The House Doesn't Always Win
This Michael Whelan game is different yet familiar. It’s certainly more familiar than the game I keep confusing it with, House of Cards.
There is no specific setting for THDAW. You can choose your own, or you can take one of the two page settings from back of the book. But all scenarios have a requirement that you need to be a group intent on taking down three targets and that there are impediments in your way. Diamonds represent facets of the group in power and are laid out before the game to reflect the challenge ahead of you.
The House Doesn't Always Win logo
Mechanically, for each challenge you flip cards from the top of the deck until you either hit enough of the right suit, too many of the wrong suit or you fold. Failure, and sometimes folding, loses you cards from the deck. It adds a glorious tension to every check, one of the best push-your-luck mechanics I’ve seen.
Narratively, you decide what you are trying to do, how you’re attempting it and which suit applies. The non-diamond suits all have their domain (Club - strength, Spades - skill, Hearts - wits). As well as three targets, the other diamond form potential weak points that the PCs can exploit or the ST can feed to the players as “luck”. Claiming a weak point not only gives you a narrative means forward but gives you wildcard for your deck; but there are risks as well.
I will take one of the book’s settings as inspiration, Regicide: the king is possessed by a demon. To stop him you must overcome (but not necessarily violently) the three people closest to him.
I am playing Sortlemenima, a priest who identified the possession and has been recruiting others to the cause. He is wise and knowledgeable but not used to this level of action.
I think the King playbook is most appropriate, and he fits best to Hearts. Any time I draw the King of Hearts I get an automatic and great success, and I get a negative to Hearts challenges (it’s good - it reduces the successes I need for those). I pick a skill, so I take one which gives me cards in hand (can be used in any challenge I’m in).
It’s hard to go into any more detail on the character without a more fleshed out setting.
Character sheet for Sortlemenima
The House Doesn't Always Win by WheelsRPGs
A game of Risk and Revolution by Michael 'Wheels' Whelan
wheelsrpgs.itch.io