*knock knock*

*knock knock*

Anyone remember me?

1d4chan.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

I think it's high time we figure this here game out.

I got bored and started reminiscing about the playtest session of Wild Cards I was involved in 6 or 7 years ago. The Setting was damn near perfect, the writefaggotry was superb, and the whole concept had me hooked from the get-go.

The mechanics... well... the mechanics didn't do much for me. There was a reason we stopped after one playtest 6 or 7 years ago. The mechanics that were being tested at the time sucked. And that's fine. Hell, that's what playtests are for: the figure out what works and what doesn't work.

But I don't wanna give up on Wild Cards, and I know you don't want to give up on it either.

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So I started working on the mechanics of Wild Cards: Sons of the Gun. I had three things in mind: Quick, Easy, Fun. I wanted to be able to describe the rules in about five minutes with minimal prop usage and have potential players understand them with minimal confusion. Don't know if I succeeded, but here's what I've written down so far:

The Suits

The Dealer’s Cards come in four Suits: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. Each one of the suits governs one of the four abilities, which are detailed further on down. A Gun’s suit determines its abilities and powers and serves as a classification of sorts.

- Clubs: “Blew a hole straight through that sonuvabitch.” Raw, unbridled power, a Gun of Clubs can punch a fist-sized hole through six inches of steel and still kill the coward hiding behind it. When it comes to pure stopping power, nothing is stronger than a Club.

- Diamonds: “Ten men dead before I could so much as blink.” Diamonds are the fastest Guns out there, damn near guaranteed to shoot first – and more than likely, shoot last at the same time. These are the Guns you want if a hail of bullets is what you’re after. Who needs accuracy or power when you can fill the air with lead?

- Hearts: “Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in my way, not even the Joker himself.” Hearts are straight shooters, through and through. It’s said that in the right hands, a Gun of Hearts can shoot the wings off a hummingbird from a mile away or more. Hearts are the most reliable of the Guns, rarely missing their mark.

- Spades: “Fancy shootin’ there, kid.” When your enemy’s hiding around the corner just waiting to ambush you, a Spade is what you need. A Gun of Spades can outshoot any other gun, pulling off trick shots that shouldn’t even be physically possible. They can bounce bullets off o’ walls and shoot the irons right out of another man’s hands.

The Slingers

The 54 Guns are mighty powerful to be sure, but a Gun ain’t much use to no one without a man to carry it. The mortals lucky (or unlucky, depending on who you ask) to wield one of the Fabled 54 are known as ‘Slingers. ‘Slingers have four attributes, Guile, Gumption, Guts, and Grit, each of which is influenced by the four Gun Suits. Each of the four attributes influences how a ‘Slinger interacts with his Deck (detailed further down), determining how many cards he can draw, hold, and play.

- Guile (Diamonds): A ‘Slinger marked by the Suit of Diamonds is charming, cunning, and quick. You ain’t gonna get the drop on a Diamond ‘Slinger without the Dealer’s help or a Diamond of your own.
- Game-play wise, a ‘Slinger’s Guile determines how many cards he draws whenever he Loads or Reloads during a Challenge or Conflict. For each point of Guile the ‘Slinger has, he draws one card.

- Gumption (Spades): A ‘Slinger marked by the Suit of Spades is a clever man in tune with his surroundings and capable of reading other mortals. You can’t outfox a Spades ‘Slinger, not unless you’re the Joker himself.
- Game-play wise, a ‘Slinger’s Gumption determines how many cards he can hold in his hand at a time. For each point of Gumption the ‘Slinger has, he can hold one card.

- Guts (Clubs): A ‘Slinger marked by the Suit of Clubs is renowned for his strength and seemingly superhuman toughness, and he has to be if he wants to hold a Gun of Clubs. They say a Clubs ‘Slinger can take a bullet straight to the skull and walk away smilin’.
- Game-play wise, a ‘Slinger’s Guts determines the maximum number of Chips he can hold in his Pool (detailed further down). For each point of Guts the ‘Slinger has, he can keep one Chip in his Pool.
- Grit (Hearts): A ‘Slinger marked by the Suit of Hearts has a determination and drive to live and win that can’t be matched by another mortal man. Come hell or high water, a Hearts ‘Slinger is going to see a job through and see that it’s done right.
- Game-play wise, a ‘Slinger’s Grit determines the maximum number of cards he can play during his action. For each point of Grit the ‘Slinger has, he can play one card.

Making Your Slinger

Now that you know what the different attributes are, you’ll need to determine the attributes of your ‘Slingers. Character creation is a quick and easy process, and requires only a few cards from your deck.

Take the Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of each Suit and separate them into four piles based on their Suits. Shuffle the four piles thoroughly. Draw two cards from each of the piles. The sum of these pairs determines each of your attributes. For example, if you draw a 3 and 5 of Clubs, your ‘Slinger’s Guts attribute is 8.

The total between your two Clubs is your ‘Slinger’s starting Guts. Guile is determined in the same fashion by the total of the two Diamonds cards. Gumption is determined in the same fashion by the total of the two Spades cards, and Grit is determined in the same fashion by the total of the two Hearts cards. The average number in each attribute generated this way is 7, with the lowest possible total being 3 and the highest possible total being 11.

If random chance isn’t to your Dealer’s liking, each ‘Slinger instead starts with a 3 in each of his attributes and has 16 points to spend, with the maximum allowable number in any one attribute being 11.

Dealer’s Note: It’s not much fun being the runt of the litter. If the difference in power between your ‘Slingers is too great (say one ‘Slinger’s got all 8s or higher and another has 4s and lower), you may want to consider letting your weaker ‘Slingers redraw their attributes.

Drawing Your Gun

‘Slingers don’t choose their Guns, the Guns choose their ‘Slingers. Whenever you make a new ‘Slinger, the Dealer separates the Jacks, Queens, Kings, Aces, and Jokers from his deck and shuffles the remaining cards together into one pile. Each ‘Slinger draws one card from the deck and receives that Gun to start the game. Once each ‘Slinger has his or her Gun, the game can start in earnest.

How to Play

Wild Cards: Sons of the Gun is a table-top role-playing game (RPG) designed to use a standard deck of fifty four playing cards (52 plus the 2 Jokers) in place of dice. All mechanics revolve around the use of cards, and each ‘Slinger (Player) and the Dealer (Game Master, or GM) will need his or her own deck in order to play. Wild Cards contains a high amount of random chance, meaning that even the strongest ‘Slingers might fall prey to an up-and-comer armed with nothing more than a peashooter.

The Dealer works as a story teller of sorts, weaving various encounters and challenges together into a campaign, or a Story. A Story can be about a gang of train robbers looking for their next big steal or about a sheriff and his deputies trying to hold a town together in these trying times. A Story can be short and take only hours to play, or a Story can be played out over several session and take weeks or even months to complete. But while the Dealer writes and directs the Story, the ‘Slingers shape it through their actions and deeds. What could start out as a simple bank robbery could wind up being a shootout with Old Scratch in hopes of getting your hands on one of his Jokers.

The 'Slinger's Deck

Each ‘Slinger needs his or her own deck, from which cards are drawn and played to help shape the events of the Dealer’s Story. A ‘Slinger’s deck consists of the numbered cards, the face cards, and the Aces. Jokers are not included in a ‘Slinger’s deck unless certain requirements are met. The value of each card is as follows:

- Numbers: The Value of these cards simply equals the number on the card. An 8, for example, has a value of 8.

- Aces and Faces: The Jack, Queen, King, and Ace have no numeric value and can’t be played like normal numbered cards. Instead, these four cards are used to activate each Gun’s special abilities. If you play an Ace or Face that matches the Suit of your Gun, the ability tied to that card gains a small boost in power.

- Jokers: ‘Slinger know better than to run Jokers in their decks without the right tools. The Jokers and certain Sleights allow ‘Slingers to use Jokers in their decks.
If a ‘Slinger plays the card that matches his Gun’s suit and value, he automatically succeeds at whatever Challenge he is attempting (Challenges are detailed further along in the document).

The Dealer's Deck

The Dealer’s Deck operates a little differently than the ‘Slingers’ decks. First of all, the Dealer runs all 54 cards (the 52 standard cards, plus the two Jokers). Secondly, the values of these cards are a little different, as follows:

- Numbers: The Value of these cards simply equals the number on the card.

- Faces: The Jack, Queen, and King all have a Value of 10.

- Aces: The Ace has a Value of 11.

- Jokers: If the Dealer plays a Joker, the ‘Slinger involved in the Challenge that the Joker is played in automatically fails the Challenge and loses all bet Guts.

Guts and Glory

Now I’m gonna take you aside for a minute and let your know what it is that you’re even fighting for. Well, that’s Glory, plain and simple. Glory is the mechanic used by the Dealer to raise the stakes and make Challenges… well, a little more challenging. Dealers use Glory to draw and play additional cards during challenges, while ‘Slingers use the Glory they’ve earned to improve themselves through the purchasing of Sleights. During a Challenge, Glory is represented by Chips, although dice can be used in a pinch. Any object that can be easily seen and handled by the Dealer and the ‘Slinger can be used to represent Glory.

While Dealers have their Glory, ‘Slingers have their Guts. In some ways, Guts are like a ‘Slinger’s health pool, since a ‘Slinger without any Guts can’t act during a Challenge. But Guts are more than a simple representation of health and wellness. During a Challenge, a ‘Slinger can bet Guts in order to play more Cards of his own, increasing his chances of succeeding and possibly goading the Dealer into throwing more Glory into the pot.

The exact uses of Guts and Glory will be detailed below in the “Trials and Tribulation” section.

Trials and Tribulations

So you’ve got your ‘Slinger, your Gun, and your trusty deck of cards. You know that you’ve got to put your Guts on the line to make a name for yourself and earn some Glory. But what does that really mean for you? How do you use these tools to actually play the game? Well hold on there, ‘Slinger, I’m about to tell you!

The central mechanic of Wild Cards: Sons of the Gun is the “Challenge.” Anything with a conceivable risk of failure is performed via a Challenge, during which any ‘Slingers involved duke it out with the Dealer to see who comes out on top. A Challenge could be shooting at a highwayman or attempting to defuse a ticking stick of dynamite, or it could be something more mundane like swimming across a river, lying to a man with a gun aimed at your head while your pants are around your ankles and his wife is still in the bed behind you, or running away from a pack of rabid coyotes.

Multiple Challenges make up a “Conflict.” Like Challenges, Conflicts can range from violent and epic shootouts to battles of wits rather than guns. Conflicts are the meat of a Story, and the ‘Slingers’ successes or failures in these challenges helps to determine where the Story goes. Conflicts are categorized into two groups: Minor and Major.

Minor Conflicts are those that can either be resolved through storytelling among the ‘Slingers and Dealer, or those that have no chance of either success or failure. If the ‘Slingers can’t possibly fail, there isn’t much of a Conflict. The same can be said for success – if the ‘Slingers can’t succeed, then they can’t have a real Conflict. Minor Conflicts serve to bridge the gaps between Major Conflicts, and can be rewarded with Glory if the Dealer deems it appropriate.

Major Conflicts are those that can’t be resolved with storytelling, and instead need hard rules to accomplish. A shootout, for example, can’t be resolved simply by having the Dealer and the ‘Slingers describe what they do. Bullets are flying and men are dropping, and that needs to be determined through Challenges.

More than likely, a Challenge is going to be a violent affair. No one really wants to hear the harrowing tale of how a ‘Slinger rode his horse down a dirt road on a nice day with a light breeze. People want to hear about the band of ‘Slingers riding into town, guns blazing and taking out the bastards that kidnapped the mayor’s daughter. However, not all Challenges have to be about gunslinging. A ‘Slinger might be trying to escape from a rabid mountain lion, which would definitely be a Challenge. Or he might be searching for another one of the Fabled Fifty Four to add to his collection, another challenge that doesn’t necessarily end in bloodshed. The rule of thumb for determining if something is worth being a Challenge is to figure out if there is a desirable reward for success, and a considerable risk of failure.

Challenges and Conflicts

A Challenge is a single event, much like an attack roll or a skill check in other RPGs. To initiate a Challenge either the Dealer causes something to happen (for instance an avalanche or a bandit ambush and the ‘Slingers react or the ‘Slingers can instigate the Challenge (perhaps by climbing up a cliff face or shooting at some bandits one of them spotted). Once the Challenge begins, play goes back and forth between the Dealer and all ‘Slingers involved in the Challenge.

Before the Challenge begins, the Dealer determines how many Glory Chips he has to put into the pool. The Dealer’s Glory equals the combined total of Guts amongst all participating ‘Slingers, plus one additional point of Glory for each participating ‘Slinger. For example, if the Dealer is facing off against four ‘Slingers and their total Guts equals 30, the Dealer has Glory 34 Glory (30 to match the combined Guts total and 4 to equal the number of participating ‘Slingers).

Dealer’s First Turn: The Dealer draws and plays two cards from the top of his Deck to determine the initial Challenge Value that the ‘Slingers have to beat. The Dealer also draws and plays additional cards if appropriate for the Scene (for example, if the target has cover or terrain is particular difficult to traverse).

‘Slinger’s First Turn: The ‘Slingers do the following:
- Load: Each ‘Slinger draws cards equal to their Guile, then discards cards until their hand size equals their Gumption (if necessary).
- Act: Each ‘Slinger plays a number of cards up to their Grit to determine their Effort Value and/or activate one of the abilities of their Gun. The ‘Slinger also draws and plays additional cards if appropriate for the Scene.

Dealer’s Subsequent Turns: At this point, the Dealer can decide if he wants to put Glory in the pot to escalate the challenge. If the Dealer so chooses, he can bet a Glory Chip (put a Glory Chip in the pot) and draw and play an additional card, increasing the Challenge Value. Play then moves back to the ‘Slingers involved in the Challenge.

‘Slinger’s Subsequent Turns: The ‘Slingers do the following:
- Reload: Each ‘Slinger draws cards equal to their Guile, then discards cards until their hand size equals their Gumption (if necessary).
- React: Each ‘Slinger can bet a Guts Chip (put a Guts Chip in the pot) and play one additional card, increasing the Effort Value by the value on the card, or activating one of the abilities of their Gun. Play then moves back to the Dealer.

The Dealer and the ‘Slingers go back and forth until either the Dealer or the ‘Slingers decide to fold and back down, the ‘Slingers run out of Guts or the Dealer runs out of Glory. Once the Challenge is resolved, the ‘Slingers either divvy up the Glory as they see fit (if they are victorious) or run off with their tails tucked between their legs (if they were defeated). Victorious ‘Slingers regain all of their Grit, while defeated ‘Slingers continue on to the next challenge in the Conflict with whatever remaining Grit they might have.

Should the Dealer or a ‘Slinger deck run out of cards, he simply reshuffles his discard pile and draws cards from the newly formed deck. Some Guns and Sleights might allow a ‘Slinger to reshuffle decks sooner or more often.

Once a Challenge is complete, the Dealer determines whether or not the Conflict is complete. A Challenge might involve the shooting between the ‘Slingers and some bandits, but the Conflict might involve finding and rescuing kidnapped prisoners, thus requiring the ‘Slingers to continue the Conflict until it has been resolved.

Now normally one person or creature is worth one Challenge. The single bandit in a gang of bandits can be defeated by exceeding the Dealer’s Challenge Value for the bandit, while each of his buddies is a separate Challenge. However, some individuals, such as enemy ‘Slingers, might be worthy enough to be a conflict all their own. A bandit king or a ‘Slinger wielding one of the Fabled Fifty Four might require multiple Challenges to defeat, allowing the Dealer to slowly whittle down the ‘Slingers with the same enemy.

Conflicts and Scenes

Stories in Wild Cards: Sons of the Gun are framed around a series of Conflicts, each of which takes place in a particular Scene. Scenes are units of space that fit a basic description, such as “old ghost town,” and might be broken down into further Scenes, such as individual houses or streets. Instead of tracking detailed movement in space (such as feet or meters), Wild Cards instead focuses on movement between Scenes. If there’s an obstacle between amidst a Scene, consider breaking the Scene into two or more smaller Scenes.

This more “open” form of movement allows the Dealer to go without a grid to track movement. A piece of paper or a dry erase board is all he needs to draw up Conflict maps and place the ‘Slingers and the bad guys.

The world is a dangerous place, and different Scenes have different effects. For simplicity’s sake, Scenes are categorized as follows:

- Closed Environments: Examples of closed environments would be inside of a house, a hallway or alley, a tunnel, or a covered wagon. ‘Slingers and other creatures in closed environments are likely going to be behind cover, such as sandbags or walls. A ‘Slinger or (in the Dealer’s case) creature behind cover gets to play additional cards from the top of their deck during their first turn, the number of which is determined by the type of cover.
- Light Cover: The ‘Slinger or Dealer plays an additional card from the top of their deck if they or (in the case of the Dealer) a creature are behind light cover.
- Medium Cover: The ‘Slinger or Dealer plays two additional cards from the top of their deck if they or (in the case of the Dealer) a creature are behind light cover.
- Heavy Cover: The ‘Slinger or Dealer plays three additional cards from the top of their deck if they or (in the case of the Dealer) a creature are behind light cover.

- Hazardous Environments: Examples of hazardous environments include swamps, a room filled with smoke, a tar pit, or an unstable mountain trail. Hazardous environments are risky places that often spell doom for those foolish enough to enter them. Moving into or out of a hazardous environment always requires a Challenge, and failure to complete said Challenge can have nasty results for an unwitting ‘Slinger.

- Open Environments: Examples of open environments would be the plains, a town square, town streets, a particularly massive cavern, or any other area devoid of obstacles or cover. Open environments pose no risks and provide no cover, and can be moved into and out of without risk of harm or failure.

Sleights

Every ‘Slinger worth his salt has a few tricks of up his sleeve, and that’s where Sleights come in. Sleights are special abilities that ‘Slingers pick up as they go out into the wild blue yonder in search of fame and fortune. As you gain Glory for overcoming Challenges and Conflicts, you can spend that on Sleights, granting you additional abilities and improving your attributes.

In order to buy a Sleight, you must cash in Glory. The cost of a Sleight is equal to the number of Sleights you have, plus one. When a ‘Slinger has no Sleights, it’ll cost him one Glory to earn his first Sleight, then two Glory for the second one, three for the third one, and so on. A ‘Slinger can have up twenty-one Sleights before he’s reached his maximum potential.

Sleights are currently WIP, but will basically revolve around giving 'Slingers extra options and increasing their stats. Simple stuff like that. The Guns are also WIP.

I am going to bump you for interest. It's 4AM, so I'll read it in the morning.

Well, you got my interest, pilgrim. Keep up that good postin'

I remember this.

it's good as a setting and The Deck always struck me as a fine add-in for a slightly Weird West setting...like, gunslingers hunting monsters can happen. and The Deck is a think in the setting...

what I wanted to hear was more stories.
the guns change hands and yet we have only one tale per-each.

I remember this.

I also remember having the free time to pretend I'd be able to contribute or do something with this someday.

THEN ANSWER THE CALL AND DO THAT NOW

Make it a PDF dood

So some issues I noticed with the proposed system:
The three card manipulation effects seem to have weird and unequal value. Like if you have a number of plays more then your number of keeps, the excess is useless. If you have a number of keeps greater then you number of plays, there is some minor marginal value(if you get to many high value cards in one hand to play), but not like... a ton of value. If you have draws less then plays, your excess plays don't matter. If you have less draws then keeps... that is actually fine, and lets you hold onto more options I guess?

So basically, your plays is equal to the lower of keeps and draws, and then more draws is usually better then more keeps.

Then there is the forth stat, that basically determines what difficulty setting you are on. More makes the encounters harder while boosting both the character's and dealer's card plays evenly. Except it boosts the dealers more, as it leaves a greater chance for a joker aka the main way the dealer is going to win.

The dealers deck has a higher average value(164/54, whatever that is), baring whatever the faces make guns do.

Mostly this seems like it will be playing war, with one player getting a ton of manipulation, and the other getting a better deck.

Why not make it more like poker? Have the hands be drawn in secret, with some actions based on stats to manipulate the cards in your hand. Have a similar meta currency, and some sort of betting mechanic. The encounter could have a pool of meta currency and beating it requires taking all of its meta currency. Encounters also could get their own abilities to manipulate the dealers hand or the players hands.

As the writefag who came up with Solemn John and the Eight of Clubs, I approve of this thread.

>Why not make it more like poker?

I'd probably use the system from Dogs in the Vineyard. Calls and raises, with dice as normal. Instead, use the 54 card deck as a storybuilding element...

Like imagine if you started out a campaign by building your character and also getting a hand of poker, and those affected your backstory.

Or if you assigned plot points to each card...characters, actions, etc. Almost like a tarot deck...and dealt out a Poker hand to determine the thrust of that night's session.

There's an indie game called In a Wicked Age that builds something similar out of tables...

Just woke up and bumping so I can read up over breakfast.

Will definitely consider and . I came up with the rough draft in about 3 hours with a friend, so it's by no means perfect.

Per 's request, here is a PDF. I already updated the Dealer's Glory Pot rule, giving the Dealer an amount of Glory equal to the average amongst 'Slingers, plus 2 per 'Slinger. Figured this way the Dealer has more Glory than each individual 'Slinger, but less than the total party (in most cases).

Here's a very crude mock up for a potential character sheet. Right now we're just focusing on the Challenge System, the Sleights, and the Guns. Once those are taken care of, an actual inventory system might be created. To be honest, though, I want Wild Cards to be somewhere between a pick up "beer and pretzels" game that doesn't require more than 10 minutes to set up and something that can be played out as a campaign, so the lighter the rules, the happier I'll be. To me, the game was always more about the story than the crunch.

This sounds absolutely amazing.

lots of really cool tidbits in the older thread of Veeky Forums

you might trawl the suptg archive to get to know some of them.

Nice work, man. Something's better than nothing.

Thanks dood. Now it's a thing that can be shared and used more easily = ]

Dio? Is that you?

this setting do the cartridge thing?

or is it hardcore western?

...

The lore and writefaggotry is absolutely amazing. I couldn't let it sit there unused.

1d4chan.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

TO THOSE WHO'D PLAY THIS

how weird would you like this west to be?

cause this is at least a slightly weird west game

gonna bump for the thinkers to think

and the system planners to plan

bump

Bump for interest, simply because I think more role playing games should consider trying cards over dice.

There's an element of determinism (ie card counting, you can make an educated prediction on the next draw according to what you going to last hand) that is worth exploring more.

I would personally have only the guns as the Weird part. No monsters, ghouls, or ghosts. People would be the ones who do terrible things to people.

HOLY SHIT IT'S SONS OF THE GUNS!!!

I more or less came up with a separate system a while back. I enjoyed running it, but the system definitely needed streamlining. Like it all worked as intended, but shit got slow real fast. Never got back to working on it. Feel free to cannibalize it if you want pieces and parts for your own thing.

Also forgive the shit formatting. The PDF was rushed together...

Oh yeah, and also the character sheet for it.

I find it amusing that both you and the other guy felt the need to alliterate attribute appellations.

You done a really good job there user.

I'm a bit unclear with the attributes however. You linked the suits to the attributes but only seems to matter in character creation.

agreed. It really fits in with the tone, especially if you have a 'hand' that you can draw out of.