Everyday Tarot

Several years back, I was drawn into the online RPG scene when I signed on to help manage the poetry discussion boards for a small BBS system that also hosted an original roleplaying game. Shortly after I started working with them, I got pulled into coding and building areas for the game. The very first item that I ever coded was… what else? a working Tarot deck. Since then, I’ve written several working decks in various MUD codebases, including the latest, greatest one that has the capacity to also serve as a Tarot diary, saving readings so that I can look them over later.

If I’m speaking in a foreign language, bear with me a minute. In an online RPG, you create a character and “live” his or her life. The characters, no matter how alive they may be in your mind, are a fictional construct. The relationships take place in the context of the world in which the game is set. One would imagine, then, that doing a Tarot reading for a character in a fantasy roleplaying game would.. well.. not work?

But they did. And they worked amazingly well. It was one thing to get coherent readings when I was laying them out for characters I knew well - characters with whom I’d played and developed relationships (yes, the characters, not the players behind them.) However… in game after game, I find that I can get almost immediately involved in nearly any plot running just by starting to read Tarot cards for other characters in the game. Because the readings are accurate. Scary accurate. So accurate, that my one time playing in a World of Darkness game where many of the characters have secret other selves, my character’s readings were practically a road map of the power structure in the Fae World - which I knew absolutely nothing about either in character or out of character.

Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t. Even harder to explain are the very few times that I read for a character in a game only to have the player tell me that my reading had applied not to their character, but to situations in their real lives - and these were people whose real names - or even genders - I did not know.

But I digress. The title of this post suggests that I’m going to share 5 ways to use Tarot in an RPG plot. These suggestions work just as well to help you with a work of fiction, especially if your characters have got them stuck in a situation from which you have yet figured out how to remove them.

Build a character with a reading.

You can design your own spread for this, or use a standard spread. I was going to create one specifically to use this way, but there’s a great one over at Errant Dreams that I couldn’t possibly top.

Draw an NPC when needed.

Sometimes you need a quick “throwaway” NPC - a shopkeeper, a tavern maid, the guy you meet on the road. There’s no need to create a fully-fleshed out character, but you want a sense of personality and perhaps a little backstory. One of the easiest ways to get a basic character is to just draw one of the court cards and imagine the person in the card coming to life. If you’re working with a fully illustrated deck, you can do the same thing with the Minor Arcana as a whole.

Quick-draw a random encounter.

Just draw a card from the deck when you want to throw a little puzzle or excitement at your party. For instance, I just reached for my deck and pulled out the 3 of coins - the card of the master crafter. Why would my party run into a master crafter? Where would they find him? Perhaps the crafter has come across useful information in the course of his work? Or might they need him to repair a special weapon or piece of armor?

Create an NPC to read for one of your party and use the opportunity to drop a few hints or plant the seeds of conflict.

Try this exercise to spark some improve RP as a break from the usual campaign.

Have each player pull a card from the deck - you decide if the cards are revealed or seen only by the player. Be sure to have a book of interpretations handy so that they can check meanings. The chosen card represents the inner motivation of the character that they’ll be playing. The player who draws the 4 of Cups, for instance, has everything that should make him happy, yet he’s dissatisfied, gripped by ennui. The Page of Coins is motivated by learning, eager to find out everything that he can. The 9 of swords has a secret past and is haunted by it… now throw them into a story and mix well to see what they come up with.

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