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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1185563" data-attributes="member: 10201">First, some specific points: IIRC, the significance of the numbering of the Major Arcana is a matter of quite some debate.  It is pretty clearly not hierarchical, but it does seem to be ordinal.The 4 suits are associated with the 4 elements, and thus the aspects of a person: cups/chalices: water: emotion, feeling, perception, intuitionpentacles/coins/stones: earth: resilience, fortitude, willpower, groundednessswords: air: thought, mind, ideals, logicwands/staves: fire: action, power, energyYes, the face cards are generally considered more significant than the numbered cards.  Now, as for how to use them.  A few ideas.  I'll use example games when i can.Everway (custom deck): action is resolved in one of 3 ways. Drama: what would make the best story.  Karma: who's got the highest stat?  Karma: draw a card, and use it to adjudicate the result.  If the card seems applicable, go with it.  Otherwise, you can always fall back on orientation: upright is good (success), reversed is bad (failure).  In any case, actions are generally resolved for a significant unit of time, possibly an entire scene, rather than one action at a time.  Using a Tarot in this way would probably work best if you only used the Major Arcana.Castle Falkenstein (poker deck): You have a small hand of cards.  Each suit is associated with one aspect of the character (mental, social, emotional, physical), and all attributes are likewise associated with an aspect.  You start with your score in the attribute, and must exceed a difficulty (which you may or may not know).  If your attribute isn't high enough, you add to it by playing cards.  A card in the appropriate suit adds the full value.  Others just add one point. Using a Tarot in this manner would work best if you only used the Minor Arcana.Torg (custom deck): Torg actually uses cards todo several things.  One of these is determine initiative.  But the main one is to give the players extras.  You have cards and can choose to play them at any time.  Some give you a bonus to a roll or action.  Others introduce a "subplot".  To use Tarot in this manner, give the players each a small hand of cards to play at will.  Numbered Minor Arcana can be used to add their value to an appropriate action (using the elemental associations).  The court cards give some sort of automatic or extraordinary success in their area.  The Major Arcana introduce subplots--basically, the player gets to make a significant alteration to the course of the game, within the parameters of the meaning of the card.  This should not be as simple as automatic success or failure, but should rather be a twist, for good or ill.Storypath Cards/Whimsy Cards (custom deck): These are cards that can be added on to any RPG, because they basically sit outside the rest of the mechanics.  Like the subplot cards in Torg, they are all about tweaking the story, giving authorial control to the players in small doses.  Each player generally has a small number to start with, which they play at will.  Used in this way, you would probably use the entire deck, but the Minor Arcana would simply have less "power" to change the course of the story.  You'd need to set up parameters for what can be done and how much influence they can have.  The "usual rules" are that a card may only affect another PC with that player's consent, and a card played to the player's/group's detriment is replaced with another card, while one spent to help is just spent.  For more detailed consideration of this technique, including using the cards in place of XP, check out our game Four Colors al Fresco, at <a href="http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net" target="_blank">http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net</a> (free for download).Scene setting isntead of action resolution: The question becomes not "can you succeed?", but "what do you want to happen?"  Extend the idea of the Storypath cards to be the only resolution mechanism.  Completely divorce resolution from character capabilities.  Instead of figuring out what the characters are capable of, you are figuring out which player gets to decide what happens.  Playing a card could be a bidding exercise (whoever plays the highets card, or total of cards, gets to decide) or it could be thematic (each person gets to play one card in turn, but they have to abide by the general meaning of the card), or some combination. Hmmm...well, those are some ideas.  There are *many* more ways cards have been used in RPGs, and probably a few more that they haven't, but i have to get to work.</blockquote>

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