The Deal a MoonHunter Project

[MoonHunter]

Here is "The Deal". Okay, I can't stop doing that pun.

I had a crazy idea. While I am writing two other projects, this one came up and grabbed me. 

The Deal is a lite RPG game that uses cards.  It is universal, you can make cards for any setting.  It would be very fast to play. 

Cards are used to define blocks of the character's abilities.
Cards are used to modify play.
Cards are used to create the setting (or can be).

The group comes together and runs a Deal of the cards.  The results determine the setting/story, the characters, and play. 

Resolution is mostly a 1d6 affair vs a target number, but that is augmented by cards. 

I see this as a "one shot" kind of game.. you prep the game by playing a few deals, and then play the game.

This is very rough at the moment... but it is here and open for all to see as I add things. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LikBk3hkK-lBSvV7QxEuNunHmjCwDgNFWM9DtDsAq9E/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CPTuos8I

Feel Free to question or comment in this thread.

The more interest in the project, the more I will be inclined to do anything for it. 

And yes Muro, this is not even slowing me down from working on Convergence Point which is once again in foreward motion. _________________________________________________ _____________________________________

LEXICON  as of 06/10
_________________________________________________ _____________________________________

Armor Tokens - A character gains armor through gear cards and some core card.  As a character recieves hits, a character expends armor tokens. Once they are out of tokens, they take heart damage.

Character Deck - A deck which contains mostly Core Cards but some temporary ones and gear used in a character deal.

Character Card - Core cards and other cards that are used to make a character.

Core Cards – These are cards that once attached to the persona can not be unattached or discarded.

Deal- a round of cards using one of the decks for one of the faces.  A deal.

Dealer - The game host, the GM, the one building the decks.

Essence – the intangible effect of the character. Call it luck, karma, or drama points, it allows the character to do exceptional things. Some cards require essence to activate.

Face Tokens- This is a pool of tokens that represents the character’s confidence and self esteem.  As a character loses social conflicts, they lose face tokens. 

First Cards – These are core cards that must be taken when the character is first dealt.

Gear Cards – These are cards that represent items of importance. A character can have 5-7 gear cards

Heart Tokens -A character’s pool of  life and toughness.  Characters start with five.  As the character is hurt, they lose them.

Key Tokens - These are a pool used to represent problem solving.  Key tokens are spent to overcome puzzles or mental challanges.   

Keywords:  Words that represents concepts or powers that link cards together or create new links.  Characters must have keywords to use any card with it required.  This is a main concept. You have to have the right keywords on your persona card to access other cards. you can gain keywords by certain core cards. You can temporarily have other keywords by having items. 

Persona Card:  A foundation card that characters are build on

Play Deck: a deck comprised ofmostly  play cards, but including story cards, and character cards (including gear).

Slotted - a card that allows a character to hold one or more additional card. 

Star Cards: These are magic, psionic, or other mytical power cards.  Some are core cards, others are techniques. 

Star Tokens:  A character’s pool of magic.  Most characters have just one and can not use it.  Characters with the right abilities use these to empower certain effect.s

Story Deck, a deck, mostly comprised of story cards used for the Story hands,

Story Cards - Each card will have an Important thing and Keywords or Plots and Keywords

Table, the - The group playing the game.

Technique Card – Allow the character to do something exceptional with the use of essence points.

Token Cards – full cards or just markers and hash marks.   Hearts (Life), Armor, Stars (magic), Face (Social), Keys for Intelligence (these are not damage, but your max.. for solving problems).

Maybe word.....
Tagonist (pro or con) the ability to exceed the normal.

[MoonHunter]

Added a few more terms for what to do with the various pools. 

Wrote basic resolution....

Resolution
Each action is resolved by a 1d6 roll
1-2 is the roll for something anyone can do without skills/ talents, etc
1-3 is the roll for first tier skills
1-4 is the roll for 2nd tier skills
1-5 is the roll for 3rd tier skills.

An action can be rolled, or a player can play a “play card” and use that numeric value.  You can also play cards for other people (including NPCs) to substitute for their die rolls.

The rule of closest player at the table.  If several cards are played, the one closest to the player who the roll is for is the one that counts. So if the player opts for a card, that trump everything

I wrote resolution for Tactical (Hearts and Shields), Social (Faces), Magical/ Power (Stars), Puzzles/Research (Keys)

Added a bunch of stuff to "Other Ideas" in the back.

TOC
Pg 1   Basics
Pg 1   Here is "the deal" part ofthe deal.
Pg 2   Story Deal
Pg 3   Character Deal
Pg 3   Equipment
Pg 4   Play Deal
Pg 5   Lexicon
Pg 7   Character Deck
Pg 8   Resolution
Pg 10  Other Ideas.... (What is coming up)

[Scrasamax]

I am totally digging this

[Strolen]

Read through but as per usual, the Moon mind is eight steps in front of mine. I need Strolen level explanation of how a turn would go and how the cards are played. I know I will probably get it eventually anyway.

[MoonHunter]

Avoiding a play example, let me give you an example of a character. 

Let us give an example of a player deck that is Rank 1

Persona Card:  Young Noble   +1 Social Rank  +1 Face
Keywords:  +Noble, +Wealthy.

Rank Card: Knight Lv 1
Keywords:  Sword, Shield, Armor, Horseman, Knight.
Level 1 (3-) sword attack, horsemanship.

Base Card: Horseman  Lv1 +1 to Horse rolls (4-)
Keyword: Horse+.

Base Card: Wealth in Gear:  Starts with full Rank 1 Gear.  (Since he has knight, he gets the rank 1 of helmet, chain top and botton, sword and shield
Keyword: Wealth+. (He already had this keyword). 

Base Card: Good Looking +1 with rolls against opposite sex.
+Good Looking

Base Card - technique: Shieldman:  1 essence will restore a shield's tokens.
Keyword Shield (Note, not a + or add keyword). He has shield from his Knight Card

(These are the five cards he was able to keep in his hand as play went around.  Not a bad draw.  If there wasn't a character deal, he could of picked these five cards if they were in the character deck.)


Gear Deck
Head: Helmet +1 Shield
Top:  Chainmail   2 Shield
Bottom: Chainmail +1 Shield
Right Arm:  Sword (2 dot)
Left Arm Shield +1 Shield. 

He will take5 dots worth of damage before he takes hearts. If he spends essence, he can restore his shield shield token.  So He can take 2 attacks with a sword before he could take a heart damage (on the 3rd shot... maybe). 

If he did not have wealth in gear(which preset what he had in the gear hand) , he would of been trading and playing looking for items which would help him... like any kind of armor, a helmet, a shield, any weapon, and a horse.

[valadaar]

This looks a little familiar - of course I think this is a great idea. We touched on a similar concept in the Citadelian RPG thread.

[MoonHunter]

Actually no. This is a much simplier and more concrete game than what people were trying for in the Citadel game.   

This is also a quick fun pick up game with "mini games" for creating characters, settings, and play.  The joy of Traveller was never the game (though it was fun), it was character creation.  People would roll dozens, if not hundreds, of characters because it was fun and easy.   People make clusters in Disporia for much the same reason.   They make campaigns in Smallville (whcih to be honest, it is more fun to make a campaign in any X-ville setting that to play it). 

You can play it in a deal. You can just shuffle out some cards and play yourself. You can email a spread for a setting to a friend.  There are a lot of things to do with this. 


Spreads for adventures/ settings can be saved and you can use them for other days, so spread out some cards and see what happens. 

[MoonHunter]

The only bad thing about this game is the amount of prep work the GM/ Deckmaker has to do,  Now certain premade cards to cut and paste should be fine... but customized cards make the game.   So I can give a booklet/ pdf of a 100 cards...  So a campaign book would be 20-24 pages, with 5 (average) cards per page.  A sidebar with commentary about the campaign.

You photo or print the page, cut and paste, and have cards..  You can easily world process out some of your own texts.  If it takes 100 cards for a campaign, and you add 20 more... not that hard.   

You can add or change the number of a given card in a deck... to change your game.  You want a dark game, make sure you have a bunch of dark things in the setting se. 

[MoonHunter]

Okay. Days have gone by and I am looking at this game. 

While I am no longer giddy with the game, it is a top flight game idea.  The writing up will be the problem. Not the writing of the rules, that is easy.  No it will be the writing up of the basics.  Each setting/ genre would need a backbone deck.  You could then customize it from there. 

The rules would be better written up after a proper game of it... which requires a deck. 

This game is inspired a bit by Lego computer games, a bit by My Sims (the Wii or console game), and a bit by Mario (Okay, you can tell what games are being played at our house can't you?).   Games don't have to be complicated to be fun.   They just have to be interactive, have cool bits, and take up just enough time.  (Ideas I had before, just more prevolent at the moment.

Each Land will need its own Decks. (See note below).  Story Cards define the setting.  Character Cards to define characters for that setting (though you could take characters from one Land to another, and I have a meta setting idea of travellling about on the Emerald Road, to various lands under various courts. - see note 2).
   
Each Land will start as its own genre and innate setting. 
*Generic Fantasy for example with Knights and Wizards (okay we could have Rogues and Clerics) vs Evil Goblins and Trolls.
*Dragons of Fury  Martial Arts techniques in rank cards that are slottable with certain keywords (Dragon style, Crane Style, Mantis Style, Tiger Style, Monkey Style, you get the idea).  You can even make this one furry.     
*Wild West Town with Black Bart (or your could do a cattle drive)
*Cyberpunk (Cool Gear Cards that are slotable with normal gear (OR cyberware exta).   
*Trek War 1999 #5 - Generic sci fi investigations
*Wings of Fury,  Flying rediculous aircraft to stop the evil who is taking over. 

Besides things and locations, there should be story cards that reflect genre/ setting ideas rules.  Like "I challange you" in Dragons of Fury, Wild West, and Wings of Fury.  Call someone out and they will take you on solo. (Useful for seperating a big bad from hims too numerous mooks). 

So Each Land will need Story Cards, Character Cards, and Play Cards.   There will be repetition in all the card types.   Story cards will commonly be reskinned.  Same mechanic effects, but different name and keywords.  Lots of character cards (especially core cards) will be redundent in decks.  Play Cards the same old things, with some genre stuff.

Each Card - at this point needs -
Name / Land listing/ Card Type  (card type), but not deck type... as various cards are there for things.
Description
Mechanics
Keywords required and adds.
Die Spot (as any card in a play deck can be used as a die roll)
Add Keywords on top and bottom of card, so you can slip it under something, you can add qualifiers.. 

So Should I start outling a generic fantasy?  Knights and Wizards vs Trolls and Goblins.

[MoonHunter]

Read the post above this....  it is the important one.

You should catch this in the document.

Advancement
Each completed adventures earns a character an advancement token (arrow up?)Every three of these increase the rank by one.With six advanment tokens, you can have three rank cards. So you can have a Soldier III, (three rank cards) or Knight 2 (Knight 1, Training , Knight 2) or Knight 1, Wizard 1, Ranger 1(if you have the right keyword.) 

[MoonHunter]

Ranked Cards for The Dark Orb Setting (The default Knights and Wizards vs Trolls and Goblins.  A Darklord is questing after the dark orbs.  Collect the set of 5, rule the world (or banish the Dark Lord). 

Knight I  Attack 3-    With Noble- trait is Knight.  Without Noble  Trait is Soldier.
Knight II   Attack 4-  Slots one Combat Technique
Combat Training   I    Requires Rank 2, Attack 3- and Slots one Combat Technqiue  (Yes you can take this ot of sequence and add to your combat ability early.)
Knight III  Attack 5-  Req  Combat Trainng I and Knight II

Combat Training II  Slots one combat technique Requires Combat Training.  Nobody said you could not take this multiple times. 

Wizard I  Magic 3-  +Magic 3 Stars
Mystic Training I    +Magic +1 Key
Wizard II  Magic 4-  Minimum Rank 5
Mystic Training II   
..
Wizard III  Magic 5-  Minimum Rank 8  Mystic Training II    +3 Stars  +1 Key  +1 Face

Magic in this setting is Video Game sorcerry, Bolts, Glowing Shields, and the occasional cool technique (which you must have a magic technique card for). 

Staff - Holds 3 magical techniques as one item. Requires magic keyword to use.

Noble I  (Base)    Keywords  +Noble   Face 3-
Noble II  Requires Noble 1    +2 Face  Face 4-
Noble III  Min Rank 8, Noble 2, and either an Heir OR Great Feat card.  +2 Face  Face 5- +1 key

Princess I  Requires Female charater and Noble 1  +2 Essence
Princess II  Requires Princess 1  and one card with the following keywords  Love, Honor, Duty, Tragic.
+1 Essence and recover essence when in the presence of a higher ranked hero.

Beast Master I  Slots one animal that has been tamed.  Taming is a key action.
Beast Master II  Slots one animal and +1 Key.  Can change untame to tame keyword.
Beast Master III  Slots one animal with magical trait and +1 Key

Priest I Base  Face 3-  +1 Face
Priest II  Face 4-  +1 Key  +1 Face  Requires Rank 5


Okay, in the previous example...  Horseman,  Wealth in Gear,  Good Looking, and  Shieldman were all listed as base.  Only Good Looking and Wealth in Gear should of been base.

Techniques  Magical and Combative can be found in both a Character Deal Deck and a Play Deal Deck
They are one time tricks or cool things that a character can do.  If they can be attached to the character (you can have 1 Core and 4+rank number of characters in your character deck, excluding gear.  So your shieldman would be played in a fighting scene, and grant you those bonuses for that conflict.  If you can add it to your character, you get those bonsues all the tiem

[MoonHunter]

Essence

Essence points allow a character to do cool things.

Spend an essence point and play a card using that number.  (You can play a card’s number for free if you do it before the roll)

Spend an essence to activate cool techniques. (Activatables)

Add another card, usually a keyword, to the story spread (the result of the story deal). 

Spend essence to make the bad guys reroll something.

Really, Essence is that simple

You have 3 essence (or your total rank which ever is higher).  Your essence refills at the beginning of every adventure (or when the GM says it will).  Certain locations will provide essence recovery (Beautiful sunset).  Certain actions will provide essence recovery.

[MoonHunter]

Okay any thoughts or ideas?  anything I have missed or does not make sense? 

I am also thinking up some generic cards, so if you want to contribute some of those that would be cool as well.

[Strolen]

My head splooges when I read this, but I am a bad rule person. My son usually understand game concepts before I do and I trust him when he corrects me. Wish I could be more help but I would need you explaining it through two full rounds before I grasp it. That is about how long it usually takes me.

[MoonHunter]

The point of the game is to make all the "prep work" as fun as possible and a challange.

The Deckmaker may or may not have fun, but some people (like me) like creating.

Creating the world/ setting is a mini-game.  You work to put down your own cards down in a pattern that fits your idea of fun.  This story spread is a cooperative and mildly competative proceedure as people often have different ideas as to what will be "right". 

Creating character is a semi-competative game.  You make the best character you can with the "hand God deals you." 

The play cards are things you get dealt.  They can be used as either as experience (i.e. you can only take a card you have in your hand OR spend some time to go to a place on the story spread) or use it to augment your play (one special move (or the special move for a scene), or making play better with a better die roll.

The cards add an aspect of play and minigames to a normal RPG.

The game itself is pretty simple.  1d6 for resolution. A way to resolve combat, face/ social combat, magic (sorcerry- simple videogameish magic), and puzzles with simple die rolls.

Does that make more sense?

. 

[Scrasamax]

I am working on a version of this for an upcoming Model Horse weekend. THe spouses and boyfriends are going to gather at the bar at the Clarion Inn in Lexington for some non-plastic horse stuff. Several of us are gamers or are interested in gaming. I'm kitbashing together some cards like this to run a CthulhuTech game.

The characters are going to be made of drawn cards:

One Job Card
IE Space Marine, Firebat, Shin-Ra SOLDIER, para-psychic

One Attribute Stat Card
strength, Dex, etc (fairly random, but broken down into physical aspect, social aspect, and mental aspect)

One Skill Set Card
prebuilt talent and skill packages (jpb cards have core skills attached, but bare minimums) These can add color, beef up core skills, etc.

After this, toss in some random gear cards, interesting ability or background cards, and so on. Losses are expected to be heavy, and the combat intense and bloody. I'm going for as simple as possible, given most players are going to be inebriated, tired, or new to the system, or any combination of the above.

[MoonHunter]

Cards like those cards are how I build all demo game characters, any MiniSeries (short run games), or very, very tailored characters.  Each card has a block of game mechanic or a conception/ story point for the character. It allows players to build their characters the way they want; For the GM it ensures that everything needed for the game is in place and they are not building anything the GM isn't prepared for (or won't work for the game). 

Those that played G1 at Strolencon 1 have experienced how this works.  I use cards in sealed envelopes so people can see what sort of thing they want, then they get the card.  They can traded by players.  It makes for fun and fast character design where players have input.  (No relationship ship cards Scras?)

Having done things with cards before, I knew that one of the basics of this game would work. Groups always trade, dump, and bargain, with the cards I built.  So "The Deal" will work for characters.  I know cards are good for inplay games . I have played Deadlands and Castle Falkenstein. The Drama Deck from TORG and a few other games have worked.   The way many Fate (Fudge games) create their settings (or write them up) is by creating zones that are labeled. (Star Blazers Adventure one of three Fate games I would plug does this).

Add to these elements which have worked a very simple and fun game system... that is very dynamic in its play... very fast... very easy... and it should work pretty well together.

I just "thought out" and verbalized what I sort of knew in the back of my head. This is why I like people to poke, question, and comment about the game.... it keeps me going AND makes me think about the game.   

[Scrasamax]

There are totally going to be relationship cards, but they are going to be somewhat different.

Basic premise is that a major city has fallen to the alien invaders, and the PCs are part of a counter assault effort. Some ideas for the relationship cards:

1. A close friend or loved one is missing in the fallen city
2. A close friend or loved one was part of the defending force that was defeated
3. Player X is a personal rival

[MoonHunter]

Ahhhhh.  That makes more sense for the setting.

[MoonHunter]

Enemy thretening area.
Enemy to attack/ capture (target)
Enemy patrols area.
Enemy defending space (i.e. not leaving).  Usually good for guarding things.
Enemy trying to capture (advanced target)

Storm
Puzzle

So I put three cards down on a castle.   Enemy defending, Sword of Power, Dragon.  so the Dragon would of just hung out in the Castle, but with enemy defending, they will attack anyone who approaches the castle spot.

[MoonHunter]

There are three Decks to be made for a full game.

Story Deck-
Place Cards - Cards that represent places and locations.
Thing Cards - Things that have become important to the adventures
A variation on the Things Cards would be Gear Cards for more commont things,
People Cards - People (and creatures) who are placed on locations
Event Cards - Things to have happen, usually directing a People Card to do something. 
    Some special event cards could be like weather effects, plauges, etc.

Character Build Deck
Base Cards
Skills/ Abilities
Techniques
Flaws
Some special gear cards.

Relationship Cards?
Quest Cards - Like event cards (heck could be event cards). 

Gear Deck - This can be made into a seperate deck or rolled into
Gear Cards (seperate deck?)
Enchanted things- other slotted cards.

Play Cards
Play Events - Granting keywords and sometimes abilities, for actions that can happen in a game, usually a scene. 
Example: "Slipping Free, the character, once generating two keys, can slip free of what it holding it".   These are different from Event Cards, which are more "Quest like" in the most part.
Technique Cards-  from Character Deck, which are now activatables, rather than innate abilities.  use them as one shots OR for a scene.
Dice Cards:  Those with nothing but a bit of descriptions, but die rolls.  "Nice Try, but no Cigar"  2

Some other character build cards: So players can get things to hold ready so when they have experience they can add them to their character's deck.
A smattering of things from a Story Deck, so you can play things along the way... adding to the story.

Yes, your play deck can have things from the other decks.  These are mostly made to play as activatables, but can be held on and used to create things or have as experience.

Note: Playing Story deck cards after play starts can generate Experience. 

Play decks normally refresh at the begining of a session or at given locations.  They can refresh if you have 0 cards, but people will be trying to hold on to cards (events they don't want to happen, bad story cards, character build cards for experience, and things with great die rolls), 

Okay things to think about. 
Rank - need a symbol for that.
Do I need a glyph or a letter for each kind of deck a card can be in?  Yes. 
S/B/G/P Hmmmm.

[MoonHunter]

A couple of things came up in a chat tonight... so lets review.

One - the thread isn't all of this.  The bulk of things is in the google doc. You can find the link for that is in the first post.

Two - The various decks are played in 3 (3.5) hands.  The Story Deal generates a story spread. It is the inspiration for the GM's world.  The spread creates a map (zones) with things filling in.  The Build Deal lets you build up the characters.  Each character is 5 cards.  The Gear deal augments the character (you might incoroporate the gear deal in the build deal, or just let people draw stuff).  The Play deal is just five cards.  You could allow for card discarding and other people to pick up).  Those cards are used during the normal rpg played with the characters and the story spread.

Three - Cards require some arts and craft.  Either paper glued to 3.5 cards or printing on cardstock.  The only way the game works well is if there is a Genre Book.  Each Genre/Setting would have a list of 200 cards (50 per each Deal).  You would pick and choose what your deck has.  (I don't want 1 dragon, I want 5).  You could then take these cards and even customize them even more.   So you could make your story deck with any proportions of cards. You could add custom made cards. 

PDF/ Paper books/ DOC File 

Four - Premade cards would be cool.  It would be a canned setting/ campaign. Still spiffy cards.

Five - The Setting Deal is "inspiration" for the GM.  Think of it as the players giving their input to the game's setting.

 

[MoonHunter]

The Deal is an RPG in 3 hands of cards.

The Deckmaster creates the various decks for each hand (which we call a deal... because if you have a longer than one session game, there may be more than one hand for a given deal). 

The first deal is The Story Deal.  Here players will create a story spr(Oead, creating important spaces, things, and enemies and their general relationship in splace.  Players play things from their hands that they want to see in the game, discarding the things they don't.  This way the group builds "the playing field.

The second deal is the Character Deal.  Here the players create their protagonists for the story.  There is some give and take in the game.  The spread of cards does ensure that there is less overlap in characters shticks.

(Gear selection can be a deal or just grab what you need )

The third deal is the Play Deal.  This Deck (which may have cards from the previous two decks added into it) is used to augment play.  Players select "tricks", techniques, and dramatic bits they can use in the game (discarding the ones they don't want to play).  Sometimes these tricks, techniques, and dramatic bits are not great for the character, but that is okay, you play the hand life deals you.

The RPG portion starts, when the GM/ DM/ Deckmaster uses the characters and setting created in previous deals.  Scenes go on, like they do in any RPG, Various challanges are met with die rolls.  The Play cards augment play by allowing characters one shot dramatic bits.  (technically the play hand continues durring the entire RPG phase, as you depleate your hand you can refresh or as you use all your cards, you can draw a new hand to continue). 

Yes, certain play cards will be Story Cards.  You can add things to the story deal (oh ho!  I have an ally in this city... a wizards .... with a blue sword of power... he can help us...) 

Experience happens at the end of things, where characters get rank tokens.  Earn enough of them, and you get a new rank.  This allows you to add one more card to your character deal. If play is continuing these cards come from your play deck (hence you see why you might hold on to cards and not play them... slowing down your play deck play...).  Sometimes you might have to "quest" to get to a place so you can "pick up an appropriate card".   So I need to find a swordmaster so I can learn cutting strike II... so there must be one in the "Big City".   Okay... so we have a mini adventure about that.

Does this clarify things for you?

 

[MoonHunter]

This project is not dead.  I have other things to deal with right at the moment (yes Muro, it is G2).  However, when I can figure out a bit more about keywords, that is when I will post again.

Solid
Cards will have them.  You can only have gear or character cards that match the keywords that you own.

Vague:
The keywords are ways to create links things and locations.  The exact mechanisms are missing.  They could just be fodder for the GM's imagination. There could be more to it.  I want there to be more to it. I just don;t know how yet.