0 The Fool - Wonderment, Youthful folly
1 The Magician - Mastery, Trickery
2 The High Priestess - Mystery, Secrets
3 The Empress - Nurturing, Abundance
4 The Emperor - Authority, Leadership
5 The Heirophant - Learning, Wisdom
6 The Lovers - Romance, Choice 7 The Chariot - Speed, Self Control
8 Strength - Inner strength, Compassion
9 Hermit - Self reliance, Peace
10 The Wheel of Fortune - Luck, Karmic Patterns
11 Justice - Balance, Fairness
12 The Hanged Man - New perspectives, Challenges
13 Death - Endings, Decay
14 Temperance - Union, Blending of opposites 15 The Devil - Temptation, Entrapment
16The Tower - Destruction, Sudden change
17 The Star - Hope, New beginnings
18 The Moon - Evolution, Suffering 19 The Sun - Delight, Playfulness
20 Judgement - Introspection, Redemption
21 The World - Completion, Wholeness
AC Rotation:
Ai-in Ayan: The Fool, The Hanged Man
upscalerat: The Wheel of Fortune, Justice
TMITM: The Devil, The Magician
Chaos_Sphere: The Tower
Avarice West: Strength, Judgment
I'd planned to claim my character last, but I've already got one shaping up for strength that I really like and I don't want to risk it getting snagged.
This is a basic overview of the setting and plot dynamics for The Grand Tarot.
1. Setting/Milieu
The story is set in a magical world and all fantasy races are available. There is one continent in which Dwarves, Gnomes and Humans have combined magic and steam technology and as a result are going through an industrial revolution complete with economic upheaval and ecological impacts. At least one continent protected by Elves has outlawed technology intent on maintaining their harmony with nature. On other continents technology is rare but not unheard of. Your character can be from any continent but we will start our story on a standard continent where technology is rare but allowed.
2. Archetypal Characters
Reincarnation is how our Archetypal Characters fit into the world. The 22 Arcana are all sentient beings born without any conscious knowledge of their importance. They each have latent powers that relate to their archetype. These powers can already be activated at the start of the story or can be discovered along the way (please no godlike powers). Archetypal Characters can be any race and any class.
Regarding the higher purpose of the archetypes... the idea is that simply by being themselves these characters embody the essence of their archetype. The world would be missing something valuable if The Devil stopped existing. The world needs The Devil. It needs Temptation and Entrapment so that people can learn and grow from their experiences with him. The same is true of every card in the Arcana.
3. Evil force
A shadowy figure known only as The Shadow Dealer knows the identities of all of the archetypes and has been creating and releasing duplicates of them into the world. The duplicates are intelligent and capable of impersonating the true archetype. Their goal is to kill their original and steal their essence. When they succeed the essence takes the form of a physical tarot card which The Shadow Dealer collects immediately before disappearing. He has magic which allows him to do this. No one knows for sure how powerful he really is.
Duplicates can be killed, they are resilient but won't regenerate and they can't be replaced. Each is one of a kind. Once they succeed they will replace their original and may be completely undetectable to all but the originals most intimate friends. If given an opportunity they will help to bring down other originals but will otherwise live an uneventful life and eventually die. If an archetypal character is killed by any other means or if the duplicate is not able to steal their essence at the moment of death, that character will be reincarnated. This is a loss for the shadow dealer who will now have to begin his search again, create a new duplicate, and wait until the essence is mature enough to claim.
4. Card Dynamics
If you all want to we could lean heavily into the intrigue aspect of this story, and everyone could have the opportunity to play as secret villains as well as heroes.
I'm thinking everyone starts with 1 or 2 ACs. At least 1 is actively in play at the start of our adventure, and this character should be heroic in nature. You can also create NPCs and SPCs (Secondary Player Characters) as needed. You would have to designate your SPCs either in PM or an OOC message. An NPC can be controlled and affected by any player while an SPC would only be controlled by the person who created them. SPCs could also be ACs in hiding.
We can keep a running list of ACs available for play, and anyone can adopt them openly or in secret via a PM to me. Once an AC is adopted they can be held back or played as either a hero or a villain in story. It's up to you if, when, or how you reveal that an SPC is also an AC. Anyone can hold up to 3 ACs in addition to the ones in play, but no one gets more than 5 total. You can change your mind and give back an AC at any time.
I begin the game with The Magician as my AC. He's an elf raised by humans who knows slight of hand, and his Magician power allows him to levitate small objects. I also pick out The Emperor as a second AC openly, but I don't bring him into the story yet. I send a PM and pick up The Chariot and The Devil. Their names come off the master list but no one knows that I have them. During game play I introduce two secondary characters, a human Duke that our party meets at a bar, and also a bar keep. Later I write a scene where the Duke attacks our party. We discover that the Duke is the double of an AC but which one? Later I reveal that the bar keep is also an AC, he's revealed to be The Emperor. At this point I have 3 ACs in play and 1 in my hand. If I'm feeling ambitious I might pick up another AC, the Moon, but then I would be at my max. If the Duke is killed by our party in story. I would reveal that he's been the Chariot all along. The Chariot is removed from play, but I'm still holding 2 cards and can pick up one more.
Another player picks up The High Priestess as her main AC. She secretly picks up Temperance also, but can't decide a good way to bring her into the story. She PMs me that Temperance can go back on the list, and she sticks with 1 AC. The can also add secondary characters but none of them are designated as AC. She comes up with an idea for one of her secondary characters and wants to make her The Sun. The Sun is available on the list so she sends a PM and picks up The Sun. The Sun is now officially an AC and he let's the party know by writing a post where this character discovers her powers.
I just read your Fool profile and I really like what you've done. His curiosity and open nature show that you really understand the Archetype of The Fool.
I also like your powers and abilities and I think this can help as a guideline for other players to follow and set as the standard for how powerful everyone's character should be.
I'd like to offer one suggestion and that is to put a little more thought into your archetype power. You can absolutely keep the shadow manipulation, but I think this sounds like a magical ability that he learned from his master rather than a demonstration of his Archetypal essence.
I'd like to see you add a power that only "The Fool" would have.
The fool is open and trusting... I'm not sure if you saw the show "The Nevers" but there's a woman in the show that has a power that makes people tell the truth when she is around. It only works if they become nervous or upset, but they will start confessing their secrets to her (it would also be an appropriate power for High Priestess though).
Or "Landing on his feet" could be an interesting option. The fool by nature is destined to fall off a lot of cliffs possibly literal ones but especially metaphorical ones. Giving him a power that helps him recover quickly from shocks or makes him resistant to physical damage might also be appropriate. But it's more the fools style to roll with a punch rather than to stand and take a beating without being damaged.
Give it some thought. You don't have to know your power before you start posting. We can figure it out together.
So keep everything... think about what power you want to add... and post when you are ready.
I will also read Hanged Man to give feedback on that character too. Let me know if you would rather get feedback in a PM. I like giving it here because others might pick up on some ideas about how to fit their character to their archetype.
Well done on Hanged Man too and I love that you brought a female character into play. I was worried we might end up as a party of mostly men so I chose a female MC specifically to help create some gender balance.
The hanged man is a more complex and subtle archetype than the fool, but I can tell from your first post (more than from the character profile) that you get it. She's more likely to operate outside of the law than other characters, she does things her own way but also suffers consequences because of this.
I'd suggest a perception based power as her archetype power. Again something to add... don't take anything away. It might seem like a small thing to notice a thing that no one else notices but it can be very useful. If you choose this kind of power I can PM you with details that I know as story teller that only Caida would notice.
Or you could give her a less subtle more combat oriented power. Like disorienting her enemies by making them feel as if the world turned upside down. I'm thinking the effect would only last minutes but image how useful that would be in a fight!
Alrighty. Let me see if I actually understood both though. Even if you say that I got them right [Yeey for that! XD]
As for the Fool, thinking of giving him a means to imbue someone with child-like curiosity or influence them to be awed by everything he does. This is more negotiation type of deal than combat one as that fort is already covered. Making a few gestures would trigger the ability. For example, if he was a snake oil dealer, people would still buy his product even if it is a flat out lie. This has little affects on those with great mental fortitude though.
Does it count as an ability if the Fool was accident prone but has quick reflexes?
For Hanged Man. Noticing little things would be a bit OP for my taste but I can do so with the approval of everyone. Was thinking of a mix of noticing little things and actually feeling someone's emotions like that of a psychic. Limits of being an emotional dumpster is that - first, she does not know who the emotion came from. Second, she must at least know a bit of the person. Third is that the ability could only cover an area of a block or two.
Caida will also feel the emotion even if she actively know that was not hers. This, in turn, has her noticing ability be honed so she can track on who the person who projected the emotion is.
