Trick Taking RPG

Writing a blog is a good exercise. It gives me an excuse to write, and it keeps my mind active. All good, but one benefit that I might have overlooked is "reading" my blog. Yeah, I mean reading my own blog. I was looking for an old post in order to reference it in one of my more recent entries when I came across a post from January of 2013. I'm going to quote a large section of the post here because I feel all of this bears repeating.

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I want to combine role-playing and game playing in a format that is accessible to casual gamers. I want role-play that works without a GM, where the narrative voice can be shared by all players without prior preparation or diminishing the fun or flow of the game.

In trying to keep the GAME in RPG, but lose the board game / war game influence, I am thinking of making this RPG a card game. I know this has been done before, but I am not sure to what extent. I do not want to use cards as a substitute for dice. I do not want to emulate war-game battles. I do not want miniatures or those kinds of trappings that are common to war game inspired RPG's.

Instead, I want card game trappings. Each player will hold cards in their hand. A 'hand' will be dealt and played. Like in poker, stakes will be set, the hand will be played out, then the player to the left will become the dealer.

I see the dealer as holding some manner of narrative control and this moving with the deal as each hand is played. I see a game where cards are played as a scene unfolds and each scene completes as each hand is finished.

I don't know yet how all of this is going to work ... But here are some thoughts:

I have been really into Japanese Anime of late, especially those anime stories about high-school students and their various antics. (I loved 'School Rumble' on Netflix) I want to start there. This will give the system a foundation, and anime is versatile enough that once everything has been said and done, playing in other genres should be possible with little trouble.

So, starting there I have decided that characters are defined by RESOURCES. These resources provide the tools a character can use to complete a task. There are four Resources.

SPADES: a spade is a tool used in gardening. As a resource this represents 'skill use' for the character.

HEARTS: the heart is classically associated with love and passion. As a resource this represents 'emotional drive' for the character.

DIAMONDS: diamonds are a sign of wealth. As a resource this represents 'material possessions' for the character.

CLUBS: a common aspect of Japanese school-age anime is the participation in extra-curricular activities in the form of clubs. As a resource this represents 'social contacts' for the character.

USING RESOURCES:

Imagine that a player wants their character to do well on a math test.

Perhaps the character has studied very hard. This may represent the use of their SPADES resource.

Perhaps the character has a crush on their teacher and wants to do well on the test to impress their teacher. This may represent the use of the HEARTS resource.

Perhaps the character means to purchase a fancy scientific calculator to help them to do well on the test. This may represent use of the DIAMONDS resource.

Maybe the character has convinced a friend to let them look at their answers during the test and copy from their paper. This may represent use of the CLUBS resource.

Not sure yet what all of this will really look like during play. But this is what I have bouncing in my head.

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So, I have been struggling in my head to create a non-combat focused, accessible RPG for over 10 years. I completely forgot about this idea. These are some good and interesting ideas. I mean seriously, why didn't I take this any further?

  

  

Recently, there has been a huge influx of trick taking card and board games. These games explore a variety of different innovations using the trick taking mechanic. Trick taking is more versatile than I ever imagined, and these innovations were not something that I was aware of 10 years ago. But, looking at this now, the first thing that I thought was, "This is a trick taking RPG."

I'm thinking that game play might look something like this:

The GM proposes an obstacle and then plays a card representing that obstacle's difficulty. Players must then play in suit if they can, describing what their action looks like based on the resource being played. However, if a player is out of the led suit, they can play any other card and must describe how their character takes a different approach.

My brain is buzzing.

  

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