Abyss of Damned Souls

I submitted an entry to the 200 Word RPG Challenge. It's basically a card-based deck-building RPG.

Sort of.

From here.

It is intended for 1 game master (the Abyss) and 1+ players, and you will need several decks of playing cards.

You're dead.

You got lost and went where all lost things and forgotten places go.

You'll need one suit from a card deck. Take 2-10 and choose one face card.

• Jack is sneaky.
• Queen is charming.
• King is violent.
• Ace is clever.

This small deck is your soul.

Actions have difficulty determined by the Abyss*. Draw a higher card to succeed. When you draw your face card, you automatically succeed and reshuffle your deck. You may discard extra cards to sum them with an already drawn card, but only if the action corresponds to your face card. Discarded cards are gone forever.

In conflict, opponents draw from their decks and the higher card wins. Winner takes the card of the looser, both discard their card in a draw. When only your face card remains, you fade away.

The Abyss will throw obstacles and monsters** in your way, and reward achievements with inhuman powers.

You'll loose pieces of your soul, then patch the holes with stolen bits of others. Your deck will change, until nothing from you remains.

You'll be a monster.

Damn you,
damn us all.

*) Game-master.
**) Monsters may be customised by the size and value of their deck.

Unlike normally, when I pile fun mechanics together and see what sticks, this game has themes I tried to build the central action resolution mechanics around: power at a price and the slow loss of humanity.

The players will start with a full suit of cards in their deck, and then loose them as they perform big actions or get defeated in combat. They will gain new, different cards from successful combat with monsters, and magical powers when the Abyss is pleased.

I suggest that the Abyss uses distinct decks to build their monsters, so that it becomes obvious how much the players' decks changed. Hopefully, they will notice that there are no true "monsters" in the Abyss, only other lost souls that survived for far too long.

On the right, a newly arrived lost soul.
On the left, one already experienced with the ways of the Abyss.

 
How to make a monster
Separate a deck of cards into number cards and face cards, then shuffle them both. Roll 2d6 and take that many number cards, then add one face card. Have a look at the face card and decide what the monster might be like, what does it want and what kind of magical power it has.

Voila, your random monster.

Very weak monsters might have no face card, turning to flee once they run out of cards. Their deck is reshuffled only once they rest. On the other end of the spectrum, very powerful creatures might have more than one face card.
 

 

Example bestiary
Edit: Here are some more bogeymen for Abyss of Damned Souls.

Rats and bats and piranhas and insects
Deck: 3-4-4-5-6-6
There are some diseased, warped animals in the Abyss. They have no face card, so once they run out of cards, they will turn to flee.

Goblin
Deck: 2-2-3-4-5-J
What do you get when you take a human and remove everything positive from them? An undersized, disgusting wretch. It cannot win in a fair fight, so it won't fight fair.

Carver
Deck: 5-6-6-7-7-9-Q
A woman stitched together from ill-fitting body parts and stuffed into a dress suit. She can knit your wounded body, but only takes payment in fresh organs and body parts.

Ogre
Deck: 2-2-7-7-8-8-9-9-10-10-K
A brutish woman, morbidly obese and freakishly tall. She will tear off your limbs and feast on your flesh. She wears a burlap sack over her head.

Summoner
Deck: 10-10-A
A man with screaming faces tattooed on his skin. He will offer secrets and knowledge, if you promise him a favour. He may summon anyone who owes him with just a word.

Grue
Deck: 3-3-3-5-5-5-7-7-7-9-9-9-J
A monster in the darkness. It is never there if you have light and always here when your torch goes out.

Wraith
Deck: 3-4-5-8-K
Skeletal figure in tattered robes. It's falling apart and not long for this world, but the wounds inflicted by its rusty knife never heal.

Demon
Deck: 5-5-6-6-7-7-8-8-9-9-10-10-Q-A
Royal, proud, diabolic figure. Its clothes are lavish and soiled, its words are wise and venomous. It has a trove of artifacts forged from stolen souls.

by apterus