This is a completely untested tarot-based initiative system I posted on Mastodon earlier this month. Since my main RPG group is on hiatus for the holidays, leaving me without easy access to victims playtesters, I figured I might as well post it here so I don’t lose track of it! If you end up trying it out, please reach out to me at Mastodon or Bluesky to let me know how it worked for you!

The tl;dr is that you’re just playing a normal trick-taking game, but following suit is optional.

With that out of the way, now time for…

The rules

At the start of combat, every player character draws a hand of between 1 and 7 tarot cards, based off their speed¹. At the start of each round, the GM flips a card from the top of the deck, to represent the enemy initiative. This card is referred to as the led card.

Every player, progressing left from the GM, then plays any one card from their hand onto the table in front of them. Make sure to keep each player’s card separate so you don’t lose track of who played what! Unlike normal tarot, players aren’t forced to follow suit.

If the GM is controlling a large number of enemies and wants them to go on different initiatives, they can also flip any number of cards from the top of the deck to represent those, after all of the players have played their cards. Only the led card determines the suit.

Once every card is played, take turns in order:

1. First, everyone who played a triumph/tarot suit takes a turn, from highest to lowest. Skip this step if you’re playing with a standard playing card deck that doesn’t have a dedicated triumph suit.
2. Then, everyone who played a card that’s the same suit as the led card takes a turn, from highest to lowest. Aces count low. Skip this step if the led card was a triumph/tarot suit.
3. Then, everyone who hasn’t gone yet takes a turn, from highest to lowest. Aces count low.
4. Finally, every player draws back up to their starting hand size. If there aren’t enough cards to do this, shuffle the discard and make that the new deck.

Optional add-ons

• Make aces count high if your players are more used to games like poker and blackjack.
• Give a bonus for initiatives of 11+ (34% of the deck), 21+ (1.3% of the deck), or The Fool (1.3% of the deck).
• Bring in some of the cartomantic meanings, although make sure to be clear on which meanings of the cards you’re using with your table ahead of time (using one shared book/website is key here). Whenever a player plays a card, if their action is in line with the meaning of that card, their roll gets a small bonus.
  • This one gets complicated quickly, so watch out!
• Let players whose characters have teamwork-based abilities or traits swap cards with other players.
• Let players hold onto a card or two between combats.

Footnotes

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