Tarot for RPGs Tier List

[@bogiesan]

When did tarot become a viable RPG tool and accessory? I must have missed that. Twenty years ago, I visited the local gaming shop and laid out three of my favorite decks on the counter. Asked if they had any tarot cards in the store. Clerk looked at me like I had two heads. I pointed at the weirdly cool designs and mentioned the utility of drawing cards compared to the rolling of die. Two heads. Now the shop carries a selection of decks. Besides a couple of the classics from US Games, like the Waite/Smith/Rider, most of their decks are from indies inspired by or related to RPG systems and popular board games. I recently picked up the "RPG Tarot" by Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor--what a trip!

[@RetroXRicardo]

Wow! This is so cool. You've totally inspired me to make a Tarot RPG game with regular Tarot decks. Lightbulb moment! 💡💡💡 Thanks!

You should try Divination RPG. It is completely based on Tarot.

[@RomanTarocchi]

Amazing take! I am now playing the fantastic narrative game Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood by Devolver that is deeply entwined with an endemic card reading symbolism. What do you think about the application of divination principles in that one?

[@Bastionland]

I haven't seen that one, I'll keep an eye out for it!

[@lewishubbard8247]

Thanks Chris! I'm loving EB and today you've provided yet more inspiration for solo rpg and world building. I can look at my tarot in a wonderful new way. Something I've noticed is much of this oracle is context- and situation-dependent, and often you see tarot readers interpret cards in specific ways depending on the question asked. So it might be helpful to use the cards more specifically, e.g. major arcana are lofty themes and underlying motivations of a character, the "pips" or Ace-10s as events or the overall condition of a character when encountered, and the "court" (royal) cards as the characters themselves. You could go further and say that a king is an older male, the ace of cups is a literal flood, etc. Separating out the majors, pips and royal cards into shuffled piles might be a way to go, in a similar way to The Adventurer rpg?

[@Bastionland]

You're right, it's tough to judge them without any context. Excited to try them out at the table some time, which might change my thoughts.

[@lucadifazio2735]

There is one more deck of major arcana from the tarot narrative game "Weave" by Monocle Society, which in my opinion you could find useful too. Its card are really suggestive in their design, and I hope you'll take a look at them. For instance, you can see them closer here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXKQZHyKeLRshck This game has its own rules and I think it's a great game, but unfortunately it depends on an application on your device which kinda interprets the major arcana for the gm. It would be nice if there were a section on the rulebook which lets you play without the app and explains to the gm and the other players how to interpret the major arcana in order to come up with ideas during roleplay. It would be an innovative way of using this deck which is, as I said before, amazing in its design

[@Beanmachine91]

The fool's journey is fun, it's like scoundrel