Noir Gambit pt. 2

The system discussed in this post is now called the Noir Gambit.  This is also the name of the resolution mechanic itself. So instead of the GM saying "roll your skill" or "roll your Move" they say something like "make the gambit" or "let's do a noir gambit." Since the GM is the dealer, it makes sense to me.

Maybe GMs should just be called Dealers? Let me know.

Anyway, face cards. When playing a game using the Noir Gambit system, you have two decks. You have the Chances Deck, which contains all cards 2-10 + 1 joker, and the Faces Deck, which contains all the face cards + the aces + 1 joker.

You can play a card from the Faces deck the following ways:

• If a player makes a roll and ups the ante to 4 dice and fails or 5 dice, pass or fail.
• When the players ask the cards their fate, the face card drawn remains in play.
• When the players enter a new area or something in their current area changes.
• Or whenever an antagonistic NPC or creature finds the players.

A face card represents an enemy or a dangerous obstacle. Players can only die at the hands of another player or when a face card is in play. A face card can only be removed by discarding all of the cards in its book via a Noir Gambit or some character-specific ability. Every face card has a different amount of books that need to be discarded. If multiple books need to be discarded, the GM still only has one in play, and replaces it when the previous book is completely discarded.

Jacks have 2 books that needs to be dealt with. A jack is either a mob of enemies, a swarm, a knight or other skilled practitioner of some art (such as a bodyguard, magician, or ranger), a room with 2 or 3 dangers, or a twisted/haunted place.

Queens have 3 books that need to be dealt with. A queen is a ruler or boss, a demon, something with prodigious skill, a room or place with 4-6 dangers in it, a juggernaut or paragon, something with powerful innate magic, or a place that doubles as a royal court for the paranormal.

Kings have 4 books that need to be dealt with. A king is a tyrant or kingpin, a shadow manipulator or a figurehead, a saint, someone brutal and unrelenting, something important but impotent, someone with abnormal martial prowess, a room or place with 4-6 dangers in it, or a place cursed, desecrated, or anointed.

Aces have 1 book that needs to be dealt with. An ace is something overwhelming, something short, an assassin, a save or die trap, a spirit or an angel, a person that was born with or has stolen great power, a room with a trick in it, and a place where something ancient dwells.

Note that neither the Queen nor the King face cards have a gender associated with them. Any gender can be represented by any face card.

I'll be creating, over time, a big "Book of Bastards" that will have all kinds of NPCs, creatures, places, and traps that have a stat block talking about what Face card represents them. A GM can also just take the above ideas and use them to make their own foes, places, traps, etc.

There can be multiple face cards in play as well. A king and two jacks could be a kingpin and his wizard/knight bodyguards. An ace and two queens could be a curandero, a powerful demon, and a stone that instantly baptizes a soul and sends it down the Styx.

Face cards have abilities, of course. They have at least 1 ability that'll cost nothing and a handful of abilities or features that require them to pay one of the following prices:

• Reveal one (or both) of the two face down cards.
• Discard the highest revealed card and replace it with another. Play it face down if there are 0 or 1 face down cards in play.
• Discard the revealed card furthest away from the nearest face down card. Do not replace it.

This creates an interesting dynamic where players, over the course of a challenge, can learn what's coming up against them in terms of difficulty, can deal with abilities in order to get the most dangerous cards out of the way, or can win via attrition against whatever the face card represents.

Once a face card is eliminated, players gain double experience for every book that was discarded in order to win.

A sample stat block for a NPC/creature is as follows.

The Hoodoo Huckster

Blah blah blah see this post for info on what a Hoodoo Huckster is.

Face Card: Jack

Features

Hoodoo User: The Hoodoo Huckster can use any hoodoo items without needing to make a mysticism gambit*.

Snakeoil: The Hoodoo Huckster has a silver tongue. Reveal a facedown card and force a player to make a Noir Gambit against it. On a failure, they believe the next sentence the Hoodoo Huckster says + an additional one for every pip lower than the revealed card.

Hoodoo Maker: The Hoodoo Huckster can create real hoodoo for a price. Discard and replace the highest revealed card and spend 1 hour of time creating a gris-gris or talisman.

Mystic Protection: The Hoodoo huckster can discard the revealed card furthest away from the nearest face down card to automatically succeed against any mysticism test until its next turn.

A pretty easy stat block to memorize, really. I imagine something like the Hoodoo Huckster would have a huge list of abilities and the GM has to pick which ones to use, but this works for a baseline.

* - Mystic gambits will be in a future blog post talking about more in-depth rules. Basically mystic or magical things needs gambits to go off.