Most everythingI have on my list to write about revolves around the mechanics of the game. This is obviously a vast topic that, as gamers, we can always talk about at length. But sometimes we need to talk about the other aspect of running a game…what actually happens at the table on game night. So we’re going to talk about what you can do as GM to keep things fun and interesting for your players.
This first idea started with an old game I ran and came back up a while ago in a conversation Michael and I had on Twitter. I incorporated Tarot Cards into my game to provide some flavor. Over the years, I’ve thought of a few different ways to incorporate this idea.
Here’s what I did the first time around. I gave each player a random card from the Major Arcana. Those are the ones with the goofy names and pictures, if you’re not familiar with the cards. This had no impact on their character choice or build, it was done after we had all settled into the game. There are 22 cards in the Major Arcana. I split cards into 2 groups so that I had opposing pairs. I had this list of pairs behind the GM screen for reference. I also had the Major Arcana with me. When a player would take an attack action or cast a spell, I would draw a card. If it was the player’s Arcana, they got a bonus. If it was the opposed card, they got a penalty. And if it wasn’t either, nothing happened. The bonuses and penalties weren’t always the same, but they weren’t anything major. It might have been a bonus on an attack roll, a re-roll, extra damage, or an extra spell level for a metamagic feet. The penalties were similar, just on the opposite end of the scale. I played this as luck or the fates giving some extra attention to thePCs.
In the big picture, this didn’t have a huge impact on the game. There was less than a 20% chance that there would be any impact, positive or negative. It was just something to make the game a little more random and interesting. My players enjoyed it, just as something different to experience. One of the players, a wizard, even created a new spell to influence the card draws.
This is just one idea. If we run with the concept of including Tarot Cards in your game, there are tons of things you could do.
One idea would be to assign PCs and monsters or enemies the Arcana. When a fight occurs between opposing Arcanas,they get a bonus against each other. This might be better attack or damage. It could even bleed over into casting. To me, this would reflect naturally opposing foes. It’s also a bit of a throw back to Final Fantasy Tactics and that astrology system. In this context, I might give boss monsters or recurring enemies one or two different Arcana in order to spice up battles a little bit.
Or if you want to include this to a greater extent, you might rephrase the Arcana as Totems, of sorts, and include them in character creation. This is something I haven’t tried as of yet, so let’s theorize. We could give each Arcana a list of powers and abilities. These abilities could be accessed based on overall class level or with a series of feats. So we’d have to create those feats as well. Yikes, this is getting messy. But the feats would be relatively simple. There would be a progression of feats, each one granting access to either more powers in the Arcana or more uses of those powers. We could call them Arcana Access 1, 2, 3, and so on. That’s not the most creative name, though. We can come up with better flavor later. As to the Arcana themselves, there are 22 total, so we could really go crazy with making each one unique. We could have one for each class, but that would be a pretty boring option. We could have some with benefits that fit general class archetypes, like combat or casting. That would give a nice mix and match option. A physical class like Fighter or Rogue could take a caster type Arcana for support abilities. And a Wizard or Sorcerer could take a combat Arcana for protection. As to the abilities, there’s no end to what we could do. We could include cantrips or minor spell casting. We could have bonuses to HP, AC, saves, or attacks. There could be general damage bonuses or a bonus applied to using certain weapons or attack options. Oh, now that’s a good idea. Some of the Arcana could reflect combat styles. Quick and dirty example…sword and axe fighting. When fighting with both weapons, you would get attack and damage bonuses, then maybe an AC bonus, and at best maybe extra attacks.
Essentially, the Arcana in this context would be duplicating feats, class abilities, and spells casting. These would work to support PCs that already have similar abilities (so the bonuses and granted powers would need to stack with existing class abilities) or add new abilities that the PC wouldn’t normally be able to acquire. The players could select the Arcana that they like best or best fit their character builds. Or the Arcana could be randomly handed out. That could potentially make for some odd combinations, but it might be fun for character development. And if you mixed this idea with the previous concept of giving enemies Arcana for opposed combat bonuses and/or penalties, it could open up a whole new level to the game. If the players were not aware of this immediately, it would allow an entirely new level of combat to develop. Suddenly, the Fighter is getting overwhelmed by Orcs and he doesn’t know why. That could just be explained “oh, it’s the Arcana”, but it would be a great story hook too.
I really like this idea. I know similar things already exist in DnD, but I like this flavor using the Tarot Cards. I’m going to keep working on this. So expect some examples in a future article. And feel free to provide some feedback and ideas of your own. I’ve also got an idea for a new way to approach spell casting (and maybe other class abilities as well) using the Minor Arcana. Hmmm, I may be getting in over my head here. But it’s fun…so who cares? Other than this, we’ll talk about other ways to bring something different to the table in future articles. I’ve got some fun ideas.
Comments and Feedback are always welcome.
Thanks!!
~Michael
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