C.A.R.D.S.

As the name implies, CARDS is a card-based RPG system. This means that instead of rolling dice, players draw cards to determine the outcome of their actions.

This has several mechanical advantages

• Cards offer a classified outcome
• Critical successes and failures are deterministic
• Dynamic probablilty distribution
• Complete set of data on each card
• Deckbuilding and card management become an option

And several aesthetic advantages

• Cards can have dramatic artwork
• Cards can be printed with large text for easy reading
• There are many companies that can print custom cards

Instead of a single number, cards have a suit, color, and can be a rank, crit type, or face card.

This means that class features, spells, and other game mechanics can have elaborate synergies with the outcome of a card draw.

Because dice have a flat distribution of chance, the guarantee of any percent chance of critical success only works due to the law of large numbers. It is very possible to never get a critical success when rolling dice in the short timeframe of a game session.

With cards, the distribution of criticals is known for each cycle through the deck. This means that a player can know that they will get a number of critical successes and critical failures during each run, equal to the number of cards which represent a success or failure.

Unlike dice, as cards are drawn, the probability of drawing any given card changes.

This means that a player can know that they are more likely to draw a critical success for every critical failure they draw. Or vice versa.

Because of the different types of information present on a card, different kinds of randomness can be generated.

For instance, the binary red/black color is the same as a d2. See <SECTION_REFERENCE> for more information about deriving equivalent dice rolls from card draw outcomes.

What this means is that when you need to roll 10d6, you draw 10 cards. If you need to draw 12d4, you also just draw 12 cards.

This simplifies the need to have an endless amount of dice available, or to roll a small amount repeatedly, keeping track of the sum in the mind or on paper.

the CARDS system introduces the concept of a the 'hand' and 'class deck', each offering the player more ways to control their fate by manipulating the probability of drawing certain cards.

The hand is a fluctuating set of cards that the player can use to replace a card when drawing from the deck. It is randomly drawn at the start of a session and is replenished using class abilities. It does not persist between sessions. The size of the player hand is determined by their character level.

The class deck is a subset of cards from the main deck that the player builds along with their class. Class abilities allow the player to draw from the class deck instead of the main deck. It persists between sessions and can be updated gradually during downtime. The size of the class deck is a minimum of 8 cards, and maximum of 32. Criticals are the only cards not permitted in the class deck.

See <SECTION_REFERENCE> for more information about deckbuilding and card management.