This document defines what each card means during exploration.
← Back to: Exploration Phase Mechanics
How It Works
All cards use a suit-based table lookup system:
- The suit determines which table to consult
- The card value determines the specific outcome
Suit Meanings
Red Suits = Ingredients (Situation-Based Foraging)
- Hearts ♥ - Ingredient gathering situations (easier/safer approach)
- Diamonds ♦ - Ingredient gathering situations (harder/riskier approach)
Both Hearts and Diamonds use the same situation prompts, but the suit modifies difficulty or approach:
- Hearts = Easier access, favorable conditions, safer
- Diamonds = Harder access, challenging conditions, riskier
Black Suits = Encounters and Events
- Spades ♠ - Social Encounters (NPCs, rivals, helpful characters)
- Clubs ♣ - Environmental Events (traps, mishaps, things going wrong)
Two d20 Resolution Systems
System 1: Narrative Resolution (Black Suits - Spades & Clubs)
Used for encounters and events where the outcome is about success/failure in a situation.
When to use: Flip a Spades or Clubs card, roll d20 + stat bonus to resolve.
Which stat: Spades cards use Social stat, Clubs cards depend on situation (Combat, Foraging, or Social)
→ See Character Mechanics for stat bonuses, who rolls, and combat resolution rules
d20 + stat Resolution:
- Natural 1: Critical Fail - Failure + roll complication table
- 2-5: No and - Complete failure, something goes wrong
- 6-10: No but - Fail, but gain small advantage
- 11-15: Yes but - Success with minor cost
- 16-19: Yes and - Success with bonus benefit
- Natural 20: Critical Success - Success + roll reward table
→ See Exploration Resolution - Success Tiers for complete details → See complication/bonus tables: Exploration Complication and Bonus Tables
System 2: Ingredient Yield (Red Suits - Hearts & Diamonds)
Used for ingredient gathering where you determine success AND how much you gather.
When to use: Flip a Hearts or Diamonds card, check situation prompt and suit modifier.
Which stat: Depends on situation and your approach (Foraging, Combat, or Social)
Multi-stat opportunities: Many Red card situations allow different approaches - choose based on your character strengths.
→ See Character Mechanics for stat bonuses and who rolls → See Red Cards - Ingredients for all situation prompts
Two-step resolution:
Step 1 - Roll d20 + stat for success:
- Natural 1: Fail + complication
- 2-5: No and (fail, something goes wrong)
- 6-10: No but (fail, but small upside)
- 11-15: Yes but (success, roll yield + 0)
- 16-19: Yes and (great success, roll yield + 2)
- Natural 20: Critical success (roll yield + 4 + reward table)
Step 2 - Roll yield dice + bonus:
- Yield dice size = restaurant tier (d6/d8/d10/d12)
- Add success bonus from Step 1
- Result = portions gathered
→ See Exploration Resolution - Ingredient Yield System for complete yield rules → See Job System - Yield Dice Progression for tier-based dice sizes
Face Card Meanings
→ See Job System for complete face card tier system
Face cards represent special encounters. Suit determines difficulty tier, not encounter type:
Suit = Difficulty Tier
- ♥ Hearts = Tier 1 (easiest encounters)
- ♦ Diamonds = Tier 2 (moderate encounters)
- ♣ Clubs = Tier 3 (challenging encounters)
- ♠ Spades = Tier 4 (hardest encounters)
Face Card Types (All Suits)
Kings = Boss Battles
- Major combat encounters requiring strategy
- Often guard required job ingredients
- Difficulty determined by suit (Hearts easiest → Spades hardest)
Queens = NPC Side Quests
- Optional objectives with bonus rewards
- Social or task-based challenges
- Reward quality scales with suit tier
Jacks = Merchants
- NPCs offering items, ingredients, or equipment
- Inventory quality scales with suit tier:
- ♥ Hearts: Basic items
- ♦ Diamonds: Better selection
- ♣ Clubs: Quality items
- ♠ Spades: Premium/rare items
Face Card Pool by Job Tier
Which face card suits appear depends on job tier:
- 1★ jobs: Hearts only (Tier 1)
- 2★ jobs: Hearts + Diamonds (Tier 1-2)
- 3★ jobs: Hearts + Diamonds + Clubs (Tier 1-3)
- 4★ jobs: All suits (Tier 1-4)
- 5★ jobs: Multiple high-tier (heavy Clubs/Spades)
Numbered Cards (Ace - 10)
Each suit has specific encounters or ingredients for numbered cards. Prompts are genre-neutral with player imagination filling in details.
View suit tables:
- Red Cards - Ingredients - Hearts/Diamonds ingredient gathering situations
- Spades Table - Social Encounters
- Clubs Table - Environmental Events
Design Notes
Inspiration: Card system inspired by Colostle’s exploration tables
- Binary suit structure (Red = ingredients, Black = encounters)
- Same prompt, different suit modifier (Colostle’s “Friendly/Unfriendly” approach)
- Situation-based prompts allow player imagination across genres
- Multi-stat opportunities create more engagement in group play
Recent changes (Session 10):
- Consolidated Hearts and Diamonds into single situation-based table
- Changed from specific ingredient types (proteins/vegetables) to generic categories
- Added multi-stat approach opportunities (Foraging, Combat, Social)
- Implemented yield dice progression by restaurant tier (d6 → d12)
- Simplified tracking for GM-less, solo-first design
Why situation-based:
- Simpler tracking (“3 proteins” vs “2 dragon steaks, 1 phoenix egg”)
- Appropriate for 11-13 year old target audience
- Genre-agnostic (player imagination fills in details)
- Creates more opportunities for different characters to roll
- Better fits GM-less design philosophy
Next steps:
- Determine how job-required ingredients appear in the grid
- Create complication/reward tables for Nat 1/Nat 20 results
- Playtest yield system balance
- Create genre-specific example interpretations