Modular Game Hacks

March 26th, 2008

A recent thing I’ve been hacking with is a rather modular game design. This seemed to emerge naturally out of having many desired projects with vaguely similar aesthetic desires on my part, and not wanting to reinvent my own wheels. The outcomes thus far a touch on the vanilla-side (by design) but cool so far. (The primary focus of this, right now, is an attempt to create a Mage homebrew I’ll like, ideally using Tarot.)

Here are the pieces:

• A way of using a set of cards – tarot or poker – to generate a mix of success-outcomes and symbolic-influences. Inputs: a mapping of cards-to-symbols, and a means of applying bonuses towards the success-outcomes


• Three sets of symbol mappings, for three very different settings


• One “bonus-applying” system, involving stacked traits in a very White-Wolf-compatible way.


• One “bonus-applying” system, derived in part from Dogs in the Vineyard but more about pacing of aesthetic payloads, kinda.

It’s an odd feeling, almost like I’m creating aesthetically pleasing story-games GURPS or something. We’ll see if it’s actually playable.

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