settings.
The deck is divided into RUNE CARDS (universal powers), HERO CARDS (based on the Far Point landscape and history - a major arcana equivalent), ELEMENT CARDS (five elemental suits each of seven cards - a minor arcarna if you will), GIFT CARDS (the treasures of Far Point and their inner meanings) and GAME CARDS, which can initiate various character events such as flashbacks. Optionally, you can also include PLAYER/CHARACTER CARDS, denoting characters, which are included in play in the STORY DECK explained below.
Each card has its meaning/divination printed on the card itself. No piccies yet, alas.
Once RQ Con is out of the way, I will post (or publish) a fuller description of using the cards in a game: at present, being familiar with how a tarot deck works will be a plus.
I'll be demonstrating the cards and a few other related goodies at the 'Campaign Myth-Management' seminar at RQ Con Down Under. For those of you who use macs, I'm happy to e-mail you a bin-hexed Hypercard stack containing the cards, so you can print them out and paste them onto index cards for experimentation and play.
Why do I find the deck useful? Because its a way of linking characters'
internal feelings and perceptions with the outer landscape and events, and
so helps develop an area of your story touched on only lightly by existing
game mechanisms. For me, this idea of RESONANCE is pretty central to
building a campaign strong on mythic feel. To use Greg's terminology, its a
way of connecting the microcosm (the world of personal meaning) with the
mesocosm (the social world of shared and debated meaning) and the macrocosm
(the Big Fella, the god and hero planes of universal meaning).
It also emphasises some new emotions, experiences and insights that don't otherwise often come into play. Least in my campaign. :-)
You can also use the cards as an aid to generating stories, and as a traditional tarot using the Lightbringers, Seven Winds or Heroquest Spreads.
Just having the cards around can be good, especially for new players, as it gets them familiar with the runes and with major figures in the campaign's mythological background.
The deck is a PLAYER STORYTELLING AND GAME AID, and will be most useful if your players enjoy storytelling and strong characterisation.
It is not intended to be a Gloranthan tarot equivalent used by characters. The deck does link in to a CHARACTER world view through use of the Seven Winds divination system or Medicine Wheel. Unfortunately, a full explanation of that is a long post in itself.
The deck has been developed with heroquest in mind. It is explicitly
Odaylan/Orlanthi, and explicitly Far Point in character. For instance, many
of the Gifting Cards represent the twelve legendary Treasures of Vidblain,
(the FP Godtime forest) while some of the hero cards represent major
figures in Far Point myth-tory. (A lot of which is covered by Michael
Raaterova and myself in the Far Point section of the Questlines book - PLUG
PLUG).
Many of the cards spring from events and themes generated within my
campaign. This is both a strength and a weakness. Most people using the
deck will have to adjust some of the cards to suit their own campaigns.
BASIC USE OF THE CARDS The meaning of individual cards is described below.
In game use, the cards are used as an adjunct to your gaming system. We use a modified Pendragon Pass, and some of the cards (Passion for instance) are linked fairly explicitly to that system.
It has to be emphasised that the cards are primarily storytelling aids, and that interpretation and creativity in using them is the key rather than rigid allegiance to a system of rules. The story is what is important, not the cards.
PLAY with the cards meanings. Exercise your creativity. Their primary purpose is to prod your already hyper-active roleplaying imagination.
At the beginning of a session, the deck sans GAME CARDS is shuffled and
each player receives three (or whatever works for your group) cards.
They might receive one or more RUNE CARDS (heavy, major influences), GIFT
CARDS (a bonus in tight spots), HERO or ELEMENT cards (responses to events
or situations).
They are also dealt a single card from the GAME CARD deck.
The GM then takes the undealt cards and separates them into a RUNE DECK, A STORY DECK (combined HERO, ELEMENTAL, and (if used), PLAYER CHARACTER cards), and a GIFT DECK, which are all placed with the GAME CARD DECK.
If a player receives a RUNE CARD, it is secretly retained, and is the major influence upon you for the duration of the scenario. It can not be played except against a Rune Card played by the GM that has gotten you into deep do do.
Other cards are shown and played as situations come up, and are replaced by cards from the STORY DECK. When playing a card, a player must describe how that card relates to their character's reaction to the situation or event. GIFT CARDS, when played, can invoke die roll pluses or other advantages as judged by the GM. GAME CARDS encourage certain types of roleplaying actions, as described below.
The game motivation for playing out cards? Playing a card generates WILL POINTS, which are basically heroquest POW equivalents and die roll modifiers. The GM can also reward actions with a GIFT CARD.
As a scenario progresses, the GM can play Rune cards to indicate the progress of the scenario. Obviously, these cards will NOT be random.
Players are dealt cards from the STORY DECK whenever they sacrifice, consult, divine, interpret omens in the landscape, or seek inspiration while in the aforementioned deep do do. They are interpreted immediately and can be retained for later play.
END PART ONE
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