KORPG™ Games 
Pinochle Deck
So I had this idea of how to quickly assign those iconic 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 – Sophomore squad member
J – Junior squad member
Q – Senior Head Cheerleader
K – Senior Squad Quarterback
A – Perform any Physical feat once perfectly without need of risking (or checking via dice for) failure
Diamonds – Money peeps
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophomore
J – Junior
Q – Miss Money
K – Mr. Perfect
A – Perform any item/cash related feat once perfectly without need of risking (or checking via dice for) failure
Clubs – Partiers
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophomore
J – Junior
Q – Queen of Raves
K – Party Animal
A – Perform any stamina related feat once perfectly without need of risking (or checking via dice for) failure
Hearts – Influence peeps
9 – Freshman
10 – Sophomore
J – Junior
Q – Senior Class Homecoming Queen
K – Senior Class President
A – Perform any influence feat perfectly once without need of risking (or checking via dice for) failure
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 freshman, sophomore, and junior roles are left open-ended for the player to define.
The concept makes for some quick and easy role assignment in particular games; most notably those where the characters are one-offs, you don’t have (or want) to spend a great deal of time generating characters, or for use in those games where the characters are expected to be somewhat expendable.
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.
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 Sophomore.”
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.
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…
Looks like your old friend Mark is trying to rewrite history.
Ignoring recorded history
My guess is he can’t stand to see how close you are to creating a better D&D than WotC.
URL removed as the post it lead to has apparently been deleted. – KO
It’s ok Lacey, he’s probably just jealous of our awesome RP as Queen of Raves and Sophomore Track Dude. Seriously, the teen role assignment deck is an awesome idea. I say let him try to claim otherwise cause the ploy is an obvious one.
Probably, but even your role as Queen of Raves doesn’t reach the level of awesome as being compared to Lady Gaga.
http://morrisonmp.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/mechanics-lady-gaga-and-missing-the-forest/
Gratz!
Thanks… I think. Though for the record, a few points:
1. Technically the Rhetorical Gamer wasn’t comparing me to Lady Gaga.
2. The role assignment from a pinochle deck is probably going to morph into something soon… stay tuned.
3. As for Mark… whatever. I already stated I’m not going to turn this blog into a counter for his posts. Instead I’m just doing what I love, making and playing and tinkering with games and gaming materials.