Card Based Mechanics I came up with

[izlear]

This just popped into my head and I was wondering what opinions of it would be to see if it may be worth pursuing (or if its actually unoriginal after all.
Secondly It is coincidence only that another recent topic is in regard to a card based mechanic.

Would this work?



Card based mechanic where your attribute number is equal to the number of cards you draw from a standard deck of cards keeping the highest (I'm sure suits would have some mechanical value as well)
And perhaps skills could work as a the number of cards you can keep.
So if you had an attribute of 5 and an appropriate skill of 2 you would draw 5 cards and keep 2 of them.  Of course this is open to very capped out games I would think. I think the goal would be to get achieve a target number (perhaps I am thinking too in the box at this point)

I was thinking that weapon damage could work similarly, in that a weapon's damage rating would be equal to the number of cards drawn (and perhaps have the suit have a mechanical value as well)

Well it is out in the open and I was just wondering if I could get some input or if this has been done elsewhere.
Thanks, 

[JoyWriter]

It has been done quite a few times, but that's really beside the point: We don't begrudge musicians using the same notes! If you can find something interesting to do with it, go for it. One advantage of card mechanics is that they allow you to walk around, so you can incorporate them into a larp, for example when the GM comes round every few minutes and refreshes the cards, and can also at that time get an idea of what is going on, etc. People would "go to cards" when setting up a conflict and choose their main attribute. Skills (or approaches) within that could be handled by card suit, and matching your approach to your suit allows you to break ties. Something like that!

[mjbauer]

I like the system, nice and simple, but it has a lot of potential for expansion if you want.

I'd like to know what other games use it, I don't know of any (but I don't know many games).

[izlear]

I don't know of any games that use THIS system, as I just kind f came up with it.  But there are games that use card based mechanics such as castle falkenstein, dust devils, and others.

Yes like I said it just kind of came to me so not much time at all has been put into it.  I think your right, it could use some expanding, and that is what I'm going for.  How could I expand it? 

[izlear]

Ok I've been playing with this and I would like to get some feed back on this.
Characters are devided up into 4 types (suits)
Clubs ( the warrior suit)
Hearts (the holy suit)
Diamonds (the thinkers suit)
Spades(the doers suit)
this is the sut that the character can be effected by and also defines the the character a bit

Then we go into the other things from above
Attriute score = # of cards drawn skill score = # of cards kept (added) if you gain cards with your suit you get added bonuses for Accessing the suit you "derive" from

I'm also toying with the four suits being the attributes and the suit that defines the character represents their Main attribute.

Do you think this would work?
Do you have any ideas to refine this?

[Vulpinoid]

It's very similar to the system I used for the 8th Sea.

Number of cards drawn for a task is based on the Attribute score.

High card wins.

If you draw a card of a suit matching the challenge type it is considered a trump.

Clubs = Physical
Hearts = Social
Spades = Mental
Diamonds = Spiritual

Trump beats any card.

If both sides get a trump, then simply compare the high card again.

Skills basically allow you to trump cards and therefore have a better chance of flat-out beating your opponent.

If I have Physical 3, and level 1 in the Athletics skill....I'm facing a difficulty of 3 cards...

I draw three cards 3 of Clubs, 6 of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts.

The difficulty draws 2 of Spades, 9 of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds.

We compare could compare high cards, but both sides have a trump value [Clubs in this case]. So we just compare clubs.

My 3 of Clubs doesn't beat the difficulty's 9 of Clubs. But using the athletics skills I can turn my Queen into a Club. So instead of a near miss, my skill turns it into a win.

It works pretty well once people get used to it...If you'd like a better look at the system I can provide more details.

V

[izlear]

That is similar.  there are a few differences.

I am still trying to wrap my head around cards a different medium I am seeing them like dice.  I am thinking of a target number that you are trying to reach (perhaps Target numbers that represent levels of success.  so perhaps a target number to do something is15(very successful), 12(moderatly successful), and  7(barely successful) (under 7 is unsuccessful) (this is all off the top of my head so the numbers may not make sense) .  the player has a 5 in an attribute and a skill of 2.  The player draws 5 cards (at this point lets leave suits out of it just because I'm not sure how those will work) he draws a 4, 3, 3, 2, 5 he can keep two - he keeps 4 and 5 add them together for a total of 9 and he is barely successful.  Now like I said I suppose I could do this with dice for a similar outcome, but I think the inclusion of the suite will mean something for me.  I'm thinking of allowing players to use their suits to simulate criticals or maybe give bonuses such as an extra card or something like that.

*thought* perhaps cards within your suit are free and you get to add those to your additional drawn skill cards of course this may need higher target numbers.

Once again these are is just thoughts

[JoyWriter]

One difference between a card and a dice, as I see it, is that a card stores the number on it for a period of time without you having to worry about it, and stores that number beyond player interference. For example, people can put cards on a table face down, as a form of blind bidding, then reveal them. Doing the same with dice is possible, but harder to conceal. In the same way, people can walk about with "dice" set to a specific value, and reveal them. This allows you to have randomly generated resources, similar to "Dogs in the Vineyard", (I suspect there is a certain irony in using the rpg to explain the value of cards, when it is clearly based on cards in the first place!), but you can keep the values secret without a risk of cheating. If you use the cards immediately, then I would say you might as well use d12s or d20s with funny labels stuck on them, or d10s.

But there is another advantage of cards, which is more abstract, and that is that the "rolls" are not independent, what you draw gives you information about what the other player has. For this reason it may make more sense if you use mental and physical stats for the two parts: The mental stat effects how many cards you draw, thus your amount of information about your opponents strength, and also your probability of having higher cards in the set. Then the physical stat could give your endurance, in the number of cards you get to keep, if for example you can spend cards on different actions.

Balancing the two stats against each other would be a very specific job, based on how important getting the right card was vs getting the right number of cards. In other words the more you make suit matter, the more important cards drawn is, and the more you make summing or multiple actions work, the more important cards kept is.

[izlear]

Ok so this is turning out to be more of a beer and pretzel sort of system I think.

Here is what I got.
Character takes a "Prefered Suit"
Clubs (warrior suit)
Hearts (holy Suit)
Diamonds (thinking suit)
Spades (doing suit) number of cards drawn

There are 4 attributes
Body
Spirit
Mind
Smarts

You can divide these 4 numbers amongst the 4 attributes (2,3,4,5)
Attributes number = number of cards drawn

Now pick 5 skills (taking a que from PDQ just tell us a skill the character has)
These skills are at 2 you can trade in a skill for an aditional point in another skill.
Skill number = number of card successes kept.

Ok face cards+ Aces = success

When a success is drawn that is from the characters prefered suit that another card can be drawn and added (in adition to the skill number)

Combat.
A to hit draw is opposed by a defense draw
Damage is determined by weapon damage rating and is against armor
(armor is typically 1-3)
Weapons damage rating represent cards drawn (and kept) successes must beat  armor level before damage is done.

Damage levels.
thre are 5 (or so ) damage levels, each success over armor rating brings the damage level down by one.



I know there is a lot he that probably doesn't make sense, but t is still just ideas, I can try to clarify some of this if you have questiosn.  This is still being refined.

Does any of this makes sense?  Any thoughts on refining any of this?
Do you think the cards are effective?