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Fool’s Errand

This looks worse than it is. I’ve tried to offer plenty of detail to cover every situation. The actual number of things you’ll need to keep in your head in order to play is pretty small.

The Deck

A standard Rider-Waite 78-card Tarot deck.
There are four suits: Cups, Wands, Swords and Pentacles
There are 14 ranks of each suit: Ace through Ten and then the Court Cards: the Page, who defers to the Knight, who defers to the Queen, who defers to the King.

Ace is always low. King is high.
Because the Tarot is also the Rota, straights can wrap around in a circle. That is, a queen, king, ace, two, three is a valid straight. The rank of the ‘last’ card in a straight determines the strength of the hand, i.e. 10 P Kn Q K is the highest straight. P Kn Q K 1 is the lowest straight.

These 14*4 = 56 cards are known as the Minor Arcana.

The Major Arcana are 22 named cards, ordered from 0 to 21. For the Major Arcana, the lower the number of the card, the higher its value. Thus the Fool (0) is the highest of the Major Arcana, while the World (21) is the lowest. All things being equal, the Major Arcana rank lower than the Minor Arcana.

The Game

In essence, Fool’s Errand is seven card stud poker, with many, many differences.

The Players

There are seven players at the table, six are stakeholders who have brought $1 million. The seventh is the Fool, who acts as dealer and host (i.e. the GM).

Each of the six stakeholders also has an assistant, who plays a limited role in Fool’s Errand.

Players sitting at the table are dealt in. Players may, as they like, rise from the table, take their chips from the table, and be dealt out of hands while remaining a stakeholder.

If a player has no chips, he or she may officially resign by notifying the Fool. This reduces the number of stakeholders by one. Players who resign cannot rejoin the game.

As a member of a globe-spanning, clandestine magical organization, each of the players represents one of the Major Arcana. These identifications not only augment one’s sorcerous abilities in ways consonant with the occult significance of the card, but also establish one’s place in the pecking order of the Major Arcana, which follows the same order as the ranking of the cards. The Fool, having the highest position (or is it?), has the honor of hosting the game. The others are seated about the table in descending order to the left of the Fool.

The outcome of the game may influence one’s position in the Major Arcana. And some of the Assistants may be promoted to the Major Arcana.

The Deal

The cards are dealt two down, two up, followed by a betting round
Two more up cards, followed by a betting round
The last card dealt down, followed by a betting round
Players may freely examine their own down cards.

The Fool is also dealt a hand, but all seven of his cards are dealt up.

The Money

Each of the stakeholders has brought $1 million. Each will be issued ten chips, each worth $100,000. Each player will have chips of his or her own particular color.
In addition to the chips, The Fool has also prepared a bottled soul for each of the stakeholders as a bonus for buying into the game. Typically, the Assistant is given the soul to handle during the game, as the Assistant can gain benefits by identifying souls.

The Bet

Initially, there is no ante. Initially, all bets and raises are $100,000 (i.e. one chip). Three raise limit.

After one hour (or otherwise at the Fool’s discretion), an ante of one chip is introduced, and players may bet and raise at will.

Betting starts with the highest hand showing. If a player is unable to fully meet a raise, he can stay in the hand, while the remaining players play for a side-bet.

The Fool (who begins with no chips) is always dealt a hand, whether he has money or not. If the Fool wins a hand and has chips, he must call all bets and raises until the money is gone. If the Fool has the high hand showing, he must bet if he has money.

The Hands

The traditional hands of poker are used, with some exceptions and modifications.

Major Arcana can form Duets. Any two Major Arcana can form a Duet. Only one Duet can be formed in a given player’s hand. It acts very much like a pair, in forming hands like one pair [a Duet], two pair [a pair and a Duet] or a full house [three of a kind and a Duet].

In addition to the aforementioned hands, a Duet is necessary for the formation of one unique hand in Fool’s Errand: Three Pair.

Three pair: a three pair consists of an ordinary two pair plus a Duet. Three pair beats a flush, but loses to a full house.

Duets lose to regular pairs; this holds for two pair and full house hands as well. Between Duets, the Duet containing the card with the lowest number wins.

Through the use of magic, it is possible to generate hands better than a straight flush, namely five-, six- or seven-of-a-kind.

The Magic

Each of the Major Arcana has magical powers associated with it, and these powers can be drawn from the very cards themselves. Roughly speaking, the rank of the Major Arcana card determines how powerful its magic will be.

Whenever you are dealt a Major Arcana card face down, you may attempt to access its power.

To do so, slide the card to the Fool face down and declare whether you wish to access the power ‘upright’ or ‘reversed’. If it is available, you will receive the appropriate power. In either case, the card is forfeited for that hand.

Upright powers typically have effects on the cards.
Reversed powers typically have effects on the players.

Powers are one-use only. Powers cannot be exchanged or given to other players. Powers must be used as directed.

Some powers require a Charge before they can be used. This will be noted on the power card.

Charges are generated by identifying souls, a task carried out by one’s Assistant. Charges can be freely given or exchanged, but they cannot be stolen.

During the opening ceremonies of the game, each Major Arcana card will be imbued with one upright and one reversed power each.

If both powers of a card have been accessed, the Fool will announce the name of the card and that it is depleted.

The Fool cannot access or use powers.

The Souls

Souls are valuable – they provide occult power to those who possess and control them. The opening ceremonies of Fool’s Errand will summon one soul into a bottle for each player. The soul’s influence is greater if the identity of the soul is known. Although these souls are likely famous people from the past, their identities are unknown. So the Assistants will typically have the job of attempting to research and identify the souls in their possession, as this provides the Charges that allow a player to use certain powers.

Souls can be bought and sold freely. Since souls are very valuable, this typically occurs only when a stakeholder has lost his or her stake. He or she can then announce an auction and barter a soul with the other players at the table. It can be their own soul or one in their possession. The name of the soul (if known) need not be announced, but identified souls tend to fetch better prices. The remaining stakeholders may bid auction-style for the soul using their chips or any other promises or valuables the seller agrees to accept.

In the case of your own soul, if the result of bidding is not to your liking, you can force a trade with the player who currently holds the largest number of your original color chips. You then trade your soul for those chips.

If someone controls all ten of your chips, he can buy your soul with them if you are still a stakeholder. If the other person gained control of all ten of your chips as a result of the current hand, you cannot resign without giving him/her the opportunity to buy your soul.

The souls of famous figures of the past provide wisdom and power in the realms they possessed when they were alive. The souls of living men and women provide a powerful control over them. Slavery is far too strong a word, but the soul’s controller can exert a powerful compulsion over the soul’s mind and body.

During the game itself, the opening ceremonies prevent players from compelling souls. The one exemption is in the case of attack. If player A controls player B’s soul and player B physically attacks player A, player A may smash the soul’s container, releasing the spirit to be destroyed by the astral winds. In such cases, the soulless body dies within a few seconds.

Identifying Souls

One of the Assistant’s main roles in the game is in identifying the souls. If an assistant wishes to examine a soul in his possession, he or she should approach the referee and announce the intent, and then spend a minute studying the soul intently. Afterward, the Referee will tell the Assistant what he or she learns from the study. Different Assistants will learn different things about the same soul.

Based on this and any other shared information, Assistants may attempt to formally identify a soul. For each soul, an Assistant can make three ‘guesses’. Again, this should be carried out with the help of the Referee.

If the Assistant is the first to correctly identify the Major Arcanum attuned to the soul, he or she gains 1 Charge.
If the Assistant is the first to correctly identify the soul by name, he or she gains 2 Charges.
Only Assistants can gain Charges in this manner. Each guess can include both a name and a Major Arcana.

The Law

Because the Tarot is also the Tora, there is the Law. At the table, the players are inviolate. They may not be physically attacked. At the table, chips cannot be given, traded, etc. between players, except as allowed or required by the rules above.

Away from the table, there is no law. Assistants, stakeholders and former stakeholders away from the table can be physically attacked. Players away from the table can make deals, collude, exchange chips, souls, charges, information and otherwise bargain howsoever they like. Powers, however, are not physical items and cannot be traded.

Assistant

The Assistant may hold chips, souls, charges, and/or other physical items for the Player.

The Assistant’s primary role in the Fool’s Errand game is in generating Charges by identifying souls, and providing information about the souls. Secondary duties involve protecting his or her Player from physical harm in the event of violence.

At the end of the game, the Assistant may attempt to become a member of the Major Arcana, choosing a particular Arcanum, as described in the section on ‘The End’.

The End

The power struggle within the Major Arcana is settled, at least temporarily, by the Fool’s Errand tournament. There are three realms of victory.

Monetary: The last remaining stakeholder will walk away with some or all of $6 million. Since the Fool cannot ‘lose’, the game ends when one stakeholder and the Fool are the only remaining players with chips. The Fool keeps any money he may have, while the last stakeholder takes the remainder.

Souls: At the end of the game, souls may have traded hands, and some of the players may have lost their souls to other players. Such changes will have enormous effects on the personal power and influence of the Major Arcana in the future.

Arcana Status: The game may influence one’s rank in the Major Arcana, thus influencing one’s magical powers and abilities. The principal change is that an Assistant may be promoted to the Major Arcana if certain conditions are met. An Assistant may take a vacant position, or replace a current member of the Major Arcana.

Every sitting member of the Major Arcana starts the game with 5 Major Arcana status points in his or her Major Arcanum. So the Fool has 5 Fool points.

Assistants start with 1 point in a Major Arcanum that is attuned to their personality.

Losing one’s soul results in the loss of 3 Major Arcanum points.

Arcana points can be earned in three ways:

1: During the game, if a two pair hand is played – it doesn’t have to win, but it has to be played to the end of the hand – involving a Duet and a ‘regular’ pair, the player gains a status point in each of the two Major Arcana involved in the Duet. One is kept by the player, and the other is given to his or her Assistant.
Similarly, a three pair hand earns 3 points in each of the two Arcana in the Duet.

2: Possessing souls. Possessing a soul attuned to the correct Major Arcanum gains 2 Major Arcanum points.

3: Consuming souls. Swallowing a soul gains you a status point in the Major Arcanum of your choice (regardless of the soul’s natural Arcanum).

If a Major Arcanum position is not held by a living Major Arcanum present at the tournament, it requires 7 status points in that Arcanum to take the position.
If the position is already filled by someone present in the room, then one needs more status points than the current occupant.

At the conclusion of the Fool’s Errand game, the Assistants will be allowed the chance to become members of the Major Arcana.

A current member of the Major Arcanum can also choose to ‘switch’ Arcana by this method. This is seldom done, since most are already well-tuned to their position. However, an ambitious member of the Major Arcana may attempt to become the Fool in this way, in order to have the dubious honor of leading the Arcana.