Beyond the Veil Draft Pt I: Introduction

See the next post in this series

What This Is

I was talking with a good friend of mine about roleplaying games, and we both were lamenting the lack of games that use cards as resolution mechanics. The only ones I could could up with off the top of my head were Everway and Deadlands Classic; the former uses a modified tarot deck, and the latter uses a 54-card deck (52 plus Jokers) for resolution in more than a few scenarios. I decided that I wanted to have a swing at creating a small game system that utilizes the aforementioned 54-card deck, and compiling here instead of the stack of two dozen notecards I currently have thrown around my desk.

The Idea

As it stands, it is all very nebulous. I have not done any playtesting, and I will be using this blog partially as a way to catalog my progress and ideas for the game. It has no name, yet, but one will come in time.

What You Need

To play the game, you will need access to the rules (here), a pencil or pen, a deck of cards with Jokers, and some paper. I want this to be the kind of thing people don't have to go out and buy materials to play.

Specific vs Generic

Before I get started, I want to make a quick note. Whatever is listed as a rule or mechanic is superseded by any specific wording, even if it says "always" or "never" in the base rules. Specific mechanics as opposed to generic rules is an interesting design space to me.

ex: a rule saying "All characters can only wear one helmet" is superseded by "This character has two heads, and each one may wear its own helmet."

Also, numbers always round down to the nearest whole number if there is division involved.

How Do You Make a Character?

First, it's important to know the things your character has, regardless of who they actually are in game.

Attribute	Representative Suit	What is Symbolizes
Health	Hearts	Strength of Body, Constitution, Endurance
Sense	Spades	Strength of Mind, Mental Fortitude, Piercing the Veil
Determination	Diamonds	Strength of Will, Guts and Bravery, Volition
Charisma	Clubs	Strength of Personality, Gregariousness, Likability

Characters also have their Name, their Class, Status(es), equipment Slots and so on, but that's best saved for a later post, I think; this is just the intro (and that stuff is more... nebulous right now). 

How do You Get Those Stats?

You get four points to distribute between your Attribute at character creation, and can take negative points to pump numbers up to at most five, and at minimum minus five. The sum of all your stats must equal four.

For example, these are all valid stat spreads:

Health	Sense	Determination	Charisma
1	1	1	1
4	0	0	0
2	-2	2	2
5	-5	4	0

What Do Those Numbers Mean?

The number in each stat is the bonus/penalty that is applied to the result of a Check related to that Attribute. Taking a minus five to Sense might be great if you never need to resist mind control, or tell if the coin you got paid in is short a few pounds, while having a plus one to everything means you are average in just about everything as far as adventurers go. Characters also have one of these attributes as an Aspect that I will talk about when we get to Classes.

Wait, What's a Check?

Any time there is a conflict to resolve - something that can be failed, has consequences, or is otherwise chance-based in some way - like combat scenarios, convincing a mugger that the person across the street is more worth their time, or avoiding the effects of a poison, you will be asked to make a Check.

Checks are made by drawing the top two cards of a thoroughly shuffled 54-card deck, and adding your relevant Attribute bonus to the result. If it is 9 or higher, you pass! The target number to meet or exceed is always 9. Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces have the values of eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen respectively. Jokers automatically pass a check if drawn, congrats! If you are less-lucky but still lucky, one of the cards you drew will match the Attribute of the Check. If it does, treat it as one higher than it is labelled, effectively granting a +1 to the Check. Put those cards into a discard pile afterwards.

For example, muscling down a door is a Health Check, and drawing a 8 of Hearts and a 4 of Clubs means you treat the 8 as a 9, succeeding!

Are There any Special Kinds of Checks?

There are, thank you for asking! Currently, there are three special kinds of Check: Red/Black, Aspect and Stacking the Deck.

Red/Black Checks

Red/Black Checks only consider cards drawn that match the color of the check. Naturally, this results in the check being more difficult, as half the deck (even the opposite color Joker!) are no longer valid. These checks must match the color of their Attribute.

This kind of check can occur in two circumstances: You have failed a check and would like to push your luck, or you have suggested taking a course of action that has a larger-than-normal risk/reward ratio. Success means you have reaped an enormous benefit to yourself or your party, while failure can be dire. Otherwise, make these checks as normal.

Aspect Checks

Aspect Checks are a generalized term referring to whatever your PC's Aspect Attribute suit is for their given class. If the GM asks for an Aspect Check, like during combat to make an attack, each character may have a different suit that gets the special +1 value treatment.

Stacking the Deck

Sometimes, the cards just don't fall where you want them to, and Lady Luck has seemingly turned a blind eye to you in favor of the person across the table that is only be drawing Aces. Fortunately, you can do something about that! Once per session, you may choose to succeed any failed check, even a Red/Black check with a minor caveat- the GM gets to choose a complication to the success. This complication will be in the spirit of "failing forward" so no worries about the success (and limited resource) being wasted. Losing your hat trying to squeeze through a slowly closing temple door is fair game, but your leg being amputated by the door is not. It makes your life and the scenario more complicated, not necessarily worse.

The Baize

Every character has a Baize, used to build hands for their abilities. It holds up to 5 cards. Each session, your Baize is emptied and you draw 3 new cards to add to it, unless the session ended in the middle of a conflict. Cards may be discarded from the Baize in order to place a new one in that spot. The order of cards in the Baize does not matter when building poker hands. You may always choose to fail a Check in order to put one of the cards drawn into your Baize. This cannot be used during the same action you Stack the Deck. There are other ways to get cards into the Baize that will be discussed in the article on combat and a few other places.

What Comes Next

In my next post, I'll detail my thoughts on some more of the character stuff: Namely Equipment Slots and everyone's favorite topic: currency and shopping. Feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions in the comments.