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To Turn a Card • 2018 rpg
Michael Sloan • no link
There are four conflicts, and a suit for each.
-Hearts/Emotional
-Clubs/Physical
-Diamonds/Mental
-Spades/Social
Assign 6, 7, 7, 8 to these conflicts. Draw three cards: these are your conclusions. Write them down. Shuffle them into the deck.
Each scene, slowly reveal a card. The suit determines your conflict in the scene. Set a scene. Compare the value to your value for that suit, and weave your story. If the value exceeds yours, resolve the scene against you in some manner. Replace the card. Shuffle the deck.
If you draw one of your conclusions, end your story during the scene.
If you wish to add chance to an outcome, draw a card and compare its value to the most relevant conflict. If the value exceeds yours, resolve the outcome against you. If the action is opposed, resolve the outcome against whoever draws the lowest difference vs. their conflict value.
In all cases, the deck wins ties.
Author Comments
My goal here was to design a simple game that provides structured narrative control – a sort of slice-of-life game, if you will, of characters pulled by the whims of fate, playing for whatever stakes your group demands (a physical scene, for example, could be anything from fighting a dragon to the quiet struggles of a morning routine at the age of 85). It functions as a solo story-telling game, or can function in a group, and is free-form enough to be played anywhere at a moment’s notice. You can specifically tailor the deck to the sort of story you want to tell by removing low cards, high cards, or adding additional cards.
