Using a Pinochle deck to assign roles
So I had this idea of how to quickly assign generic teenager roles to players by using a Pinochle deck. Basically have the players each draw a single card from the deck with results determined as follows:
Spades – Fighters and physical peeps
9 – Freshman squad member
10 – Sophmore squad member
J – Junior squad member
Q – Senior Head Cheerleader
K – Senior Squad Quarterback
A – Perform any Physical feat once perfectly
Diamonds – Money peeps
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophmore
J – Junior
Q – Miss Money
K – Mr. Perfect
A – Perform any item/cash related feat once perfectly
Clubs – Partiers
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophmore
J – Junior
Q – Queen of Raves
K – Party Animal
A – Perform any stamina related feat once perfectly
Hearts – Influence peeps
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophmore
J – Junior
Q – Senior Class Homecoming Queen
K – Senior Class President
A – Perform any influence feat perfectly once
Note that if a player draws an Ace, that player draws again while still keeping an “Ace up his/her sleeve” to perform a single action from that suit perfectly. Also note that the frosh, soph, and junior roles are left open-ended for the player to define.
Well, that’s my idea.
Tags: Characters, Chargen, Convergence, game, mechanics, rpg, rules, system
March 18th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Not that I’m into being Miss Money but it worked. No fuss, no rolling, just a quick and simple 4 hours worth of gaming. I am a bit sad I couldn’t kick the jock down the stairs in a more timely manner.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I half expected everyone to turn on each other at some point and do the work of killing each other off.
More to the point of how well it worked, I am still amazed that we had a whole 4 hours of gaming with only a playing card as a character sheet and nobody having a name. Let’s give it up for “The Rich Chick, The Prom King, and The Sophmore.”
March 19th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
LOL. Yeah, the whole no-name thing was funny. I thought about it halfway through but at that point it wasn’t worth the time to make up a name. It would have been pointless knowing you were going to die.
While we didn’t turn on each other, we behaved in true B-Movie manner. We sent people off alone several times to do something rather unintelligent. Its your fault they didn’t get pounded in various situations. Maybe that’s why the B-horror flicks have parties of like 7-8 people so they can kill off extraneous people to up the fear.
If it happens again, I’m picking extra cards so I can name my alts something along the lines of Don and Chris.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I think you’re on to something there. When we do this again, I’m going to make each of you draw at least 2 cards. That way you each are carrying a “Red Shirt” to die without recourse and I can pace the deaths a bit more to up the anxiety.
As it was, I was afraid if I killed one of you off early, since I gave little option to bring in a new character, that player would basically have to sit there and watch the game – not a lot of fun to be had there.
I also think that having a throw away card who can be easily squished will help to set the tone a bit better. Each of you can play a fool who dies because of some folly while still having the chance of being that lone character at the end of the tale…