Hey, thanks for giving the game another go — and for sharing your thoughts. You’ve raised a really fair point about pacing.
Yes, the way the system uses rank to set scene intensity does mean the story can open with a bang and end on a quieter note — or swing the other way. It’s definitely something that can happen, just by chance. For some players that randomness adds to the fun — it keeps you on your toes, and part of the challenge is making sense of whatever order the story comes in. But I totally get that if you’re aiming for a more classic rising structure, it can feel a bit off when it doesn’t land that way.
To help with that I have added a small optional rule you can use if needed:
Optional Rule: Bump the Intensity (Once Per Game) Once per game, you can shift the intensity of a single card up or down by one level to better fit your story’s flow.
The intensity bands are:
- Low = 2–5
- Middle = 6–10
- High = Jack, Queen, King, Ace
- Jokers = Unpredictable surges of tension or chaos — they can’t be bumped, but you decide how to interpret their impact.
Example: Say you draw a 2 of Spades — that’s low intensity with a darker tone. But the moment feels more like a turning point in your story. You can use your one bump to treat it as a middle intensity scene instead. You keep the theme (Spades = danger, conflict), but give it more weight.
Or maybe you’re near the end and pull a 10 of Hearts, but want to wrap things up on a softer, quieter note. You could bump it down to low intensity to better suit the tone.
It’s just a little narrative nudge — nothing major — but it can help the story land better if the card draw feels like it’s working against you.
Anyway, thanks again for your kind words — and for thinking about the system in such a detailed way. I really appreciate it. If you try it again or come up with your own tweaks, I’d love to hear how it plays out.
Cheers,
Paul