Calling Cards
A set of tarot-style cards depicting monsters. The beasts can be summoned and used in battle, or outside battle. Cards can be combined and stacked in different ways.
This is a little bit hat-on-a-hat: it’s Pokemon x Yu-gi-oh x Inscryption, sort of.
Regardless of the shape of the creature, they have certain base stats.
For example, a level 1 creature rolls +1 on all skills, attacks, etc. It does 1d6 of damage, and has only 1 hit die, and AC 10 + 1 = 11.
A level 2 gets two of everything.
Cards can also have special features or tags. Fire breath, armored, hearty, smart, etc. So an armored creature gets a +2 to AC. A card only gets as many special features or boosts as its level.
Spell cards enchant creatures with buffs, debuffs, DoTs, or damage.
Gear cards can move between cards.
Combining cards allows you to take the better of each stat, rather than adding, so it should be done strategically. It also adds one to the level of the higher card.
Combining spells come in two varieties: short-term, which ends after a battle and can be re-used, and long-term, which permanently changes the cards.
The card collector has a deck of creatures and spells. They can only bond with and use a certain number based on level, and have similar limitations on how quickly they can activate cards and how many they can have active at once, or even in hand.
So, for example, a collector might have a deck of 16 cards, of which 9 are bonded (magically infused and usable). They can only have two active, and it takes 2 rounds to activate one. The deck might be:
Goblin bomber
Goblin bomber
Goblin boss
Goblin priest
Bomb barrel
Bomb barrel
Ignite
Bloody feast
Reinforcements
Unite Monsters
Unite Monsters
Naga Hatchling
Naga Priestess
Naga Matriarch
Foresight
Curse of the Serpent God
The collector has nine bonded: the nagas, foresight, two Unites, Reinforcements, and two Goblin Bombers.
The deck attempts to build to a powerful monster, the matriarch, as quick as it can. The naga priestess must be played atop a hatchling and united with it, and likewise the matriarch. The foresight and reinforcements draw through the deck, and the bombers defend while she builds.
In play, the collector tries to get out the matriarch by turn 3. Their limit on playing one card per two turns is negated due to Unite’s special interaction with the naga.
Draw is no problem; modeling drawing cards in an RPG would be a pain. Instead cards are treated like spells known.
Some have concentration, some don’t. Some are instant, some have a duration.
The real key is casting time. If you have a card that takes 4 actions and one that takes 1, you’ll want to order those. You can spam tiny creatures, but they’re likely to get wiped by an AoE. You can also focus on one big guy, but you could get wasted before you can summon.
Goblins (little guys!)
Beasts
Wizzards (gnomes, arcane nonsense)
Bloodless (constructs & undead)
Demons
Elementals & Dragons
Dryads (fey, plants)
Outsiders (aberrations, slimes)
Twisted (monstrosities, naga, monstrous humanoids)
Spells (for the PC)
Magic Circle. You create a circle 3 m across over the course of ten minutes. Creatures not native to the material plane and summoned creatures of your level or lower cannot cross the circle, in or out. For every additional 3 Vitality spent the level of barred creatures is increased by one. Creatures over that level can make a Ch RR vs your spell to pass the barrier. On a failure they cannot try again for 1 minute.
Casting this spell at a higher level increases the circle’s size.
Duel Circle. You create a 10 m circle. You must be within it. Creatures that leave the circle are Slowed (4 m) for as long as the spell lasts and they are outside the circle. Creatures summoned or created by spells that are within the circle cannot leave the circle.
Casting at a higher level increases the Slowed penalty. Lasts 1 minute.
Conjure Card Creature. You summon a level 1 creature whose calling card you own.
Casting at a higher level allows higher-level creatures, takes longer for casting time.
Capture Creature. You trap a creature’s spirit within a card. If a dead creature or an object is targeted the card’s type automatically becomes bloodless (corpse), regardless of the creature’s type; it does not make any checks or require consequences. The creature takes your base damage + Ch. If this imposes a major consequence the creature is captured: its body disintegrates, and its spirit and mind are transferred into a calling card in your possession. The card transforms it into a level 1 card creature of an appropriate type.
Casting this spell at a higher level increases the level of the card created.
Unite Card Creatures. Choose two level 1 or lower summoned calling card creatures under your control and within 6 m of each other. They are bound together, turned into a gestalt creature. Their cards stick together, edge to edge.
The new creature is one level higher than the higher-level of the two component creatures. For each statistic (including current and maximum Vitality) use the higher of the two component creatures. It also has the qualities (including creature types) of each of its component creatures.
Choose one special ability of the lower-level of the component creatures; the new gestalt creature gains that ability and all abilities of the higher-level creature.
The gestalt creature is created suffering a number of consequences equal to half the number of consequences of its component creatures suffered, rounded down. If it is created with one or more consequences, choose which consequences it gains. These are counted as new consequences, so may potentially be downgraded (moderate to minor).
When this spell ends the cards separate and the creature is dismissed.
Casting this spell at a higher level increases the maximum level of creatures you can affect.
Combine Card Creatures. Treat this as the spell Unite Card Creatures, with the following exception: the combination is permanent. The two cards (and their creatures) are destroyed, and a new card is created.
Quicken Calling. If the next spell you cast is Conjure Card Creature, its casting time is reduced by one action.
Countdown. Target a conjured card creature. The duration of the spell that summoned it is reduced by a number of rounds equal to the level of this spell.
Ban. Target a conjured card creature. It must make a Co RR or be dismissed.
Collector’s Custody. Reaction. When a spell would cause a conjured card creature you control to make a RR, you may roll your Ch + Conjuration and use the result in place of the RR.
Bolster Card Creature. Grant a +1 to all checks, attacks, & RRs of a card creature.
Counter Calling. Reaction. When the Conjure Card Creature spell is cast you can make a Ch + Conjuration check opposed by the caster.
Thoughtless Conjuration. For the duration of this spell one conjuration spell you are concentrating on loses the concentrate quality. Beginning the round after this spell ends you must resume concentration on the conjuration spell, if it is still active, or it ends as if you had dropped your concentration on it normally. Casting this spell at higher levels increases its duration.
Extend Conjuration. Add one round to the duration of a conjuration spell you’re controlling. Casting this spell at higher levels increases the duration bonus.
Final Death. Choose a calling card creature. If it dies while this spell is active it does not return to its card; it is dead and gone.
Freedom. Choose a calling card creature. Its controller must make a Ch check opposed by yours. If you succeed the creature does not return to its card when its conjuration duration is over; it instead becomes a free creature again. It loses the calling card quality. The card it previously occupied is now empty.
Copy. Create a temporary copy of a level 1 calling card creature. It is under the control over the original creature’s controller at the time it was copied. When this spell ends the clone vanishes; it does not return to a card. Casting this spell at higher levels creates a higher-level creature.
Evil Copy. Create a copy of a level 1 calling card creature. It is under your control.
Flip Card. Choose a calling card creature. It makes a Cl RR or falls under your control. When it is dismissed or dies it returns to its card under its owner’s control.
Calling Block. Choose a creature. Conjuration spells it casts have their success target increased by 1. If a spell has no success target its casting time is instead increased by 1 round. Casting this spell at higher levels increases that penalty.
Calling Lock. Choose a creature. When it starts to cast a conjuration spell it must make a Po RR or fail to cast the spell. Failing to cast a spell costs 1 action; the creature does not lose the entire casting time of the spell if it is longer than that.
Depower. Choose a calling card creature. It must make a Po RR or lose access to one magical talent, if it has any. Choose the talent at random i.e., if it has 3 such talents, each has a 33% chance of being affected. Any ongoing effects from a blocked talent end, and it cannot use them again until the spell ends. Casting this spell at a higher level increases the number of talents blocked.
Burn Card. Choose a creature. One calling card in its possession becomes blocked, and cannot be used. If you name a card and it has that card, that is the targeted card; otherwise it is chosen at random.
Read Cards. Choose a creature. You learn the name and effects of one random calling card in its possession.
Circle of Power. Choose a 4 m radius area centered within range; choose a type of damage from the following: cold, heat, electricity, corrosive, disruption, piercing, cutting, impact. When a creature or object in the area suffers damage of the chosen type, increase the damage by 5. Casting this spell at a higher level increases the bonus damage by 5.
Card Master’s Mantle. You gain immunity to cutting, piercing, and impact damage, and resistance (10) to all other forms of damage. This spell ends if you no longer have control of at least one conjured calling card creature. Casting this spell at a higher level increases the damage resistance by 10.
Spells
Many card spells are, themselves, cards. They must be drawn, and have a refresh AFTER expiration, and all that.
This is most commonly true of the cards that modify other cards. So spells that establish a dueling arena or capture creatures are “normal” spells, while the others are card-based spells.
Special Cards
Some calling cards break the other rules.
Fortress. This is a calling card creature that is not, in fact, a creature. It is a structure. It can be occupied by one or more calling card creatures, but rejects those of other players. Creatures often use it to hide while they cast powerful spells, or similar. The fortress has a Structure and can be destroyed.
Play
So in play, calling cards have to be drawn to be used. This is modeled through Refresh, like many other spells and abilities. Notably, the refresh of a card spell or creature ends once the effect is over, rather than when it begins. As the card vanishes, it returns to one’s deck.
Further, some cards start exhausted, and refresh must be rolled to draw them.
A calling card talent allows a bonus on calling card refresh rolls. It can be taken multiple times, eventually guaranteeing a character has access to all their cards at once.
PCs are limited in how many cards they can have in a deck: the maximum is usually equal to the number of calling card talents you have. The rest - hand size, draw & discard limits - is modeled by the casting time and concentration rules.
Games from which one might borrow inspiration:
Magic the Gathering
Hearthstone
Android: Netrunner
Slay the Spire
Pokemon
Digimon
Yu-Gi-Oh
