RES: [UA] Everway (was: OT stuff/desktop UA images)

[Frank Lohmann]

"DL" <haroudo at terra.com.br> wrote:

> [...] and i preffer 1024 stuff. 

Here! Yopu've got another vote for 1024!

> [...] I recall a game called Everyway or something, but i never really read
> or played it. I heard it uses [...] cards. But i not sure about it or the
> mechanics. 

In a nutshell, the whole thing with Everway and the cards goes something like 
this: The cards are a kind of Tarot Deck which actually exists in the game 
world. The story behind this, IIRC, is that the gods themselves created the 
cards to educate the mortals about the general principles of the universe - but 
one trickster god went and stole the final card that would put everything into 
perspective - so now, humanity is left with the puzzle pieces, but no way to 
ever solve the puzzle.

The cards had deities, creatures or situations on them, usually with a title and 
a short explanation on them. For example, there were cards like "The Dragon", 
"Drowning in Armor", "The Guardian", etc. Depending on how they were drawn (with 
the picture upside down or straight), they had either a positive or negative 
meaning, which would be explained by above short explanations. "The Dragon", 
IIRC, read "Valor" on the positive side and "Blind Fury" on the negative.

Mechanics-wise, the cards would be used to determine the outcomes of player 
actions. Whenever a player would do something that wouldn't be an automatic 
success or failure, the GM would draw a card, and then the GM and the players 
would interpret the card for the current situation. Say, you want to climb a 
steep wall, and the GM draws tha "sowing stones" card, in its "fruitless labor" 
meaning. So the GM and players could interpret the card in a way that means the 
character struggles, but doesn't manage to climb the wall (and fatigues 
himself), or that he manages to climb the wall only to find that it didn't 
really help anything. Many interpretations are possible, and the player's input 
is almost as important as the GM's.

Another example: In combat, the GM draws "Striking the Dragon's Tail", which has 
"underestimating the problem" as negative and "recognizing larger danger" as 
positive (again, IIRC). Say the GM draws it as positive card - he could rule 
that the character manages to throw back the attackers, but realizes just in 
time that they were trying to lure him into an ambush.

It's a pretty flexible system. The cards are quite nice, as well - great artwork 
on almost all of them. Sure, you could just use Tarot Cards, which would work 
about as good. Anyway, you should give Everway a try - it still pops up on eBay 
from time to time, usually quite cheap as well...

> So, what you think about it? If you like, think in a system, we can think in
> a format, i could make some images for it, and this could even be
> downloaded. Nice free RPG with stuff to be used. :)

I'd *love* to se something like that, especially with your artwork in it. Oh, by 
the way - congrats on getting your work accepted as illustrations for the 
upcoming UA2 - now I want that book even more... 8)

Hmm - how about something like an official Tarot deck of the OU? 

Cheers!
	Frank
-- 
Frank Cord Lohmann           
GEOMAR - Forschungszentrum fuer marine Geowissenschaften 
Wischhofstr. 1-3   24148 Kiel   Germany 
Phone : +49 431 600 2336



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