The Wolfling Project

Another day, another possibility for skirmish rules.

I'm trying to use a Tarot deck for strategy (player play tricks, like the French Tarot game), dice to represent innate or random tests (which can be compared vs the cards), and poker chips to evaluate action points, risk, activations, &c.

I want to eliminate rulers too, so a Tarot card will be used for measuring movement and range.

Players will share a common Tarot deck, chips, and dice. No worries about differences in the size of cards that way.

Example:

Our two figures are with melee range. Since my model is activating, I declare that I will bid 3 chips to attack you. You respond with 2 chips. (Each figure has a maximum bid based on their strength, weaponry &c). Should one of us win, the other will suffer as many wounds as the opposing bid.

Armor values will be a flat number. Mine is 6, so any opposing card play or die roll must be over that value in order to harm me. Your model has a four.

Since I'm the active player, I play a card or roll dice first. I must exceed four if I want to hurt you, but I could put less if I want you to waste your cards ... although if you win, I might be wounded, so that's not a great idea.

Cards come from my hand. Dice rolls are based on my innate ability or skill. Civilians might have 2 dice, heroes might have 3 or more, representing a special skill. Non-heroic characters ("mooks" or "henchmen") use unsuited dice. As a hero model, my character has 3 dice with the Swords suit when fighting in melee.

Your non-heroic model has 2 dice, which are unsuited. That means if I play any card, you can beat it by exceeding the value on two dice. However, any trump can beat unsuited dice ... so unsuited dice are good for defense but poor for offense.

Let's say I play the Page of Cups from my hand. You must roll two dice and are trying to beat an 11 (the value of the Page cards.) You cannot use cards with a non-heroic model.

Thanks to lucky dice, you roll an 11 on two dice. We've tied, so no one takes any damage.

We bid again. I still have action points, so not so much, so I'll bid two. My previous bid is left on the table, representing the expended effort. I won't get them back until next turn. You bid nothing, hoping that your dice will hold out -- and you have a better use for your bids later.

If both of us bid nothing, the combat would end and you would activate a model.

This time, I choose The Star, a powerful trump card with a value of 17. There's no way you can beat this with just dice. I place it face down and you roll, getting an 8. I win, and put two wounds on you (17 is higher than your armor value). As you only have two wounds, the model is removed, and I get one-half of the wounds given to the model back (in this case, one) to add to my bid pool next turn.

Movement and activations

Each model gets two actions per activation -- for example, move and fire, move and shoot, move and move, move and activate &c &c. Close combat happens immediately if two or more models are in melee range (within the short edge of the Tarot card) and ends all other activations. Close combat does not require an activation in itself.

To move, place a card so that it touches the model's base. The model can then move to anywhere also touching that card. In cases where there is an elevation change, place the card so that the long edge is on the table surface. The model can move up the diagonal of the card. For a double move, place the short edge on the table, and the model can move following the long edge or diagonal.