I created two tools to provide something physical for your tabletop RPG scenes and I realized that they can be used for any system to help you run your games. So I wanted to talk about how you can do just that. Furthermore I will go into how you can use the mechanics, to help inspire your creativity to liven up complex tasks or add complications to encounters and scenes.
The first mechanic I made, I named a board. If you have played Blades in the Dark, it works very similarly to clocks, but with a bit more depth. If you have not, do not worry.
A board represents a complex task, something that requires more than two Skill Checks to be completed. A board is constructed by first drawing 3 or more cards from the Dealer’s Event Deck, or a standard deck of playing cards for other systems, and placing them in a row. The Players start from the left and progress to their goal on the right. The goal should be marked somehow, be it with a different card a bottle or your favorite figure. This goal may shift, or remain stationary, it depends on the type of task being performed.
A character will perform Skill Checks to progress along the board. With each success, they place their successful card, or some other marker on the furthest open spot on the left side of the board. If they fail a check, they place their card, or marker, face down on the furthest open slot on the right side of the board, preventing the character from reaching that level of success for this task.
When the character places a card on the goal spot or the last open spot, the complex task is completed, and the results are described.
Here is an example of a board in use within my system.
The Dealer sets up an small but difficult board of 4 in length with the goal card on the third slot. This requires the Players to have 3 successes before two failures. Emily starts by using Investigation – Mechanical Working and gets a 6 on the check, and she successfully identifies the trigger device. Next, she uses a Tinker Disable Device Check to try to cut the wire and gets a 5. Her hand slips and she cuts the wrong wire. The bomb remains ticking but doesn’t explode. Her crew member Jake attempts to calm her down with a Persuasion Clam check to help her succeed. Jake succeeds with an 8. Her other crewmate Chelsea attempts to repair the wire with Tinker Repair Skill, but she fails with a 3. The wire touches part of the circuit board, triggering the explosion. Their professor comes in the room an announces how they would all be dead had this not been a simulation. Better luck next time, Emily and team.
Using the cards to inspire your players
Since the board is a physical thing that can be touched and manipulated, it gives a reference to the Player’s actions. By marking which card your Skill Check was, you can see how you contributed, or did not, to the team’s efforts. Finally, it also allows the whole table to see what it would take to complete a task, it makes the goal visible, clear, and tangible.
I often use boards for preparation or to complete a scene. Lets say the party is setting up an ambush. I set out a board of 4 cards, with no goal, and ask the party to offer up Skills they would use to complete the task. This inspires the Players to offer the Skill checks and explain their reasoning, rather than me asking for a set of Skills. This has two effects, it allows the Players to be more involved in creating the world and the story since they decide what their ambush looks like, both narratively and mechanically. Secondly, it draws on the creativity of the table rather than just the GM.
To resolve the scene, take each Skill Check contributed as one of the cards for the board. You do not need to indicate whether each individual check was a pass or fail at this time, you will take the collection of all Skill Checks and their results and create a whole unique resolution based on the inputs of the players. In this way you can pull from the Player’s creativity to make the resolution description that much more unique.
Using the cards to inspire yourself
You’ve done 5 scenes already this session and you are running out of creative steam. Let the cards help.
Instead of having the cards face down, just representing spaces to be filled, you can play the cards face up and use the suits as a basis for your check. Here are some examples of how each suit can inspire you.
Diamonds is Power. Think about how mental or physical power can either cause or solve the problem. Maybe there is a rusted sewer grate blocking the way. The players could either use physical strength to rip the weakened gate apart or instead they use their mental power to devise a way to accelerate the rust, targeting the weak points so it falls off.
Spades is Flexibility. Think about how mental or physical flexibility can either cause or solve the problem. Perhaps a country has closed its borders due to worsening relations with the neighboring country. The players could use mental flexibility to talk and falsify a story to get past border patrol, or maybe they can use their physical flexibility to slip through less secure sections of the border.
Hearts is Resilience. Think about how mental or physical resilience can either cause or solve the problem. Perhaps the party is moving through a spider infested cave to clear it out. The walls are thick with spikes dripping with poisons but they use their physical resilience to endure any of the small scrapes they experience. Conversely, their mental resilience allows them keep their wits and not be afraid of the dangers that jump out of the dark.
Clubs is social. Think about how social presence or social charisma can either cause or solve the problem. Perhaps the party is investigating the testimonies of some street urchins when a gang comes up to mug the party. The party not being well armed, uses their social presence to appear tougher than they are and intimidate the gang off, or using their social charisma, they make friends with the gang to see why they are robbing people in the first place.
This is just one way you can use cards to spice up your tabletop games. In the next post, I will talk about how to use cards to make a countdown clock to drive tension in a scene.
Try these out and see how it enhances your game. Let me know how it went in your sessions if you do. Finally, if you find an improvement at your table, tell me about it! I would love to know more ways to enhance my gaming.
As always, thanks for reading and if you like what I am writing about, follow me on Twitter @c22system or join my discord for C22. If you want me to talk about a particular design topic let me know!