I’m really struggling with coming up with a mechanic that uses cards. Everything I’ve thought of so far either seems like a fully-fledged card game that wouldn’t allow for the whole roleplaying thing, or needlessly complex and convoluted and head-hurty. I’d abandon it and go
back to dice but the cards concept seems to make so much sense and fit so well.
The other thing is, I’d like to have some sort version of this ready and playable by Saturday next week, so that I can show the people who turn up to Go Play Brisbane, and make some serious steps towards having something, ANYTHING, in print by GenCon OZ in September. In fact…
I, David Pidgeon, do hereby declare that I will have some version of Dirty Princesses in print and available to people at GenCon OZ.
Woo!
So on one hand I’m stalled in that area. On the other, I’m thinking about it and working on it so that’s good.
Keep it simple – the story is what matters. Don’t stress too much about what suits do until you have the core sorted. High card draw wins (maybe draw a number of cards based on ability), or draw a card and add an ability to the sum. I was toying with a wild west game where players had a hand of cards and could choose to play one from their hand or draw one at random. Maybe each suit relates to a type of action and acts as “trumps” for breaking ties. Sorry if I have repeateed anything already in the game, it has been a while since I read them and I am doing this from my phone. Good luck with it all.
I agree with Nathan on the simplicity policy. Clever rules are clever, but they can bog the fiction down if they aren’t handled well.
Bring on Gencon!