Whimsy Cards

Sorry for the delay Aslan, busy busy busy. I am not due home until at least tomorrow but have managed to snag a slow connection here to upload some of those suggestions:

I generally use the ‘Whimsy Cards’ (although I always liked ‘Plot Deck’ better myself) as a means of establishing the ‘B-Side’ adventure, the little subplot that goes on during the adventure. These I sometimes find are better when they are done ‘off-the-cuff’ and have no pre-programmed events or scenes.
Please also note that I have not actually used the Whimsy Card system yet in my Trek games either. It worked well for TORG, Shatterzone (where the deck was an integral part of the game) obviously, but I also incorporated something like it into my Cyberpunk and Shadowrun games (among others) with some success. These are just some of my preliminary ideas, not the end all/be all of my choices; some of them might not work, some of them might not be Trek. The ‘Trouble Cards’, could be either particularly interesting or particularly disruptive for the adventure: Use with care.

STANDARD SUB-PLOTS

These are more standard Subplots, some of them could be made more campaign specific, but they generally fit as ‘replacement’ subplots when the ones you have already used start to get old.

Reward: Pretty variable, some GMs like to use the +x Experience Points or the +x Courage Points, others might give the players some leeway in a future adventure. (“Because you were such a good sport about the Family reunion subplot last adventure, you can choose an extra piece of equipment). Myself I favor the extra experience (+3 XP as a base, increasing if the player uses the sub-plot to dramatic or humorous advantage for the adventure), but feel free to decide specifics on your own.

Note: Some of these subplots work well (or even work best) as “holdovers”, carrying over from one adventure to another. GMs can consider it on a case-by-case basis, but it is not required by any means.

Accused
You have been accused of something – either by your NPC Captain or an NPC Admiral or the Planetary Leader of the next Away Mission. This could lead to a trial episode, or might merely be embarrassing/otherwise uncomfortable.

Attend a Conference
Your beloved PC is attending a conference during this adventure, so you get the chance to play the Guest Star NPC! My suggestion would be to provide the players with the full XP and CP rewards that they got for playing the guest star in addition to the normal subplot rewards. This can be justified in that they learned something at the conference or had some adventure of their own while off ship, which then led to the skill increases.

Escape!
You may play this card for the standard “I get away!” kind of action, but you can also play it in order to help the nemesis get away from the carefully laid plans of your own Crew (I contemplated putting this in the ‘Trouble Card’ section). This is a marvelous card if the nemesis is an ongoing NPC antagonist. If the card is used for yourself or your teammates, no problem but no reward (the card is its own reward) but if it is used as a block on capturing the nemesis at the end of the adventure, the players should be rewarded (and in my humble opinion, rewarded more than the standard sub-plot reward).

Note that this card does not specify that the antagonist gets off free, they could be wounded/traumatized, they might be able to still use their doomsday weapon somewhere else or they might just have that flunky on a stolen runabout with a transporter lock at the last moment. Use whatever suits the adventure and the player’s dramatic timing.

“I read something about that last week”
At some point during the adventure, you get some special information from the GM about the social/scientific/political/whatever events of the adventure. It might be the key piece of information in the adventure, or it might be something trivial/humorous depending on what fits the adventure best. It might also be entirely false conjecture on the part of someone else (I would randomize this chance as a 1 on a d6 each time this is used) that you have read and believe to be accurate.

Reunion
Your (Family/Classmate/friend from an old assignment) shows up during the adventure. This can be used by a GM as a way of bringing conflict (Riker’s Dad) or humor (Troi’s mother) or some mental distress (Worf’s Parents) to the adventure. It could also be used to complicate things (Worf’s brother) during the adventure or be a good ‘B-side’ style plot.

Running Gag
The Players must keep up their side of a running gag, maybe with the GM, maybe with the other players. The ‘gag’ does not have to be humorous, it could be deadly serious, or it could be just chance. I would also place something like Chekov’s obsession with assigning things to Russian invention or McCoy and Spock’s banter under this category. When used for light stuff, lower the reward to something minimal.

S.N.A.F.U.
You (the Character) have become involved in some bureaucratic nightmare. Starfleet Academy somehow finds out that you need to re-pass your bridge certification test or that your final exams from Quantum Field Mechanics have somehow gone missing and will potentially hold up your promotion. In the worst case scenario, Starfleet Command might get the idea that you are dead because of some clerical error, causing all sorts of mayhem.

“You look like somebody I know”
You are an almost exact physical duplicate of someone else in the adventure OR you remind an NPC of someone they know – which could be someone they hate, someone they love or someone they knew very well and thus expect the same sorts of responses from you. This is primarily an NPC interaction sub-plot, which could get even more confusing if the player is confused with multiple individuals in the same adventure. (“Koros! no, he doesn’t look like Koros! He looks like Baphos, who I did not like…. as a matter of fact earth-boy, I think I do not like you either….”)

Weird Events (GM Wildcard)
Something odd happens to you, around you, or in spite of you during the adventure. This can be a good or a bad weird event (I randomize these). Note: It is just something out of the ordinary, maybe WAY out of the ordinary, not supernatural. A primary system breaks down as well as the two backups at the same time, leaving the Chief Engineer to require a sudden frantic patch of the Life Support systems; a Landing Party in a TOS game gets stranded on the planet and all the shuttles are unable to penetrate the planetary weather patterns. Note that this card could also duplicate (entirely at the GMs discretion, not the players) the effects of another card.

TROUBLE CARDS

Have you ever noticed that Players tend to make ‘sanitized’ decisions? I don’t mean that they never screw up, sometimes that happens (okay, with some groups that happens more than sometimes), but if there is a clear cut ‘bad’ choice and they are not presently being dense, they generally take the ‘right road’. What if you reward them for not doing so? The Trouble Cards do this, rewarding them for what is essentially bad behavior, bad choices or things that they know will turn out wrong. It takes that tendency for Players to remain on the straight and narrow, or making safe choices and rewards them for doing the opposite. Use With Care. I am a big advocate of ‘stacking’ the Whimsey Deck for the adventure. Only put those things which are important to the adventure or those things which are not going to be too disruptive (all the trouble cards are disruptive, they are designed to be). You can even allow players with Trouble cards to substitute for standard cards if you think that the potential outcomes of “Joe with the Bad Choices card” are frightening.

Rewards: Whatever rewards you feel are appropriate for the standard subplot Card (such as “+1 Courage Point at the end of the adventure”, or “+3 XP per session”) you should increase somehow for Trouble Cards. Sometimes you should ‘up’ the reward based on the player who receives that card, sounds unfair? too bad, these are designed to enhance play, not straightjacket the GM. If the reckless player gets the 'Endangering Behavior' card, he might only get standard Whimsey subplot rewards, but if the Vulcan Science Officer who is playing an ultra goody-goody gets it, then the role-playing outcome is more intense and the rewards should be greater.

Notes:
— These are not for everyone, only use if the group refuses to make trouble and the adventures are in danger of being too nicey-nice.
— Some of the below effects, like “Troubled Romance” could essentially happen anyway using the ‘standard’ Romance card, the difference is that here you (and the player) KNOW that something is going to go wrong.


Bad Choices
Players usually make “moral” choices, this is sometimes where the most “sanitized” behavior takes place on the role-playing table. (“The Netron ambassador now wants to make friends with the Federation and admits that he was wrong when he disintegrated Chief Somora and her infant child” “F*** orders, I cold cock the SOB!”) Note that ‘Bad Choices’ is a kind of ‘Wild’ version of the Trouble Cards (for the PC). The difference between this Trouble Card and the others is that the “Bad Choice” is usually something involving a moral decision. You should also note that this might lead to different outcomes for different characters, based on what is “bad” for them. In fact the above example the XO might accept the Netron’s offer of friendship if they are normally the uncompromising type; facing either the scorn of Somora’s husband/ or her fellow officers for having accepted his serious action with such aplomb.

If you want to keep the players on a tighter leash, you could always judge them on their bad decision with the reward with regard to their character: this action (cold-cocking the Netron) was an obvious bad choice, would it not have been more of an in-character “bad choice”, given your history and the pattern of decision you make in character, to simply accept the half-hearted apology in the interests of fulfilling your orders even though you knew the Ambassador did not mean it? lower or raise the reward accordingly.

Endangering Behavior
Players usually make ‘safe’ choices, this subplot rewards them if they make less than safe choices of their own accord and with the full realization of the consequences. The level of the danger suits the level of the reward. Note that this does not mean that the player should sacrifice himself in a shuttle to eliminate the Doomsday Weapon or some obviously suicidal choice. There are times which call for danger and cooler heads prevail, this is the card to help in reversing that direction (using points to bribe the players).

Make me
Insubordinate behavior happens, but only among hardheaded players. You have some goody two-shoes in your group? throw in one of these babies. The Character does not have to frag his superior officer either, it could be a moment of indecision, or reminding the captain that entering the neutral Zone is an act of war, or hesitation. Again, suit the action to the character but it is (or should be) inappropriate and potentially insubordinate.

Troubled Romance
The Romance subplot is a good one, but players rarely choose to have a romance gone wrong. This is a bonus for making those bad choices or having something bad happen because of a good role-playing choice. Unrequited love, either directed at or felt by the player; illicit love (adulterous etc.) whatever, but the choices made or the outcome achieved should be bad, at least for the short run. Note that some people are not comfortable with some romantic subplots (“You suggest I should do what with a married superior officer!”) so please use this baby with care and flexibility. Keep in mind: in matters of love, there are a lot more bad choices/outcomes than good ones.

Example One of the players uncovers the ‘Troubled Romance’ card during a standard Away Mission adventure. When the Queen of the Leopard people meets with the Federation Envoys (our intrepid Crew) she takes a fancy for the player. Now, depending on how the GM wants to play this card, the Troubled Romance could be (a) The Player doesn’t “play along” with this obvious stuff (b) the player engages in a little light romance, then dumps her (c) the player engages in some light romance and is dumped by her after she makes a ‘score’ romantically (by whatever standards are used in her culture, this could actually be used for some humor) (d) the character creates some faux pas with his choice (whatever it is) that the group must now deal with – this might be entirely innocent or not so innocent (for some extra points)

Well Publis let me say this right off.

WOW!

For a quick log on that is pretty impressive!

I like some of your ideas and may try to find a way to implement them, but there is one factor for me. My Whimsy Cards are designed to simply be a play aid and not a play mechanic themselves. For example, the Subplot cards are open to my interpretation.

Romance - They may play it with a particular NPC or PC in mind, but it may turn out to be one they didn't expect...and who says it is gonna be a smooth one...just ask my player who played the card and had a lesbian affair with a Cardassian spy surgically altered to look like Sito Jaxa http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Allies - All it says is that someone helps you out, more than once (but not everytime) those that help them might be other enemies who don't want them to die at the hands of someone else http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

But again, your card ideas seem interesting. I will definately have to review them closely and see what would work for my game. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

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Aslan Collas
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RPG_Trek; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek
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Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

Thanks Aslan http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

I am trapped at my parents home and can only manage 2400 bps because of some snafu with the version of MSN they are using, it is like pulling teeth waiting for webpages to open. The long gaps however give me time to write http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

Thank you for the comments, I appreciate them wholeheartedly. The question I do have however is what you mean by 'play mechanic' vs. 'play aid'. The cards are designed to help the game in a lot of different ways, but I don't understand your use of the term 'play mechanic' here. Maybe it is a simple difference in terminology, I do not know and please do not take me the wrong way in asking. If it is simply a question of whether the interpretation of a card is open or not, I think we agree completely in that area... the GM is always free to interpret the cards in a way that best suits the need of the game(of course whether I communicated that is another matter entirely!)

Some things I may have left out of the above that may help:

First thing: The ultimate choice to either play or not play a subplot card is up to the player (I sometimes include major plot cards, but that is a different story alttogether). Trouble Cards especially are not mandatory in any way, the 'Troubled Romance' for instance does not have to be actually played whether you draw it or not. No one is forced to use the trouble cards against their will; in past games where these have been used, I have allowed the players to 'trade in' Trouble cards they did not want or felt uncomfortable using. The cards are a play aid, not designed to make the roleplaying experience unpleasant (for the Player, characters can be tormented) or more complicated.

Second, a possible point of clarification: None of the cards have a pre-planned 'mechanic' associated with them as they are all open ended. I included a few examples in the descriptions above to enhance understanding, but these would not go on the card or be forced upon a player. They were simply intended to show you the reader of Trekrpg.net how they might be used. I can see where the wrong impression might have been left, mea culpa.

The way I understand it from your description, I play the Romance Card (or any of the others) just like you do: either taking the player's lead for a 'romance' or suggesting 'romance subplots' to the player as possibilities come up. Sometimes a romance is not even a romance in the traditional sense, but a deep devotion to a thing, an idea or an inanimate object that will alter the behavior of the character.

As you suggest (and I mentioned above in the Notes section for the Trouble Cards) even a standard Romance card can lead to trouble, and has from time to time. The difference between a 'standard' Romance card and a Troubled Romance card is that the Troubled Romance is a doomed/tragic/potentially damning subplot from the very beginning. Just for example here, any of these would fit: The players spurns those who are so in love with them, the woman/man/it who is the target of your affection is married to another and thus their love is illicit, the person you love does not love you back and is petty and jealous. These are of course samples, specific circumstances appropriate for the session should be used at all times.

Again, the difference between a 'romance' and a 'Troubled Romance' is that the troubled romance was meant to be doomed, the player knows it will be doomed and essentially opts to play out the card in return for a XP/CP reward (or better yet, merely because they are good roleplayers who like the variability of this flexible card system - I usually find the extra Xp motivates well however). Any of the trouble cards are like that, they reward the characters for making 'bad' or 'wrong' choices in full realization that these are bad or wrong things for their characters to do. Just like characters sometimes do on (good) TV. These are not the calculated risks of the Player guiding a character in a game, but the sometimes damning actions we do as sentient beings even when we know better! It adds depth, especially to a more gritty genre. I took out most of the Trouble cards I use for Cyberpunk by the way ['Et Tu Gato', 'Bonanza Wedding' and 'Bad Neighbors' seemed inappropriate for Trek]

Does that help? If you are talking about something else please let me know, I guess I am merely unsure as to how you are using 'mechanic' here.

Thanks again for the kind words, I really appreciate the feedback!

John

Again Wow...you should write sourcebooks my man. You express your points in great detail and vaolume, without losing the interest of the reader. Bravo. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/biggrin.gif

I meant game mechanic in the way that TORG and Shatterzone cards had other aspects to them that would effect iniative, etc...I keep my cards subtle and as basic as possible as I do not want play to be about them, but instead aided by them.

Your work very well as well, but I think they would be too involved for my deck. That said there are a couple I am thinking of adding as well. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif

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Aslan Collas
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RPG_Trek; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.