I've seen a number of responses to the idea of a Plot Deck. It
appears some people have encountered similar concepts out there. I
thought I'd take a chance and post the beginning of a strategy to
create such a device to gmast-l. Hopefully the effort will spark the
creative energies of some of you who can succeed in areas where I
will fail.
First , for the sake of accessibility, I'd like to stick with a
regular deck of cards as a vehicle. In a 52 card deck there are the
following:
26 Black Cards (2 suits)
26 Red Cards (2 suits)
12 each of clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades
4 each of 2-9, jack, queen, king, ace and joker (13 cards)
The first scheme that comes to mind is to give each of the 13
cards a broad meaning and to use the different colors and suits as
modifiers.
Here's an idea how:
Black Suits (negative effect)
Clubs: Directly effect the party
Spades: Effect the party indirectly
Red Suits (positive effect)
Diamonds: Directly effect the party
Hearts: Effect the party indirectly
A direct effect might mean the introduction of a romantic
interest for a party member that has beneficial or detrimental
results. An indirect effect might mean the introduction of a romantic
interest for an associate of the party (NPC) that has beneficial or
detrimental results for the party.
The next step would be determining what each of the 13 cards mean
in broad terms. Someone with knowledge of a tarot deck might be of
great help here. Some thoughts are:
Love, Wealth, Death, Truth, Stranger, Faith...
Each of these things can have positive or negative effects,
depending on the color of the card pulled. If the 5 card is "Truth"
and a 5 of Clubs is pulled it means someone the party interacts with
will give them bad information.
That's as far as I've thought things out. Anyone care to lend a hand?
Brian Koppi
chikoppi@21stcentury.net
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