lensman Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 Need help building an Alt deck for fortune telling in Turakian Age Short pithy names for concepts and events in Ambrethel. Anything would be helpful. Thanks in advance for the crowdsourcing, what ever form it takes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 Many of the tarot cards represent sufficiently universal/archetypal concepts that you can use them as is. You might change some images to gods of the High Faith: Kilbern foir the Emperor, Mordak for the Devil, etc. This probably won't work for every card, but it's a start. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 Do you have The Turakian Age source book? Pp. 231-232 deals with "celestial magic," spells drawing on powers and qualities of the five visible planets (or "the greater stars" as they're called), and six notable constellations ("the lesser stars"). Each planet and constellation is given a unique TA name, a mythic connection, and a list of those qualities and influences associated with it. For a distinctive Turakian fortune-telling deck, I'd call that a very good place to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted February 12, 2020 Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 Good advice here so far. The One of the first questions you should ask yourself is: Will this be a deck of separate cards, each with its own name and separate concept? (Sometimes referred to as a "cartomancy deck.) Or will it have suits and ranks like a regular traditional card deck? Or will it have both ranks and suits, as well as separate "special" unique cards that aren't part of any deck, like the real-world Tarot? (And yes, generally speaking, any such deck used for fortune-telling can be called a "cartomancy deck", but some people make more specific distinctions.) Having suits and ranks might make it a bit easier to design, as you can pick some number of suits (doesn't have to be four) to represent some broad categories of a person's fortune. For example, a suit of coins might represent the querent's fortune with regard to wealth and money - a low-ranking coin card means poor monetary fortune, and a high-ranking coin card means great monetary fortune. And once you've got your suits and ranks figured out, you can always add more special unique cards for any other concepts you want to include. If you're willing to put in the work, I'd recommend a deck more specifically tied in to the setting. Perhaps there could be four suits of Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Drakine. Or three suits representing the Blue, Scarlet, and Gray gods. Or perhaps five suits representing Meara, Kilbern, Almandre, Mordak, and Varidon, with a special card representing Ziandwyrth. Or whatever. The possibilities are unlimitless. I know of another game system that includes its own "Fortune Deck" of 36 cards: Everway. It's a pretty interesting deck, and could easily be adapted for any setting. Let us know what you come up with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted February 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 @DShomshak: Planning to do just that @Lord Liaden: I do, and it is the place I start @PhilFleischmann: I envision both. A deck of two parts, a suited, numbered part and a major Arcana part (Have not named it yet) it will have the unique cards. Thanks for the lead, never heard of Everway. Plan to post results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted February 12, 2020 Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 OFF TOPIC: Just a bit more about Everyway, and it's deck. The game itself is almost the diametric opposite of HERO. Everything is very free-form and not well defined. All of the crunchy details and math are gone. There are only four characteristics: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. And there are no dice. You might describe it as a fantasy role-playing game designed by hippies. My copy of the game is packed away somewhere. Let's see if I can remember all the cards. They were organized into eight "groups" which aren't really like suits: The "gods" (8): War, Death, Knowledge, Law, Inspiration, Fertility, Trickster, Nature The "mortals/planets" (7): Priestess (Moon), Hermit (Mercury), Peasant (Venus), Fool (Sun), Smith (Mars), King (Jupiter), Soldier (Saturn) The monsters (6): Dragon, Gryphon, Unicorn, Cockatrice, Satyr, Phoenix The "errors" (5): Drowning in Armor, Fearing Shadows, Overlooking the Diamond, Sewing Stones, Striking the Dragon's Tail The seasons (4): Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter The animals (3): The Lion (body), The Eagle (mind), The Fish (soul) The "parents" (2): The Creator (mother), The Defender (father) The Usurper (1) - the Usurper card changes from realm to realm, and represents the unique influencing force that has a significant, if subtle, impact on the realm. And the usurper may change when circumstances in the realm change. If you were to make a Fortune Deck for the Turakian Age, the Usurper card would probably represent Kal-Turak himself. But the usual Usurpers are not usually specific people or concrete things. tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 17, 2020 Report Share Posted February 17, 2020 Rolemaster Companion 1 included a set of symbols called the Qabbals. I constructed one such deck for my own rpg needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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