Come join me once more around the fire adventurers! Let’s get right into today's post by going over a new type of card that's brand new to Runefire. The Narrative Card! Up to now we have been talking about things that have, while modified, rebalanced and made more Pathfinder-like, have existed in previous versions of the game engine. Things like the Encounter deck, Omen cards, and the adventures. Narrative cards add a completely new experience to Runefire.
First and foremost Runefire is a deckbuilding game. You gather cards into your deck, making it better over the course of the game. However, that doesn't mean that it shouldn’t also be a roleplaying game. With character sheets, experience points, magic potions and the like, these games have always sought to bring a roleplaying game feel into a deck building format.
The narration cards continue this goal by adding roleplaying decisions into the game play, instead of just after some adventures like in previous games (though of course those also still exist). Narration cards aim to encourage players to feel more like their players and less like people in charge of a character with stats.
To explain how these cards accomplish this, lets go over a couple of cards and how players may interact with them. Let’s start with the card Magnimar Merchant in Danger.
Players will just be starting off their next turn by drawing up an Omen card. Normally players would deal with the Omen card and its effect. However, instead they find out they have drawn a narrative card instead (all narrative cards are buried into the omen deck before the game starts.)
Atop the card reads its name and the situation. In this case a merchant from Magnimar is in mortal danger and the players must decide if they will jump to their rescue or not. Players are then directed to vote on which decision to make, whether they should rescue the merchant or leave them to die. In the case of a tie the Deception Character (in the base game the rogue) breaks the tie.
As you will have noticed from the card, the outcomes for each decision are written upside down. This is because the players are not supposed to read the outcomes before the decision has been made. This adds a sense of uncertainty to the game and prevents players from just making the decision they think will benefit them most each time.
(As a note each card is designed to never have an objectively right and wrong decision. Some cards are all good outcomes, some all bad and others balanced. The deck as a whole is made to be balanced between the cards.)
So the players cast their vote. The cleric and fighter, brave to the end, vote to save the merchant. The wizard is hurt and doesn't want to start another fight so votes against it. With tie breaking power, it’s all down to the rogue, who of course thinks they are going to be better off checking what's left after than jumping in the fray. The votes are cast and the party leaves the merchant to their fate. The players now find out the result.
They are to have one character discard a card, a punishment from the gods or maybe their own conscience. However, a gold piece is also found on the body, a fair enough trade you may well think.
Let’s do one more card.
There's a sealed cask of ale the players have come across. Each player is asked individually instead of as a group what they will do. Will you drink from the ale or not? This time the cleric and the wizard, feeling guilty for what they just did to the merchant, drink up. The fighter and rogue, accepting the decision that was made, do not partake, especially when there is still danger about. The drunk players are told to mix their hand and their draw deck together and draw back new cards. The other two are commanded to laugh at the drunks.
There are many more cards provided in the game, allowing the players to never be certain what the outcome will be. As another aside, we know that this type of gameplay may not be for everyone. Some players may prefer the most straightforward card game mechanics and don't want more roleplaying style things. Because of this the narrative cards are completely optional. That being said, we do highly encourage it for anyone who wants more roleplaying in the games they play.
Hope you enjoyed today's post adventurers, and see you next time as we go over the character screens in wonderful detail.
