Warren challenged the DIY elf game blogosphere to create an all new resolution mechanic!

My upcoming Bridewell uses tarot as randomisation, so I thought a tarot resolution mechanic would be cool!

Give everyone a hand of three tarot cards. When a challenge that offers significant consequence of failure occurs, clarify what success and failure indicates, and the player chooses a card from their hand to play and place it in front of them, and consider the number.

If they play a card that is trump to the task, they can draw an additional card from the deck and add it to the total of the card: Swords for strength or violence; Wands for wit or magic; Coins for charm or performance; Cups for expertise or agility.

Add the numbers for all participating characters.

The referee then draws a card for the task at random from the deck, once for each level of difficulty (normal, difficult, impossible). If it is trump to the task, it too gets an additional draw.

If the player characters total is equal to or higher than the referee’s total, they succeed. If the player characters total is equal to the referees total, there is a complication.

That’s my mechanic. It’s technically unique, I think, but certainly draws inspiration from Blades in the Dark and from Dragonlance: The Fifth Age, a game from the late 90’s that, of course, you’re all familiar with.

Here’s another by Lars!

Idle Cartulary

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