(For GMs) Using playing cards to determine difficulty

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Rawle Nyanzi
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(For GMs) Using playing cards to determine difficulty

Post by Rawle Nyanzi »

USING PLAYING CARDS TO DECIDE DIFFICULTY AS A GAME MASTER
by Rawle Nyanzi

As GM of my OVA gaming group, I decide the challenges that my players face. Some are trivially easy, while others take far more effort -- and dice -- to accomplish. The typical way to decide a task's difficulty is to simply tell the player or players to beat a number; I used the numbers in this table to decide on the difficulty since a typical game at my table involves rolling stupendous numbers of dice. However, I grew dissatisfied with that method; it felt far too arbitrary. For that reason, I devised a new way of deciding difficulties: playing cards and a dice pool. I used it in my most recent session, and my players said that it worked well.

To use this method, you will need a standard deck of playing cards. Remove the jokers. You will also need a pool of at least 30 dice (I use 35), as well as two extra base dice. Now you don't necessarily need to have 30 physical dice; you can use a computer to roll dice virtually, or use pen-and-paper to note how many dice you have remaining as simple numbers on paper. However, it is far easier to do with physical dice, which is what I did as I actually have an obscene number of dice.

The rules are as follows:

1) Remove the jokers from the deck, leaving 52 cards. Shuffle it and put it face down. This is your deck.

2) Draw five cards. This will be your hand.

3) Lay out your dice.

4) When the game begins and you want to give your players a challenge to overcome, play a card from your hand. Roll a number of dice equal to the face value of the card plus the two base dice. Jacks (J) are 11, Queens (Q) are 12, Kings (K) are 13, and Aces (A) are 14. For example, if you play an 8, you roll 8 dice plus the two base dice, or 10 dice total. Make sure to note the value of the card you played; this will be important later. If you do not have enough non-base dice remaining to play a card, you cannot play that card.

5) Calculate the value of the roll using the standard rule of "highest matched set." This will be the value your players will have to beat.

6) Your player(s) roll as normal.

7) Calculate the roll's value. If it falls below your value, that player's roll failed; perform any events that this failure causes, then you must discard a number of your dice equal to the value of the card you played, not the total number of dice you rolled -- this means that the two base dice are never discarded. However, if the player's roll succeeded by matching or exceeding your roll, discard a number of your dice equal to the card that was played, then retrieve a number of dice equal to twice the difference between the rolls. (For example, if you played an 8 and got a result of 12, and a player rolls 14, you discard 8 dice, then retrieve 4 dice since 14 - 12 = 2 and 2 * 2 = 4.)

8) Put the card you played face-up in the discard pile and draw a new card from the deck to replace it. If the deck is empty when it is time to draw a new card, put down your hand, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down; it will be the new deck. Draw a card from this new deck.

Note that none of these rules apply to opposed rolls from NPCs or to battles. They also do not apply to players. The purpose of these rules is to somewhat limit the GM's arbitrary power. While the GM is still ultimately in control of the game and out-of-game resistance from players keeps excesses in check (listen to your players; they're the reason you have a game at all), this provides an additional balance.

If any of you decide to use this system, tell me your experience with it.
Clay
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Re: (For GMs) Using playing cards to determine difficulty

Post by Clay »

Interesting! It reminds me (vaguely) of the “Doom Pool” (I think that’s what it was called) in Marvel Heroic Role-Playing. There were no cards, of course, but there was still a concrete and public pool that a GM pulled dice from to make tasks more difficult.

In any case, having a hand of cards does gamify the rather dry process of difficulty selection. Some quick thoughts I had:

1) Poker decks are heavily weighted to values higher than you typically see in OVA. Unless your PCs are extremely powerful, a hand of face cards will pretty much stomp them out of achieving anything. If you drop the face cards, your difficulty will cap out at 12 dice, which has the benefit of both still being quite impressive and equalling the typical box set of 12 six-siders.

2) Perhaps consider giving the PCs input into your card selection. If you’re going to play with cards at the table, it feels like something everyone should be involved in. For instance, if your hand were public knowledge (face up on the table), Players might be able to force you to discard that 10 after an Amazing Success, or perhaps they can burn Endurance to make you select another card. That sort of thing.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. I haven’t actually tested this, so it might work just fine as it is. Thanks for sharing!
Rawle Nyanzi
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Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 4:35 pm

Re: (For GMs) Using playing cards to determine difficulty

Post by Rawle Nyanzi »

Clay wrote:1) Poker decks are heavily weighted to values higher than you typically see in OVA. Unless your PCs are extremely powerful, a hand of face cards will pretty much stomp them out of achieving anything. If you drop the face cards, your difficulty will cap out at 12 dice, which has the benefit of both still being quite impressive and equalling the typical box set of 12 six-siders.
At my table, high numbers of dice are the norm so face cards are an absolute necessity. However, if lower numbers of dice are typical in your games, feel free to exclude face cards.
Clay wrote:2) Perhaps consider giving the PCs input into your card selection. If you’re going to play with cards at the table, it feels like something everyone should be involved in. For instance, if your hand were public knowledge (face up on the table), Players might be able to force you to discard that 10 after an Amazing Success, or perhaps they can burn Endurance to make you select another card. That sort of thing.
I haven't considered that. I probably won't do it due to my gaming group's tendency toward high numbers of dice. Maybe another group can try it to see how it works.
Clay wrote:Of course, that’s just my opinion. I haven’t actually tested this, so it might work just fine as it is. Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome. If you ever get a chance to test this system, give me a shout at @RawleNyanziFTL on Twitter or just post in this thread.
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