CardCaptors - Champions Style

[薔薇語]

So, something has been running through my head for some time now: how would one populate a CardCaptor's style deck in a Champion's game? The idea of a Hero that uses a mystically enchanted deck of cards to call forth unusual powers and allies alike is quite appealing, but I have yet to really sit down and think about what kind of "cards" one would actually have; nor do I feel like ripping off the show more than just the basic idea. ^^

 

 

So my goal in this post / thread is to work on creating a card list and perhaps the character him/herself. First, I'm not sure what upper limit there should be to the cards, or even if there should be one at all. Any good ideas on this? What would be the best way to emulate this style character? My first belief is to go with an MP where each slot represents a single card. This, however, leads to issues of getting more than one card going at a time. But maybe that is a good thing and brings life to the idea that the magics in the cards can be potentially very taxing or, heaven forbid, threatening if used to excess. What would be a sufficiently Champion-esc way of summon the various powers locked in the cards? In the show, Sakura uses a wand/key in rather anime-ish fashion. ^^ Should the cards be subdivided into various categories (something the show did to some degree but I'm not sure off hand if it actually had any real purpose - been a long time since I watched the show). If so, what should those subcategories be and how should they interact?

 

All that said, let's try to populate a deck of Mystic Cards.

 

Some basic ideas relevant to deck number:

 

Limitless - This would allow the character to in essence create what ever card they want or allow the GM infinite allowance in providing cards to be "capture" if it does go the route of CardCaptors.

 

Limited - There exist a strict number. GM has absolute control over what is out there and will always know what to expect. But this leads to a level of staticness in the system that is too reminiscent of things like DnD's magic. I.e., not HERO.

 

Middle Ground: limited-Limitedness - The number of potential cards is limitless but the number allowed in a single deck is. And thus if a player wants to have a new card but is already at their limit, they must abandon an already established card.

Variation I: ALL characters are capped at X cards. It is a rule by which the Cards themselves are bound to and thus can not be broken by any particular character.

This lends itself to interesting quest revolving around "secret" ways to circumvent this rule.

Variation II: Card limits are character dependent. Wielding the magics in the cards takes a lot of mana / spirit / concentration / mojo / bubblegum or what have you. Thus the limit for every character is slightly different.

This lends itself to a level of personal preference that is nice, IMO.

 

Deck Sizes:

 

52 - Well the reason behind this choice is rather obvious.

13 - Why not, it is magic

8 - Classicly powerful number in Asian traditions.

Ideas?

 

Card Themes:

 

If one breaks them up into various themes, the one has options to "specialize" perhaps. This would allow one to perhaps circumvent some of the "card limit" rules by having magics that "play nice" with each other. The opposite being true as well (can't have Fire and Water in the same hand, etc). Or perhaps the above restrictions of deck size are actually "theme" size. Thus one could maybe have 5 themes and thus, if one chooses 13 as the number per deck, 75 cards. I kind of like the idea of themes. One could in essence build the same power but with different special effects such that they are not always affected the same and gives each character's version a sense of uniqueness that HERO is tuned for. : )

 

What could the themes be? There are the classics: light, dark, wind, water, earth, fire, wood, HEART! Ideas?

 

Well, Card ideas themselves:

 

Some basics that I think are rather obvious (although no write ups or special effects are listed)

 

Flight,

Super Strength,

Healing,

Various summons,

Energy (insert type) blasts,

etc.

 

Anyone want to take a stab at helping to write some of these up? Or just though in your opinions about this idea? Ever tried anything like it before? If I think I can create a fun character out of it, I may try and play something like this in future. Moreover, if I like how the system is set up on whole, seems like it could make an interesting baseline for a whole magic system. : )

 

La Rose.

[Tech]

Re: CardCaletsptor - Champions Style

 

I've been wanting wondering how to do this! In 5th edition, I thought of multipower, ultras, so you can only use one ultra at a time, i.e. one card at a time. Another possibility is to use Summon if you wish to bring out the actual entity of the card itself, i.e. if you wanted to bring out Song, instead of just being able to use the power of Song. Let me know what you think because I'd like to know.

[Clonus]

Re: CardCaletsptor - Champions Style

 

I would suggest each card being able to summon an immaterial spirit that possesses either the cardholder or some person or object near the card hold. That way you can avoid actual summons (which were not, by and large a feature of Cardcaptor once the card had been tamed.) Such an array of powers can be portrayed as either a multipower or a variable power pool limited to the array of cards that a character has so far mastered/acquired.

[csyphrett]

Re: CardCaletsptor - Champions Style

 

I wrote a sample character up in the new circle thread. I can dig it up, I guess.

CES