[UA] Unknown Falkenstein

[Scott Kane]

> [...] so I'll just mention something that we used to use 
> in our CF games which really ought to gel quite nicely with 
> UA. Each player (plus the GM) received three cards from the 
> Tarot Major Arcanum at the beginning of a story. These 
> could be played at any point in time to influence the 
> current events, and each had an effect appropriate to the 
> particular card (e.g. The Tower meant something bad 
> happened, The Chariot gave you a massive success in combat 
> etc.), and were meant to be used to bring superheroic 
> elements to the game. If you didn't use one by the end of 
> the story, then the GM would take the effect of that card 
> into account during the next story (or the interlude), 
> especially if you declined to play a "negative" card. We 
> found these helped greatly with the whole style of CF play, 
> but I think they may have even greater benefits when 
> applied in an UA fashion.
> 
Wow! Weird synchronicity.

We've used something very similar called Whimsey Cards in Chad's
various campaigns over the years to great success.  But UA was one
of the first we *haven't* employed them, for whatever reason.

We built on a deck of cards by (?, c.1990) that had "plot ideas" and
"things to do" on them.  We generated our own deck applying a dual
edge where ever we could (e.g. Good Luck/Bad Luck  Old Friends/
Instant Enemies, etc.), and a few miscellaneous ones like
Mysterious Stranger.

Our cards are applied almost exactly as you described.  The GM
still has veto power. If you can't think of anything, you can
surrender your card for the GM's twisted amusement.

If you are (or have) a cooperative GM (vice adversarial) and
non-munchkin players, I highly recommend Chris' suggestion.  I think
this kind of thing can add the wasabi to an already great campaign.
It lets the PCs have a hand in generating plot elements outside (and
maybe even inside) their characters, the card is a tangible "to do"
marker, and the GM gets to mine the PCs for story ideas.


Scott
"Epideromancers make my skin crawl."


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