Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Nimblegrund · Novice Joined: 11 May 2012 Posts: 22

I was wondering if there was any meaning to the order Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs? It seems to be pretty arbitrary, aside from being in reverse alphabetical order. Maybe there is something I am missing here?

To make it easier on myself and new players I thought I would try to come up with some new order for the suits... Here's what I came up with.

Thematic: Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades

With this order, Hearts come first because "Love conquers all" and the deck is showing you some "love". Diamonds are second because they are valuable and nearly unbreakable. Clubs are pretty blunt, and it hurts when you get hit by one, and Spades represent shovels, which represent death.

Shape: Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds

This one is more of a visual mnemonic, but spades have 1 point at the top, hearts have 2 humps, clubs have 3 humps, and diamonds have 4 points. This is kind of ignoring the stem on the spades and the clubs, and also the two humps at the bottom of the spades, but I think those features are distinct enough to be memorable.

Alphabetical: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades.

Also, has anyone tried Tarot cards? This would require some tweaking of the rules, unless you took out cards. There are so many styles of tarot I think it would be pretty visually interesting, and you can get tarot cards with just about any theme you want. I severely doubt I am the first person to think of this.

Erpegis · Novice Joined: 24 Aug 2011 Posts: 71

Ian · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:06 am Post subject:

IT is also the order in bridge, Ian

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1255

You could probably use Tarot.

In the Minor Arcana, that spades = swords, diamonds = coins, hearts = cups, and clubs = wands. You could even re-dub swords to blades, so the 'reverse alphabetical order' thing still applies. There are 56 cards instead of 52, but that's not an issue really since the extra cards are face cards and fall into a logical place in the order of things: ace = ace, king = king, queen = queen, jack = knight, and page is the extra one.

The issue with using the Tarot is what, if anything, to do with the Major Arcana, and which two cards would represent the Jokers.
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Ron Blessing · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:28 am Post subject:

SavageGamerGirl · Heroic Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 1255

Timon · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 4:53 pm Post subject:

Unless I am mistaken the SHDC order applies in Bridge, Whist etc but not in Poker AFAIK, certainly suits are all the same value in 5 card draw and texas hold'em.

I use the Tarot in SW, but not for initiative as indeed it would become tiresome to assign the major arcana values. I use the Tarot for the Hunch power in Deadlands. It works pretty well and has generated some interesting storylines.
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newForumNewName · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 5:25 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty sure that there is no significance.

The countdown goes in reverse numerical order. By extension, it goes in reverse alphabetical order. It's a countdown, not a countdown-and-up.
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Nimblegrund · Novice Joined: 11 May 2012 Posts: 22

Zadmar · Heroic Joined: 10 Nov 2010 Posts: 1380 Location: Munich

Ron Blessing · Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 2:39 pm Post subject:

xxlgeeklord · Seasoned Joined: 21 Nov 2011 Posts: 249

I was just just thinking, you could make a modified tarot deck and add some text to the major arcana like with adventure cards. For instance, the devil might mean the monsters all prefer you as a target, the tower means you suffer a fumble on your next action even if you succeed, the sun might heal you or remove a negative effect from you, etc.

In addition, you could apply theme based on the minor arcana. As in, when drawing a card for reasons other than initiative, like determining something on a table, the card type could add some effect. Drawing a 2 of swords means it's not good, and has something to do with combat, weaponry, honor, knights or whatever. A 9 of hearts means it's good and has to do with your relationships, reputation, health, love life or whatever. Etc for the other types of cards. This would make it possible to just draw a card to see what happens in the city and base it on the symbolism and number.

Tarot cards could also be used to "predict a session". With this I mean that the GM draws a card for each session and determines plot twists as befit that particular card. If it works, you have an easy way of deciding more or less where you want to go with the story, and you can also use it if one of the characters has some kind of precognition or actually uses tarot in the game.

Just my two cents on what you could do with tarot.