An Orlanthi Divination Deck - "The Way of Power"

From: John Patrick Hughes <nysalor_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 17:50:27 -0800 (PST)


Heys folks

Resending this as a Gift Carrier of the Sending Gods gobbled the original.

The Velvet Baron did pound his keyboard thus:

>On a related note, has anyone done a Gloranthan interpretation of the
>classic Tarot? That would be *very cool*. Use of the greater
desities of
>Glorantha for the various major Arcana would be very illuminating
(sic.)
>One may imagine that gambling houses in the holy country may well have
>card decks based on the Gods.

I did a full Orlanthi (Far Point) Tarot Deck several years ago, for use as a *game mechanism* and to summarise the in-game results of more culturally-appropriate divination rites. It is called "The Way of Power". I posted five articles going through the deck in detail including explanations and meanings of the Rune Cards, Hero Cards, and the five elemental decks. You can find them through the Gloranthan Digest Search Index - http://chmeee.pronetsolutions.com/gd/ - at the very end of a search using 'tarot'.

As I explained in the original postings:

>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.

I've used the cards very successfully in my more-mythopoetic storytelling campaigns and also in a number of multiforms. You enter the game on a very different level to that of standard RQ/PDP, and we found as time went on that we used the cards more and more and the dice less.

John.


"There was a muddy centre before we breathed.  There was a myth before the myth began,  Venerable and articulate and complete.  

 From this the poem springs: that we live in a place  That is not our own and, much more, not ourselves,  And hard it is in spite of blazoned days."

        Wallace Stevens. "Notes Towards A Supreme Fiction"



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