Gorm Storms his Brain
Allright. Now ive finally searched Bergens inner city for a deck of tarot cards. And after many an akward moment, asking for this and feeling prejudged and shameful immediately afterwards, almost half a dozen blushing times, i finally found a deck that im satisfied with. Let the rock begin to roll. Or the snowball perhaps, hopefully, if you will will help a wretched beggar of ideas like myself.
The deck i bought (man it was expensive by the way, im almost bitter) has a Renaissance theme, and suits, i should think, most fantasy settings. Im looking over them right now, trying to systemize them for my use.
Merova, first of all, thanks a whole world for recommending Once Upon A Time. I was playtesting this my newest collection item yesterday, and good gracious God, it was fun. Suits my group like tailored to us.
Second of all, very good concept, this FitM you talk of. I had (of course) some of the same thoughts about using tarot, but you put them to words. However, i wish for the tarot deck to function not purely as "inspiration" for my judgements as a GM, i want there to be a mechanic beneath. And this is what i need serious help with, being a relatively very inexperienced roleplayer. (The only systems i have knowledge of how work, is d20 and FUDGE)
So, first, here are all the cards listed as they are organized. There are 22 "major arcana" - which are really dramatic (e.g. Death), and 56 "minor arcana" - which are more mundane.
The minor arcana part of the deck have four different "themes", and these themes are like a normal deck of cards, only with the addition of the Knave, as valued under Knight. So each theme has one ace, numbers running from 2 to 10, a knave, a knight, a queen and a king. (every card is numbered of course, but it seems the ones in the middle [2 through 10] are less important than all the others [tell me if im wrong])
The four themes are as following; Chalices (or cups if one wishes), pentacles (or coins or discs), wands (or staffs) and finally swords.
And then the Major Arcana (fine words, i like them): They are also numered, from 0 to 21, although the importance of these numbers seem to be non-existent. I will now write all the names of the major arcana, even though many probably will find this annoying.
0. The Fool.
1. The Magician.
2. The High Priestess (on the motif holding a book of Tao and looking really stoned).
3. The Empress.
4. The Emperor.
5. The Hierophant.
6. The Lovers.
7. The Chariot.
8. Justice (not blind).
9. The Hermit (looking like Moses).
10. The Wheel.
11. Strenght.
12. The Hanged Man (not by the neck but by the FOOT(!).
13. Death (Grim Reaper, looking good).
14. Temperance.
15. The Devil (carrying a serpent and a fortune).
16. The Tower.
17. The Stars.
18. The Moon.
19. The Sun.
20. Judgement.
21. The World.
The largest problem with using tarot for mechanics is that combat and most heavy-on-the-trait-testing-situations will go really slow, that is IF one mixes the cards after every draw, which i think one should, to make total randomness. One possible solution to this is to do like suggested in the FUDGE rules, to handle combat not in secondwise intervals, but as larger bolks of story elements (for instance one entire battle may be represented by just a few rolls [or tarots]), so that BOTH one focuses more on story, as is healthy for any good game, AND makes it fast and dramatic. I am not extremely fan of this solution to The Largest Problem.
I am reeling more towards using BOTH dice and tarot, giving them seperate functions. For instance, i might use them as a "luck" thing - of course adding the estimated relative chance of sucess on beforehand, as with dice. Hmm, that might not be all that different from the use of dice after all... no, i give up.
NO, WAIT! Maybe i can use elements from Once Upon A Time, drawing a tarot card every once in a while, just to make the story itself take gentle turns in the cards directions. Sort of a FUDGEistic Story Element, but indirectly, me as GM having this in the back of my head during a session or a "story bolk", if you wish (and i do). And maybe i can even reveal the cards after a while, especially if the characters of play are supersticious, and are "looking for divine signs", as supersticious people do (no offence intended to you, but im really not buying the whole divine intervention thing, im too clever [hehe]). Thatll make a good, perhaps great story atmosphere thing, and goes really well with the fantasy setting. Man, im a genious.
Or?
Anyways, there are one more problem, but that is only relevant if one should use tarot as mechanics, and the problem is how to read more or less specific "values" or meanings from the cards? Of course, one can use the numbers, and use the card motif as flavour, but this is a bit weak when the Ace of each theme in Minor Arcana is (of course) number 1. And the numbers on the Major Arcana cards have no use in this sense. I would have to come up with specific meanings for every one of these 22 cards, and useful meanings of each of the four themes as well.
Do you have any suggestions? To any of my problems? Do you like the idea of "Fate Element", as i now have baptized it (the "theme" driving a session or a part of the story thing)?
Yours still increasingly electric,
Gorm Calm (Aw, that was MUCH better than "Storm Gorm", damnit)
