Casino Arcana

Casino Arcana is a live game designed by Mike Tice (mtice null@null livegamelab NULL.com).
Casino Arcana will run Friday evening at Wyrd Con.
All of the info below is tentative.


Synopsis
The Major Arcana is a select club of the world’s most powerful occultists: to the outside world, they are known as captains of industry, political figures, movie stars, mob bosses, or crazed hermits. But to those in the know, they hold the strands of arcane power that control the world. Six of them have assembled in modern-day Los Angeles to play in the septenniel “Fool’s Errand” tournament. Despite a resemblance to seven card stud, the rules of Fool’s Errand are quite unusual; magic and death are constant companions at the table, as is the Fool: your Host and Dealer.

Players will either portray a member of the Major Arcana (which requires solid knowledge of the rules of poker) or a helper/bodyguard/concubine of one of the members (no knowledge of poker necessary). 18+ please, for adult language and childish behavior. Suggested costuming: occult millionaire – anything from elegant to eccentric.


Characters

I have no access to preregistration, and cannot make any promises of character assignment. However, for people (particularly for groups of two who want play as a team) who like to plan ahead, these are the player character roles for the game. Most roles can be gender- or orientation-swapped pretty easily. ‘Love’ is not a major focus of the game, and most occultists will screw anything, if given half a chance.

“Fancy” (The High Priestess): Escort? Socialite? No one’s really sure, but she’s been seen on the arm of many a wealthy man (and not a few women). Her assistant is Joe Frank, a producer of “Girls Gone Wild”-style videos.

Rand McIntyre (The Devil): High powered commodities trader from New York. Rand’s assistant is Rosemary Lucas, a seemingly mild young woman.

Chris “Shadowvox” Vauxhall (The Hermit): Shadowvox embodies the worst of the internet age: rude, impulsive and lacking the social graces. Vox’s assistant is Francis Lake, a down-and-out Poker Star.

Jordan Lee (Justice): In full, The Honorable Jordan Lee, Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the First District. Judge Lee’s assistant is Morgan Lenz, some kind of religious fanatic.

Caroline Samarsky (The Empress): President and CEO of Lanthanon Corporation, a global mining company. Ms Samarsky’s assistant is celebrity chef Aubrey Jones.

Sandy Jackson (The Chariot): One of many vice presidents at General Dynamics. Admiral Jackson’s assistant is Harrison Jacobs, a handsome young man with a trust-fund bigger than the combined national debt of the continent of Africa.

Your host, The Fool, will be played by the game’s designer, Mike Tice.


General Rules
Adjudication – The designer and the referee have the final decision about what happens. The designer will largely be playing the role of The Fool, and is in-game in that capacity. The referee is there solely to adjudicate rules and is not fictionally present in-game.
Bathrooms – The bathrooms are not in-game areas. One may neither hide in them, nor ‘lie in wait’ outside them. However, they may, of course, be used in the usual fashion.
Everything Else – Everything else in the suite is in-game, including the bartender and cocktail waitress as NPC’s.
Examination – Certain items can be Examined. After you study the item for a minute, the referee can tell you what you have learned. Different people may learn different things.
Combat (can only occur away from the card table) will be handled through very simple rock-paper-scissors rules. Every hit does 1 hit point of damage. In a tie, both players lose 1 hit point. At 0 hit points, you’re unconscious, at which point people can opt to kill you, take your physical possessions (chips, bottled souls). If you aren’t slain, you shake yourself awake in sixty seconds with 1 hit point. In case of a complicated group combat, you can only harm the single person you name as your target in each round.
Sex – If the need arises to simulate sexual activity, players with linked pinkied indicate that their characters are so occupied.


Please click through for the Rules of Fool’s Errand