A selection of fun indie tabletop roleplaying games that use playing cards and Tarot decks instead of dice to create their RPG narratives.

The first generation of tabletop roleplaying games - Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, Bunnies & Burrows, etc. - used polyhedral dice to decide the outcomes of dramatic events and most RPGs published since then have followed suit; the following roleplaying games, in contrast, have storytelling mechanics centered around decks of cards instead. Some of the RPGs in this article use the standard 52 playing card deck used for poker and other games of chance, while the other RPGs use symbolism-laden cards from the Tarot Deck. Each of these RPGs has its own unique mechanics for interpreting the numbers and suits of their card decks in order to create narratives full of spontaneity and surprise.

The origin of playing cards (as opposed to collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering or RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons) is rather murky. Some historians believe they originated in dynastic China before spreading westward through Silk Road trading routes. By the 15th century, card games were a popular past-time among nobles in Europe and the Middle East, the ornate imagery within each deck hand-painted by artisans; some of the surviving decks from that era are near identical to the decks used in modern-day gambling; 52 cards with the four suits of Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, and Clubs, along with face cards depicting different stratums of royalty. Other playing card decks had suits of swords, cups, coins, and sticks, along with face cards such as the Moon, Tower, and Fool Arcanas seen in the Persona RPG spinoffs of the Shin Megami Tensei games; these playing cards evolved over time into the modern Tarot Deck, used to predict the future and understand the self.

Related: Fun Tabletop RPGs That Don’t Use Dice

Tabletop roleplaying games that use dice are generally very different in tone from tabletop roleplaying games with playing cards, even though both are tools of chance associated with gambling games. Dungeons & Dragons and the other dice-based RPGs it inspired generally shape their stories through the luck and skill of each individual player character, whose player rolls one or more dice and tries to beat a goal set by the Dungeon Master/Game Master. The card-based RPGs listed below are much more likely to be narrative in tone and less likely to have a DM/GM who creates and describes the game's setting; rather than moving a character through a fictional world like a playing piece on the board, a player interprets the cards they draw from a deck, building scenes and dramatic events around the symbolism on each card face.

The single-player, GM-free tabletop roleplaying game A Torch in the Dark blends a simplified version of the Forged in the Dark ruleset with solitaire-style playing card mechanics in order to procedurally create a grim but heroic narrative about dungeon-crawling revolutionaries. A Torch in the Dark (currently for sale on itch.io) takes place in the city of Kynburgh, once ruled over by a tyrannical dynasty of decadent nobles and cruel demonologists. After these nobles were overthrown by a violent people's revolution, a curse from a dying, deposed emperor roused undead monsters and dark spirits from the treasure-filled Mausoleums beneath the streets of Kynburgh - monsters the tomb-raiding player character now seeks to put to rest.

The gameplay cycle of A Torch in the Dark comes across as an anti-establishment version of old-school Dungeons & Dragons or the first Diablo computer RPG. When a PC explores one of the four tomb complexes under Kynburgh, they draw playing cards from a deck then select a peril or encounter from the game book's list based on the card's number, suit, and face. Players roll pools of six-sided dice to see what sort of damage they weather while overcoming these challenges, then eventually return to the city of Kynburgh in order to heal, sell off plundered treasure, and restock for another expedition.

Wizards Of The Three Moons, a game that won the 2019 Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Setting, is a sensual, vividly imaginative RPG about powerful wizards on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. (And the not-so-faithful servants they send off to complete perilous errands.) The Dying Earth franchise of Jack Vance, which inspired the Wizard characters of early Dungeons & Dragons, has greatly influenced the setting of Wizards Of The Three Moons (a narrative RPG on itch.io) - a far-future solar system where the sun has expanded into a red giant and swallowed the ancient Earth.

Related: Tabletop RPGs Set In The Chinese Wuxia Genre

When starting a campaign of Wizards Of The Three Moons, players divide a deck of Tarot Cards into their Major and Minor Arcana, then draw from each pile; Major Arcana cards such as The Fool or The Magicians define the eccentric personalities and powers of the masked Wizards (with 1 created for each player) while Minor Arcana suites such a Cups, Wands, or Swords define the skill-sets of the "Pawns" who serve each Wizard. Roleplaying in Wizards Of The Three Moons alternate between scenes where Wizards duel, conspire and scheme and scenes where the Pawns of a specific Wizard go on adventures across the moons of Jupiter and Saturn in search of relics, secrets, or spells their patron desires.

The Sol Survivor, a three-person playing card roleplaying game, is built around a fixed narrative scenario inspired by the Chinese myth of Hou Yi, the archer who shot 9 of 10 suns from the sky when their combined light threatened to burn the world to a crisp. One player portrays the tenth sun, who fell to earth in human form and must embark on a journey across ancient China in order to re-ascend to the heavens. The second player of this itch.io hosted roleplaying game describes the human allies who assist and aid the personified sun on their journey. The third player is the Narrator (akin to the Dungeon Master of D&D), who describes the challenges and marvels the sun and ally encounter as they travel. The Guided By The Sun system used in The Sol Survivor, where playing cards are drawn from a deck to establish threats, supporting characters, and the outcome of dramatic actions, was used to create the superhero RPG Anyone Can Wear The Mask along with other narrative games.

Ruin Explorer, a solo journaling game on itch.io, presents itself as a fantasy adventure RPG heavily inspired "by the contemplative, wholesome feel of Studio Ghibli movies" (rather than the violence-centered dungeon-crawling of classic Dungeons & Dragons). Most stories generated by Ruin Explorer play-throughs are about brave explorers who leave their homes behind and venture into perilous, beautiful, and generally magical new lands. During each new chapter of a Ruin Explorer story, the player draws from a 78-card Tarot Deck, then flip through the beautifully designed game-book until they find the entry for the corresponding card, writing or recording a fictional interlude based on the prompts given. Through this simple process (similar to the gameplay of the sci-fi worldbuilding journal RPG Together Among The Stars), a single player weaves a narrative of hardship and wonder which reaches a climax when they draw the Judgement Card from the Tarot Deck. It's a unique take on tabletop roleplaying games.

Next: Star Trek-Style Tabletop RPGs For Fans Of Peaceful Space Exploration

Sources: itch.io – Ruin Explorer, itch.io – A Torch in the Dark, itch.io – Wizards Of The Three Moons, itch.io – The Sol Survivor

A Chicago-based Writer, Author and freelance translator. Looking to prep his readers for the next renaissance or apocalypse, whichever comes first. Write and publishes web fiction under the pseudonym Aldo Salt on Inkshares.com.