Use of cards with Sorcerer rolling scheme...

In my game Shadows in the Fog, I use Tarot cards for everything. One thing that I think hasn't been mentioned here that changes the whole issue of probability is that you could have a small hand of cards, not draw randomly off the top of the deck. That way there's a strategic use of cards in one's hand, based on an initial random distribution. You have to work out when to refresh the hand, of course.

Let's suppose the GM has a hand too. The difficulty of the action is set by the GM drawing randomly or from her hand. Now the player has to beat the difficulty by pulling from his hand. The more you beat it by, the better the success. Something like that, anyway. If a lot of cards are of relatively equal value, and ties go to the player, you have the player needing to decide when to have a big success and when to save that big success for later when it might be more important. There will also be times when it's worth simply failing. It's also worth considering whether a player can throw two cards for a cumulative total, making low-rank cards more useful.

For Trumps, I like a freeform interpretation system, which I discuss (but not sufficiently) in Shadows in the Fog. I'm currently rewriting that part; if you want, I'd be happy to explain what I see as the desirable theory behind Trumps and their consistent usage over time. I don't like a fixed set of meanings, though. For me, the cool thing is to start with a relatively broad but known set of meanings (Waite, for example, or any other stock Tarot interpretation book, Trumps only). Then people have to bend those meanings to their needs, since they won't always have the perfect card to hand. Over time, you stop needing the little book at all, because everyone knows the meanings, and besides they've come to have specific meanings for your game and your group.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Note that I posted a long thing over here where I explained a lot of the basics of Tarot decks. If you're not all that knowledgeable about Tarot, it might be helpful; if you are, feel free to ignore....

Chris Lehrich