At a Glance
- Best for: Adventure where tension rises in stages over the course of the game
- Tension increasing elements: Trigger Point
- Requires: Playing Cards
- Prompt Depth: Long text with journal suggestions
- Story Arc: Structured
- Length: Minimum of 9 – Maximum of 21 (Triggered by collecting 3 cards)
- Chances of Success: Avoid death cards
Introduction
Chiron’s Doom introduces a fascinating game mechanic. Rather than beginning with a complete deck of prompts, players construct the deck progressively as their journey unfolds.
The sequence in which cards are drawn can greatly influence the adventure, potentially leading to rapid success and the swift achievement of goals. However, this fortune can swiftly change.
Factors like increasing character tensions, mounting enemy resistance, and escalating external pressures can quickly escalate challenges.
The system, while specifically designed for discovering and exploring a monument known as Chiron’s Doom, is flexible enough to adapt to a variety of settings.
It excels in scenarios where a foundational narrative guides gameplay, with specific events being triggered at designated points throughout the game.
Ramping up the difficulty
A common issue with other card-based systems is the risk of drawing detrimental cards too early in the play.
Chiron’s Doom mitigates this by introducing negative (disaster) cards only at specific, pivotal moments.
When these cards enter play, they significantly shift the game’s dynamics from easier, more positive conditions to more challenging, negative ones.
This staging of negative or event cards towards the adventure’s climax mirrors the traditional arc of an adventure, intensifying the narrative as obstacles emerge.
Playing Multiple Characters
A significant advantage of the Chiron’s Doom game mechanic is the capacity to manage three characters.
Although it’s unlikely all three characters will survive until the end, this feature allows players to leverage the diverse skills of multiple heroes throughout their adventure.
Typically, the demise of at least one character is expected—often triggered by the King of Diamonds, a card included in every game.
Escaping this fate requires extraordinary luck.
The Meaning of the Decks
Setting up the game involves sorting the cards into their respective suits.
Diamonds shape the main storyline, while the other suits create what are known as disaster decks.
These decks come into play when specific "trigger" cards from the diamonds are drawn, escalating the action and tension within the game.
Disaster suits typically symbolize:
- Hearts: Escalating tensions among the explorers.
- Clubs: Resistance or backlash from the monument (or enemies, if rethemed).
- Spades: External world complications.
These suits are activated when the 2 of hearts, clubs, or spades are drawn from the main story arc.
Building the Deck
Before starting, set aside the four kings and the 2 of hearts, clubs, and spades.
Then, separate the remaining cards by suit and shuffle them into four distinct piles. Begin with the hearts, clubs, and spades:
- Deal three face-down cards for each suit, keeping them in separate piles.
- Place the king of each suit on top of its respective pile.
- Shuffle each pile independently.
- Each pile should now contain four face-down cards.
Next, construct the main expedition deck:
- Deal five face-down cards from the diamond pile.
- Add the King of Diamonds, 2 of Hearts, 2 of Clubs, and 2 of Spades.
- Shuffle the pile.
- This pile should now consist of nine face-down cards.
Game Loop Dynamics
Each turn begins by drawing a card from the expedition deck—primarily diamonds at the outset.
The narrative prompt on the card is read and then recorded in a journal entry.
Drawing the 2 of hearts, clubs, or spades triggers the addition of the corresponding disaster pile to the remaining deck, which is then reshuffled to increase the game’s intensity.
For instance, drawing the 2 of hearts signals a fallout among explorers, prompting the addition of the hearts pile – symbolizing rising tensions. All prompts within the hearts deck introduce conflicts and dilemmas for the characters.
Drawing a king signifies the death of an explorer. The game ends if all explorers perish. The game always starts with the King of Diamonds, but drawing additional kings becomes a risk after incorporating other piles into the deck.
Game Design Tips
DIAMONDS
With the diamonds being the main story arc, your prompts need to unlock secrets or help the explorers acheive their goals. Normally this is done by introducing clues, triggers or things they can learn along the way.
The king of diamonds needs to kill a character, and the two of diamonds needs introduce an additional diamond card to the deck. Normally the 2 of diamonds changes the goal dramatically in some way (Like a transformation or an alteration)
HEARTS
In most cases, these can come from the original game.
These prompts are designed to raise conflicts and highlight disagreements between the explorers. An explorer may get injured (non fatal), may steal from each other, or hidden facts may be exposed.
The king of hearts needs to kill an explorer (normally at the hands of another in the party)
The Ace normally relates to reconciliation or agreement within the party
The two of hearts is always in the base deck when you start the game. It explains that there has been a major falling out between the explorers and triggers the addition of the heart cards to the active playing deck.
CLUBS
The monument fights back in the original game.
However, if you retheme the game to face off against enemies, these cards should introduce complications that are caused by the enemy or opposition. Maybe the enemy protects itself in some way (non fatal), or moves location, starts a countdown event, delays the adventure, introduces new and frightenign information, or introduces unpleasent factors to the adventure.
The King of clubs needs to kill an explorer.
The Ace card normally does something good for the explorers (leave something useful behind, gives someone back etc)
The 2 of clubs is always in the base deck when you start the game. It triggers the addition of the clubs to the main playing deck. Often this occurs when the monster/enemy or monument starts to fight back. (Maybe they are cornered, discovered, or simply start to cause problems)
SPADES
In most cases, these can come from the original deck. These prompts are designed to introduce factors from the outside world. This could be unwelcome news, extra demands, change of course etc.
The King of spades needs to kill an explorer. Normally this will be someone from the outside.
The Ace will assist the explorers in some way (maybe a new resource, information or help)
The 2 of spades is always in the deck at the start of the game and triggers the addition of spades into the playing deck. It is normally narrated as some sort of intrusion to the ongoing adventure.
