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Apothecary • 2018 rpg

Simon Lee • no link

You are an apothecary in a medieval town.

One day, a plague arrives.

People get sicker every day.

You have to find the cure.

---SETUP---

-Shuffled deck of cards without jokers
-A friend - a ruthless narrator, death personified [N]
-d12

Stack kings aside, face down. [KC]

Place 4 cards face down in front of Apothecary in a row. [SC]

[]-[]-[]-[]

Give 10 medicine cards [MC] to Apothecary.

---GAMEPLAY---

Each turn Apothecary treats a patient.

Describe him.
 - An old friend?
 - A poor child?
 - Apothecary's spouse?

Draw 2 patient cards [PC] and place next to [SC].

[]-[]-[]-[]----[]-[]

Apothecary tries to match each face up [SC] and [PC] by placing up to 2 [MC] below it.

Sum value difference of each match (J matched with 5 + 4 = 2; J matched with Q = 1) [R].

Roll d12.

If equal or higher than [R], patient is healed, flip 1 [SC].
Otherwise... patient dies, flip one [KC]; Apothecary loses hope - describe his struggle.

When last [KC] is flipped, Apothecary gives up and plague wipes out the town.

If Apothecary cures a patient when all [SC] are flipped, he finds the cure.

Shuffle all [MC] and [PC] into the deck. Give apothecary 10 - [KC] flipped cards. Begin new turn.

Author Comments

My major goal for this project was to create a game mechanic that would suddenly throw the player off guard and start question her chances of winning.

First turns, when the plague seems just like a simple sickness will rarely prove to be a trouble.

Tables turn very quickly though and the plague soon starts to look like an impossible to overcome challenge exactly at the moment when the player may think the victory is at hand.


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