Projects that include, provide, or rely on any sort of cards or game boards.
The Hidden Isle is a pen and paper RPG that uses Tarot cards instead of dice. The game is set in an alternative 16th century on the island of Dioscoria: a secret port of magicians, adventurers and free thinkers. The game focuses on roleplaying and collaborative storytelling, and has mechanics to explore character growth.
This is the digital copy of the Guidebook that will accompany the forthcoming Goblins & Gardens Tarot Deck!
It’s a card game that I made up with my two best friends. It uses a standard 52-card deck and 6-sided dice and the rules are loosely based off of the classic playing card game Rummy. The primary difference being that Dungeon Wilds is a cooperative game. Additionally, it features elements of classic rogue-lite games like dungeon exploration and story-telling through death and repeated play-throughs.
Frogs With Shotguns! is a 4 player, competitive, frog blasting frenzy!
In this game, players take turns leaping and blasting through the Swamp in a slippery scramble for the Golden Fly. Either be the last Frog standing or bring the Fly back to your corner of the Swamp to win!
OR4CLE is not a game. It is a bag of seeds (ideas) that you can plant into flowers (one-shots or campaigns). Using this system, you can draw tarot cards to determine a one-shot or campaign: the hook, the plot twist, the group’s patron, the antagonist(s), and the reward. You can also use tarot cards to create a character: their personality, their imperfection, their upbringing, their ambition, and their secret.
Mythic Mortals is a tabletop role-playing game where you and your friends play as your real-world selves suddenly granted incredible powers. Kickstarted in 2015, Mythic Mortals is a visual and tactile joy.
Salvage Aces is a card-based rpg system set in a distant future at the brink of an astral frontier. From within the visage nebula, lost ships are dropping out of warp, returning from their mysterious voyages broken and empty. Players take on the role of salvage aces, scrappers pulling in and tearing apart these ghost ships for profit. This wreck rush has brought new blood to the edge of the nebula, opportunists, charlatans, and criminals have all descended to grab their fortunes while they can. Players play to: find out what the characters find in the wrecks that arrive on their claims, make as much profit as they can from their salvage, protect their claims from rustlers and outlaws, and experience the mysteries of the visage nebula.
ogygia is a spindlewheel mini-game inspired by the myth of calypso, an immortal trapped on an island paradise, with only the company of various travelers who always end up leaving.
Dirty Computer is a one-shot TRPG that shares its title with its inspiration: Janelle Monae's 2018 album and emotion picture. Players will tell a story of love, memory, loss and hope as they play out queer robot characters striving to hold on to, recover, or save their relationships with each other. Together, you will rage, love, and finally triumph against those who seek to suppress you.
The original bridge-sized ashcan for the Spindlewheel classic deck, available for free forever for use as print-and-play and on playingcards.io. For a physical deck, click here.
Spindlewheel is an interpretive tarot-like storytelling game where you weave together a story from card to card.
The objective of the game is to tell a satisfying story. Your Character might win wealth and respect and come away from the adventure a better person; they might crash and burn, and end the story as a warning to others. Both of these are victories if they fit the arc of the story you’ve told, and bring satisfaction to you as a storyteller.
Ro Sham Blitz is a quick and easy to learn card game for all ages. It takes a twist on the classic Uno by pitting players against each other over rock paper scissors!
"Abdec" is a forgotten textbook about the writing system of the weird little "Abb" creatures. Their typography resembles devilishly difficult packing puzzles. Due to a fire accident that burnt an important instruction page in the book - the last remaining "Abdec" book in the world, which was also scanned for this digital edition - players need to figure out how the "Abdec" writing system works completely on their own.
This Heart Within Me Burns is a hack of For The Queen for 2-6 players about how relationships change when someone has newly fallen ill. It's a game about faith, family, and a certain kind of chronic disease.
The game comes with an easy to read two page pdf with everything you need to play except a standard deck of playing cards and maybe a couple index cards. The rules are designed to be printed, folded up, and kept with the deck if you like.
In PONDUS you are wandering wyzard on the hunt for the orbs of power. The town you're investigating hosts a number of bizarre locations and people. The people think you're just playing a game. No one takes you seriously. Every location you visit limits your magical powers. Infected by a bizarre curse, you must traverse through a series of obstacles, often passing out in the process and always mysteriously starting over at the beginning, to reach the end and claim an orb of power. Each orb grants you a unique ability you can use during the next location.
The Tarot are a powerful tool to answer questions in our own life. They are incredibly powerful in tabletop roleplaying games where the cards can dictate the very reality of the game world. This zine provides 26 ways to use the Tarot in adventure roleplaying games, one for each letter of the alphabet, looking to complement whatever rules you use for your titterpig.
Crawling to the Brink tasks you and, potentially, one additional Senior Prophecy Analyst (why are there even two SENIOR Prophecy Analysts when there's no one else in your department??? That's above your paygrade I guess...) with competing to construct enough visions to see the End.
Using a standard deck of cards, twelve dice, and some tokens (Diviners), you'll push your luck by moving your Diviners along the spaces on the cards themselves. Reach the end space without going past it and you'll construct the vision, taking the card for yourself. The first to a total of 30 wins! But beware: if your Diviner is on a card when another player constructs the vision, or if you accidentally move past that final space, you may just lose one of your (very limited quantity) Diviners...
The Two-Roll Arcana is a simple dice-roll system for selecting a card from the Major Arcana using one d20 and 1d6. The result gives you which card out of the 22 Major Arcana, and whether it is upright or inverse.
It's designed to make Tarot-based games a little more accessible, allowing players to use a standard deck of Playing Cards, plus the two dice to achieve comparable results. There are some adjustments that need to be made, included in the design notes in this document.
STRIKE ME DOWN! is a micro-ttrpg for 2 players. It was made for the Minimalist TTRPG Jam by binary-star-games.itch.io
To play, you need a deck of cards (just the J, Q, K, and A's) , some paper, and something to write with.
You face each other, each knowing this is the end. The final standoff. Only one leaves. You both hold a secret you don't dare admit. You'd rather die than strike down the one you love most!
On this page, I'll be sharing a selection of in-development, prototype, and/or experimental card and board games that I am currently working on. These games are all in early stages of development, and much will likely change as they are playtested and updated. Check back here for the latest versions of each. These might not look fancy, and they may play a bit wonky while being refined, but the priority here is to find the fun in the gameplay, and hopefully we'll find out how much fun each game can be!
Each game will be available as a PDF that you can download, print, and play at home by yourself or with friends and family.
DiChess is a chess variant where most pieces are replaced by polyhedral dice (such as those commonly used for tabletop role-playing games). It introduces an element of chance while remaining a highly strategic game.
Maelstrom of the Arcana is a tabletop role playing game for two to four players. You will need a tarot deck and enough d6 (six-sided) dice for each player to have seven. This game was a Three Forged Game Jam submission, and was written by Josh Hittie, Matt Bohnhoff, and Sam Zimmerman.
Quests Over Coffee is a single-player dice-throwing game where you try to claim fame and fortune. With some strategy, some items, and a little bit of luck, you can find yourself on the other side of the glory or in the pit of a grave.
The game is also a system that allows for you to create your own Quests and Items to experience. Let your imagination and experience run free!
Quests Over Coffee is a single-player dice-throwing game where you try to claim fame and fortune. With some strategy, some items, and a little bit of luck, you can find yourself on the other side of the glory or in the pit of a grave.
The game is also a system that allows for you to create your own Quests and Items to experience. Let your imagination and experience run free!
To play Dream Quilt, you'll need: a four-sided die, a tarot deck, and materials to make your quilt. Your quilt can be anything with separate layers or components: a collage, a playlist, a moodboard, a poem, or even actual tiny quilt.
The game file is a one-page color PDF.
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Dream Quilt was inspired by Last Tea Shop, a lovely cozy one-pager by Spring Villager; Getting to Center, a book by Marlee Grace; the wonderful Sasuraibito Tarot by Stasia Burrington; and my own experiences with recurring headaches.
As the World Falls Down is a romantic fantasy game for one player, inspired by by Labyrinth, Howl's Moving Castle, and Sword Queen Games' excellent tarot-based games. If you kinda wanted Sarah to become the Goblin Queen, here you go.
