History With Cards

Its all Ben's idea. Really, he's a genius and we all copy his every idea when we have the cajones to even try.

The Big Idea

Games work better when the characters work well together. This will hopefully facilitate creating a rich back story for the characters which can be the foundation of a great campaign. The system is designed to encourage the players to connect their characters and tell an interesting story in their past.

How It Works

Each player will be dealt a hand of 5 cards. They will be allowed to play them, in turn, into any of three stacks. Whenever a card is played the player announces what the card signifies and places it into the appropriate stack. The GM at any time has an opportunity to respond with cards from his hand. The GM then announces what his complication signifies.

The Stacks

The three stacks represent different story elements. Those elements are Vinculum, Dramatis and Apparatus.

Vinculum

Its a lot more than that stupid line between the numerator and denominator. These are the connections between the characters.

What Do Cards Played Here Mean?

When a character connects himself to another character with a card they receive a bonus die once per game when working closely with or helping that character. Please consult the chart for the value of the die.

EXAMPLE: Jason plays a Queen and states 'Szander is Lena's older brother'. This demonstrates the connection between the characters in a way that is clear and playable. Because the card is a Queen, he is granted one d10 once per game.

Dramatis

These are the plot elements which the characters experienced together in the past. These should be significant events. Alternatively, players may also play cards on themselves for situations they encountered on their own, though the values are slightly lower. Cards played here may, at a players discretion, grant bonuses similar to a vinculum, or they might grant edges, hindrances, skill points, or any combination thereof.

EXAMPLE: Amir plays a 9 and declares that Sam Sixstring worked as a guard for a trading caravan owned by Szander and Lena's parents. He was entrusted with constant safeguarding of both goods and people in the caravan. During this time, he honed his senses to a fine edge, and this earned him the Edge: Keen.

Apparatus

Cards played in this stack must accompany a given dramatis situation, representing pieces of equipment which are acquired during it. The equipment rolls generated in this manner are made immediately and split between the players which participated.

EXAMPLE: Rumi decides that during the time Sam Sixstring worked for the family, she and he found a hidden cache near a stand of joshua trees, and plays a 7. This yields 2 rolls, one for each of them. They roll the dice, consult the chart, and determine that Lena finds a knife and Sam a zippo lighter.

The GM

During all of this it is the GMs responsibility to provide obstacles and roadblocks that the players must overcome together, using their cards. His obstacles can be canceled by playing equal or larger cards and continuing the narrative.

EXAMPLE: Matt, being the devious SOB that he is, decides that while they were uncovering their hidden cache a band of rabid wolves attacked them and plays a 6. Their surprise and devastating attacks give both of them a penalty die (d6) when dealing with wolves. Alternatively the player may assign themselves 2 point hindrances which represent these events.

Canceling Cards

Players or the GM can play their cards to overcome obstacles rather than add new situations. When they do this, the situation is not removed, but the penalty may be either removed or reduced by the relative value of the cards.

EXAMPLE: Rumi decides that since Lena is very young, that fear is reasonable. Amir, however, believes Sam to be rugged and unflappable in the face of danger, and so plays an Ace. He declares that his keen senses warned him of the approaching predators, and he drew his weapon and dispatched them before they could get close. This card cancels his fear, Lena's fear and grants him a 1 point Renown Edge, because she is so impressed by his deeds that she tells everyone, and the story has traveled even farther than the characters.

The Chart

Playing Card Values

Card	Die	Points
2	d4	1
3-8	d6	2
9-J	d8	3
Q-K	d10	4
A	d12	5
Joker	d12	6*