Actions - Character & World Decks

When a character attempts to use a skill or perform an action the GM may call for a skill check. Not every action will require one, but you should check for actions under great stress, actions that are opposed by another character (such as combat), or actions where it is not clear whether or not the character would succeed. During a check a player draws cards equal to his skill and modifies one or more of them based on his character’s attributes and other modifiers.

Each character has his own deck of cards to draw when resolving actions. When using a standard playing deck, the black cards (clubs and spades) count as positive numbers from 1-10 (aces are ones). The red cards (diamonds and hearts) are negative numbers. The jokers are wild cards.

Hit Cards
The three face cards, jacks, queens and kings, are “hit cards,” and represent 1, 2 and 3 respectively. When a player uses a hit card he may draw the top card from his deck and add it to the value of the hit card. Once a hit card is chosen the player may not change his mind. Thus, it is very possible to get a worse result by hitting. If the card drawn is another hit card, the player again has the option to add another card or not. This continues until a regular card is drawn.

Jokers
Jokers are the wild cards. They are an appeal to the Fates in their guise as the GM. When a player uses a joker the GM arbitrarily decides the success of the action. This can be in keeping with the dramatic needs of the scene, the whim and mood of the GM or any other reason the GM decides. The results should be drastic and impressive whether for good or ill.

World Decks
The GM uses a world deck to determine success and failure for NPCs. The world deck is built just like a karma deck, except there are no jokers, and it does not change over time. Also, unlike a karma deck, the GM should not reshuffle the world deck until all the cards are dealt. Of course, the GM is under no obligation to reveal any of his draws to the players.

Card Rules
In order to keep the game moving and to give players the opportunity to manipulate their own fate the GM may enforce the following rules regarding decks:

The Rule of Fives
A player may only reshuffle his deck if he just discarded his fifth or multiple of 5. This means that if a player draws one card and it’s the +10, he may not immediately shuffle it back into the deck. He must wait until four more cards are discarded.

For Example:
Enris has discarded three cards so far, so he can’t reshuffle them back into his deck yet. If his next check brings the discards to five or more cards, he can then choose to reshuffle. During the next skill check he draws three negative cards, bringing the discards to six. He decides he doesn’t want those cards in the deck and chooses not to shuffle. Having chosen not to shuffle on passing five, he may not shuffle until the discard is up to ten or more cards.

The Five Rules
1. A player does not have to shuffle until he is out of cards.
2. When shuffling, put the discarded cards on the bottom of the deck before shuffling.
3. A player must bridge shuffle.
4. Do not delay the game by shuffling, shuffle when it is not your turn to act.
5. If the GM asks you what you do, you must answer, resolve any checks with your deck as it is, and then you may shuffle.