/ major arcana game

Strength: a game about agency, waiting

This is something of a "fertilizer" game -- it kind of stinks, is a spontaneous syncretization of many ideas, and will create a fertile ground upon which to base future designs.


Inspired by the cover image above and today's randomly drawn Major Arcana: strength


Your world is unforgiving, corrupting, and oppressive. You want power over your own life? You must bow to the knowledge that your own will is an illusion, and in that knowledge find strength.

Your strength is defined by what you choose not to do. Exercising your will through inaction grants you agency, represented here by 4 resources: Anger, Peace, Complicity, and Oppression.

When you restrain yourself from reacting violently, tell the offending party how their actions affect you. They then say what happens to you. Hold 1 Anger.

When you choose to bite your tongue, ignore the offending party. They say what happens to you while you persist. Hold 1 Peace.

When you let injustice thrive, write down the injustice keep it close at hand. You must elaborate on it, adding to the transgression. Hold 1 Complicity.

When you choose to allow another's will to predominate, they say what happens. Ask them what else they would have of yours; they get it, whatever it is. Hold 1 Oppression.

Below, you are instructed to roll with resources. You may roll with any resource listed: roll 2d6 and add the value of the resources you would use. Reduce the value of each resource used by 1, and:

  • On a 6-, one of the resources is obliterated and reduced to 0.
  • On a 10+, one of the resources used stays the same.

When you tame another, roll with Oppression and Peace. They bow to your will; say what they do and how they feel about it.

When you conquer another, roll with Anger and Peace. Ask them what they want to happen, and then say what happens to them.

When you kill someone or destroy their identity, roll with Complicity and Oppression. Tell them who they are, or say that they die.