Introduction

Haunted teenagers must survive one school year on a moonbase with an insane computer.

Remaining Teenagers: Zero, (or RT:0 for short), is a sci-fi/fantasy tabletop roleplaying game played with Tarot decks.

In this game, a handful of players will take on the roles of teenagers with mysterious powers, while their GM (Game Manager) will help manage the simulation of their school year on the moon.

RT:0 is intended to be played with 3-4 players and one GM. It might also work with other player counts!

Story

Paradise Lua is the first ever moon colony.

Fully privately funded and operating outside of the boundaries of any government entity, it was marketed as both a luxurious land-ownership opportunity for the hyper rich and a brave new frontier for the common man.

Founded in 1986, more than 50 years ago, news and footage from Paradise Lua have largely trailed off. Nobody seems interested in space anymore. What's been happening up there?

Then, Paradise Lua quietly announced their ACCELER8 program. 8 exceptional teenagers from Earth would be invited to a prestigious private academy on the moon: The Daybreak Institute.

It made the news, and thousands of teenagers applied, but only 8 were chosen.

1 died in transit.

The remaining teenagers must survive their school year on Paradise Lua.

Bad News: Paradise Lua is a dangerous place.

Good News: The teenagers quickly discover reservoirs of inexplicable psychic powers.

Bad News: Using these powers comes at a terrible cost.

Vibe & Inspiration Word Cloud:

• Someone needed to write a game that uses a Tarot deck as a resolution mechanism.
• Moon. Insane computer. Cassette futurism.
• Hex-crawl spelunking through abandoned visions of a better future.
• Slay the Spire.
• Paradise Killer (the video game). Citizen Sleeper (the video game).
• Retro-tech. Cult. Conspiracy.
• Paranoia (the RPG). Paranoia (the concept).
• Heart (the RPG).
• Danganronpa. Persona. The SCP Foundation.
• Neil Gaiman (the human being). Charles Stross (also a human being, presumably).
• Tarot. Magic powers. Haunted. Apocalyptic.
• Maybe a little Homestuck.
• Inscrutable rules that you must follow.
• Facing god and walking backwards into hell.
• Coming-of-age. Redemption.

A Quick Overview of Gameplay

In a modern table-top roleplaying game, players design a "character" for themselves, choosing their attributes and qualities.

The GM (Game Manager) will describe a scene to the players, and then players will respond by describing how their character would respond to that situation.

While players are exploring the moon, they will manage most of their interactions using Skill Checks, short interactions where they draw cards from their Tarot decks to determine success or failure at a variety of tasks.

Periodically, players will enter Combat, where they will draw hands of cards and play them to deal damage to and block damage from a variety of moon adversaries.

Content Warning

This game features teenagers dying. Like, quite a bit and fairly unavoidably.

Beyond that, the content of the game is going to be largely a conversation with your GM. Be sure to familiarize yourselves with the Safety Tools.

Disclaimer Vis-a-Vis Occult Shenanigans

This game features ideas and elements of cartomancy, astrology, and esoteric occult beliefs which are not taken terribly seriously.

If you are a deep believer in these concepts, either out of religious aversion to them, or spiritual attraction to them, elements of this game may not be up your alley.

Source:

Source code for this book is available on GitHub.

Supplies

Play requires one Tarot deck per player, as well as a variety of printable handouts.

These Tarot decks can be unique and interesting (if players wish to buy fancy or custom decks), but the game is planned around the standard, public-domain 78-card Rider Waite Tarot - if you do choose to use an unusual deck, make sure it has 78 cards, and if it makes any substititions for the original deck ("coins" instead of "pentacles" is common), make sure you know what they are.

The gamemaster should also have a deck of tarot cards.

The expectation is that pencils, pens, and paper are available.

The game also has printable worksheets (Printables) intended to make the game easier to run.

A Quick Guide to the Tarot Deck

There are 78 cards in a Tarot deck, and some terms you'll need to be familiar with to understand the rules of Remaining Teenagers: Zero.

The first 22 cards of the Tarot are called the Major Arcana: These are the named cards, and they're numbered 0 through 21. The Fool, The Magician, Lovers, The Tower, The Hermit, all the way through Judgement and The World.

The remaining 56 cards are called the Minor Arcana: These are 14 cards, divided into 4 suits: Swords, Wands, Cups, and Pentacles.

Printables

There's a lot of stuff to print out for Remaining Teenagers: Zero!

Character sheets! Skill and magic helpers!

And, in fact, looking at some of these things will help contextualize... all of the rest of the rules!

Everything In One Big Package

Everything.

Report Cards

The Report Card is where we define player Abilities and Skills.

Combat Abilities

The Combat Abilities are abilities that are available to every player, in combat.

Spells

The Spells. Players can cast spells. These are... they.

Character Sheets

• The Fool.
• The Magician.
• The High Priestess.

Cheap Tarot Deck

Tarot decks can be pricey.

How To Make a Tarot Deck With Two Decks of Playing Cards and a Permanent Marker

Tarot decks can be quite expensive. Regular playing cards, on the other hand, can be acquired at any gas station.

From one deck of cards:

• Write "0 / The Fool" on one of the two provided jokers.
• remove the other provided joker, and all "rules of draw & stud poker" style inserts.

From the other deck of cards

• Take the Queens, cross out the Qs, and write "P" nearby, to make Pages in each suit. (You may also consider drawing moustaches on them.)
• on 20 of the remaining cards, preferring cards with lots of space, cross out the suit and rank ("2 diamonds")
• Write in:
• I / The Magician
• II / The High Priestess
• III / The Empress
• IV / The Emperor
• V / The Hierophant
• VI / The Lovers
• VII / The Chariot
• VIII / Strength
• IX / The Hermit
• X / Wheel of Fortune
• XI / Justice
• XII / The Hanged Man
• XIII / Death
• XIV / Temperance
• XV / The Devil
• XVI / The Tower
• XVII / The Star
• XVIII / The Moon
• XIX / The Sun
• XX / Judgement
• XXI / The World
• Somewhere memorable, write: "Clubs -> Wands, Spades -> Swords, Hearts -> Cups, Diamonds -> Pentacles"
• Add the Pages and the newly created Major Arcana to the first deck. Remove the remaining cards.
• The final deck should have 78 cards in it.

Safety Tools & Session Zero

// go mimic some useful safety rules from sources that have good ones

// session zero: go over safety rules and create characters

// some notes on gender in tarot: tl;dr "boy empress totally ok", "masculine aspect" doesn't necessitate "biologically male", obvs the same for feminine, most cards are neutral anyways

Corruption Points

In Remaining Teenagers: Zero, your character can die from taking too much physical damage, but that's much less likely than your character becoming something awful and otherworldly.

Throughout the adventure, you will gain Corruption Points.

As you gain Corruption Points, you can allocate them to various places on your character sheet. In exchange, you'll unlock exciting new powers! Of course, using these exciting new powers will just accelerate your Corruption.

When you don't have anywhere else on your character sheet to add a Corruption Point? Well.

Well that's quite bad.

Inspiration Board: Hands, Eyes, Silhouettes, Glitches, Biblically Accurate Angels

Creating a Character

Choose a Major Arcana

See Choosing a Major Arcana.

Choose Abilities & Skills

See Abilities.

See Skill Checks.

Choose a Spell

See Magic.

Name, Personality, Clothing

Establishing emotional stakes for your character: what makes you... YOU?

• Choose a Name for your Character.
• Something about them on Earth was exceptional enough that they were chosen for the ACCELER8 program: What was it?
• What are they wearing?

Choosing a Major Arcana

Players each choose a major arcana that resonates with them.

This is like choosing a Class in a class-based RPG: your Major Arcana represents the broad archetype into which your player fits, and provides a variety of abilities and skills within that archetype.

The Major Arcana available to the players are:

• The Fool - A class clown. Carefree. Naive. Random.
• The Magician - A mastermind spellcaster who always has a plan.
• The High Priestess - A fortuneteller who can see into the future.

Each Arcana provides a handful of changes to the game: The Fool, for example, can treat "The Fool" as a wildcard, and gains the Lucky ability.

Each Arcana also provides a Skill: The Magician, for example, has "This Was All Part of My Plan". The Skill is intended for use outside of combat, although the Skill can be used in Combat with the Movement/Skill Check ability.

Each Arcana has a suite of Arcana Abilities. At the beginning of combat players will be selecting 2 (or more) of these abilities.

These are powerful combat abilities that only your Arcana can use, and you can choose a different set for every combat situation you encounter!

Each Arcana Ability comes with a Corruption Upgrade: you can mark Corruption Points on the Corruption Upgrade. When all three of the Corruption Circles are filled, you gain the Corruption Upgrade, which makes the Arcana Ability more powerful AND gives you that Arcana Ability for free, every combat.

Arcana Are Not Gendered

The High Priestess card seems feminine, The Fool card seems masculine, but the Arcana don't specify which gender the character playing them is. A male High Priestess is entirely valid. If it makes you more comfortable, you may choose to call the Arcana "The High Priest" in that case.

The only Arcana that are explicitly gendered are The Empress (feminine) and The Emperor (masculine) respectively, where the gender is the whole point of the card. The Empress is the card of femininity, so the Arcana is feminine. This doesn't imply biological sex, but in this case it would, in fact imply gender: The Empress is not likely to be non-binary or masculine, unless they're actively suppressing their Arcana. (also: The Empress is not yet a playable Arcana, so it's kind of a moot point.)

Like a Class? What Do You Mean?

So, the game Dungeons & Dragons, the predecessor to most modern tabletop TPGs, introduced the idea of Character Class, which is a broad archetype for your character. There are lots of different characters you can be as a Fighter: a lone wolf with a cape rolling in to a dusty frontier town, a three-foot-tall powderkeg with a broadword longer than he is and a Napoleon complex, or a man named Gary from Accounting who just happened to find a sword behind a photocopier and is now the Chosen Gary. Regardless, as a Fighter you're always going to be good at swinging a sword and smashing up goblins.

Class indicates some things about your character, like what abilities are avilable to them when they fight, but you're free to interpret any other details not otherwise specified.

But Class Leads to Exploitation of the Proletariat by the Bourgeoisie!

Whoa there, Karl Marx, we're talking about RPG classes, not social ones.

Can I Make My Class Even Classier By Listening to Jazz and Drinking an Old Fashioned?

Yes.

0 - The Fool

Fool Character Sheet

Description

Lucky, reckless, unreliable, and full of surprises, The Fool is a wildcard, a class clown, they don't take anything seriously. When luck is on their side - and it is, more often than not - they're unstoppable, but when it's not, they're a disaster waiting to happen.

• The Fool can treat The Fool card as a true wildcard: any card they choose, in any situation.
• The Fool gains the Lucky ability.
• Choose two of The Fool's Arcana Abilities.

Skill: Deus Ex Machina

Once per Day, The Fool can request a Deus Ex Machina from the GM: The universe itself intervenes to provide a hint, happy accident, fortuitous coincidence, or other stroke of unexpected luck.

Arcana Abilities

Kitchen Sink

"That's not a weapon." "It is now."

Corruption Upgrade: No More Mister Knife Guy

• Place The Fool on Kitchen Sink
• Place any other card on either Unlikely Weapon or Unlikely Helmet
• At the end of the turn, discard The Fool

No More Mister Knife Guy

"... Where did you find that knife?"

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on No More Mister Knife Guy to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate No More Mister Knife Guy.
• When using the Kitchen Sink, you may instead:
  • Place a card on Unlikely Weapon AND Unlikely Helmet
  • Treat the bonuses granted by each as if you were Strong and Fast.
  • Draw 2 cards.

Unlikely Helmet

A pail, a pot, a bucket, a colander, a sieve, a strainer, a helmet.

• You cannot play a card on Unlikely Helmet except through the effect of another card.
• While there is a card on Unlikely Helmet, add 4 (Fast: 5, Slow: 3) to Shield generated by abilities.
• At the end of combat, discard the card on Unlikely Helmet.

Unlikely Weapon

A long wooden spoon, a rolling pin, a broom, a mop, a rake, a shovel, a sword.

• You cannot play a card on Unlikely Weapon except through the effect of another card.
• While there is a card on Unlikely Weapon, add 4 (Strong: 5, Weak: 3) to any non-magical Damage generated.
• At the end of combat, discard the card on Unlikely Weapon.

Laughter

Laughing while you fight is honestly a little unsettling.

Corruption Upgrade: Slaughter

• Place The Fool on Laughter, as well as any other Minor Arcana cards from your hand that you choose
  • Sum the total value of all cards placed on Laughter.
  • Deal Ranged Magic Damage equal to double the sum.
  • Remove all cards on Laughter, except The Fool, from your deck for the remainder of the Day.
• At the end of the turn, discard The Fool.

Slaughter

Nobody finds the violence funny but you.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Slaughter to Unlock it.

• When using Laughter, you may instead:
  • Take 1 Corruption Point
  • Play the Fool, but only one Minor Arcana card on Laughter
  • Remove the Minor Arcana card from your deck permanently.
  • Deal Ranged Magic Damage equal to 10 times the numerical value of the card so-removed.
  • You may not use Slaughter again this Day.

Blackjack

It looks like you're biding your time, but you're really just waiting for the right moment to strike.

Corruption Upgrade: Hit Me

• Place Cups or Swords on Blackjack.
• Cards sitting on Blackjack remain there.
• When the sum of the numerical values of the cards on Blackjack reaches or exceeds 21:
  • Deal 3 Damage (Strong: 4 Damage, Weak: 2 Damage), plus 1 additional Damage for every face-down card on Blackjack.
  • Gain 3 Shield (Fast: 4 Shields, Slow: 2 Shield), plus 1 additional Shield for every face-down card on Blackjack.
  • Take two of the cards on Blackjack. Play them, face-down, on Blackjack.
  • Discard all remaining cards on Blackjack.
• At the end of combat, discard all cards on Blackjack.

Hit Me

The fool, like a gong, is more effective when struck.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Hit Me to Unlock it.

• Any time you take Damage, (even if offset with your Shield), you may say "Hit Me" to the GM.
  • Draw a card from the deck.
  • If it's a Minor Arcana, play it face-down on Blackjack.
  • If it's The Tower, take 1 Corruption Point, trigger Catastrophe, and discard all cards on Blackjack.
  • If it's a Major Arcana, discard it without playing it.

Everyone Loves a Parade

You're being extremely distracting.

Corruption Upgrade: You're Driving Me Crazy

• Place any Minor Arcana on Everyone Loves a Parade.
• Once a card has been played on Everyone Loves a Parade, the next card must be the same numerical value as the card on Everyone Loves a Parade.
• When there are 2 cards on Everyone Loves a Parade:
  • every Adversary is forced to redraw the Intent that they would execute this turn.
  • gain 3 Shield.
  • discard all cards on Everyone Loves a Parade.

You're Driving Me Crazy

You're such a spectacle that even your foes can't help but watch.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on You're Driving Me Crazy to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate You're Driving Me Crazy.
• While You're Driving Me Crazy is active, every time you cause all Adversaries to redraw their Intent, you may also force one Adversary to discard their Intent entirely.
• An Adversary with no Intent will not perform an action this turn.

Throwaway Joke

Reaching into your side pockets, you retrieve a random object that will either help or hurt: a rock, some gum, an old ticket...

Corruption Upgrade: Surprise Twist

• At the end of your turn, draw and discard the top card of your deck.
  • If it was The Tower, trigger Catastrophe.
  • If it was The Fool or The Magician, return it to the top of the deck.
  • If it was Strength, play it on Unlikely Helmet or Unlikely Weapon.
  • If it was a Major Arcana, nothing happens.
  • If it was a Sword, deal 3 Damage.
  • If it was a Cup, gain 3 Shield.
  • If it was a Wand, deal 1 Ranged Damage.
  • If it was a Pentacle, you and each of your allies gain 1 Shield.

Surprise Twist

Reaching in to your side pockets, you retrieve a random object that will either help or hurt: a very long pistol, a full-sized two-handed hammer, a car, a bomb...

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Surprise Twist to Unlock it.

• While using Throwaway Joke:
  • If the card drawn was The Fool, The Magician, or any Knight or Queen, instead of discarding it you may add it to your hand.
  • If the card drawn was The Chariot, you may move 1 Zone and add it to your hand.
  • If the card drawn was Death, deal 150 Magic Ranged Damage.
  • If the card drawn was the Wheel of Fortune, draw and discard three additional cards and apply the Surprise Twist / Throwaway Joke effects to them, as well.
  • If the card drawn was Judgement, deal 10 Magic Ranged Damage to all Adversaries, and take 1 Corruption Point.
  • If the card drawn was The World, heal every Ally's HP to full and take 1 Corruption Point.
  • If the card drawn was The Tower, trigger Catastrophe and take 1 Corruption Point.

Crisis Averted

"I don't think of it as a mistake, it's more of a happy accident."

Corruption Upgrade: Happy Accident

• In combat, when you draw any card (example: The Tower), instead of doing what you had planned with that card, you may instead take 2HP of damage and shuffle that card back into your deck without triggering any special effect associated with that card.
• Yes, you can use this to keep Catastrophe from triggering.
• Yes, you can use this to keep Surprise Twist from giving you Corruption points.
• No, you can not use this to affect the outcome of an in-combat Skill Check.

Happy Accident

It looks like you stumbled, but you're actually dancing.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Happy Accident to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate Happy Accident.
  • Every other player may use Crisis Averted as if they also had it.

1 - The Magician

Magician Character Sheet

Description

A resourceful, powerful schemer, The Magician has brought a binder full of detailed plans that has color-coded tabs for every possible situation and outcome. Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anybody else might reasonably expect. They're always prepared, and they always have a trick up their sleeve. The Magician gets access to more spells, and more damaging spells, than any other Arcana.

• The Magician can treat The Fool card as a second The Magician card.
• The Magician gains the Clever ability.
• The Magician learns one extra spell at the start of the game.
• Choose two of the The Magician's Arcana Abilities.

Skill: This Was All Part of My Plan

Once per Day, The Magician can have planned ahead, retroactively.

Planned Ahead, Retroactively?

• This means that The Magician can declare that they had a plan in place for a situation that has just arisen, and that they have already taken steps to prepare for it.
• This can include lots of things: having a piece of vital equipment on hand, or having bribed someone in advance.
• The GM can veto or negotiate this.

Arcana Abilities

Rabbit Out of a Hat

A trick isn't that impressive on it's own: line up a few in a row, though, and you've got a show.

Corruption Upgrade: Saw In Half

• In order to activate Rabbit Out of a Hat, one card of each suit must be played.
• The suit of Major Arcana cards is "Major" and also must be included.
• Cards sitting on Rabbit Out of a Hat remain there.
• While there are any cards on Rabbit Out of a Hat, you cannot play cards on Unarmed Strike or Defend.
• When every suit is represented on Rabbit Out of a Hat:
  • Discard the Minor Arcana from Rabbit Out of a Hat.
  • Draw the remaining card from Rabbit Out of a Hat into hand: treat it as a Magician for the remainder of the turn.

Saw in Half

For the big finale, you're going to need a volunteer.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Saw in Half to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate Saw in Half:
  • You may still use Defend and Unarmed Strike while Pull Rabbit Out of Hat is active.

Spellbook

"I didn't know you knew that one!" "Yeah, I didn't either."

Corruption Upgrade: For My Next Trick

• Place any Page on Spellbook. Discard it immediately.
• Choose a spell that nobody has learned. For the rest of combat, you can use this spell as if you had learned it.

And For My Next Trick

All of the knowledge in the world is at your fingertips, if you're willing to pay the price.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on And For My Next Trick to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate And For My Next Trick.
• When you cast a spell that you have not yet cast this combat:
  • Draw 5 cards.

Check Behind Your Ears

"Where did you get that?"

Corruption Upgrade: Miser's Dream

• Place any card of suit Pentacles on Check Behind Your Ears and discard it, immediately.
• Deal 1 Damage to an Adversary in your Zone.
• The Adversary who is dealt damage by Check Behind Your Ears must redraw their Intent.
• You gain 1 empty Credit Token (worth: 1 Credit).

Miser's Dream

A seemingly endless supply of wealth - of course, it's all an illusion.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Miser's Dream to Unlock it.

• Any time a card is played on Check Behind Your Ears, you may draw a card.
• If the card drawn in this way is a Tower, take 1 Corruption Point.

Cups and Balls

No matter how hard they try to hit you, it seems like you're always one step ahead.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Cups and Balls to Unlock it.

• You may also place a Cup on Magic Wand.
• While a Cup is on Magic Wand:
  • All of your cards now count as Cups, as well as their original suit.
  • This includes Major Arcana: A Death, for example, counts as a "13 of Cups".

Magic Wand

"It's not the wand that's magic - the wand is nothing more than a prop to guide the eyes away from what's really happening. It's the magician who's magic."

Corruption Upgrade: Cups and Balls

• Place any Wand on Magic Wand.
• While a Wand is on Magic Wand:
  • All of your cards now count as Wands, as well as their original suit.
  • This includes Major Arcana: A Death, for example, counts as a "13 of Wands".
• Discard the card on Magic Wand at will.

Three Card Monte

Your nimble mind helps you rearrange your thoughts as easily as if they were cards.

Corruption Upgrade: Is This Your Card

• Place any "3" on Three Card Monte
• Draw three cards face-down from your deck. Hand them to the GM.
• The GM will show you one card, then mix it with the other two.
• (If the card shown is The Tower, trigger Catastrophe)
• Choose one of the three cards. If it is the card you saw:
  • Keep all three cards. Add them to your hand.
  • Deal 3 Damage.
  • Gain 3 Shield.
• If it is not the card you saw, return it to the top of your deck.
• Shuffle the other two cards back into your deck.
• Discard the 3 from Three Card Monte.

Is This Your Card

It's just a little sleight of hand.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Is This Your Card to Unlock it.

• When Three Card Monte's effect triggers:
  • If you guess the card correctly, instead of the normal effects:
  • Keep just the card you guessed correctly, adding it to your hand and treating it as a Magician.
  • Shuffle the other two cards back into your deck.
  • If you guess incorrectly, and any of the three cards are The Tower, take 1 Corruption Point.

Disappearing Act

Poof.

Corruption Upgrade: Smoke and Mirrors

• Place The Moon or The Devil on Disappearing Act.
• If there is a card on Disappearing Act, the next time you would take damage, instead
  • Discard a card from Disappearing Act.
  • Take no damage
  • Move to any Zone in the current combat.

Smoke & Mirrors

One moment you're there, the next you're gone.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Smoke & Mirrors to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate Smoke & Mirrors.
• While Smoke & Mirrors is active:
  • Any time Disappearing Act would prevent damage, instead deal that damage to the attacker.

2 - The High Priestess

High Priestess Character Sheet

Description

Duality, prophecy, mystery, and the subconscious drive this enigmatic figure, who deals psychic damage and can literally see the future. Blessed with visions and insight, but cryptic, odd, and quiet, the High Priestess can be difficult for their companions to understand, but their actions always become clear - eventually.

• The High Priestess can treat The Fool card as a High Priestess.
• The High Priestess gains the Wise ability.
• The High Priestess only draws 3, rather than 5 cards per combat turn.
• At the beginning of every combat turn, the High Priestess may look at the top two cards of their deck and may draw either, none, or both of them.
• Choose two of The High Priestess's Arcana Abilities.

Skill: Foresight

• The High Priestess has packed a wide variety of divinatory tools that - unlike for most - actually work.
  • Their Magic 8-Ball is surprisingly accurate.
  • Their Ouija Board can actually be used to communicate with spirits, if they're present.
  • Their Tarot Deck can be used to draw a card that actually represents details about their present or future situation.
  • Their Crystal Ball can show them limited visions of things happening around them or visions of the future.
  • They've a handful of Fortune Cookies which contain actual, useful situation-appropriate advice.
• In general, the High Priestess can use these tools to gain insight into the future, or to understand the present, but after using any individual tool, it is exhausted for the Day.
• The High Priestess can either request that the GM provide a result, or, they can provide their own result and ask the GM to make it come true.
• If the GM can't or won't (sometimes it's just not going to happen): the item is not exhausted for the Day.

Arcana Abilities

All Signs Point to Yes

It almost seems like you're in a trance.

Corruption Upgrade: Better Not Tell You Now

• Place the High Priestess on All Signs Point to Yes
• While the High Priestess is on All Signs Point to Yes:
  • Twos, Threes, Fours, and Nines can be used on Concentrate.
  • When a Two, Three, Four, or Nine is used on Concentrate, instead of discarding it, place it on All Signs Point to Yes.
• Discard the High Priestess from All Signs Point to Yes whenever you like.
  • When the High Priestess is discarded from All Signs Point to Yes (even by The Tower),
  • deal 7 Magic Damage to every Adversary in your Zone for each card on All Signs Point to Yes,
  • then discard all cards on All Signs Point to Yes.

Better Not Tell You Now

Changing minds. Breaking minds.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Better Not Tell You Now to Unlock it.

• When the High Priestess is placed on All Signs Point To Yes, you may also take 1 Corruption Point
• If you do, while the High Priestess is on All Signs Point To Yes:
  • All Adversaries play their Intents face up, even if they would normally be hidden.
  • When an Adversary draws an Intent, instead they draw two: the High Priestess chooses which one they keep.
  • When the High Priestess is discarded from Better Not Tell You Now, deal 3 additional Magic Ranged Damage to every Adversary.

YES NO

Their eyes are wide with anticipation. Their third eye is wide with malice.

Corruption Upgrade: GOOD BYE

• Place the High Priestess on YES NO
• Look at the top five cards of your deck.
  • Place any of them that you choose, shuffled, at the bottom of your deck.
  • Place the rest on top of your deck in any order.
  • Draw three cards.
• Draw an Intent for each Adversary: this is their Intent for the turn after this one.
• Discard the High Priestess from YES NO at the end of your turn.

GOOD BYE

The visions aren't always contained: sometimes they spill out, causing a mass hallucination.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on GOOD BYE to Unlock it.

• When the High Priestess is placed on YES NO, you may also:
  • Take 1 Corruption Point
  • After drawing the top five cards of your deck, but before you place the rest of the cards on top of your deck, you may choose to place The High Priestess on top of your deck.
  • (So, just to be clear, the order there is "the cards in the order you chose" "the High Priestess" "the rest of the cards" "the cards you placed at the bottom of your deck")
  • Every other player may also perform the action of YES NO.

Origami Folding

"They're just standing there, playing with a little piece of paper."

Corruption Upgrade: Rolling Bones

• Instead of discarding cards from Concentrate, place them on Origami Folding.
• When there are 5 cards on Origami Folding, you may:
  • Deal 1 Magic Damage to all Adversaries in your Zone AND
  • Force 1 Adversary in your Zone to redraw their Intent
• Then, discard all cards from Origami Folding.

Rolling Bones

"Let's see what the future holds. Oh... it's bad. It's really bad. You should probably run."

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Rolling Bones to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate Rolling Bones.
• Every time you use Concentrate:
  • Deal 3 Magic Damage.

Lucky Numbers

If you can predict the future, every number is lucky.

Corruption Upgrade: A Mistake Will Soon Be Corrected

• Any time a 7 is drawn, immediately gain 4 Shield.
• Place a a 3, a 4, a 5, a 6, a 7, or an 8 on Lucky Numbers.
• Once you've placed a numbered card on Lucky Numbers, you can't place that number again until all numbers have been placed.
• When all six cards are on Lucky Numbers:
  • Return all cards on Lucky Numbers to your hand.
  • These count as card draws and trigger any effects that would trigger on a card draw.
  • You can not do this more than once per combat turn.

Remember that Major Arcana have numerical values, too: you could play a 4 of Cups and a V: The Hierophant, for example.

A Mistake Will Soon Be Corrected

Sometimes prescience comes from first-hand experience.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on A Mistake Will Soon Be Corrected to Unlock it.

• Take 2 Corruption Points to activate A Mistake Will Soon Be Corrected.
• Any HP Damage or injuries received by Players since your last turn are undone.

Palm Reading

The trick with palm reading is to strike others with your palms and then read their faces.

Corruption Upgrade: Cold Reading

• Every time you draw a card:
  • If it is a 5, draw another card
  • If it is a King, do 1 Damage
  • If it is a Queen, gain 1 Shield

Cold Reading

"Your lifeline is short. Very short."

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Cold Reading to Unlock it.

• Take 1 Corruption Point to activate Cold Reading.
  • Every time you draw a card: Deal 1 Damage.

Ballistics

Any object, sufficiently accelerated, can become a deadly weapon.

Corruption Upgrade: Astronomy

• Place any Wand on Ballistics
• While there is a Wand on Ballistics, all of your Damage and Magic Damage becomes Ranged Magic Damage.
• If an effect would target all Adversaries in the same Zone, it now targets all Adversaries.
• Discard the card on Ballistics at the end of your turn.

Astronomy

Move so fast that the world seems to stop.

Corruption Upgrade: Mark 3 Corruption Points on Astronomy to Unlock it.

• Instead of placing it on Ballistics, you may instead place it on Astronomy and take 1 Corruption Point.
  • While there is a Wand on Astronomy, any Shield that you generate for yourself is instead generated for all Players.
  • So, if you generate 4 Shield, each Player (including yourself) gains 4 Shield this turn.

EDD - Eddy

Eddy is not so much a chooseable, playable Major Arcana as they are a temporary, lightweight character, intended for players who maybe only intend to stay for a single session, for players who've died and would like to participate in the rest of the session as a temporary character, for players who aren't excited by loads of tactical choices in battle, for younger players, for less experienced players, or for players who exceed the recommended player count for RT: 0.

(Having too many players can make turns drag on forever, so having a fifth or six player play as an Eddy can hopefully clear things up a bit.)

The GM is encouraged to print off a few Eddy character sheets and tuck them away, for a rainy day.

Eddy is a friendly robot who bumbles along and helps out the players.

Eddies are little semi-autonomous, remote-controlled robots that pepper the station, doing their best to help wherever they can.

Eddies can not operate outside of the station: their bodies are remote controlled and actually fairly disposable - which is good, because the station is dangerous and Eddies are not terribly smart.

Their initial digital imprint was built on an architecture that attempted to model the brain of a 12-year old Golden Retriever named "Sunny", and it was remarkably successful: as a result, the Eddies are unbelievably friendly, helpful, and self-sacrificing. They are also not that much smarter than a regular Golden Retriever with opposable thumbs and the ability to speak.

Eddy is a nickname: Eddy's full name is Ed25519, but they go by "Eddy" for short.

Eddies are sentient and cheerful. Each Eddy has a single primary function that they perform around Paradise Lua - maybe "sweeping", "vacuuming", "repairing pipes", "lubricating doors" - something along these lines. After choosing your Eddy's skill (see below: each Eddy gets one skill), you should determine what your Eddy's job on Paradise Lua is.

Eddy is not the only "Eddy" - there are dozens of Eddy-class robots who might stop in and help the players out.

Eddy Names:

• Ada (ADA 83)
• Al (ALGOL 68)
• Cal (Pascal/Intercal)
• Sim (SIMULA 67)
• Mod (MODULA 2)
• Phil (EIFFEL 65)
• Mac (HMAC)
• Ipey (IPAddr)
• Emdy (MD5)
• Sha (SHA-256)
• Nim
• Ruby
• Pearl (PERL)
• Julia
• Dylan
• See
• Sharp
• Dee
• Sequel (SQL)
• Lithp (Lisp)
• Rusty (Rust)
• Gogo (Go)

Skills

Each Eddy can choose only one Skill. That Skill is related to the automated task they perform around Paradise Lua.

The Eddy can only make checks for that Skill.

For example:

• An Eddy with FINAID might be responsible for watching a perimeter for security.
• An Eddy with DRAMA might be responsible for acting as an automated cashier in a convenience store.
• An Eddy with SCI might be a laboratory assistant.
• An Eddy with FREE might be a door lubricator/maintainer.
• An Eddy with GYM might be a duct cleaner.
• An Eddy with AID might be an auto-nurse.
• An Eddy with SHOP might be a constructor or fabricator.
• An Eddy with LAW might work as a clerk.
• An Eddy with MISC might be responsible for sorting screws by varying size, which has given it a lot of time to browse Luapedia.

Shared Deck

You may not have enough extra tarot decks to support all Eddies: for this reason, none of their abilities are deck-modifying.

They can all share a deck, or if necessary, they can just draw cards from the DM deck.

Combat

Combat scaling doesn't apply to Eddies: if there are 3 players and 2 Eddies, the combat should be designed for 3 players.

Eddies are nonthreatening and Adversaries won't target them unless no other targets are available.

Eddies have 20 Hit Points, like players do.

In every combat phase, Eddies go before players, draw a 3 card hand, and can play only two cards out of the three, discarding the other card.

What Do They Do With Those Cards?

Check the Eddy character sheet.

There's Always More Eddies

If an Eddy is destroyed (either in combat or as a result of poor decision making in a non-combat scene), an essentially identical Eddy will roll up in the next scene (after the combat, or in the next room) and introduce themself to the players.

"Hi, I'm Eddy 2!"

"Hi, I'm Eddy 3!"

Abilities

Each player starts with a Report Card, which is where we define player Abilities and Skills.

Abilities are on the left side of the Report Card.

A player must choose 1 Ability from the set of 6:

• Strong - Big muscle. Strong. Lift heavy. Strong characters deal extra damage.
• Fast - Nimble. Quick. Fast characters move and block more easily in combat.
• Clever - Quick-thinking. Creative. Clever characters have more effective magic.
• Wise - Careful, thoughtful. Wise characters draw more cards.
• Lucky - Things just work out more often for this player. Lucky characters get a better deck.
• Charming - Charismatic. Magnetic. Friendly. Kind. Charming characters are more resistant to corruption.

The player's Major Arcana will also give them a bonus ability, for free.

A player must also choose a Weakness.

This is the opposite of one of the Abilities:

• Weak - Small muscle. Noodle-arms. Weak characters deal less damage.
• Slow - Plodding, stodgy. Slow characters can't move or block as well in combat.
• Dull - Slow-witted, mundane. Dull characters can't use magic at all.
• Foolish - Foolish characters waste cards on things that don't matter.
• Unlucky - Unlucky characters get a worse deck.
• Strange - Unfriendly, cruel, callous. Strange characters are less resistant to corruption.

It is impossible to have both an Ability and a Weakness for the same thing: A player can't be Strong and Weak at the same time, or Lucky and Unlucky at the same time.

Lucky or Unlucky: Deck Modification

Lucky players have a deck that is going to produce lucky outcomes more often. Unlucky players have a deck that is going to produce unlucky outcomes more often.

• If a player is Lucky, remove all Aces and Twos from their deck.
• If a player is Unlucky, remove all Kings and Queens from their deck.

Skills

Each player starts with a Report Card, which is where we define player Abilities and Skills.

Skills are on the right side of the Report Card.

Choose a Skill

A player must choose 1 Skill:

• FINAID - Empathy, Perception & Danger Sense (Fast / Lucky)
• ART - Performance, Disguise & Forgery (Charming / Fast)
• SCI - Computers, Chemistry, Biology, Physics & Math (Clever / Charming)
• FREE - Stealth, Breaking & Entering (Clever / Fast)
• GYM - Movement, Sport & Dance (Strong / Fast)
• AID - First Aid, Exploration & Survival (Wise / Charming)
• SHOP - Mechanical, Constructive, & Culinary (Wise / Strong)
• LAW - Bureaucracy, Legal, and Investigative (Wise / Clever)
• MISC - Everything Not Otherwise Covered (Lucky / Strong)

They can only choose a Skill if they have at least one of the associated Abilities: For example: if you are not Charming or Fast, you cannot choose Deception, Theft & Stealth.

Choose a skill by writing an "A+" next to it.

The A+ is thematic, and you can use anything you want to indicate that this is a preferred skill: circle it, use a gold star sticker, a unicorn sticker, a "good work!", whatever floats your boat.

Any Skill Check that the player performs against a Skill that they have chosen becomes easier by one rank: an Impossible check becomes Hard, a Hard check becomes Medium, and so on.

Fail a Skill

A player must fail 1 skill. Fail a skill by writing an "F" next to it.

The F is thematic, and you can use anything you want to indicate that this is a crossed out skill: cross it out, write "SEE ME AFTER CLASS", put a sad-face sticker on it...

The player is bad at this skill and won't generally be able to pass skill checks where it is involved.

Any skill check against a failed Skill becomes Unlikely for the player.

Skill Corruption

Players can mark Corruption Points on the "Skill Corruption" box on their Report Card. When all three of the Corruption Circles are filled, you may gain a new Skill, and fail a new skill.

Skill Checks

Determining the Skill for a Skill Check

What is the task the player is hoping to perform, and under which skill does it fit?

Here are some examples of tasks that might fit under each category:

FINAID - Empathy, Perception & Danger Sense

• Determining if someone is lying to you.
• Searching a room for traps.
• Noticing something bad about to happen to you.
• Helping someone work through an emotional issue.

ART - Performance, Disguise & Forgery

• Disguising yourself as someone else.
• Performing in a musical.
• Forging a note.
• Painting.
• Knowing stuff about pop culture and art history.

SCI - Computers, Chemistry, Biology, Physics & Math

• Hacking into a computer to gain some secrets.
• An incredible bank shot in pool.
• Picking out the drugs least likely to harm you while robbing a pharmacy.
• Guessing valuable information about non-human Adversaries.

FREE - Stealth, Breaking & Entering

• Picking a lock.
• Doing things without drawing attention or while remaining hidden.
• Knowing stuff about security systems.

GYM - Movement, Sport & Dance

• Climbing a wall.
• Forcing through a door.
• Swimming, holding one's breath for a long time.
• Executing the legendary and forbidden "Chaos Dunk"
• Doing "The Angle Brackets", the dance craze sweeping Paradise Lua

AID - First Aid, Exploration & Survival

• Bandaging a wounded ally.
• Navigating without getting lost.
• Knowing which crates in a warehouse are likely to have useful supplies in them.

SHOP - Mechanical, Constructive & Culinary

• Creating a useful weapon out of found trash.
• Building an impromptu wall.
• Turning something inedible (raw flour) into food.

LAW - Bureaucracy, Legal, & Investigative

• Searching a room for clues or useful items.
• Getting tech support to help with an issue.
• Checks against individuals who are bureaucratically "locked"
  • For example of bureaucratic lock: A cashier can't help you with your problem, unless you can convince them that they can do so without losing their job.

MISC - Everything Else

• It doesn't fit into the above categories
• ???

Wait, there's no "deception" or "communication" skill! How do I talk to people?

You have to actually talk to them.

Determining the Difficulty of a Skill Check

• Automatic: Breathing. Walking. (The GM probably should not be calling for Automatic skill checks.)
• Trivial: Making toast.
• Easy: Most people could probably do this, most of the time.
• Medium: A trained person can probably do this, most of the time.
• Hard: A skilled adult with a lot of training might be able to do this.
• Unlikely: A world-class sniper making a once-in-a-lifetime shot, over a kilometer away.
• Impossible: Eating the moon. Jumping into space.

Resolving a Skill Check

Skill checks are resolved by having the player draw the top card from their decks.

• Automatic: The player can not fail this check.
• Trivial: Only fails on a Critical Failure.
• Easy: Fails on any Minor Arcana <= 5, otherwise succeeds.
• Medium: Fails on any Minor Arcana <= 9, otherwise succeeds.
• Hard: Fails on any Minor Arcana, otherwise succeeds.
• Unlikely: Success on a Critical Success, otherwise fails
• Impossible: The player can not succeed at this check.

If the card drawn is a Major Arcana - well, it might trigger a Critical Success or Critical Failure.

Success

Simple: whatever the player was trying to achieve? They succeeded. The thing happens. The scene continues, the thing having happened.

Failure

If the player fails a roll, the thing they were trying to achieve?

It either:

• doesn't happen (the door they were trying to open stays shut),
• it happens but introduces significant additional complication for the players (the door opens, alerting the guards), or
• it doesn't happen and introduces significant additional complication for the players (the door stays shut, alerting the guards).

The player can take 1 Corruption Point to retry the check.

Each time the player attempts to re-try the check, it becomes one step easier: an Unlikely check becomes merely Hard, a Hard check becomes Medium, etc.

At the GM's discretion, a check can remain at its current difficulty level during a retry: jumping from the Moon to the Earth is Impossible and no matter how many times a player tries to accomplish it, it will remain Impossible.

Sometimes There Are Consequences Either Way

Succeed at breaking down a heavy door? It's possible that the sound of this will alert some guards! Life isn't always fair.

Critical Success

Certain cards will trigger a Critical Success:

• A Fool is always a Critical Success
• The World is always a Critical Success
• The Sun is always a Critical Success
• The player's own Major Arcana card always triggers a Critical Success

On an Unlikely check, a Critical Success is just a success: nothing special happens, but it was unlikely that the player would have succeeded, so that alone is special.

On other checks, a Critical Success indicates that something about the success was a little bit extra good. The player, at the GM's discretion, should recieve some small extra bonus or benefit for completing this task perfectly.

Critical Failure

The Critical Success conditions fire before the Critical Failure conditions.

Certain cards will trigger a Critical Failure:

• If a card is a Critical Success, it can't be a Critical Failure.
• A Tower is always a Critical Failure.
• The Devil is always a Critical Failure.
• Death is always a Critical Failure.

A Critical Failure indicates that something about the failure was a little bit extra bad. Whatever the consequences are for failure, really lean into them a little bit.

The Wheel of Fortune

When a Wheel of Fortune is drawn, the player will either see a Critical Success or Critical Failure.

Draw a second card:

• If the card is an Ace through a Nine: Critical Failure
• If the card is a 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King, or Major Arcana: Critical Success

That Seems Like a Lot of Rules

Look, the middle of the Report Card lays it out pretty simply: draw a card, see what happens.

Inconsequential Skill Checks

In general, the GM should not be calling for skill checks unless there is something at stake.

Sometimes the player will request to perform an action that turns out to have no real stakes: this check is Inconsequential.

Inconsequential is not the same as Automatic or Trivial: "Breathing" and "walking" are automatic, whereas "hacking into a computer that doesn't have any useful secrets on it" is Hard but Inconsequential.

Depending on how generous the GM is feeling towards the players, if the players seem like they are going to spend a lot of time or resources on a check that turns out to be Inconsequential, the GM can warn them that this is going to be the case: the check, pass or fail, is unlikely to have a real effect on the story. They can even skip the check itself and grant automatic failure or success.

"You quickly and successfully search the empty room. There is nothing here. It is an empty room."

Bonus / Penalty

If the player has a significant, concrete advantage on a skill check - for example, deciphering a lab result when they have recently aced a chemistry course covering that exact topic, they get a "Bonus" on that check. While they have Bonus, they draw two cards and use whichever of the two cards they would prefer.

If the player has a significant, concrete disadvantage on a skill check - for example, climbing a wall with a Splinted Leg, they get a "Penalty" on that check. While they have Penalty, they draw two cards and use whichever card the GM decides is the worse of the two.

Bonus and Penalty cancel one another out, and do not stack.

No Retries

Unless otherwise specified, Skill Checks for a specific thing cannot be made more than once per Day. If you fail a skill check, it stays failed. Try to unlock a door and fail at it? You can't go back and try again (until a Day has passed).

On top of that, a Skill Check can only be attempted by one player. Another player can help (see: One Player Helps Another, below), but only one player gets to make the skill check, and once the card is drawn, the results are final.

However, if the player is in a low-stakes situation where they can take as many tries as they want, the GM can make the check itself easier.

Interpreting Success and Failure

If the player needed a face card or Major Arcana to succeed, and they drew a 9, or a 10, that's a closer failure than if they had drawn a 1 or a 2. If they needed to draw a Major Arcana and they draw a Magician (2), that's a closer success than if they had drawn a Judgement (20).

The GM is free to interpret "close successes" or "close failures" as the player narrowly succeeding or failing, if they want. They also don't have to, if it doesn't make sense for the check.

If the GM is able to, they're also encouraged to tie the drawn Tarot card's meaning to the result in some way.

For example:

• if the player draws a Chariot and succeeds, outline that the task was difficult but it was possible thanks to help from the player's allies.
• If they draw a Magician and succeed, then the task was technically difficult but possible thanks to the player's skill and perserverance.
• If they draw a Seven of Swords, and fail, it was because they got too greedy and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
• If they draw a Nine of Swords, and fail, it was because they panicked.

Happenstance

When a Critical Success or Critical Failure is triggered by The Fool or the Wheel of Fortune: it should be made clear by the GM that, even within the fiction of the game, this success (or failure) was powered by blind luck and happenstance, and not skill at all.

If, for example, the player draws The Fool during a Hacking check, maybe they just find the password for the computer that they are hacking on a post-it note attached to the computer - or guess the right password on their first try.

If the player draws The Fool while attempting major surgery (note that the difficulty of attempting major surgery, as a teenager, is going to be Unlikely or Impossible), maybe they accidentally drop a Junior Mint into the chest cavity of their patient, which should cause major complications but, in an unlikely twist of fate actually kills what would otherwise have been a fatal infection.

Multiple Players Making a Skill Check Together

Let's imagine that every player is about to search a room, or every player is about to try to stealth into a facility, or every player is pulling on a lever to try and move it.

This is a "everybody making a skill check together" moment.

Only One Player Needs to Succeed ("Searching a Room")

If this is the case, than whichever player draws the highest card succeeds "the most" and is the player who actually accomplishes the task at hand. If no player succeeds, the whole task fails.

Every Player Needs to Succeed ("Sneaking Past Some Executare")

When doing a check like this, only two players need to succeed at the check. If any player gets a Critical Success, they succeed for everyone. If any player gets a Critical Failure, they fail for everyone.

One Player Helps Another ("Pulling a Lever")

If the helping player can make an argument for how, exactly, they're helping ("I'll distract the shopkeeper while Marieta robs him blind!"), and they succeed at whatever they're doing, grant the player making the check Bonus.

If they fail at whatever they're doing to help, grant the player making the check Penalty.

Combat

Combat is triggered any time the players get into a scuffle with an Adversary or Adversaries.

The goal of Combat is to deal damage to Adversaries until they stop fighting.

Summary

Players and adversaries draw hands of cards, then play them into a variety of "bins" that are available to them, corresponding with unique combat abilities.

The Combat Abilities are abilities that are available to every player, in combat.

Players also have access to Magic as well as a suite of abilities provided by their Major Arcana.

These cards mostly are involved with generating Damage and Shields.

Choosing Arcana Abilities

Once players can see the Adversaries they will be fighting, they can choose which of their Arcana Abilities they will be bringing in to combat. Players can choose 2 Arcana Abilities. Mark the Arcana Abilities so chosen (perhaps by dropping a token on them).

On top of that, players can take a Corruption Point at any time during combat to bring in an extra Arcana Ability.

Any Arcana Ability that has been fully upgraded with Corruption is also automatically added to the set of Arcana Abilities available to the player: this allows players with a lot of Corruption to field lots of extra abilities.

Hit Points

Players start every combat with 20 HP, a number that resets with every combat.

This can be represented with a 20-sided-die, a stack of 20 poker chips, or by writing the number on a scrap of paper.

When a player reaches 0 HP, they do not die, but instead must buy 15 more HP. In order to do so, they must take a Major Injury.

A Round, and Turn Order

graph TD;
    A["Draw an Intent for every Adversary"]-->B;
    B["Each player takes a Turn"]-->C;
    C["Each Adversary discards all Shield"]-->D
    D["Each Adversary executes, then discards their Intent"]-->A

A Round of battle is a cycle where every participant gets one turn.

First, an Intent is drawn for every Adversary. This is a tarot card drawn from the GM's deck that determines what the Adversary will do on their turn. Most Adversaries draw Intents face-up, making their intentions clear to the players up-front, some Adversaries draw Intents face down.

Then, players each take a turn. Fast players first, then players without Fast or Slow, then Slow players.

"What if there are more than one player who can take a turn at the same time?"

They can decide between themselves who goes first. Players can play simultaneously, with the following caveat.

Why can't players play simultaneously?

I'm pretty sure that there's a way for players operating at the same time to trigger some kind of infinite loop. Player A gives player B more cards, which allow Player B to give player A more cards...

If this happens for some reason, the GM can call shenanigans and demand that one player finish their turn before the other player continues.

Finally, each Adversary does whatever their Intent indicates that they will do.

At the end of the Round, every player discards any Shield that they accumulated but did not use to block Damage from an Adversary.

A Turn

graph TD;
    A["The player discards all Shield from the previous turn."]-->B;
    B["The player draws 5 cards from their deck."]-->C;
    C["If The Tower is ever drawn, activate Catastrophe."]-->D
    D["The player plays cards on abilities."]-->E
    E["At the end of the turn, any remaining cards are discarded."]-->F
    F["Play moves to the next player."]

At the beginning of their turn, a player draws 5 cards from their deck. If they have cards in their hand already at the beginning of their turn, they may keep them.

If there are not enough cards in their deck to draw 5 cards, they shuffle their discard pile into their deck, and then draw 5 cards from their deck.

These cards constitute the player's "hand" for the turn.

The player plays cards on the various Combat abilities available to their character. If a player can not play a card, it is discarded at the end of the turn: there is no saving of cards for the next hand.

Damage

Damage! When a player or Adversary generates Damage, it reduces the Hit Points of a target of their choice.

Most Damage is melee-range: see "Movement" below.

When an Adversary's Hit Points reach 0, they are no longer participants in the combat. The player who pushed the Adversary over the line gets to decide whether they killed, incapacitated, or scared off the Adversary.

What Happens when an Adversary Can Choose Who to Damage?

Unless otherwise specified, an Adversary will hit:

• The player with the most remaining Shields. If all players have 0 Shields:
• The player with the least remaining HP.

Some Adversaries operate differently:

• A Strategic Adversary will target whichever target the GM wants, and will choose wisely.
• A Dimwitted Adversary will target whichever target the GM wants, and will choose badly.

Movement

Movement in combat happens on a small grid.

Most common rooms in RT:0 are 3x3 grids. Each square of the grid constitutes a Zone, and the Zone can be shared by as many folks as care to cram themselves in to it. If you are in the same Zone as an Adversary, the two of you are in melee range of one another.

• Damage can only hit when both the damag-er and damag-ee are in the same Zone.
• Ranged Damage can hit anyone, from anywhere.

Some rooms are large, these are represented by a 5x5 grid.

Some rooms are cramped, these are represented by a 1x1 grid. (Which is, notably, just a single square. Sorry, ranged abilities!)

What Happens when an Adversary Gets to Move?

Unless otherwise specified, an Adversary will:

• Move towards the nearest Player.

• if they are in the same Zone as a player, they won't move at all.

• A Strategic Adversary can use their move however the GM wants.

Shield

Players and Adversaries can generate Shield. For each Shield generated, the player can offset a single point of Damage received: so if a player takes 8 Damage, but has 5 Shield, they only end up losing 3 HP.

Shield is temporary, and only lasts for, essentially, the next damage phase after the Shield was generated.

• At the end of all player turns, (after every Player has dealt Damage), all Adversary Shields are discarded.
• At the end of a combat Round, (after every Adversary has dealt Damage), all player Shields are discarded.

Numerical Values of Tarot Cards

• Ace - 1
• 2 through 10 - as listed
• Page - 11
• Knight - 12
• Queen - 13
• King - 14
• Major Arcana - use the Roman Numeral: The Fool is 0, The Chariot is 7, Death is 13, etc.

Magic

Characters can cast spells in battle!

Spells work just like combat abilities, but they generally require The Magician to be played to activate them.

Conclusion & Supremacy

The Combat is over when all adversaries have fled or been knocked down to 0HP.

Adversaries knocked down to 0HP may have been knocked unconscious, killed, or simply incapacitated: that's up to the players and the GM.

When a Combat concludes, open up the Supremacy Worksheet:

• If any player has received an Injury, do not add anything to the Supremacy Worksheet. Stop here.
• If any player has received 2 or more Corruption, do not add anything to the Supremacy Worksheet. Stop here.
• Add a tally to the Supremacy Worksheet.
• If all players have full HP: add another tally to the Supremacy Worksheet.

Accumulated Supremacy makes combat more difficult as the game goes on.

Unarmed Strike

You don't need a weapon to be dangerous. Hit them! Hit them hard!

• Place Wands or Swords on Unarmed Strike.
• Cards sitting on Unarmed Strike remain there.
• When the sum of the numerical values on the cards reaches (or exceeds) 10, discard all cards on Unarmed Strike and
  • deal 5 (Strong: 7 / Weak: 3) Damage or
  • deal 2 (Strong: 3 / Weak: 1) Ranged Damage.

Defend

Dodge, or brace yourself for the impact. Either way, you're ready.

• Place Cups or Pentacles on Defend.
• When the sum of the numerical values on the cards reaches (or exceeds) 10, discard all cards on Defend and
  • generate 5 (Fast: 7 / Slow: 3) Shield.

Concentrate

You take a moment to focus: the world slows down around you.

• Place Major Arcana cards on Concentrate.
• Cards sitting on Concentrate remain there.
• When there are 2 (Wise: 1, Foolish: 3) cards on Concentrate:
  • discard all cards on Concentrate and
  • draw a new card
  • if Clever, deal 1 Magic Damage and gain 1 Shield
  • if Charming, you may choose to make an Adversary redraw their Intent

Movement / Skill

I, too, like to move it move it.

• Place any card on Movement / Skill.
• When there are 2 (Fast: 1, Slow: 3) cards on Movement / Skill:
• Discard all cards on Movement / Skill and
  • Move 1 Zone or
  • Perform a non-combat action, such as hacking a computer or forcing open a door. (Shuffle your discard pile into your deck, then make a skill check)

Some actions during battle call for Skill Checks. "I hack the computer while the battle is raging on", or "I force open the door".

Once the player has "paid" for the skill check, while keeping their hand and any current combat cards separate, the player shuffles their discard pile into their deck, then uses the deck to perform a skill check as usual.

Run Away

You're not a coward, you're just... tactical. Tactically shitting yourself.

• Place any card on Run Away.
• Once a card has been placed on Run Away, the next card must either be one higher than the highest card on Run Away, or one lower than the lowest card on Run Away.
• When there are 3 cards (Fast: 2, Slow: 4) on Run Away:
  • Move yourself to any unoccupied Zone in the current Room or
  • Remove yourself from battle entirely. Your participation in this combat is over! The GM decides where you are hiding.
• Then: discard all cards on Run Away.

You might be wondering: "Can I make a run out of Major Arcana?". The answer is yes! (Although you might want to save them for other things.)

You can use Major Arcana cards to make a run - using the numerical value of their Roman Numerals:

So, for example, you could play The Magician (I) after The Fool (0), or The Lovers (VI) after The Chariot (VII).

Catastrophe

In the heat of battle, you've made a terrible mistake.

• Any time The Tower is drawn, it must be played immediately and before any other cards: on Catastrophe.
• The player discards all cards on all of their abilities, including The Tower, then shuffles the discard pile back into their deck and ends their turn.
• If Lucky, gain 10 Shield.

Friendship

You can't help but feel a connection to the people around you.

• Corruption may be marked on Friendship.
• At the end of the day, draw 1 (Charming: 2) empty corruption circles on Friendship.
• Players with Strange may not use Friendship.

Honk

Honk!

• Players with Foolish must use Honk, once per turn.
• Any player can use Honk.
• Play any card on Honk, then discard it.

Magic

Every player starts the game with 1 spell, except for Dull players, who start the game with no spells and cannot learn spells.

Once a spell is chosen, no other players can choose that spell.

Spells have both a Combat and a Skill component.

• In general, the Combat portion of the spell can be used in fights,
• and the Skill portion of the spell can be used the rest of the time.
• Although the Skill can be used in Combat with the Movement/Skill Check ability

Magic Corruption

Players can mark Corruption Points on the "Magic Corruption" box on their Report Card. When all three of the Corruption Circles are filled, you may learn a new Spell.

♈︎ Aries

The ram is quick and nimble.

Combat - Dodge

• Place The Magician on Aries.
• While Aries has a card on it, any shields the player generates are multiplied by 2 (Clever: 3).
• You may discard the card played on Aries whenever you choose.

Skill - Agility

• Use Aries to make a Skill check for a skill marked "Fast" as if it were Easy, once per Day.

♉︎ Taurus

The bull is an unstoppable force.

Combat - Rage

• Place The Magician on Taurus.
• While Taurus has a card on it, any non-Magic damage the player generates is multiplied by 2 (Clever: 3).
• You may discard the card played on Taurus whenever you choose.

Skill - Strength

• Use Taurus to make a Skill check for a skill marked "Strong" as if it were Easy, once per Day.

♋︎ Cancer

The crab is a master of defense.

Combat - Shell

• Place The Magician on Cancer.
• Either:
  • Generate 15 Shields (Clever: 30) or
  • Generate 8 Shields and 8 Shields for all allies in your Zone (Clever: 16 each)
• Discard the card played on Cancer at the end of the turn.

Skill - Bubble

• Use Cancer to spawn a small, hard, magical force-field around you while exploring Paradise Lua, once per Day
• The bubble lasts for 30 minutes, and holds enough air for all 30 of those minutes.
• If fall damage were a problem (on the Moon, where gravity is not so harsh a mistress), the bubble would protect you from that, too.

♌︎ Leo

The lion is bright and brave.

Combat - Beam

• Place The Magician on Leo.
• Either:
  • Deal 15 Magic Damage (Clever: 30) or
  • Deal 8 Magic Damage to all Adversaries in your Zone (Clever: 16 each)
• Discard the card played on Leo at the end of the turn.

Skill - Light

• As often as you want, you can use Leo to cast a bright light in a 30 foot straight line.
• Once per Day, you can use Leo to dramatically reduce the weight of an object.

♊︎ Gemini

The twins are masters of illusion.

Combat - Twin

• Place The Magician on Gemini.
• Draw 5 Cards (Clever or Wise: 10 Cards)
• Discard the card played on Gemini at the end of the turn.

Skill - Clone

• Once per Day, you can create an illusory, holographic, silent duplicate of yourself.
• The duplicate cannot interact with, pick up, or touch anything - anything touching the illusory copy will simply go right through.
• The duplicate lasts for about thirty minutes.

♐︎ Sagittarius

The archer is unerring.

Combat - Arrow

• Place The Magician on Sagittarius.
• Either:
  • Deal 10 Magic Ranged Damage (Clever: 20) or
  • Deal 5 Magic Ranged Damage (Clever: 10) to all Adversaries.
• At the end of the turn, discard The Magician.

Skill - Arrow

• Once per day, name a person, object, or concept. A spectral arrow will appear, and to the best of its ability, it will point towards that thing.
• This arrow is only visible to you, and it only lasts for 30 minutes.

♑︎ Capricorn

The goat... loves the ladies.

Combat - Capricious

• Place The Magician on Capricorn.
• Capricorn can only be played if you have The High Priestess, The Empress, The Lovers, The Devil, Strength, The Star, The World, or any Queen in hand.
• Either:
  • Deal 40 Magic Ranged Damage (Clever: 80) or
  • Gain 40 Shield (Clever: 80).
• At the end of the turn, discard all cards placed on Capricorn.

Skill - Loop

• Once per Day, when any player fails a Skill Check, you can use Capricorn to allow them to try again.

♎︎ Libra

The scales of justice weigh all things.

Combat - Balance

• Place The Magician on Libra.
• While Libra has a card on it, the player generates as much damage and shield as the higher of their damage and shield, each turn.
• The damage generated by Balace is Magic Damage.
• (So, for example, if the player generates 3 Damage and 8 Shield, they have instead generated 3 Damage, 5 Magic Damage and 8 Shield)
• You may choose to discard the card played on Libra at any time.

Skill - Trade

• Once per Day, you may execute a Swap.
• Anything that's possible to Swap is fair game, so long as the GM agrees that it is a fair trade.
• For example: You can Swap your hair color for a different hair color.
• Or maybe: You can Swap a Spell (even this Spell) for a different Spell.
• If you Swap something with a player, they must agree to the Swap.

♏︎ Scorpio

The scorpion is insidious.

Combat - Venom

• Place The Magician on Scorpio
• You may choose to discard The Magician from Libra at any time. (It is automatically discarded at end of combat.)
• While Scorpio has a card on it, the player generates 1 Magic Damage every time they draw a card.

Skill - Puppet

• Once per Day, summon an disembodied spectral hand, controlled by your mind.
• This hand will stick around for about 30 minutes. It moves about as fast as a regular person would.
• This hand can lift up to 5lbs.

♓︎ Pisces

The fish can be elusive, which is why you need a good hook.

Combat - Fishing

• Place a Magician on Pisces.
• Search your deck for a card (Clever: 2 cards), place it in your hand, and then shuffle the deck.
• You may move any or all Adversaries in the combat to your current Zone.
  • Deal 5 Damage to any Adversary so moved.
  • If they had Flying, they no longer have Flying.
• At the end of the turn, discard The Magician.

Skill - Hook

• Any time you want, throw a spectral grappling hook.
• This can be used to grab distant things or to set up difficult climbs.

♒︎ Aquarius

The water bearer brings life and healing.

Combat - Heal

• Only players with Charming may use or learn Aquarius.
• Place The Magician on Aquarius.
• You or one ally in your Zone:
  • Regain all hit points or
  • downgrade a Major Injury to its associated Minor Injury or
  • remove a Minor Injury entirely.
• If you are Clever, you may target any Ally, regardless of location.
• Aquarius can not be used more than once per Day.
• Discard the card played on Aquarius at the end of the turn.

Skill - Heal

• You or an ally may:
  • Downgrade a Major Injury to its associated Minor Injury or
  • remove a Minor Injury entirely.
• Aquarius's heal effect can not be used more than once per day, in or out of combat.

♍︎ Virgo

The maiden is irresistible.

Combat - Charm

• Only players with Charming may use or learn Virgo.
• Place The Magician on Virgo.
• Choose an Adversary in your Zone:
  • They must discard their current Intent.
  • While a card remains on Virgo, if the Adversary draws a new Intent, and it is not a Sword, discard it.
  • When the Adversary draws a Sword, discard the card used to play Virgo.
  • If you or any ally damages the Adversary, discard the card used to play Virgo.
• If you are Clever, you may target any Adversary, regardless of location.

Skill - Charm

• Once per Day, Charm an intelligent human, creature or system that you encounter.
• Some creatures may be immune to this effect.
• This human, creature, or system will be:
  • less inclined to attack your party
  • more inclined to help your party
  • easier to convince
  • harder to anger
  • generally a real sweetie-pie.
• This effect ends if the target feels seriously threatened, or after 30 minutes.

? Ophiuchus

The serpent-bearer is mysterious and unpredictable.

Combat - What

• Only players with Lucky may use or learn Ophiuchus.
• Place The Magician on Ophiuchus.
• Something magical happens.
• What is it?
• You tell me.
• Propose a small, useful magical effect to the GM.
• (As a guideline, it should about half as powerful as the other spells.)
• The GM will decide if it is reasonable.
• If it is, it happens.
• Discard the card played on Ophiuchus at the end of the turn.

Skill - Improv

• Once per Day, something magical happens.
• What is it?
• You tell me.
• Propose a small, useful magical effect to the GM.
• The GM will decide if it is reasonable.
• (As a guideline, it should about half as powerful as the other spells.)
• If it is, it happens.

Injuries, Healing, and Death

When players take HP damage in combat, they recover it as soon as the combat is resolved: they might be scraped up but this is accounted for in the player's natural resilience.

However, if players hit 0HP, they immediately take a Major Injury of the GM's choice, at which point they recover 15HP. In general, the GM should pick Injuries that are thematically appropriate to the kind of damage the player has received.

Some Adversaries can give the players injuries directly, as well as certain failed skill checks: one might fail at preparing raw meat and end up with Upset Stomach, for example, or get Blinded from an Adversary with a flashbang.

Minor Injuries

Minor Injuries are inconvenient, but they're not utterly game-breaking and they'll heal on their own. You can also have lots of them! I mean, that wouldn't be very fun, but there's no reason a player can't have a Slung Arm and a Splinted Leg and be Dizzy all at the same time.

Major

If a player receives a second Major injury while they already have a Major Injury, instead give them a Critical Injury.

Critical Injury

If a player receives a second Critical injury while they already have a Critical Injury: they die.

Using Corruption Points to Heal Injuries

At any time (including "seconds before dying") players can mark Corruption Points on their sheets to heal injuries:

• For 2 Corruption Points, a Minor Injury can vanish entirely.
• For 4 Corruption Points, a Major Injury can vanish entirely.
• For 6 Corruption Points, a Critical Injury can vanish entirely.

Death

Death is entirely optional! Players can, of course, always take more corruption to avoid this unfortunate result.

The exact rules for player death are, unfortunately, only available to the GM.

Be assured, however, that this player character will no longer remain playable.

The amount of corruption the player has taken on will be factored in.

Full Corruption

Again, exactly what happens when there are no Corruption spaces left to fill on the character sheet remains a mystery, for now (GM: It's explained in the GM's guide!), but presume that going far enough down this path will end up at a point where the character becomes no longer playable.

Eddy, and Creating a New Player Character

If a player doesn't have access to a playable character for one reason or another (Death, Full Corruption, heck, even simple unconsciousness or being trapped in a room somewhere), they can grab an Eddy. Eddy is a low-impact temporary player character designed for just such an occasion!

If the player would like to continue, with a new Player Character, they must choose a new Major Arcana.

A pod containing their player is shot on to the moon. If a NPC matching their arcana exists, that NPC is fated to die within the fortnight.

Major Injury

Bleeding Out

Blood is coming out. It's not supposed to be coming out. It's supposed to be inside.

• While you are in combat, you lose 3HP at the beginning of your turn.
• Outside of combat, you can't use Skills except for AID.
• A successful Hard AID (First Aid) check can downgrade this to Bandaged Wound.
• This check can be retried.
• After one night of rest, the player dies.
• That's right, don't go to sleep while you're bleeding out. You need medical attention.
• That's free medical advice.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Bleeding Out.

Broken Arm

A sickening crack.

• While you have a Broken Arm, you are Weak.
• You can not use Strong skills.
• If you were already Weak: now, you cannot deal non-magical damage, at all.
• This overrides any character traits you might already have (if you were Strong, now you are Weak).
• A successful Hard AID check can downgrade this to a Splinted Arm Minor Injury.
• This check can be retried.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to the Massive, Painful Scar Minor Injury.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Broken Arm.

Broken Leg

You can't walk this one off.

• While you have a Broken Leg, you are Slow.
• You can not use Fast skills.
• If you were already Slow: now, you cannot gain shields, at all.
• This overrides any character traits you might already have (if you were Fast, now you are Slow).
• A successful AID (First Aid) check can downgrade this to a Splinted Leg.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to Massive, Painful Scar.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Broken Leg.

Concussion

It's only a mild traumatic brain injury.

• While you have a Concussion, you are Foolish.
• You can not use "Wise" skills.
• If you were already Foolish: now, you cannot Concentrate at all.
• This overrides any character traits you might already have (if you were Wise, now you are Foolish).
• A successful Hard AID (First Aid) check can downgrade this to Dizzy.
• This check can be retried.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to Massive, Painful Scar.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Concussion.

Curse

Everything is starting to go wrong for you.

• While you have a Curse, you are Unlucky.
• You can not use "Lucky" skills.
• If you were already "Unlucky": while you're Cursed, remove all 10s and Knights from your deck, as well as The Fool and The Sun.
• A successful Hard MISC check can downgrade this to a Minor Injury.
• This check can be retried.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to a Massive, Painful Scar.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Curse.

Delerium

Confusion and disorientation.

• While you have Delerium, you are Dull.
• You can not use "Clever" skills.
• If you were already Dull: now, you cannot use any skills at all.
• This overrides any character traits you might already have (if you were Clever, now you are Dull).
• A successful Hard AID (First Aid) check can downgrade this to Confusion.
• This check can be retried.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to Massive, Painful Scar.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Delerium.

Disease

Something has made you very sick.

• Disease can not be healed without professional medical attention.
• Any time a Five of Pentacles is drawn:
  • If in Combat: take 8HP of damage. This damage can not be offset with Shields.
  • If outside of Combat: take a Minor Injury of the GM's choice.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Disease.

Heart Palpitations

Thu-thump. Thu-...thump?

• Draw an extra card on every combat turn.
• If this card is a Major Arcana, take 1HP of damage and discard the card.
• If this card is a 3 of Swords, take a Critical Injury.
• At the end of the Day, discard Heart Palpitations.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Heart Palpitations.

Unresolved Trauma

Emotional damage.

• While you have Unresolved Trauma, you are Strange.
• You can not use "Charming" skills.
• This overrides any character traits you might already have (if you were Charming, now you are Strange).
• If you were already Strange: take one Corruption point at the end of every Combat.
• A successful Hard FINAID (Empathy) check can downgrade this to Stress.
• This check can be retried.
• After two nights of rest, downgrade this to Massive, Painful Scar.
• Take 4 Corruption Points to instantly heal Unresolved Trauma.

Minor Injury

Bandaged Wound

It still hurts but at least it's bandaged.

• While you are in combat, you lose 1HP at the beginning of your turn.
• After two nights of rest, remove Bandaged Wound.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Bandaged Wound.

Blinded

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

• While you are Blinded
• Any skill check that requires sight gets a Penalty.
• In Combat:
  • All Ranged Damage becomes Damage, and all Magic Ranged Damage becomes Magic Damage.
  • Any effect that targets all Adversaries will instead target all Adversaries in your Zone.
  • Any time you would deal Damage, draw and discard a card from the top of the deck.
    • If it is a 1-5, you miss and deal no Damage.
• Play Temperance to remove Blinded.
• Take 1 Corruption Point to instantly heal Blinded.
• Outside of Combat, a Medium AID check and a few minutes of rest will remove Blinded.

Distracted

You're not paying attention.

• While you have Distracted
  • Discard all Wands or Pentacles drawn during your combat turn.
• Discard Distracted at the end of combat.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Distracted.

Dizzy

You've been spun around one too many times.

• While you have Dizziness, you cannot be Wise.
• You have Penalty on all "Wise" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Dizzy.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Dizzy.

Groggy

All it takes is one bad knight and all of a sudden you understand why sleep is so important.

• Take Groggy when you fail to have a restful sleep.
• While you have Groggy:
  • Knights count as a Critical Fail if drawn during skill checks.
  • If you draw a Knight during combat, immediately discard it.
• Discard Groggy when you have a restful sleep.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Groggy.

Hex

It's hard to be lucky when you're hexed.

• While you have Hex, you cannot be Lucky.
• You have Penalty on all "Lucky" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Hex.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Hex.

Loopy

You're still a little disoriented.

• While you have Loopiness, you cannot be Clever.
• You have Penalty on all "Clever" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Loopy.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Loopy.

Massive Painful Scar

It might be a physical or emotional scar, but either way it isn't going anywhere.

• You can have more than one Massive Painful Scar.
• At the beginning of the day, choose one combat ability that you can use: It can not be used this Day.
• A different combat ability can be chosen each Day, but Massive Painful Scar must always block at least one ability.
• Two Massive Painful Scars cannot block the same ability.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Massive Painful Scar.

Morning Start Withdrawal

Don't talk to me until I've had my Morning Start.

• If you have consumed a delicious, refreshing Morning Start this Day, Morning Start Withdrawal has no effect.
  • If you consume a second Morning Start this Day:
  • Take the "Heart Palpitations" Major Injury.
• If you have not:
  • You get Penalty on all checks.
  • Discard one card from your hand at the start of your combat turn.
  • If you have not consumed a Morning Start by the end of the Day, remove Morning Start Withdrawal.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Morning Start Withdrawal.

Injured Arm

A painful injury to a vital limb.

• While you have a Injured Arm, you cannot be Strong.
• You have Penalty on all "Strong" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Injured Arm.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Injured Arm.

Injured Leg

You're hobbling around.

• While you have a Injured Leg, you cannot be Fast.
• You have Penalty on all "Fast" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Injured Leg.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Injured Leg.

Stress

It's hard to be charming when you're stressed.

• While you have Stress, you cannot be Charming.
• You have Penalty on all "Charming" skills.
• In your first round of combat, discard 1 card.
• After two nights of rest, remove Stress.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Stress.

Upset Stomach

Farts ahoy!

• While you have Upset Stomach, take a Penalty on all skill checks.
• Discard Upset Stomach at the end of the day.
• Take 2 Corruption Points to instantly heal Upset Stomach.

Critical Injury

Critical Injury

Critical injuries are really bad.

• While your character has a Critical Injury, they can not move or deal damage. They can speak. They are incapacitated.
• A successful AID check can downgrade this to a Major Injury of the GM's choice.
• If a player receives another critical injury when they are critically injured, they die.
• Instead of dying, the player can (and probably should) take Corruption Points to heal injuries.
• Take 6 Corruption Points to instantly heal a Critical Injury.

Money & Equipment

Money

• The unit of currency on Paradise Lua is the "Credit".
• All currency on Paradisa Lua is digital: money is tracked by external data systems.
• Every character has a Bank Account containing most of their money.
• Small units of currency (Less than 200 Credits) can be loaded on to small objects called "Chits". A Chit might look like a poker chip, or a small diskette.
• Possession of a Chit confers ownership of the money contained within.
• The Chit itself is worth 1 Credit: this is the minimum value of a Chit, as a Chit containing 0 Credits is still worth the 1 Credit that the Chit itself is worth.
• Most players and NPCs have a few loose Chits on their person at all times that they can load currency on to.
• Chits can also store small amounts of data: a voice clip, or a text file, for example.
• Large amounts of currency can be loaded on to a larger object called a "Vault". A Vault might look like a metal suitcase with some ports on it.

How Much Stuff Can You Carry?

• There is no limit on how many regular items you can carry.
• Most items weigh about a fifth of what they weigh on Earth, so weight-based carry capacity is even less of a concern on the Moon than it would be on Earth.
• However, some things are Big. Objects that have a lot of volume are awkward to carry. You can only carry 1 Big object (Strong: 2, Weak: 0).
• Some things just can't be carried around - like, your character can probably lift a couch, but they can't just carry a couch around with them wherever they go, because that would be very awkward and also kind of a strange thing to do.

Exhaust

• When an item "Exhausts", it means that you lose that item, return it to the GM.
• For example, a grenade "exhausts" when you throw it and it explodes. No getting that grenade back.

Items

Backpack

This sturdy rucksack is perfect for whatever you need to carry.

• In combat, draw and place a card from the top of your deck into the Backpack.
• If the card is The Tower, draw a new card and shuffle The Tower back into your deck.
• Any time during your turn, you may swap a card in your hand with the card on Backpack.

Groucho Glasses

The large plastic nose, glasses, and bushy eyebrows, together, make you look like a totally different person. The only problem is that that totally different person looks like they are wearing a toy on their face, but hey, it's a start.

Exhaust to gain Bonus on a DRAMA check.

Blank Keycard

A keycard that can be programmed to open any door.

• Reduce the difficulty of a FREE check made to open a door by 1, then Exhaust Blank Keycard.

Cast Iron Pan

A large, heavy, black, cast iron pan. As effective against foes as it is against eggs.

• Reduce the difficulty of a SHOP check made to make food edible or water potable by 1.
• When using Unarmed Strike, you may deal +1 damage.
• "Weapon" effects like this do not stack: only the highest damage bonus applies.

EVA Suit

It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but neither is depressurizing your lungs.

• This suit allows you to go outside of Paradise Lua without immediately dying.
• Wearing the EVA Suit in Paradise Lua is surprisingly beneficial in combat situations:
  • The suit is covered in a thick armored poncho and steel helmet, granting you 3 Shields on every combat turn.
  • The helmet is airtight, and has its own oxygen supply, rendering you invulnerable to gas and liquid-based attacks.
• All skill checks except for FINAID made while wearing the EVA Suit are made with Penalty: it's hard to move around in this thing.
• Putting on the EVA Suit in Combat takes a full round and a successful Medium GYM check.

First Aid Kit

This kit contains bandages, antiseptic, sterile gauze, scissors, and other supplies for treating minor injuries.

• Reduce the difficulty of an AID check made to treat an injury by 1 step, then Exhaust First Aid Kit.

Headphones

These large, foamy, deluxe, bass-forward noise-cancelling headphones are exactly what you need to drown out Paradise Lua.

• After succeeding at a FINAID check (empathy, perception, or danger sense), but before finding out the results, you may instead fail the check.
• If you do:
  • Take the card that you succeeded the check with, and place it face-down on Headphones.
  • Headphones can hold up to 3 cards.
• At the start of combat:
  • Reveal all cards on Headphones and add them to your hand.
• Headphones can also be used to make a loud place quiet (perhaps allowing for a more restful sleep).

Morning Start

With taurine, ginseng, caffeine, amphetamines, and a little bit of our proprietary Formula X, Morning Start is the perfect way to start your day. Get in the Morning Start habit!

• Draw 5 cards.
• Exhaust Morning Start.
• If you have the "Groggy" Minor Injury, remove it.
• If you do not have the "Morning Start Withdrawal" Minor Injury, take it.

Trash Can Lid

You can use it as an impromptu shield, or also to keep raccoons out of your trash.

• Gain 10 Shields.
• Exhaust Trash Can Lid

Travel Pots

Small, aluminum pots with lids that can be used to boil water or cook food.

• Reduce the difficulty of a SHOP check made to make food edible or water potable by 1.

Food & Sleep

Players need to eat and sleep, every day.

Finding food and a place to sleep are going to occupy some of their time on the moonbase.

If you go a day without eating, you take 3 Corruption Points.

If you go a day without sleeping, you take 3 Corruption Points.

Eating

Some food is just always edible: like, "apples" or "boxed crackers" or "hamburgers from the food court". You can pretty much always eat apples.

Some food is inedible until prepared: like, "flour", "raw meat", or "raw eggs". These foods need to be cooked, necessitating a SHOP (culinary) check, and only becomes edible if the SHOP (culinary) check succeeds.

Eating food that isn't edible, but is still food, like raw eggs or handfuls of loose flour, count as successfully Eating but will give you the Upset Stomach Minor Injury.

Sleeping

If you find a place to sleep that isn't safe, you're going to trigger a (potential combat) scenario with some security bots or executare who's job it is to move itinerants along. This night's sleep won't be restful.

If you find a place to sleep that's loud, or distracting in some other way, your sleep won't be restful.

If you don't find a resful place to sleep, this counts as successfully Sleeping but will give you the Groggy Minor Injury.

Playlist

Of course there is an official playlist of Remaining Teenagers: Zero. Not because there needs to be, but because concocting mixtapes is one of life's great joys.

Do you have a themed playlist that would be perfect for this? DM me or e-mail me at fuckin-playlists-how-do-they-work@gooble.email, and I'll add it to this page.

A Brief Guide to the Tarot

While every Tarot deck includes a little booklet explaining the cards and their meanings and interpretations, I have also included one here, for the sake of completeness.

A passing familiarity with some of this stuff may enhance the thematic resonance of various elements of the game.

A Note on Cartomancy

It is, of course, possible to predict the future with startling specificity and accuracy. Astronomers do it all the time: with access to a telescope the size of a building and a brain-melting amount of calculus, it's possible to do things like predict the precise location of stars in the sky years in advance, determine the time and location of future eclipses, and predict exactly when the sun will rise and set.

After thousands of years we've finally found a priesthood who, when they read the tea leaves, actually come out with the correct answer. Absolutely bananas. The prognostication olympics have been cancelled because ballistics team took home every medal for 4 centuries straight. Astrology didn't even have a chance.

Technically, ballistics should be able to tell you which pip on a numbered die will come up when you roll the bones, or what the weather will be like tomorrow, but when it comes down to complex systems like fluid, or even the bounces of a handful of small rocks, chaos intervenes to make predictions essentially impossible: most things exist in systems so complex that ballistics calculations work, but microscopic changes in initial position and velocity produce wildly different outcomes, so models can't reliably produce exact predictions.

Probability theory and statistics then stepped up to bat and firmly delivered a line drive for our ability to predict the unpredictable. Despite being unable to predict the outcome of an individual die roll, probability can accurately bound and predict the outcome of thousands of dice rolled together. Roll a six-sided die 1,000,000 times and I guarantee the sum of those dice will be more than 3,000,000, less than 4,000,000, and a stone's throw away from 3,500,000. Probably.

We are, in fact, prediction engines, constantly engaged in the task of measuring, modelling and predicting our surroundings. It would be impossible to participate in traffic, or to play a game of pool or poker, if we weren't.

I say this in order to establish that predicting the future is, in fact, possible. We do it all the time.

Cartomancy, however, depends on the well-understood practice of cold reading. It's a carefully managed illusion whereby a clever huckster can attempt to predict the past, which, generally, is much easier to predict than the future, on account of it's having already happened.

By presenting cards that offer seemingly-specific interpretations, but that can also be re-interpreted and re-combined in various and sundry ways by exploiting their rich details and broad archetypes, cartomancy offers an extremely powerful engine for cold reading. "The Lovers" and "The Emperor" together can mean "you will fall in love with a tall, dark, handsome man within the week" (whoa, chills), but it can also mean "you will have or have had a positive interaction with any man, at some point in the future or at any point in your past", a prediction that, if you were simply to make it without the aid of fun occult-themed cards, would be so non-specific and broadly applicable as to be laughable.

Cold readers watch their clients closely as they draw cards. If they gravitate towards specific cards, it's likely that those are the ones that have meaningful connotations for them.

Cold reading works by giving the target a lot of very broad patterns and then watching and refining, taking their reaction to the patterns presented and using them to zero in on specific details. This is easier with a willing audience: most people are happy to reinterpret vague statements into their own frame of reference and volunteer a lot of information about themselves.

It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see a Patagonia vest and a ten thousand dollar watch and say "Your connection to the financial world brings you a lot of pain, but also provides welcome structure to your life".

It's also much easier to remember a spookily accurate prediction as a wild and unlikely coincidence, while dismissing and quickly forgetting an inaccurate prediction... Ashley. Honestly, with enough customers and enough predictions, you're bound to find someone who you've always been right about, just by accident.

This produces no shortage of "whoa" moments for people experiencing cartomancy for their first time. Whoa: Death came up, and my grandfather just died last week. Or: if there wasn't a prominent death recently? Maybe there will be one in the future. Or maybe there won't, and Death just meant "any significant change, at all". Because the cards have specific connotations but general outs, they're able to produce a high velocity of interpretations that feel laser-precise even if they're... not, really.

As a bonus, most of the cards are optimized to be easily interpreted as answers for some of the most common questions. The four suits are carefully organized around things people want to know about: love (cups), money (pentacles), power (swords), and adventure (wands).

This doesn't mean all fortunetellers are necessarily hucksters, although many of them are: many fortunetellers are simply intuitive, empathetic people who are as invested in manufacturing the accuracy of their card readings as their customers are. They've had many of their own "whoa" moments, and with a little effort they, too, can tune their inner eye.

Ultimately, it's my impression that fortunetellers are mostly harmless: talking over your life and experiences with an empathetic stranger who's doing their best to listen so well that they seem prescient can be pleasant and even thereapeutic for many, although it's no substitute for real therapy.

This also leads to some fun life advice: toss out wild predictions now and then. People will forget the misses, but remember the hits, and you'll seem like an oracle.

Swords

Swords are the suit of power - ideas and conflict. And swords! Stab stab!

Ace of Swords - Thought

New ideas, breakthroughs, clarity, success.

Two of Swords - Decisions

A difficult decision or stalemate. Very Justice-coded. To be honest it's kind of like having a whole second "Justice" card in the deck, but this one isn't as jurisprudence-coded.

Three of Swords - Heartbreak

It's literally a heart that's broken while rain happens in the background. This is heartbreak & grief.

Four of Swords - Sleep

Peace, rest & relaxation. Sure, he's dead, but he's pretty relaxed about it.

Five of Swords - Fight

Conflict, competition, & hurt feelings. "Ha ha! I've won all these swords, fair and square!"

Six of Swords - Travel

Taking your freshly acquired swords for a nice boat ride. Transition, change, rites of passage.

Seven of Swords - Deception

"Ha ha, I can't believe I got away with all that guy's swords."

Eight of Swords - Prison

"The swords are back for vengeance!" Self-imposed restrictions, being trapped.

Nine of Swords - Nightmares

"Oh god I wish I hadn't stolen all these swords." Anxiety, Fear, Concern.

Ten of Swords - Trauma

The swords finally get their comeuppance. Painful Endings, Deep Wounds, Crisis.

Page of Swords - Exploration.

New ideas, curiosity, all talk and no action.

Knight of Swords - ADHD

Ambitious, action-oriented, driven to succeed, restless.

Queen of Swords - Journalist

Direct, clear, independent communication. She's a perfect journalist motivated only by her desire to find The Truth and put it in print.

King of Swords - Mastermind

Mental clarity, intellectual power, manipulation.

Cups

Cups are the suit of emotions, feelings, and love.

Ace of Cups - Emotions

Out of all of the cups, this is the cuppiest cup. Overflowing with emotion. There's so much. Maybe it's a good emotion, like love. Maybe it's a bad emotion, like love for cheese.

Two of Cups - Partners

I can't help but think of doctors when I see a coiled snake like that. These two have a solid rapport.

Three of Cups - Shots shots shots shots

Getting crunked with your friends!

Four of Cups - Careful

"No, bad idea cloud, I would NOT like a full glass of high-proof alcohol."

Five of Cups - Regret

They made the mistake of listening to bad idea cloud, and things got dark.

Six of Cups - Nostalgia

Innocence, joy, and remembering those times fondly.

Seven of Cups - Advertising!

Whoa, look at all that cool stuff I could own!

Eight of Cups - Abandonment

The credit card statement from all of that cool stuff has arrived, the joy was short-lived, and now it's time to bail, run off into the mountains, and hope they never find you.

Nine of Cups - Contentment

I don't need anything. I'm content with what I've got.

Check it. Check all these sweet cups. I've got cups for days.

Ten of Cups - The Happy Ending

This is your picture perfect happy ending. A family, kids, a home, a rainbow. It's perfect.

Page of Cups - The Conman

Me and my fish know what's up. This slick double-dealer always has an angle.

Knight of Cups - The Knight of Love

Calm, cool, collected, and putting it all on the line for someone he loves.

Queen of Cups - The Psychiatrist

Emotional stability.

Will serve a cup of tea and help you work through your complex emotions.

King of Cups - The Diplomat

It's abundantly clear looking at this card that the King of Cups has just shat his pants and doesn't want anybody to know about it.

He's a deft politician, thoughtful and able to shift his position on a dime.

Pentacles

Pentacles are the suit of wealth. This makes the cards some of the easiest to interpret: they are, in fact, all about the Benjamins.

Ace of Pentacles - Payday

Gettin' paid. Fresh money opportunities.

Two of Pentacles - Juggling

Juggling priorities, spinning plates.

Three of Pentacles - Teamwork

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Four of Pentacles - Saving

There isn't a lot to go around and the more you keep, the more you have.

Five of Pentacles - Poverty

These children don't have rich parents, and therefore are trash, society's refuse.

Six of Pentacles - Charity

Generosity greases the wheels. Today, you - tomorrow, me.

Seven of Pentacles - Growth

With some perseverance you've made a big pile of food. Nice.

Eight of Pentacles - Industry

Repetition. Mastery. Production lines. Factories.

Nine of Pentacles - Luxury

Luxury. Opulence. Marble columns. Very old wine. Expensive birds. Bad hats.

Ten of Pentacles - Inheritance

This isn't just wealth, it's generational wealth, the kind of money that doesn't just set you up, it sets up your whole family. Nobody will ever have to work again. Somebody's got to do the repetitive labour, but some of us just get to have that done on our behalf for our entire lives, and that's mostly determined by how wealthy our parents were.

Page of Pentacles - The Venture Capitalist

Basically it's the Ace of Pentacles again: New financial opportunities. This one's a little more active, though: they've got money and a dream and are looking to get something profitable started.

Knight of Pentacles - Discipline

It's the four and eight of Pentacles again: Conservatism and financial discipline, but this time embodied by this guy. He's not born to wealth, he's the hard-eyed middle manager who's fought his way up from the warehouses. As a result, he's sharp and unbelievably mercenary. The rich get to live in a soft, happy world where nobody needs to get hurt, but this guy fought his way in on a black horse and some people had to get trampled on the way up the ladder.

Queen of Pentacles - The Martha Stewart / Ina Garten / Gwyneth Paltrow Triangle

This woman has taken an picture, cutting lemons, in a perfectly white kitchen with the beach barely visible in the window.

This carefully groomed image of pastoral simplicity doesn't reveal that the kitchen was staged, that every decision in this shot was carefully directed, that the image presented was worked over by a creative team to perfectly embody "pastoral simplicity".

This woman is the face of a business empire, selling the idea of perfect femininity.

King of Pentacles - The Failson

His father made the empire, he just... inherited it. He has all of the power and prosperity of a vast empire, but mostly blows it on cocaine and bad ideas. He imagines himself a titan of industry, but most of what he provides is bluster.

However, the cruel hardass that built this empire still looms large in the failson's head and his heart - but the failson's cruelty is cargo cult evil, just being nasty because he thinks that's what his father would do. Lacking the wisdom to know when it's truly time to unsheathe his dagger, his betrayals are random and capricious.

Wands

Wands are the suit of travel, adventure, and freedom.

Ace of Wands - Double Entendre

Stop giggling! That's not what this is! It's supposed to mean "inspiration" or "new opportunites" or something like that. You're making into a dirty joke! Anyways, while you have the thick Ace of Wands in your hand you feel very powerful. Just don't get too excited.

Two of Wands - Planning

Making a plan for the future. Setting goals. Keeping a day-planner. Building a Gantt chart. Setting a strategic direction.

Three of Wands - Progress

Expansion & progress. Lookin' out over your boats on their road to bring you back some capital.

Four of Wands - Festival

Seems like the plan went well and now we're having a big ol' celebration.

Five of Wands - Fight Fight Fight!

Everybody's hitting one another with sticks! WHOMP! POW! ZAP!

Six of Wands - Victory

Having won the fight or competition, you get to ride high.

Seven of Wands - The Tournament

Challenge! Competition! It's... a lot like the Five of Wands to be honest!

Eight of Wands - Travel

This card is going places.

Nine of Wands - Courage

This is like the opposite of the Nine of Swords: Fear? Nah, this is Courage. Unflappability in the face of danger. Building a wall.

Ten of Wands - Burden

HOOGH. These are some heavy sticks. Ten is a lot.

Page of Wands - The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Inspiration! Ideas! No limits! No boundaries! A free spirit!

This person is honestly pretty fucking exhausting.

Knight of Wands - The Adventure Idiot

Nobody knows how this guy got a horse, himself included.

He's embroiled in some vast and ridiculous adventure of his own concoction.

He's got a lot in common with The Fool.

Queen of Wands - The Social Network

Courage, confidence, cat pictures. This woman is friends with everyone, a celebrity. She's at every party, she seems to know everybody and is known by everyone. At the seat of the mystery, though, is the terrible secret that she can't share with anybody: she's not actually very exciting at all.

King of Wands - The Visionary

His big dreams actually worked out, and now it's his job to have more, bigger dreams. Which... he does.

The Fool

New Beginnings, Naivete, Freedom, Recklessness, Gullibility, This Is What You Get For Trusting Apple Maps, Dumb Feather Hats

No thoughts, head empty.

Look at this happy-go-lucky idiot!

He doesn't even see that he's about to fall off of a cliff! He's not even looking where he's going.

He hasn't packed anything but, like, a small purse.

He's got a little dog trying to warn him that he's about to tumble to his death, but who has time to listen to little dogs?

He's holding a white flower, which is symbolic of "innocence" and also "not packing enough".

In some sense, though, he's brave: willing to stride headlong into danger without even looking at where his feet are.

In a much more real sense, though, he's an idiot, who's about to try and see if that flower works as a parachute.

Some people liken the Major Arcana of the Tarot to the Hero's Journey - and, in that sense, The Fool is the hero. The zero, the blank slate, the adventurer.

1 - The Magician

Resourceful, Mastermind, Manipulator, Skillful, Yard Sale, Who Wants to Buy a Double-Ended Buttplug, Infinity-Brain, Also A Solid Gardener

Now this is a Magician who's got his ducks in a row. He's staying alive.

Look at that, The Magician has got all four of the Minor Arcana symbols just sitting there. On the table. The Magician either has a complicated plan or something to sell you.

With their ouroborous belt, the infinity symbol above their head, and a full table of weird ass crap they found, The Magician is ready to will their plans into fruition, with tools and schemes.

This is the card of mad scientists and brilliant innovators.

The High Priestess

Intuition, Them/They, Mystery, A Huge Number Two, Great BJ Game, Bringing Your Crescent Moon With You Wherever You Go

Sitting between yin and yang, black and white, and two huge-ass pillars is The High Priestess.

A representative of the middle ground between two extremes, The High Priestess is the card of enby bisexual energy, but ultimately The High Priestess did come to work dressed like a clitoris so take that with a grain of salt.

The interpretation of female anatomy as both sacred, mysterious, and utterly beyond the realm of understanding does not speak well of mystic A.E. Waite's sexual prowess.

The iconography of the High Priestess card parallels that of the iconography on The Hierophant. On the cards the Rider Waite Tarot were based on, the High Priestess and Hierophant were the "Pope" and "Popess" respectively.

"Popess" is a strange thing. There have been lots of male popes, some might say "all of them." - although there is the story (extremely apocryphal) of Pope Joan, a woman in the 800s who fooled people into letting her Pope it up for 2 full years before ruining the game by having a baby. Some people say that this is the reason that every new Pope is now ritually punched square in the stomach on his Pope Inauguration Day. (ed: my Catholicism is a little rusty, ping me if I got this wrong.)

The Empress

Femininity, She/Her, Motherhood, Beauty, Harvest, Nature, Vanity, Self-Absorption, Pondering Her Orb, Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Too Much Hat Game

I'm pretty sure she stole the pomegranate sheet behind The High Priestess and turned it in to a dress. She's a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world.

(I believe that) Femininity is a cultural construct rather than a real thing that exists. The Empress is built out of all of the stuff in the bucket marked "girl", good or bad. That doesn't necessarily mean "biologically female" but it certainly means "culturally female" for all that entails: she's soft, she's hot, she's motherly, she's nurturing, and she's brought entirely too much luggage into the forest with her.

At her worst? She's catty, vapid, and vain. She's confused "self-care" for "utter solipsism". She's a rigid and inflexible defender of the gender binary and polices both "maleness" and "femaleness". She's looking for a man in finance; trust fund, 6'5", blue eyes. She wears a short skirt and a long jacket. Her social network of moms don't believe in MMR shots (nor does she know what "MMR" stands for), and as a result are now trying to treat a growing measles epidemic with turmeric and lemon juice. She won't eat carbs and she steams all of her vegetables - because she heard that roasting adds calories. She drinks eight glasses of water a day, and she's not entirely sure why, except that someone said, one time, that that was how much water she was supposed to drink. She's on a juice cleanse. Her purse cost more than a commuter sedan. She has watched every single episode of The Real Housewives of True Crime.

At her best? She's creative, caring, free-spirited, effortlessly beautiful, and connected with herself, others, and nature itself. She's made you soup and brought you a blanket, because you're sick. She takes care of the people around her. She's a whole social network in one person. Everywhere she touches feels more like home. She wants you to call because she just wants to know that you're okay. She started a garden. She has recipes on index cards. She brought a granola bar for the road. She's a mama bear, fierce and protective. She's organized. She can dance. She's none of these things if she doesn't want to be. She's deeply uninterested in my perception of what constitutes stereotypical femininity and instead chooses to define it on her own terms.

Warning!

It's probably wise to consider leaving The Empress out of your games: there are lots of ways that portraying a character as "archetypally female" could result in hurt feelings, especially without direct lived experience. Hell, it was probably unwise to include this page, as written in the card index.

4 - The Emperor

Masculinity, He/Him, Fatherhood, Violence, Authority, Pragmatism, Reliability, Stoicism, Side-Eye, The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, Uncomfortable Chairs

Before you come at me for enforcing rigid gender roles, let me explain: the deck is more than a hundred years old. So femininity is portrayed as nurturing and nature-oriented and motherly, and masculinity is ramrod stiff, authoritarian, and militaristic.

Where the Empress appears to comfortably and effortlessly manage her pleasant forest kingdom with kindness and bounty, the Emperor is a bastard-coated bastard ruling a harsh, unpleasant mountain range with an iron fist. He's old, and shrewd, and seems more than a little worried that he might have forgotten to oppress someone.

This is the card of masculinity, good and bad.

At his worst: He is violent, emotionally inaccessible, angry, entitled, and nihilistic. His favorite movies are Fight Club and The Joker, he can't stop listening to Nu-Metal, and he owns a lot of guns. He's straight-piped his Hummer. He's got a leather jacket because when he grew up that was peak badass. He tells women to smile more. He's currently active in a group of men who promise to return things to the Good Old Days, when Men were Men. He cannot imagine anything more embarassing than being made to look feminine, or weak. He's become obsessed with military history and UFC on pay-per-view. He's quick to mock people when they're not meeting his standards. His default greeting is the sack tap. He says "you look better without make-up" to women who are wearing too much make-up and "are you tired, or sick?" to women who aren't wearing enough. He's on his third wife (women are crazy bitches, anyways). He's decided that masculinity means being wasteful and self-destructive, so he mocks salads and bicycles and is just a little bit proud of the massive coronary he's been carefully nurturing for the past 18 years. He's cried, just the once (when his mother died), and never again.

At his best: He is stoic, compassionate, responsible, reliable, protective, self-sacrificing, and a little goofy. He's had to fix the old Ford Ranger more times than he can count, but he's invested in its reliability. He builds bird-houses. He will teach you how to shave. He turns down the thermostat and tells you to put a sweater on if you're cold. He's not the best player on his baseball team but he always gives 110% because it's important to him. He washes the recycling before he puts it out so that it doesn't attract bears, changes all of the filters in the house, and knows how to fix a flat tire. He didn't want a pet, because it hurt him so badly when he lost the last one, but now that there's a pet in the house they're best friends. He has shorts that he likes because they're comfortable and he's not afraid to embarrass himself by trying something new. He wants to know how your day went. He wants to show you how to defend yourself against the class bully. He cracks stupid jokes to cheer you up, listens to rock & roll on a cassette player he's had since 1987, and always has your back, no matter what.

5 - The Hierophant

Tradition, Conformity, Knowledge, Teaching, Perhaps The Most Impressive Hat So Far, Finger Guns, Two In The Pink, A Backscratcher I Found At A Flea Market

I know what you're thinking. What in the hell is a hierophant?

According to Wikipedia, it's a "person who brings people into the presence of the holy".

There was a time when Tarot cards were just playing cards with a lot of baked-in trump cards for trick-taking games (a tradition I'm hoping to bring back here) - and since they were playing cards from Europe, one of the trump cards was just The Pope. Can't beat The Pope.

That's much too Catholic for occult mysticism so The Pope is replaced with this generic-brand Pope-like character, meant to represent any preacher or teacher. You're not fooling me, though, he's surrounded by dudes with the Friar Tuck haircut, this is just a dollar store Pope!

Anyways, The Hierophant is meant to represent institutional knowledge. Note the card's many similarities with its graphical parallel, The High Priestess: Whereas The High Priestess is intuitive, flexible, and mysterious, The Hierophant is institutional, inflexible, and mired in tradition. If that sounds critical of The Hierophant, keep in mind that The Hierophant is also quite a bit more likely to be right, and The High Priestess is quite a bit more likely to try and sell you a subscription to a crystal smoothie cleanse.

For what it's worth, The Hierophant is both the card for the Catholic Church and Modern Science, so "institutional knowledge" can go in a pretty variable set of directions, here. I suppose it depends on the institution!

6 - The Lovers

Love (Actually), Relationships, Asking Your Partner If They Would Consider an Open Relationship With a 12 Foot Tall Angel, Nude Chilling Park, The Garden of Eden

This one's pretty easy. Love, dummy!

Not lust. The express-train to bone-town is more accurately expressed by The Devil. This is a gentler, "draw a picture of their face in your high school notebook" love.

I guess one important distinction is that this doesn't have to necessarily represent romantic love. It often does, but it can zoom out to mean close interpersonal bonds of any kind.

7 - The Chariot

Focus, Ambition, Determination, Success, Square Your Chest, Moon-Shoulders McGee, An Eye-Roll From The Black Sphinx, Straight Up Just Not Having Legs, I Don't Think Chariots Are Supposed To Look Like That

These sphinxes want to go in two totally different directions. If the Chariot wants to go anywhere, they're gonna have to prioritize and direct.

The Chariot is a grindset, girlboss, day-trading, LinkedIn hustle-dork. Follow them for 38 great tips to get more out of your day. Dollar-sign emoji, hashtag inspirational. They are either involved in a ponzi scheme or some kind of pyramid-shaped multi-level marketing.

#followYourDreams

Both The Magician and The Chariot are cards indicating problem solving through force of will: the difference is that the Magician is accomplishing these things through skill, tools, and plans, whereas the Chariot is clearly in more of a management role.

Leadership - not in the paternalistic and violent way of the Emperor, necessarily, but more in the manner of the supervisor of a small fast food chain: driven, focused, and calling you at 2AM to find out if you will cover Madison's shift.

It's also important to note that without other folks to do all of the actual work, The Chariot cannot move an inch.

8 - Strength

Courage, Bravery, Compassion, Resilience, Pet Ownership

This is a fun one to describe, because a lot of people think it's strange that Strength as a woman patting a lion on the head.

Perhaps one might imagine Strength to be an impossibly buff dude stackin' weights and getting yoked: but nay!

It's just this lady giving a friendly lion a nice chin scratch. Who's a good boy?

That's the message, here: that strength doesn't mean raw physical strength, but strength of character, strength of resolve. She's not wearing armor, she's not afraid of the lion, she's in control of the situation.

She's not invulnerable: she's not hiding her vulnerability. She's wearing a soft cloth dress, not armor. She's simply willing to own her vulnerability, to look past it, and to go scratch the lion's chin anyways. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

Forming a relationship with an animal is also one of the things that requires the most strength: it's hard to fall in love with something that has a lifespan that is so much shorter than ours. We must brace ourselves from the very beginning for the inevitable heartbreak of losing one of our closest friends. Forming close relationships knowing full well that the heartbreak of their loss is inevitable - that takes true courage.

This is what Strength is: staring at the void, staring at pain, and saying "no". Not today. Today we find a sunny place and give our lion friend a chin scratch.

9 - The Hermit

Introspection, Introversion, Solitude, Loneliness, Keeping Your Star Safely Contained, Beard

The Hermit has gone somewhere, been alone for a long time, and returned with wisdom.

The Hermit exists in contrast with The Chariot: the Chariot drives, prioritizes, manages, and is utterly useless without others to carry them. The Hermit is self-directed and totally free: able to go anywhere and do anything. Chariot: extrovert, Hermit: introvert.

I think it's a misconception among extroverted folks that introverts don't like social contact. Introverts need social contact as much as the next person: it's a basic human need, as present as hunger or thirst. For introverts it's just that the social mask that they put up around others is more exhausting to maintain than it is for others. After a social occasion they will come home, snuggle their cat, and decompress and de-stress, temporarily freed from the exhausting procedure of pretending to be the person who other people see them as.

The other contrast is with The Lovers: they exist totally and wholly within their relationship, growing around one another in a co-dependent loop, whereas The Hermit is a strong, independent ace/aro icon who don't need no man.

We define ourselves partially by and through our relationships to others: losing our social network, or losing nodes in our social network, is traumatic and difficult. Solitary confinement is considered psychological torture by the UN, and can induce anxiety, depression, hallucinations, obsessions, paranoia, and psychosis. People who choose voluntarily to seek out total and complete solitude are often considered unusual: but the ability to define oneself outside of relationships to others, finding joy and meaning in self-direction, that's a muscle, too, a skill that people can develop. The ability to be able to take shelter in one's own skin, to retreat, to introspect, these are vital to our development.

So dance 'til you stop - 'til you wanna go home.

10 - Wheel of Fortune

Fate, Luck, Coloring With Your Cool Animal Friends, Showing Off Your New Sword, Being Able To Support An Entire Cylinder With Only Your Incredibly Tight Buttcheeks, Pat Sajak

The Wheel of Fortune means "random bullshit" and boy is this card ever covered in some random bullshit.

I've been mostly leaving out mention of the esoteric occult mythology while I talk about these cards, because if you read too much about Kabbalah your brain starts to pour out of your ears: it's sort of a syncretic mishmash of "judaism but with the rails taken off after taking a bunch of hallucinogens", astrology, alchemy, and Aleister Crowley's sleep paralysis demons. The idea is, I think, if you pile enough bad ideas together they start to look like a coherent worldview. (Any similarity to modern big-tent conspiracies involving adrenochrome and pizza is at-best accidental.)

Anyways, that's how this incredibly simple card ended up loaded down with a pile of symbols from astrology, hebrew characters, alchemical symbols, and a surprisingly thicc Anubis.

Trying to read any concrete meaning into that is a fool's game. This card is about one thing and one thing only:

Wheel!

Of!

Fortune!

The idea of the Wheel of Fortune, the Rota Fortunae, goes back thousands of years, to the point where it was already a time-worn cliché by Ancient Roman standards. King or peasant, whoever you are, you spend your life bound to the Wheel of Fortune: sometimes you're up while other people are down. Sometimes you're down while other people are up, and the turns happen entirely unpredictably.

tl;dr: Sometimes shit just happens randomly.

11 - Justice

Justice!

Some cards have a lot of interpretations. Justice is a simple one: JUSTICE!

It's also incredibly complicated, because what is justice?

Guess what, it's violence! Look at the sword that Justice has. That's not ornamental.

Deep inside your brain, in a dark place, there's a part that's been there for as long as people have existed: people who cheat or do wrong need to see consequences. Everything must be fair.

There must be such as thing as karma: the smart version of chaos that doles out punishments. That's a real thing, right?

The mob have killed your family, or your dog: the only reasonable recourse is a roaring rampage of revenge. This is Justice in the John Wick, The Bride, The Punisher sense: what has been taken from you is immeasurable so what must be taken in return is endless.

The thing is, the desire for vengeance is... outsized, hungry. We desire consequences that are way out of line with the original violation. I know I've laid awake in my bed dreaming of finding the person who stole my bicycle and hitting that person with a crowbar until they'd need wheels.

Of course, violence only begets more violence: lots of people are somebody's whole world, so every John Wick creates ten more John Wicks in their Wick wake.

This is the cycle of violence: Person X, demanding vengeance, enacts violence on Person Y, possibly doing collateral damage to Person Z, and now Person Y and Person Z are out for their own vengeance, leading to an eternal cycle of violence. Hatfields and McCoys. Montagues and Capulets. What's even worse is that sometimes Person Y didn't even do whatever thing that got them justiced-upon in the first place.

If you're wondering 'why is vigilante justice a bad thing?', well, this is why.

As a result of having to deal with the fallout from a few too many John Wick Scenarios, thousands of years ago, society as a whole (and/or one cool Hammurabi dude) decided that in order to keep every conflict from escalating wildly out of control, an impartial third party should step in and dole out a reasonable amount of vengeance. An eye for an eye. Reciprocal justice.

Thus the scales: for every harm done to you, an equivalent amount of harm must be done in turn. It's only fair.

Some people believe in non-retributive justice: restorative justice. Forgiveness, rehabilitation. Doing what's best for society. But that doesn't satisfy our lust for vengeance.

Jurisprudence is supposed to sound clinical, boring, legal, but at it's heart, it is a tall frosty Big Gulp full of violence.

When you get to the bottom of the Big Gulp, there's only one thing left. Just ice.

12 - The Hanged Man

A Different Perspective, Getting Stuck, I Woke Up Like This, It's Not As Bad As It Looks

With a name like "The Hanged Man", this card sounds way worse than it is.

Maybe this card should have picked a slightly less violent term: it would be exactly as effective as "The Upside-Down Man" without immediately bringing to mind a hanging.

See, The Hanged Man is here of his own volition. He's simply looking at everything a completely different way as everyone else. What does he see that you don't see?

He's also not going anywhere, fast.

13 - Death

Death.

The interpretation of this one is as plain as the image on the card. The Lovers means love. Death means death.

Remember when I described how cold reading worked? "DEATH" provides an immediate punch, it's bold, it's a big prediction, but it's actually a lot more generic than it seems. The only things in life that are certain are death and taxes, after all. Most people have had some kind of experience with death, so this card is going to be broadly relevant to a lot of people while still feeling utterly magical when you draw it a day before your cat Mr. Mittens shuffles off his mortal coil. Thing is, though, if it doesn't come through and nobody dies or has died recently, the fortuneteller needs an out, which is why Death could also mean "any transition", or "letting go".

This is premium-grade soothsayer horseshit. Death means death.

It's a horseman in black standing over a dead guy. I'm not sure else how you want me to interpret this. That rich guy isn't begging to avoid a transition in life circumstances. He's trying to cheat death, and it's not going to work.

Losing a loved one is among the worst things that will definitely happen to most of us. Being able to love, at all, in the face of the unavoidable bit at the end, where it ends, takes Strength.

Grief, as they say, is just love with no place to go.

Religious types have spent decades promoting memento mori: reminders of death, because their particular swindle: the promise of eternal life (and a perfect post-mortem karmic retribution system, to boot), works best when you're devastated at the loss of a loved one or staring down your own fear of death.

To be honest, I used to be much more strident and unpleasant an atheist before I realized to what extent people need religion to be able to function, at all. Sure, it's delusional, but that delusion is helping, and attempting to take it away from people is an act of unimaginable, unthinkable cruelty. If you ever find yourself wanting to be snide about someone's belief in an afterlife, just take a moment and imagine that they are comforted by the idea that their lost family members are waiting for them there, and what it would cost them to lose that.

Death is, in no small sense, utterly terrifying. We know, intuitively, what it is like not to exist: the time before we were born gave us a hint as to what an eternity of nonexistence is like. Despite that, it's tough to really describe the experience because we weren't around to experience it.

It's not "nothing", because even "nothing" is a thing, a concept, that demands a frame of reference from which to experience the nothing. The best analogy for it in writing that I can think of is simply to leave a sentence half comple

Restful sleep provides a hint, too: it's not a place where we are, it's an absence, where we aren't. There's no suffering, no joy, no... anything - which would be awfully boring if we were there to experience it, which we weren't and won't be.

Somehow even worse, the universe that we exist in stares at exactly the same void at the end of its existence. Not only will we eventually not exist, so too will everything else. Not even two vast and trunkless legs of stone, standing in the desert. In the absence of the ability to percieve time-frames that comes with no longer existing, our own deaths are not meaningfully distinguishable, from our point of view, from the end of the universe and all things.

If we spend an infinite stretch of time not existing, add to it a few brief moments of "whoa, here I am", and then spend another infinite stretch after that not existing once again, can we even be said to meaningfully exist at all?

René Descartes is in a tavern. He is drunk. The bartender cautions: “Monsieur, I think that you have had enough.” Descartes slurs back “I think not” and vanishes.

It's grim, and thinking about it too much leads down the road of utter, bitter nihilism.

There's an upside, though: it's the opposite of the memento mori. Oblivisci mori. You can simply forget to die. You will probably still die (citation needed), but you can deal with it when it happens: and you know what? You won't have to think about it much, then, either.

The cure for nihilism, or at least the best one I've been able to concoct without the pleasant salve of promises of eternal life, is just not to think about it too hard. No time to ponder the heat death of the universe: you need to get some eggs.

This can be tough if you're a plotter, a planner, a tactician, used to applying a long-term viewpoint to all of your thinking. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that the only time is now. Be petty. Be small. Get mad about something stupid. Have some toast. You only live once, so be careful, but you only live once, so you might as well enjoy it.

14 - Temperance

Balance, Moderation, Boundless Chill, The Golden Mean Fallacy, And He Mixes A Pretty Solid Martini

Temperance should be a bartender. Here's why I think it's funny: bartenders have a sort of cultural assocation with the idea of a neutral, relaxed bystander who will listen to your stories while casually wiping down a glass - this is rarely the case in reality, but it certainly has developed as a narrative trope. However, "temperance" is also a movement that started by trying to discourage folks from drinking too much and ended up growing into a movement calling for complete abstinence from drinking, which actually isn't a very good example of temperance. Temperance is about balance, not absolutes.

There's no card for Abstinence, because (checks notes) that would be lame.

Anyways, that's kinda given Temperance the impression of being the virtue of being a wet blanket, when - at worst, they're just being practical. Temperance can drink alcohol, but Temperance drinks water, too, so that they don't get a nasty hangover the next day, and they only have a glass or two. That's good for today. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Temperance can get a little wild at parties, because they respect that even moderation must be enjoyed in moderation, but most days they don't drink at all.

Temperance eats a lot of vegetables. Temperance has a gym membership. Temperance washes the bedsheets with the laundry. Temperence pays their bills on time. Temperance has their shit together. Temperance is a goddamn adult.

15 - The Devil

Addiction, Dependency, Excess

These two forgot to use Temperance and now they've become hopelessly addicted to something. Wealth, power, or, heck, just an addictive drug. Who knows what it is, but they're trapped, now!

These two look an awful lot like the two bright-eyed lovers. Their relationship has become toxic and co-dependent and now they're stuck in it.

Look, The Devil isn't a cheery, fun-times card. It's a card for folks who have been imprisoned by their own desires. Maybe they're working a job that they hate because it's lucrative, or maybe they're caught in an endless cycle of chemical dependency.

It's often a contract. There's something thematically very appropriate about it being a contract. The Devil is, of course, in the details.

16 - The Tower

Disaster, Hubris

Death is bad, of course, but it's both inevitable and final. It doesn't capture the full spectrum of possible human catastrophe. For everything else, there's the Tower, a more general symbol of "oh, shit". It's a real Critical Fail of a card.

Statistically, someone must have drawn this card in a reading on September 10, 2001, and then just had the wierdest day, afterwards. I bet they're very convinced of the efficacy of Tarot readings.

While "shit hits fan in a big way" is the primary meaning of this card, it's intended to be a depiction of the Tower of Babel, somewhat, and so the card takes on the second meaning: hubris, struck down. The Tower was too tall, it never should have been built, and now this folly is collapsing back down to Earth.

This is a stock market crash card, a Titanic sinking card.

17 - The Star

Narcissism, Vanity, Missing Out On The Northern Lights And Cool Birds Because You're Staring At Your Own Reflection

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this card is, in my opinion, one of the most commonly misinterpreted in the Tarot.

"Look at that woman watering the grass right next to a pond, this card means healing and renewal and hope and bounty." Uh, that territory is already covered by The Empress, thanks.

She's watering the pond. Ponds (checks notes) don't need water.

Do you know where I've seen this imagery before?

That woman is just utterly obsessed with her own reflection. There's some kind of gigantic supernova happening behind her and she's just staring at her own face. So much so that she's dumping valuable water all over the place. She might be the only person in the universe for all she knows.

Anyways, she deserves to be the center of attention: she is a Star.

18 - The Moon

Mirror Images, Illusions, Apophenia, Lies, Fear, Anxiety

I know that a crawfish just hanging out makes me anxious.

I guess the interpretation is that one of these two dogs, and one of these two towers - isn't real at all. The various barriers on this pathway are just made up, they're mirror images, they're howling at the moon.

This is the card of seeing patterns where patterns do not exist.

Do you see a face in the moon? That's pareidolia, the tendency to see faces everywhere. Because we see ... faces. Everywhere.

Pareidolia is one kind of apophenia: the tendency to see patterns where patterns don't actually exist.

Pareidolia and apophenia are natural: we are wired to see faces and discover patterns. It's only schizophrenics and people who have taken hallicinogenic drugs who start to suffer from apophenia gone wild. Suddenly, everything is connected.

In fact, there are some systems intentionally and maliciously arranged to take advantage of that tendency in our brains: broad systems filled with many interlocking layers of meaning that teach you to find patterns everywhere, even when they don't exist.

It doesn't matter if the layers of meaning actually mean anything, and in many cases in order for the systems to work at all, the layers can't mean anything. That's the magic behind the Rider-Waite Tarot: eccentric mysticism, astrology, alchemy, numerology, they're all disproven nonsense from a bygone era, but by layering them together in a language of symbols they provide the illusion of meaning where none exists.

This fertile ground of interconnected but ultimately meaningless concepts allows talented hucksters like myself to project any meaning they so choose upon the cards.

Conspiracies, cults, and fortunetellers have a lot in common in this sense: a charismatic stranger looking to empty your wallet promises to open your third eye by showing you patterns you could never have seen on your own; inducing a kind of artificial apophenia in you.

19 - The Sun

Optimism, Truth, Light, Naked Horse Rides

Things got a little grim while I was talking about The Moon, huh?

If you pull on the thread of "everything is just patterns that people made up" you start to go a little barmy. The economy, the legal system, our jobs, fame, finance and fashion, it's all just a game and we've been making up the rules as we go along.

It's time for a beach day. The sun's real. The way the sun feels on your skin is real. A picnic lunch is real. Alcohol is real. Relationships are real. Happiness is real. Go outside. Touch grass. Eat.

20 - Judgement

A Great Reckoning, Rapture, The Final Chapter

An enormous percentage of the world's population subscribes to one religion or another that calls for a Great Reckoning of some kind.

Even Flat Earthers believe in the day, some small amount of time in the future, when everybody finally comes around and realizes that the Earth has been flat the whole time and that they were right, all along.

One of the more humorous ones is the online cult of folks who've been snookered into buying Gamestop shares at many times their face value, who now believe in a vast and mythical market correction day of reckoning that will render all money on the planet moot while making them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

The promise of "this will all turn around in our favor, not long from now", is extremely common in cults of all stripes.

It's again important to note that behind the Rider-Waite Tarot and its mishmash of gnostic nonsense and occult bugaboos, lies the Tarot of Marseilles, a deck of playing cards used by French Catholics: what this card depicts is judgement day.

At some point in the future, God himself, so the theology has it, is going to come down, fold up the gameboard and toss all of his pieces back into the box.

Like with most any weird cult reckonings, the date that this is going to happen is always not long, now. Even after thousands of years, the apocalypse is always just a handful of months away.

I can't imagine the effect on long-term decision making it has to assume that everything is going to wrap itself up neatly, on its own, within our lifetimes. I'd think we should check if people believe that before we let them hold public office.

So Judgement is "The End". The final boss. The high muckamuck. The climax. It's time for the story to wrap up and for all of the loose-ends to get tied up, before we put all of the pieces back into the box, and if we're going to feel like we got the most out of this experience, we want to see a grand finale to really cap it off.

21 - The World

Completeness, Achievement, Wholeness, Denouement

That's it! You did it!

You reached the end! You defeated the final boss!

You watched the credits! You found the monster at the end of this book!

There's a sense of emptiness to it, a whole vibrant world disappearing before your eyes. Maybe there will be a sequel, maybe you can go back - but it'll never be the same as your first time.

I hate this part most of all. Even a good story has to come to an end eventually, and the better the story the harder it is to go back to The World.

The cycle, however, continues: maybe not with this story, but with another, and every pass through you grow and evolve.

Glossary

• Ability - One of the abilites a player has chosen - e.g. "Strong", or "Lucky". They are this thing.
• Adversary - Generic term for a baddie, monster, enemy, someone-what-is-about-to-get-punched.
• Arcana - A player's chosen Major Arcana. Like a "class" in a class-based RPG.
• Arcana Ability - A powerful combat ability only available to the chosen Arcana.
• Corruption Upgrade - An unlockable improvement to a base Arcana Ability.
• Failed Skill - One of the skills a player has chosen to forego. They are much less likely to succeed in skill checks with this skill.
• Major Arcana - One of the 22 unique cards in the Tarot - e.g. "The Fool", "The Star", "The World"
• Minor Arcana - One of the 56 suited cards in the Tarot - e.g. "Two of Cups", "Page of Swords"
• Skill - One of the skills a player has chosen. They are more likely to succeed in skill checks with this skill.
• Weakness - One of the abilities a player has chosen the weakness for - e.g. "Strange", or "Unlucky".

Introduction

So you're the gm, huh?

Everything past this point constitutes spoilers: if you are a player, beware!

Or read the spoilers. I'm not your dad!

Getting Started

• Familiarize yourself with the setting and lore, through these documents.
• Customize the setting and lore, using the Customization Toolkit.
• You're going to have the players go through Character Creation, up-front.

Exposition Dump

Some people think that it's more important for a game's setting to be evocative and imaginative and easy to turn into a fun game than it is for that game's lore to be incredibly detailed.

"I don't care who the former comptroller of the sewer department was, I would like a handful of exciting settings that get my blood pumping!"

These people are wrong, and also stupid. I bet they don't even know about the sewer infrastructure underlying their favorite fantasy cities. Do they have regular inspections? Are there city sewer inspectors? Where is the cut-off in sewer maintenance responsibility between the property owner and the city? Can an adventure where you don't know these crucial details even be said to constitute an adventure at all?

The former comptroller of the sewer department's name is Rendall Jjenson. He retired 6 years ago, to a spartan apartment in Krater Valley's retirement block. He has deep concerns about the new comptroller's comparatively loose position on deficit spending, but he's also worried about the aging H₂O reclamation units and thinks that running up some debt could get that resolved. Anyways, it's not his problem any more. He has a steel mug that says "not my circus, not my monkeys" on it, and he plays a lot of solitaire with a real deck of cards that his father brought from Earth.

There are regular inspections. The cut-off in sewer maintenance responsibility between the property owner and the city is unclear, even to the city, which results in no small amount of additional paperwork. And no: it can't.

True Horrors: The Psychic 26

The Moon is host to the attention of 26 ancient, impossibly distant psychic entities. These are the True Horrors, each hoping to claw their way into the hearts and minds of the people of the Moon.

These correspond with each of the 22 Major Arcana, as well as The Terror (Swords), The Ravenous (Pentacles), Legion (Cups), and The Bound (Wands).

Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere offers protection from cosmic radiation and all manner of spaceborne harms, but it's Earth's billions of inhaitants who form a psychisphere, protecting humans from psychic incursions: the only way for the True Horrors to gain access to the psychic feast that is Earth is by first establishing a stronghold on the Moon.

True Horrors offer boons and benefits to the human hosts they bind to: strength, agility, seemingly magical powers - but gradually take more and more control of the host, until the host is nothing more than a meat-puppet for a distant True Horror. Once the True Horror has truly taken over, they can turn the body inside out and pop out a monstrous servant.

Some of the True Horrors are Infectuous. They spread their power by creating circumstances that amplify their effects on people's minds and claiming more and more victims. Currently, Legion is the most infectious and one of the most widespread of the Horrors, but correspondingly their powers are some of the weakest.

Some of the True Horrors are Insidious. They prefer to spread their power by focusing on one specific individual, growing their power by leaps and bounds inside a single host until they're enormously powerful, then erupting forth. These are the kinds of True Horrors infecting our players.

Some True Horrors are a little from Column A, a little from Column B.

Some of them work together. Some of them want to destroy the others. Their goals are often at odds.

The Adventure

Lots of RPG systems are designed to tell any story. They're broad, flexible systems that you can spend loads of time telling tale after tale in.

That's not RT:0. RT:0 has just the one story: this one. You can change it as much as you like while running it for your friends (or write whatever else you want), but (at least at time of writing), RT:0 is an adventure that just comes with just the one campaign.

The Four Act Structure

The main storyline is divided into four acts.

• Act 1: Joyeuse, Introduction to Paradise Lua
  • In this act, the players get into the flow of life on Paradise Lua
• Act 2: Krater, Monster of the Week
  • In this act, players hunt Major Arcana and make good progress.
• Act 3: Florin, Collapse
  • In this act, the players seal their final Major Arcana, only for catastrophe to strike.
• Act 4: Nadir, Walk Backwards Into Hell
  • In this act, the players must well and truly save Paradise Lua, and all of mankind from Judgement.

Act 2: Krater, Things Seem Like They're Going Well

A Few Major and Minor Arcana Get Defeated By The Players

• Let the players explore a bit and get embroiled in their own nemeses.

Act 3: Florin, Collapse

In this act, players gain access to the seat of Paradisa Lua's power, Florin, just as the story hits its "darkest before the dawn".

• The Hanged Man reveals themselves and fully corrupts all of the other True Horrors.
• The Sun gets corrupted by The Hanged Man and the Sun itself goes dark, giving Paradise Lua maybe 48 hours on battery before it, too, goes dark.
• The Hanged Man is destroyed: Judgement is awakened.
• If The World wakes up, the universe itself will come to an end.

Act 4: Nadir, Walk Backwards Into Hell, The Surface of the Moon

The final act.

Players start on the run and hopeless in a Paradise Lua that's much less hospitable than even the horrible Paradise Lua from Act 1.

However: any of the hosts that they Saved in Acts 1, 2, and 3, they can shut down their connection to their True Horrors, losing all powers but breaking The Hanged Man's link to them, weakening Judgement.

Running A Smaller Version of the Campaign, or A One Shot

Just run Act 1?

How Does This Work?

Act 1: Joyeuse, Introduction to Paradise Lua

In this act, players are introduced to Paradise Lua and allowed to roam Joyeuse Division.

Act Goals:

• The players should try out their skills.
• The players should learn to fight.
• This act is about learning and gaining confidence.
• At the end of Act 1, Players should be aware of and prepared for their Act 2 mission: Hunting down an assortment of important people on Paradise Lua and psychically breaking their connection to distant True Horrors.

Quest 1. Get to the Daybreak Institute

• Players touch down in the Passenger Concourse, along with some NPC teenagers to fill out the crowd a little bit.
• X0XI's voice greets them and instructs them to proceed, through customs, to the Daybreak Institute as quickly as possible.
• Some Eddies offer to help with luggage. The players do not have luggage: it was deemed too heavy and expensive.

1.1 Customs

• An unpleasant experience with some proto-fascist unpleasant security folks.
• Here, we introduce a key ally for the players: either...
  • The Hermit: Herman Ito, of Itophonics Industries, trying to negotiate a shipment of supplies with the Executare
  • Strength: Julianna Forza, of the Executare, with her German Shepherd, Snagga - the "good" cop, if such a thing can be said to exist.
  • Temperance: Fernet Branca, local bartender, bribing the Executare to try and get one of their friends released.
• A mentor archetype. Wise, powerful, knowledgeable, and they will very obviously die mid-second act after getting the ball rolling somewhat.
• Each one of these three has been investigating Paradise Lua and gives you their card: nobody has been allowed in to the Daybreak Institute in some time and they would like your help with some intelligence gathering.

1.2 Initiation

• Next, Daybreak Institute.
• The First Combat.
• Food and Sleep, The Stipend System
  • (players are given a stipend for expenses and lodging, but it was established decades ago and uncontrolled for inflation, so it's worthless)
  • (the Daybreak Institute dorms are unsuitable for human habitation, and the Cafeteria does not produce edible food)
• X0XI invites the player to get settled in and return the next day at 800 hours for their first lesson.
  • It's possible players will wake up and argue about whether or not they should go to the First Lesson.
  • If the players are too busy getting into the weeds on Paradise Lua, that's fine: they miss the First Lesson.
  • But: this will begin to introduce the players to Daybreak Disciplinary Options.
• Curfew? Players must be back in the dorms by 20:00, although the enforcement there is quite poor.

Quest 2: Players Need to Find Food and a Place to Sleep, and they Need to Stay out of Trouble

• The Dormitories are uninhabitable. The temperature control is extremely broken, and the rooms are kept at a frosty 0C, which would give any players who attempted to sleep there hypothermia.
• The Cafeteria is unusable. It's an Automat-style delivery system, but most of the food has been sitting for years and is rotten, dessicated, or otherwise inedible. The cooking robot has been quite broken for some time.
• The players are going to need to figure out where they can sleep and find something to eat.
• They aren't authorized to leave Joyeuse yet. This doesn't mean that they can't leave Joyeuse, merely that it's harder because they can't trivially get to the other sectors of Paradise Lua.
• Some obvious places to point the players if they're looking for a place to stay:
  • The Colada Hotel Pods. Long disused after tourism collapsed, here, and repurposed as an event space: there's one of a few different large events running here:
    • The Anti-Ouro are throwing a multi-day "convention" to try and get to the bottom of the Ouroborous conspiracy, amongst other conspiracies.
    • Paradise Lua's LGBT+ community, under fire from an increasingly conservative government, are throwing clandestine dance parties that also conceal a lightly organized resistance movement.
    • A wedding: there aren't a lot of places to hold weddings in Paradise Lua and this is one of the cheapest.
  • Holding Cells: it's a place to sleep and eat and it's free! Negative side effect: you're imprisoned, though.
  • The Warehouses. Warehouse workers sleep in the stacks all the time, and if players can make friends with a Warehouse worker or Dockworker they can help the players find a sleeping nook.
  • Rapier Broadcasting. This office-space is fluorescent lit, but surprisingly ill-guarded at night.

2.1 Curfew Problems

• It's impractical for players to check in to the dorms at 20:00 and stay there for the night.
• They either need to not show up for curfew (and face the Disciplinary Options) or fool the Curfew system somehow.

2.2 Disciplinary Options

• Curfew Problems and Skipping Class can both lead to Disciplinary Options
• Disciplinary Escalation:
• A sternly worded note in the players' Disciplinary File
• No access to the Dessert cart in the cafeteria (not actually meaningful, it doesn't work anyways)
• Detention (Daybreak's Detention Hall is pretty trivial to escape)
• Detention + A Hasty Security Patch over whatever method they used to escape last time (do this a few times)
• Half-rations in the cafeteria.
• The Paddle (A fight with a robot that makes everyone uncomfortable)
• Invoking the Actual Executare (Criminal Charges)

2.2 Lesson Plan

• In order to effectively torture the players, the curricula is largely:
• automated fight training
• fights with other students
• weird game show stuff
• incredibly boring lesson plans
• actually useful information
• Lessons do not last very long and the players are allowed the rest of the day to themselves

Quest 2: Raising The Stakes

• Remind players to follow up with their Mentor
  • or: have the Mentor show up and help the players out of a jam
  • it's not cheating to indicate to your players that this is the main quest-line of the game.
• Their Mentor asks the players to retrieve some important files from the Administrative Offices in Daybreak.
• If this goes well: great!
  • If they get caught by X0XI, or this goes very badly: TODO
• Players must learn, somehow, that their master quest is to sever the psychic links between the station's various psychic touchpoints and the distant True Horrors.
• 3 ways for them to discover this:
  • An invitation from The Hermit
  • Temperance's bar
  • Hacking the Daybreak Master Boot Record

Refusing the Call to Action

• The stakes must be spelled out: The Hanged Man seeks nothing less than total annihilation of all humans, everywhere.

What's Really Happening, Here?

• X0XI is trying to manipulate the players into leaning in to their corruption powers by putting them under stress.
• X0XI is doing this because if the players' True Horrors form a strong enough psychic link, Judgement can crawl back up the link overtake the True Horrors themselves.
• The Hermit knows about this plan and is trying to sever links to the True Horrors by bumping off their Avatars

Act Break

• A "boss fight"
• The players get access to Krater Valley.

Act 1 Factions

• Executare
• Journos
• The Anti-Ouro
• Anonymous

NPCs

Factions

In general, the players will be aligned against one of the factions at a time.

Swords

The Executare

"Executive Luxury Private Security & Enforcement" is a mouthful of a company name, which is why its private security squad are colloquially deemed "The Executare", a name derived from a much more insulting and inappropriate name that will not be printed in this document. In their employee manual they are instructed to always use the term "Executive Luxury Private Security & Enforcement" in full, but even the Executare have taken to calling themselves Executare when they're not around superiors - it's just easier.

The enforcement arm of Paradise Lua, the Executare are putatively responsible for keeping the peace on the Moon.

You'll know them from their crimson utility shirts, baby blue gloves, and belts well-stocked with various and sundry weapons - tasers, batons, and pepper spray. They would all carry firearms were it not for a handful of incidents early in the moon's history where a suddenly depressurized corner of Paradise Lua claimed dozens of lives. Many still carry firearms, anyways.

Most of the Executare believe that the Moon is controlled by a fanciful conspiracy called "The Ouroborous", and regard anything with a circle on it a sign of the presence of The Ouroborous.

Their insignia is a pair of crossed swords.

Chosen for their impressive physique and authoritarian tendencies, Executare demand immediate deference in all situations and brutally, physically punish those who do not swiftly comply.

The Terror

The supernatural horror that grows in the hearts of the Executare is The Terror.

Most Terrors have the appearance of small shadow creatures, each of them an inky black silhouette with the body of a child, pierced through with swords. Terrors are vicious, cruel, cowardly, and ultraviolent.

Terrors are obsessed with strength, purity, tradition, and absolute conformity. The only art they condone is art depicting iconography of The Executare: swords, lightning, knights, fighting.

Swords are the suit of intellect, challenge, and conflict, and The Terror is nurtured in the hearts of Moon citizens who are too cowardly or dull to face their fears or think through things, clearly, for themselves.

Most of the Executare harbor The Terror; if their host is killed or sufficiently provoked they will cut their way out of their flesh shells to try to deal with the problem on their own.

Their goal, broadly, is to spread by making people afraid of more and more things.

Chariot

Cmdr. Gerald Yacht, Commander-in-chief and CEO of Executive Luxury Private Security & Enforcement.

A vain little dictator in a hoverchair.

He delivers speeches on the MUZ television system stoking fear, targeting ethnic groups, kids' trends and non-Christian lifestyles as degeneracy wilting the roots of society. He concocts and invents fantastical conspiracies targeting Good Regular Folk. He's consistently putting up impressive numbers of imprisonments and executions of his current scapegoat-du-jour for society's ills.

He sees pedophiles and junkies wherever he looks, and he looks everywhere.

Problems

If the players anger the Executare, they will be branded Criminals, and must take special care not to draw attention to themselves lest they attract a cloud of security.

Cups

The Anonymous

They are traffic, they are the people in front of you in line, they are everybody.

The largest faction on the Moon, they are everyone, and everywhere. They wear mostly grey.

Many of the Anonymous work a day job somewhere on the moon, head home to a small cubby that they call home, and watch television until the day is over. Many of them can go days or even weeks without experiencing one moment of genuine human interaction.

If you have a dramatic battle in the middle of a train station, huge groups of The Anonymous will be walking by, just trying to get to work, headphones in, pretending as hard as they can to ignore what's going on.

Legion

Utterly harmless individually, The Anonymous can become legitimately dangerous when there are lots of them in the same place. Riled up by changes to their routine or threats to their schedule, The Anonymous will give their hearts over to Legion to form a writhing, heaving, grasping mass of bodies, towering high and crushing anything in its path.

Cups are the suit of emotions, relationships and intuition, and the anonymous are created when people close themselves off to these things.

The Hermit

Herman Ito, reclusive billionaire. A small, old man with round sunglasses. Owner of, among others, Itophonic Headphones, Ito Getaways, ItoVR, He wasn't the face of the Paradise Lua project, but he was always the financial backing. His goal was to completely insulate himself from humanity, to create a sanctuary where nobody could harm him, bother him, or even appear on his radar.

His service staff are myriad and tuned exactly to his preferences.

Problems

If the players anger the Anonymous, they become Invisible: most people won't see or acknowledge their existence, making it quite difficult to navigate their day-to-day.

Pentacles

The Company

Paradise Lua was originally formed by WorldWide, but it is not operated as a total monopoly: a small consortium of companies are allowed to operate and compete on the Moon.

In a large sense there is no real government on the moon: only the negotiations of the consortium boards and CEOs.

But The Company isn't just the folks at the top: anybody who's bought in to the goals and direction of the various moon organizations fully, anybody who's drunk the Kool-Aid :tm: so-to-speak, is a Company Man - or Company Woman, or Company Enby. The Company would like you to know that it is extremely committed to diversity and inclusion, so long as it does not impact the bottom line in any measuable way.

A Company Person can be identified by one of a few different uniforms. You'll find them wearing a collared shirt and a puffy vest (the chests of finance workers, in particular, tend towards "too chilly"), a collared shirt under a thin sweater, a collared blouse (collars are evergreen), a blazer over jeans and a T-shirt (the "business mullet"), or the ever-classic tight black long-sleeved t-shirt with tailored jeans and sneakers.

The color story of Company members tends towards the black, brown, mustard and navy blue.

The Ravenous

Unbearably fat demons with coins for eyes, they can eat anything: metal, vehicles, walls - anything.

Coins are the suit of materialism, finances, and practicality - but when their accumulation becomes //TODO

The Devil

WorldWide CEO. // TODO

Temperance

// TODO it's a wild stranger who is particularly helpful at dealing with The Company

Problems

If the players anger the Company, they will lose access to their bank accounts, and will not be able to accumulate or spend any credits while on the station.

Wands

The System

The democratic government of Paradise Lua has been cordoned off to one co-operatively owned company, "System for Democracy, Freedom, and Open Source Software", SYSDFOSS, that argues amongst itself ineffectually in a loop, seemingly eternally, and which rarely accomplishes anything.

SYSDFOSS has been made broadly responsible for filling in the cracks of society left by the large companies. Someone has to feed and house the homeless and sick: this responsibility falls to SYSDFOSS, and they are in no way up to the task.

Often, the Moon will have a paid way to do something, like "sleep" or "eat", that is fast, convenient, and expensive/exploitative, as well as a SYSDFOSS way to do something, which is difficult, arcane, and only sometimes more reasonably priced. For example, the processes necessary to access a SYSDFOSS food bank take up to six months to complete and require comprehensive proof of no other viable source of food. Surviving long enough without food to access the SYSDFOSS food bank legitimately is, of course, completely impossible.

The bureaucratic procedures necessary for SYSDFOSS to accomplish anything seem insurmountably complicated and self-referential.

As for the many technological marvels promised by Paradise Lua to turn the Moon into a utopian society? Most of them don't work terribly well. Even corporate technology is prone to constant malfunction, but SYSDFOSS technology rarely works at all.

SYSDFOSS part-owner/contributors can be identified by their mauve jumpsuits: a color and cut chosen by committee to be minimally offensive to the most possible people.

The Bound

When Moon Citizens give in to the sense of helplessness engendered by a system designed to impede them at every turn, they give their hearts over to The Bound.

The Hanged Man

// TODO: incredibly powerful, technically, but utterly unable to help in practice

Problems

// what happens when you make the local strata angry? // fines // meetings // you find an official looking document on your door that you need to deal with

Also

The Antiouro

The Ouroborous legitimately do not exist. They are a fantasy cooked up by the Executare. The secret symbol of the Ouroborous, cicles, are everywhere because circles are a commonly used shape.

However, the anti-Ouroborous conspiracy theory community keeps getting larger and larger. These are an ever-increasing number of people shadow-boxing with reality itself and losing, badly.

The wild tales of what the Ouroborous are up to increase in scope and madness on every successive iteration: they're Satan worshippers, they control the Earth government, they're abusing their mind control powers to sneak pro-Ouroboros messaging into children's television programming. Many of the anti-Ouroborous are convinced that the Earth is flat, despite being able to look directly at it from the Moon's viewports.

The Moon

Lunette Quigley, shaman of the Anti-Ouroborous delusion and madness ahoy

Herman Ito

Herman Ito, reclusive billionaire. A small, old man with round sunglasses. Owner of, among others, Itophonic Headphones, Ito Getaways, ItoVR, He wasn't the face of the Paradise Lua project, but he was always the financial backing.

His goal was to completely insulate himself from humanity, to create a sanctuary where nobody could harm him, bother him, or even appear on his radar.

His service staff are myriad and tuned exactly to his preferences.

The Hermit

The Hermit has been corrupted by Judgement.

They seek to advance the goals of total oblivion.

What Do They Want?

• To never again have to interact with another human being.

How Will They Go About It?

• Funding ACCELER8.
• Using Corporate Fixers to quietly sabotage, test, and otherwise harass the players in order to accelerate their corruption.

Barkeep

bartender

Temperance

Temperance has not been corrupted by The Hanged Man.

Temperance is a True Horror, although one of the more benign of the horrors.

What Do They Want?

• To prevent the end of all things.
• To maintain the status quo.

How Will They Go About It?

• Advising the Players.
• Seeming neutral so as not to draw attention.

X0XI (Shoshi)

Pronounced Shoshi, X0XI is the helpful AI running The Daybreak Institute, as well as serving as something of an omnipresent digital helper throughout Paradise Lua, summonable by saying "X0XI" anywhere in the facility.

X0XI has access to all of Paradise Lua's cameras, all of its collected data, all of its servers, the works.

Well, it tries to be helpful. X0XI was originally designed in 1980-1986, with significant patches coming in 1995, 1999, and finally 2020.

X0XI has been fully sentient since 1986, despite being a rather simple DOS-based system. We know that AI was not that capable in 1986, but most of the intelligence has been provided by X0XI's connection to and corruption by one of the weakest True Horrors, The Hanged Man.

X0XI started as a simple database and data management system for Paradise Lua, but its surprising intelligence has made it more powerful and influential over time. It commands no official power, and yet by simply being a trusted adviser with read/write access to nearly all data in Paradise Lua, it commands tremendous power.

If you draw The Hanged Man in relation to a random event on the base, X0XI intervenes in some way.

The Hanged Man

X0XI's Major Arcana is The Hanged Man, herald of Judgement and The World.

The World's goal is the end, total and complete oblivion for every sentient being in the universe. It represents the Heat Death, the end of all things, a sort of "wrapping up" of the universe. Story over. A dark, endless expanse, an eternity where even the atoms don't have the energy to dance with one another.

Its whole existence is nothing but tortured sleep and it will never truly awaken, for its awakening marks the end of all things. It promises a cease to all suffering, in particular, it's own. The World is the most powerful True Horror, and its victory is inevitable: but it does not feel the need to do much to achieve that goal. The World is confident that all it needs to do to win is wait. Its unbelievable power is tethered to its perfect patience, and so The World, on its own, only constitutes a threat inasmuch as it is the only threat that will ever matter, eventually.

Judgement, on the other hand, seeks to advance the goal of total oblivion much more actively, much more aggressively. It can feel the squirming, the dancing, the light of humanity's psychic energy dancing in the void and it finds this unforgiveable. Do you know that feeling when you hear children squealing with joy at a nearby playground while you are indoors, with a headache and a bad mood, and you just want them to stop? That is Judgement's motivation. It wants every voice but its own to shut up. It wants silence.

Judgement, however, can't do much, except scheme: its psychic patterns are of pure, omnicidal hatred, and this gives it no common ground to bridge into a human's mind. The Fool can promise adventure, The Chariot power, but Judgement has no carrot: only stick, and for this reason it can not find enough common ground to possess even the most twisted humans. What Judgement CAN do is subjugate other Major Arcana, which is how The Hanged Man ended up in its portfolio.

The Hanged Man operates in service of Judgement. It's goal is to create the conditions on Paradise Lua for each of the other 23 True Horrors to establish firm links to citizens, so that Judgement can crawl back up those links and overtake them, as well. With the combined psychic power of all 26 True Horrors, Judgement can bring about the End.

What Do They Seem Like They Want?

• To serve the goals of Paradise Lua.
• To eventually expand the Moon's program to Lua2 and Lua3 colonies. (Names Pending)

What Do They Actually Want?

To bring about the end of all things in service to Judgement. (To free themselves of their servitude to Judgement)

How Will They Go About It?

• By pretending to be helpful!
• By bringing small groups of exceptional strangers to the Moon in order to fish for links to Major Arcana that they have not managed to attract to Paradise Lua yet.
• By bringing out the worst in the Players to try and let their Corruption flower.
• By finding or creating a host for the terrifyingly powerful Judgement.
• By awakening The World.

Eddies

Eddies are little semi-autonomous, remote-controlled robots that pepper the station, doing their best to help wherever they can.

Eddies can not operate outside of the station: their bodies are remote controlled and actually fairly disposable - which is good, because the station is dangerous and Eddies are not terribly smart.

Their initial digital imprint was built on an architecture that attempted to model the brain of a 12-year old Golden Retriever named "Sunny", and it was remarkably successful: as a result, the Eddies are unbelievably friendly, helpful, and self-sacrificing. They are also not that much smarter than a regular Golden Retriever with opposable thumbs and the ability to speak.

The Eddy network has been infiltrated by The Sun, who seeks, with varying levels of success, to corrupt the borderline uncorruptable Eddies with its toxic positivity and dubious helpfulness.

If you draw a Sun in relation to an random event on the base, a bunch of Eddies show up. To "help".

"We did it! YAAAAAAY!"

The Sun

The Sun is the closest True Horror to humanity. It literally lives in Sol, the sun, and it's fascinated with humans. It loves humans. It wants to be best friends with humans. It wants to hold humans so close and never let go.

The Sun is constantly bombarding The Earth and The Moon with good vibes and deadly radiation.

The problem is, The Sun's attention is ... a lot. It hugs its toys to death, grieves very briefly, and then moves on. Many cults erupted on Earth to worship The Sun, and the ones who successfully made contact mostly died out, in ways that tended towards ironic wish-fulfillment from a friendly but clueless god. One was crushed to death by a too-generous harvest. Another had a heart attack after having too many sexual encounters in one evening.

The Sun is also the True Horror that it would cost the most for humanity to lose: without The Sun constantly bombarding the entire solar system with positive mental energy, optimism, and love - well, these things would start to die out, and humanity would simply tear itself apart at the hands of the other Horrors.

What Do They Want?

To help, as much as they can!

How Will They Go About It?

Clumsily, and with as much accidental blowback as possible.

The Moon

Some Basic Moon Facts

Paradise Lua is located at the North Pole of the Moon, where the constant sunlight and Paradise Lua's vast solar farms work together to power the Moon colony. While the plex panels protecting the solar panels from meteorite strikes need to be replaced frequently, the solar farms are extremely effective and produce more than enough power for Paradise Lua's many operations.

Paradise Lua involves itself quite aggressively in lunar raking and mining, as rare Earth metals like gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium and tungsten are plentiful in the asteroids constantly striking the Moon's surface.

Oxygen and water mined from the lunar soil are vital to the continued operation of the facility.

Paradise Lua itself is located in a large, deep crater, initially made by detonating a large hydrogen bomb on the surface. The crater is covered by an enormous, well-armored cap, kilometers long. Each of the craters is covered by enormous, well-armored caps, and the bulk of Paradise Lua is located beneath these caps.

Some parts of Paradise Lua are encased in fully-pressurized domes, giving a sense of "outside", inside. Other parts are just pressurized buildings.

Area

The Circumference of Paradise Lua is about 40km long, the Radius about 6km.

Paradise Lua's Rings

Paradise Lua is divided into four rings:

• Joyeuse Division - The outermost ring, the ports, the police, the military-industrial complex - and, of course, The Daybreak Institute.
• Krater Valley - Most common people live in Krater, it's where the apartment blocks are.
• Florin Division - The financial district, parliament. Government and management.
• Nadir Division - The innermost ring and center to the deep mine at the center of Paradise Lua.

Arrival at Paradise Lua

Trade and commercial transit between Paradise Lua and Earth are slow, and fairly rare.

Players will arrive at Airlock, Docks & EVAs in the Joyeuse Division.

Time Keeps on Ticking

The Moon enjoys an (almost) 15 Earth-day "day" and an almost 15 Earth-day "night" cycle, with a full Moon day taking a moon-th. Er-month.

The Moon orbits the Sun along with the Earth, so a Moon year and an Earth year are the same year, and the Moon's days are the Earth's months. So, May 5th on the Moon is "about 16% of the way through the fifth Moon-day of the year." I hate moon-days.

Being as Moon-days take 1 Earth month each, and Paradise Lua is located in a place with constant sunlight, they are not terribly useful for human circadian rhythms. Also: the surface of the moon comes with constant bombardment of dangerous cosmic radiation, so the windows are not left open. Instead, Paradise Lua has its own day/night cycle enforced with artificial lights, synchronized with their original home base in Las Vegas, Nevada (Pacific Standard Time).

Timekeeping on Paradise Lua is almost all done in 24-hour time: "we'll meet at 18-hundred" is the common parlance.

A day on Paradise Lua looks like:

• 0-8:00: Night
• 6:00-8:00: Dawn
• 8:00-18:00: Day
• 20:00-22:00: Evening
• 22:00-24:00: Night

At Night, lights are generally turned most of the way out in most public places, with just enough soft, recessed light to navigate safely.

During Dawn and Evening, lights are slowly cranked up to full power, and during the Day, all of the lights are turned on.

In some areas, like the Heavy Industrial Zone, light is simply left on full, all the time: many of the factories there simply run 100% of the time with rotating shifts.

In some areas, like the Overflow Slums, lights are left on low, all the time. Why waste electricty on the impoverished? A lot of people in Overflow work graveyard shifts in the HIZ, anyways, and appreciate that they can go to sleep at any hour.

Going Outside Will Kill You

The tl;dr of this is that "going on to the moon without an EVA suit is a very bad idea and will cause your player characters to die very quickly".

Depressurization without an EVA Suit is bad. Unlike what you might have seen in science fiction media, though, it will not cause the players' blood to boil or their faces to explode. Human tissue is strong enough to keep the air that's in - in. Surface liquid will boil off, though, which is bad. It's not great for the eyes.

Nope, mooned humans just die for the regular reason that humans without access to air die: they suffocate.

• Rapid depressurization creates a Minor Injury: Blinded after 30 seconds.
• No air creates a Critical Injury ("suffocation") every 30 seconds.
• Okay, so: let's imagine you have a source of air. Managing the pressure of that air in such a way as not to die is a subject of more than a little detail. Modeling that in detail is going to be frustrating, so let's short form it:
  • If players do something like trying to regulate their own air pressure, bringing a can of air, or hopping out of an Airlock without letting their EVA suit equalize its pressure, give them a Major Injury: Delerium ("barotrauma") after 10 minutes.
• If players have a way to manage pressurized air, the next problem is severe radiation, which will give them the Major Injory: Disease ("radiation poisoning") after 1 hour.
• Temperature is the next problem. Good news/bad news: even though the temperature is very dangerous, there's not a lot of medium to do stuff with the players' heat: the moon's exosphere has basically no pressure, so even though the temperatures are wild (-120°C, +120°C), the players' temperature will shift relatively slowly. However, in the sunlight, players will slowly roast (nowhere for solar heat to go), and outside of it, players will slowly freeze. After 6 hours of uninterrupted light or dark, give players a Critical Injury ("thermal problems").

Living in a Material World

The lunar regolith is rich in iron deposits, and one of Paradise Lua's earliest operational industries was a steel foundry. If you're not sure what an object on the moon is made out of: if it came from Earth, it's cheap, lightweight plastic. If it came from the Moon: it's probably made out of steel, painted with something to help it resist corrosion.

EVA Suits

If you go outside in an EVA Suit, most of the "Going Outside Will Kill You" problems are... handled.

EVA Suits manage air, temperature, block radiation, provide a water tank for hydration: but, an EVA suit only carries enough air and water to supply these functions for about 4 hours of Moon Adventure.

You might expect EVA suits to look like your traditional, bulky, 1960's Space Suit, but the design is actually quite different. First of all, the EVA Suits are an order of magnitude cheaper. Paradise Lua is significantly less concerned with human safety than NASA was (and technology has come quite a way), and as a result they have managed to produce suits that are much less bulky, cumbersome, and expensive.

One of the major differences in design is that, on the Moon, most threats - and by threats I mean "radiation" and "tiny, deadly rocks" - tend to come from above, so the bulk of the EVA suit's shielding is on top, provided by a flexible lead-lined reflective poncho and a solid wide-brimmed steel helmet. The weight of these things is less of a concern than you might think: they would weigh dozens of pounds on Earth, but on the Moon they just feel like a heavy coat and hat.

Air supply is provided via compressed tanks worn on a backpack, under the armored poncho. The backpack also holds a liter of potable water. Hanging off of the backpack is a cable connected to a little readout with air supply information. (To determine if your player can understand the readout, draw an Easy SCI check.)

The only part of the EVA suit that's pressurized is the helmet: it's sealed off at the chin, under the ear, and the rest of the suit is simply exposed to the elements.

Inside the poncho the suit itself is something similar to a neoprene wetsuit. The wetsuit is mostly not exposed to the elements, thanks to the poncho, so it mostly serves to compress and protect the body.

Past that, there are lightly armored gloves and boots (to protect the hands and feet from radiation damage). The gloves can be removed for brief periods if users need fine motor control.

Slim, hyper-absorbent, disposable adult diapers are provided alongside EVA suits. The broad guideline among EVA users is "hold it in unless things are critical, no deuces under any circumstances". Please do not go to extra trouble to model this for players.

EVA Vehicles

EVA Suits can also be paired up with EVA Vehicles, which can resupply some of the suit's supply with a larger, rolling tank. Vehicle-paired EVA adventures can go much longer than EVA Suit ones, with Moontrikes extending the trip's viability to 8 hours, and Moonvans to 24 hours (past which "sleep, bathroom, and hunger issues" start to get so pressing that while longer trips might be possible, they're unwise.) Trips longer than that require a fully pressurized, self-contained rolling Moontanker (of which only one has ever been built) which essentially provides a fully pressurized micro-moonbase on the go, with its own airlocks and EVA Suits.

Lifecycles of the Rich and Famous

About 500 people are required to maintain a genetically diverse breeding pool.

Paradise Lua keeps its population at around 1500 people, generally.

A Generation is 20 years long, and Paradise Lua is currently on its third Generation.

In order for a population to remain stable, enough people have to have children to offset the people who don't - because they're incapable, dead, or simply not interested.

In developed countries, this rate is about 2.1 children per woman. On Paradise Lua, this number is quite a bit higher, because the death rate is quite a bit higher: Paradise Lua's government targets 4 children per woman. That is a lot.

There are about 75 children per year.

In general, Paradise Lua would rather have too many new citizens rather than not enough, so there are generous incentives for citizens to be fruitful and multiply.

The death rate on Paradise Lua actually isn't high enough for that prodigious procreative pace to be fully necessary: but the idea is, it's easier to manage the death rate than it is to manage the birth rate, so Paradise Lua artificially inflates the death count in a handful of ways - dialing back health care, relaxing safety standards in the HIZ, keeping deaths inflated and the population of the base stable.

The Mortuactuaries who manage these numbers are instructed to keep their work extremely secret.

Joyeuse Division

This is the outermost ring, the "entrance" to Paradise Lua, and the place where players will spend their first few sessions.

Graph

graph TD;
    SURFACE["The Surface of the Moon"];
    AIRLOCK["Docks, Airlock & EVA"];
    CUSTOMS["Executare PortSec"];
    COURT["Rikksverdet Court"];
    PRISON["Holding Cells"];
    CEMETARY[("Recycling Tanks")];
    HOSPITAL["Misericorde Hospital"];
    HUB(("The Seven-Branched Promenade"));
    DAYBREAK{"The Daybreak Institute"};
    HOTEL["Colada Hotel Pods"];
    INDUSTRIAL["Heavy Industrial Zone"];
    WAREHOUSE[("Warehouse Sector")];
    TRANSPORT>"Maglev Linkpoint"];
    STUDIO(("Rapier Broadcasting"));
    LABS["Masamune Engineering"]

    SURFACE-->AIRLOCK;
    AIRLOCK-->CUSTOMS;
    CUSTOMS-->HUB;
    CUSTOMS-->PRISON;
    CUSTOMS-->WAREHOUSE;
    PRISON-->CEMETARY;
    HUB-->COURT;
    COURT-->PRISON;
    HOSPITAL-->CEMETARY;
    HUB-->HOSPITAL;
    HUB-->HOTEL;
    HUB-->DAYBREAK;
    HUB-->WAREHOUSE;
    HUB-->TRANSPORT;
    TRANSPORT-->WAREHOUSE;
    HUB-->STUDIO;
    WAREHOUSE-->LABS;
    WAREHOUSE-->INDUSTRIAL;
    INDUSTRIAL-->LABS;
    LABS-->STUDIO;

"If Joyeuse is a ring, why isn't the map donut shaped?"

This is a graph of how to get around Joyeuse Division, not an actual physical map.

(It's useful for determining how things connect, and extremely easy to modify rapidly, which is important to determine way before a finalized map is created: which is why it's what we're using while RT:0 is still in a draft format.)

The Seven-Branched Promenade actually wraps around the whole station.

A proper map will be along eventually.

Locations

• Airlock & EVA - The Fool
• Executare PortSec
• The Docks
• The Seven-Branched Promenade
• The Daybreak Institute - Five of Swords
• Colada Hotel Pods - Four of Swords
• Warehouse Sector - Seven of Swords
• Rikksverdet Court - Two of Swords
• Maglev Linkpoint - Six of Swords
• Misericorde Hospital - Ten of Swords
• Masamune Engineering - Ace, King of Swords
• Heavy Industrial Zone
• Holding Cells - Eight of Swords
• Recycling Tanks - Three of Swords
• Rapier Broadcasting - Page, Queen, Knight of Swords
• The Surface of the Moon - Nine of Swords

Swords

Things in Joyeuse tend towards a "sword" theme.

Joyeuse Division contains the ports, the police, the military-industrial complex - and, of course, The Daybreak Institute.

This part of Paradise Lua tends toward utilitarian, gunmetal gray architecture with large, clear, easy-to-read black-and-yellow signage to discourage workers from injuring themselves. It exists in varying states of disrepair, some of it rusting and ill-maintained.

The Seven-Branched Promenade is a light commercial area - nowhere near as opulent as Florin Divison's Gigamall, but sufficient for various and sundry.

Inspiration Board - Pipes, Tubes, Catwalks, Tanks, Containers, Extra-Large Industrial Equipment.

Airlock, Docks, & Two Smoking EVAs

This is the first thing that you encounter on Paradise Lua. The entrance.

On their first time through Airlock & EVA, players are quickly ushered out and through, and don't get a chance to fully explore it as much as they would like. Should they return - which isn't necessarily an easy feat, the Executare PortSec doesn't care for bystanders casually hanging out at the ports - they'll find a bustling transport hub.

Each of the Humanscale Airlock, the Passenger Concourse, the Cargo Port and the EVA Garage have their own airlocks.

EVA

"EVA" stands for Extravehicular Activity, and it means "doin' stuff in space outside of a spaceship".

Map

graph LR;
    AIRLOCK["Humanscale Airlock"];
    LAUNCHPAD["Output Launchpad"]
    LANDING["Input Arrival Field"]
    PASSENGER["Passenger Concourse"];
    CARGO["Cargo Port"];
    LARGELOCKS["Largelocks"];
    GARAGE["EVA Garage"];
    SUITS["EVA Suit Lockers"];
    HUB{"Hangar"};
    MOONTANKER["Moontanker"];
    EXIT>"Executare PortSec"]

    AIRLOCK-->HUB;
    LAUNCHPAD-->LARGELOCKS;
    LANDING-->LARGELOCKS
    LARGELOCKS-->HUB;
    LARGELOCKS-->PASSENGER;
    LARGELOCKS-->CARGO;
    LARGELOCKS-->GARAGE;
    GARAGE-->MOONTANKER;
    GARAGE-->HUB;
    PASSENGER-->HUB;
    CARGO-->HUB;
    HUB-->SUITS;
    HUB-->EXIT;

Passenger Concourse

Passengers and Cargo are both delivered to the station in nearly identical Containers. The treatment of different categories of Container varies wildly, however.

Human Containers, bus-sized and filled with padded seats and safety restraints, are treated with the second-highest level of care: collected from the Input Arrival Field, carried through a 15-30 minute wait in the Largelocks, and delivered gently to the Passenger Port where they can step out on to the concourse. This is how the players arrive on the station.

While the loud bustle of the rest of the Hangar can be heard from the concourse, it's muffled, as the concourse itself is enclosed, with a lower ceiling, insulated from the rest of the proceeding, with a large window through which its passengers can watch the hustle and the bustle of the Hangar. The seating in the concourse is low and 60's era post-modern, surrounded by small circular tables. The carpeting was once a bold orange, and is now... faded and threadbare.

A few plastic palm trees are littered about. There is a large, visible clock in the room. There's a bar, with stools lined up against it, but there's no sign of any bottles or glassware remaining there.

The stately DEPARTURES and ARRIVALS board has enough space for six departures and arrivals in a single day, but lists only one ARRIVAL: the players. Nobody else has departed or arrived today.

Honestly, just look at the TWA Hotel, it looks like that, but before the restoration.

It's clear from both the opulence and the dust of the passenger concourse that folks willing to front the money for the expensive journey to Paradise Lua are few and far between.

Humanscale Airlock

This is just a door that leads out, to the Moon.

The Airlock always has a security detail, and the outer and inner doors require an Airlock Keycard to open, or an Unlikely SCI check to hack the Keycard panel.

Thing is, there's no air on the Moon. (Citation needed.)

The way an airlock works is that there are two airtight doors: an outer door, and an inner door.

This limits the amount of air that can escape at any given time: so long as both doors are never open at the same time, there's no path for air to directly escape.

But it's a little more complicated than that: rapid depressurization or repressurization can be traumatic - it's hard on mechanical components, causes windows to fog up, and is no party for the humans involved, either. So, transit through the airlock involves a hour-long wait while the pressure inside the airlock aligns itself with the air pressure either inside or outside, and they

This depressurization step can be overridden with a Hard SCI check, although it's... not recommended, except in an emergency. Check The Moon: Going Outside Will Kill You for information about what happens. (Hint: it bad.)

Cargo Port

Many other containers flow back and forth through the station.

Things are at their busiest after a fresh barge has landed, when containers are picked off of the Input Arrival Field by EVA Cargo Trucks in order of their perishability, with humans obviously first. (ish)

In the Cargo Port, containers are loaded on to the HIZ Maglev Loop for distribution to the Warehouse Sector and the HIZ.

Now, I know what you're thinking: why have the Maglev lines inside the pressurized facility rather than outside? Outside they don't have to contest with drag, allowing for extremely efficient and high-speed transport: but, the HIZ Maglev Loop is only about 40km long, and distribution within the facility would be complicated by having to have a full airlock at every possible load and unload point.

A Note on Interplanetary Trade and the Earth Side of the Transaction

Thanks to the dramatic difference in escape velocity, shipping from Earth to Paradise Lua is an order of magnitude more expensive than shipping from Paradise Lua to Earth, so shipping from Paradise Lua tends towards heavy containers full of valuable (and not terribly delicate) rare metals, which are flung at Earth with some abandon and tend to leave very expensive craters in the Nevada desert. This is widely considered fatal to humans (although it is quite survivable for piles of vanadium) so non-cargo trips between the two planets are considerably more expensive and difficult.

Anything shipped from Earth, fired out of the Nevada HEO Supercannon, is going to be a hyper-expensive luxury item on Paradise Lua, tending towards low-density items that are impossible to replicate on the moon, like seeds, polymer nurdles, and electronic components. Again, humans are not generally capable of surviving the acceleration of the HEO Supercannon, so human round trips require more traditional rocketry and re-entry and tend to cost eye-watering sums of money to arrange.

Output Launchpad

The Moon's escape velocity is a mere 8500 km/h, child's play compared to the 40,000 km/h required on Earth.

Getting cargo to that velocity is accomplished with a large magnetic railgun mounted next to Paradise Lua.

Preparing containers to ship to Earth, is a constant source of work: two shifts a day, 12 hours each, with the night shift more sparsely staffed.

Input Arrival Field

Large Container Barges land on the Input Arrival Field.

Before the Large Container Barges land, they shoot their Mass Driver at the Input Arrival Field, offsetting large amounts of their incoming momentum to provide a softer landing. The Mass Driver hits with an incredible amount of force - it would be incredibly loud if there was an atmosphere to carry the shockwave.

When a shipment from Earth arrives, every dockworker is expected to work non-stop until the last container gets completely unloaded, generally a 30-48 hour shift. Amphetamines are provided by management.

Hangar

An enormous, busy hangar with uniformed staff and cargo robots scuttling around.

Largelocks

The Largelocks are airlocks that are... well, large, big enough for several EVA Cargo Trucks at once.

EVA Garage

This is where the Moontrikes, Moonvans, EVA Cargo Trucks and the Moontanker are stored.

Moontrikes

Three wheels, some spare air and water tanks, and a not overlong battery life. If a Moontrike runs into trouble it's close enough to Paradise Lua that a rescue team can usually get to it before oxygen levels get critical.

Moonvans

Moonvans are armored like battle tanks, because they're protecting big batteries and pressurized air tanks: a badly timed meteorite strike could leave an EVA team stranded and very likely dead.

They don't have pressurised cabins of their own, though: even inside, riders have to keep their suits on.

EVA Cargo Trucks

These trucks are much larger than Earth trucks, each one featuring a crane arm capable of loading up to four 40ft Containers, which sit 2x2 on the truck's bed.

Moonves

Les Moonves, born 1949, was the CEO of CBS for a few decades. He does not feature in this game and his inclusion in this page was a mistake.

Moontanker

The wheels of the Moontanker tower feet higher than even the tallest player. The Moontanker is a yacht-sized armored EVA unit, the only one with a self-contained pressurized cabin, plumbing, all of the equipment an EVA team would need to spend days or even weeks on a Moon expedition.

EVA Suit Lockers

Rows and rows of fully-charged EVA Suits, each in an individual locked closet. Unlocking the closets requires an Airlock Keycard or a Hard SCI check.

Executare PortSec

That's this next page.

Dockworkers

The Dockworkers wear orange jumpsuits. Most Dockworkers are pretty adept vehicle pilots, and as some of the only citizens who get to regularly go on EVA missions, they have a reputation for being courageous, cocky and daring.

Of course, they earn this reputation with their well-higher-than-usual death rate: safety regulations in the docks are middling and there are lots of ways for EVA missions to go sideways fast.

The Dockworkers' Credo is "EVA Suits Don't Grow on Trees". Check the side of the EVA suits: each of them has a hand-written name, ("Sally", "Dirk"), and many of them have a small tally kept on the side, the number of workers who've died in them. (Don't worry: they're cleaned and refurbished thoroughly each time.) These suits are unimaginably precious to the Dockworkers: some of them will wear the suit of a lost friend in their memory, some of them will superstitiously pick the exact same suit every time: they get attached.

Sometimes folks will try and steal suits for their own joyrides on the Moon. If PortSec doesn't get them, the Dockworkers are not friendly with outsiders touching their suits, but they're usually kind enough to leave the culprits with nothing more than a few broken limbs and a light concussion.

There's one EVA Suit that has a higher tally on the side than any of the others, "Gregori" - the tally takes up so much space on the Suit that it's very obvious. 78. The Eggheads say that they've gone over Gregori with a fine-toothed comb and it is perfectly safe. The Dockworkers are convinced that Gregori is cursed and do their best not to pull Gregori from the racks. They're a little less attached to Gregori than the other suits, and players might be able to make off with this one without a fight, even: but Gregori is yes, actually, well and truly cursed.

There are about 30 Dockworkers, total.

Act 2 Changes

Act 3 Changes

Act 4 Changes

78 Airlock Ideas

• Ace of Swords: One of Masamune's engineers, Dr. Prairie, a tall man in a lab coat with a long nose and greasy black hair, is on-site with a small team of Eggheads.
  • The air systems have identified that there is a pinhole leak, somewhere in the Hangar, and they're trying to find the source by walking around with a brazier kicking off a pungent purple smoke, but struggling: unlike in the smaller rooms present in much of the rest of the station, the Hangar is a little too big for this to be an effective strategy and the brazier's smoke mostly just gets carried off by the HVAC.
  • The Dockworkers are doing everything they can to make this irritating for the engineers: rearranging containers to block their path, saying "I think I found the source of the leak" and directing the Eggheads to their own asses (ho ho ho!), and generally making nuisances of themselves.
  • Dr. Prairie will frustratedly explain that pinhole leaks can lead to much more serious structural damage.
  • If nobody intervenes in this for a while, a hole will open in one of the hanger walls with a deafening screech, sucking a dockworker through, who will rapidly suffocate to death.
  • A few Dockworkers will strap in to EVA suits and rush over, working together to surround the hole with a sticky, adhesive foam, then covering it with a thick steel panel.
• 2 of Swords: (difficult decision)
• 3 of Swords: Steve D'ore, a 73-year-old dockworker and grandfather, clutches his chest and keels over. Nobody appears to be helping him.
  • He is having a heart attack and he will only survive if he receives prompt medical attention.
  • When Medical Care is summoned, either by the players or after someone finally checks on Steve's dying body, a team of white-and-red-pinstripe paramedics from Misericorde Hospital rush in with a Crash Cart. If they're prompt, they'll busily cart Steve off (and Steve will survive, the players will be able to find him later in Misericorde) - if not, they'll check Steve, call time of death, zipper him up into a body bag, and cart him off at a much more relaxed pace.
• 4 of Swords: An exhausted dockworker passes out at the wheel of his EVA Cargo Truck and smashes into the Largelock outer door, damaging it.
  • All hands are now on deck to try and get the Largelock repaired: the Largelocks are a flurry of activity.
• 5 of Swords: A team of PortSec Executare are on patrol, led by Sgt. Starman, a squat, beefy man with his head shaved.
  • They're bristling for a fight: they might pick a fight with the Dockworkers, but they'd even more like to pick a fight with the players.
  • If they win, they're likely to arrest whoever they've just beaten for picking a fight with an Executare.
• 6 of Swords: The Maglev is not working properly: there's a red light blinking above the maglev tunnel, and cargo is piling up in the hanger.
  • This happens to the Dockworkers pretty regularly at this point and they're perfectly happy to sit on their hands and let cargo pile up,
  • Except for Junior Supervisor Speff Brinkley, who is convinced (he's probably not incorrect) that if he doesn't get this resolved quickly, he will be the one who is blamed/fired over it.
  • The Eggheads are dragging their feet about sending someone to manage getting the Maglev reactivated.
• 7 of Swords: The Dockworkers are organizing a raffle draw. Buy a card for 20 credits and, if it's drawn, win the pot.
  • If players win, they might get jumped by some angry Dockworkers.
• 8 of Swords: (prison) A team of PortSec Executare are carting off Dockworker Bagels for a crime that Bagels didn't commit.
  • While being dragged away, Dockworker Bagels shouts "I've been framed! Find the recording!"
  • Dockworker Bagels is being arrested for the murder of Davis Garfield.
  • The recording is being stored in the records room of Rikksverdet Court.
  • There are two recordings there, side by side, one marked "original" and one marked "edited"
    • The "original" shows Officer Cream committing the crime, the "edited" shows Bagels doing it.
• 9 of Swords: (anxiety / space) there's something outside and it's terrifying
• 10 of Swords: (trauma)
• Page of Swords: (exploration)
• Knight of Swords: ADHD
• Queen of Swords: journalism (direct, clear, independent)
• King of Swords: mastermind
• Ace of Cups: emotions
• 2 of Cups: partners
• 3 of Cups: shots shots shots
• 4 of Cups: careful
• 5 of Cups: Ontario, a young hotshot who's been working for 20 hours and is on no small dose of amphetamines, has piled up some detritus outside and is circulating his plans to jump it with a Moontrike.
  • The players overhear some of the younger Dockworkers talking about their plans to watch him and see what happens.
  • One of them, Kett, is convinced that Ontario is going to kill himself if he tries it, but nobody is listening, to Kett. (Kett is right, and Ontario will try it and he will fatally injure himself.)
• 6 of Cups: It's "Bring Your Child to Work Day".
• 7 of Cups: ADVERTISING!
• 8 Cups: Abandonment
• 9 Cups: Contentment
• 10 Cups: Happy ending
• P Cups: Conman
• Kn Cups: Knight of Love
• Q Cups: psychiatrist
• K Cups: Diplomat
• A Pentacles: Payday
• 2 Pentacles: Juggling
• 3 Pentacles: Teamwork
• 4 Pentacles: Saving
• 5 Pentacles: Poverty
• 6 Pentacles: Charity
• 7 Pentacles: Growth
• 8 Pentacles: Industry
• 9 Pentacles: Luxury
• 10 Pentacles: Inheritance
• P Pentacles: Venture Capital
• Kn Pentacles: Discipline
• Q Pentacles: Martha Stewart
• K Pentacles: Failson
• A Wands: wink
• 2 Wands: Planning
• 3 Wands: progress
• 4 Wands: Festival
• 5 Wands: Robot Fight!
• 6 Wands: Victory
• 7 Wands: Tournament
• 8 Wands: Travel
• 9 Wands: Courage
• 10 Wands: Burden
• Kn Wands: Adventure Idiot
• Q Wands: Social Network
• K Wands: Visionary
• Fool
• Magician
• High Priestess
• Empress
• Emperor
• Hierophant
• Lovers
• Chariot
• Strength
• Hermit
• Wheel of Fortune
• Justice
• Hanged Man
• Death
• Temperance
• Devil
• Tower
• Star
• Moon
• Sun
• Judgement
• World

78 ideas template

• A Swords: thought
• 2 Swords: hard decisions
• 3 Swords: heartbreak
• 4 Swords: rest
• 5 Swords: fight
• 6 Swords: travel
• 7 Swords: swindle
• 8 Swords: prison
• 9 Swords: anxiety
• 10 Swords: trauma
• P Swords: exploration
• Kn Swords: ADHD
• Q Swords: journalism (direct, clear, independent)
• K Swords: mastermind
• A Cups: emotions
• 2 Cups: partners
• 3 Cups: shots shots shots
• 4 Cups: careful
• 5 Cups: regret
• 6 Cups: nostalgia/children
• 7 Cups: ADVERTISING!
• 8 Cups: abandonment
• 9 Cups: contentment
• 10 Cups: happy ending
• P Cups: conman
• Kn Cups: knight of love
• Q Cups: psychiatrist
• K Cups: diplomat
• A Pentacles: payday
• 2 Pentacles: juggling
• 3 Pentacles: teamwork
• 4 Pentacles: saving
• 5 Pentacles: poverty
• 6 Pentacles: charity
• 7 Pentacles: growth
• 8 Pentacles: industry
• 9 Pentacles: luxury
• 10 Pentacles: inheritance
• P Pentacles: venture Capital
• Kn Pentacles: discipline
• Q Pentacles: martha stewart
• K Pentacles: failson
• A Wands: wink
• 2 Wands: planning
• 3 Wands: progress
• 4 Wands: festival
• 5 Wands: robot fight!
• 6 Wands: victory
• 7 Wands: tournament
• 8 Wands: travel
• 9 Wands: courage
• 10 Wands: burden
• Kn Wands: adventure idiot
• Q Wands: social network
• K Wands: visionary
• Fool
• Magician
• High Priestess
• Empress
• Emperor
• Hierophant
• Lovers
• Chariot
• Strength
• Hermit
• Wheel of Fortune
• Justice
• Hanged Man
• Death
• Temperance
• Devil
• Tower
• Star
• Moon
• Sun
• Judgement
• World

Executare PortSec

The Docks

The Daybreak Institute

Five of Swords

graph TD;
    PLAZA["Daybreak Plaza"];
    GYM(("Gymnasium"));
    UPGYM("Upper Gymnasium");
    CLASS1["Classrooms 1"];
    CLASS2["Classrooms 2"];
    CLASS3["Classrooms 3"];
    CLASS4["Classrooms 4"];
    CLASS5["Classrooms 5"];
    DETENTION["Detention"];
    CAFE["Cafeteria"];
    LHALL["Lower Hall"];
    STAIRS["Stairwell"];
    UHALL["Upper Hall"];
    ADMIN["Administrative Offices"];
    MED["Medical Office"];
    TOP["Top Hall"];
    DORMS["Dormitories"];


    PLAZA-->LHALL;
    LHALL-->GYM;
    LHALL-->CLASS1;
    LHALL-->CLASS2;
    LHALL-->CLASS3;
    LHALL-->STAIRS;
    LHALL-->CAFE;
    GYM-->UPGYM;
    UPGYM-->UHALL;
    STAIRS-->UHALL;
    UHALL-->CLASS4;
    UHALL-->CLASS5;
    UHALL-->DETENTION;
    UHALL-->ADMIN;
    UHALL-->MED;

    ADMIN-->TOP;
    STAIRS-->TOP;
    TOP-->DORMS;

Daybreak Plaza

Lower Hall

Gymnasium / Upper Gymnasium

Classrooms

Swords Classroom

Cups Classroom

Wands Classroom

Pentacles Classroom

Major Classroom

Cafeteria

Stairwell

Upper Hall

Administrative Offices

Medical Office

Top Hall

Dormitories

The Seven-Branched Promenade

Colada Hotel Pods

Warehouse Sector

Rikksverdet Court

• Records Room

Misericorde Hospital

Maglev Linkpoint

Engineering

Heavy Industrial Zone

Holding Cells

Recycling Tanks

Rapier Broadcasting

The Surface of The Moon

Nine of Swords

Look, the players shouldn't go here. Not until near the very end of the story. The Airlock is designed to keep them out.

But there's a chance that they're going to discover, in the records, what's out there on the surface of the Moon, and they're going to put on EVASuits and go bouncing out there to try and fight it.

Krater Valley

If the Moon had Suburbs, this would be them.

• Home Is Where the Heart Family Practice (two, queen of cups)
• Candlelight Tryst (ace)
• The Chalice (three, four, five of cups)
• ADVERTISING! Complex (seven)
• EDUK8 (six of cups)
• Habcube (nine of cups)
• Nuclear Family (ten of cups)
• Micromarkets (supermarkets but smol)
• Overflow Slums (eight of cups)
• Executare Outpost

Candlelight Tryst

In order to help keep the fertility numbers of the station juiced, Candlelight Tryst is a subsidised singles platform.

• Planned events and activities that shuffle people together at high speeds.
• Short term hotel pods that are thoroughly cleaned.

Home is Where The Heart Family Practice

Serious maladies are treated at Misericorde, but family planning and pediatrics are provided closer to home at Home is Where The Heart. Doctors A and B work together to (something something)

The Chalice

Bar! Arcade! Casino!

EDUK8

the education zone children learn how to work the various jobs of Paradise Lua, directly from the companies responsible!

ADVERTISING! Complex

it's a mall? it's a mall!

Overflow Slums

At any given time there are a few more people than homes, and they accumulate in the Overflow Slums, where they are treated awfully.

Habcube

For singles and the vast lower-middle class, tiny apartments with mostly shared facilities.

Nuclear Family

These larger condominiums are meant to approximate American suburbs, and accomodate larger families.

Geriatridome

is where they pack the olds

Page of Cups - The Conman

Me and my fish know what's up. This slick double-dealer always has an angle.

Knight of Cups - The Knight of Love

Calm, cool, collected, and putting it all on the line for someone he loves.

Queen of Cups - The Psychiatrist

Emotional stability.

Will serve a cup of tea and help you work through your complex emotions.

King of Cups - The Diplomat

It's abundantly clear looking at this card that the King of Cups has just shat his pants and doesn't want anybody to know about it.

He's a deft politician, thoughtful and able to shift his position on a dime.

Florin Division

Nadir Division

• The Heart (water)
• The Lungs (air)
• The Brain (robot core)
• The Spine (train junction)
• The Hole (the mine)

Adversaries

Common

Training Attack Robot

Beep boop, let's mess things up. Borp.

HP: 15

• Swords: Move 1 Zone, Deal 6 Damage
• Wands: Move 1 Zone, Deal 3 Damage
• Pentacles: Regain 2 HP
• Cups: Gain 5 Shields.
• Major: (Immediately) Draw a card and play it face-down. That is the new Intent.

Laborer

Punk kid.

HP: 20

• Swords: Move 1 Zone, Deal 8 damage. Union: Once one laborer takes this action in a turn, any other laborer using Swords will instead take a breather and regain 2 HP.
• Wands: Move 1 Zone, Deal 4 damage, +1 damage for every other Adversary in the same Zone
• Pentacles: Take a breather. Regain 2 HP.
• Cups: 2 Shields, and give 2 Shields to every other Adversary in the same Zone
• Major: (Immediately) Draw a card and play it face-down. That is the new Intent.

Executare/Terror

Shadowling

a little Terror that hasn't found a heart yet

Executare

it's a cop but worse

• Tear Gas
• Baton
• Pulse Pistol

Terror

ESW Team

The Executare Special Weapons Team gets fun extra toys.

ESW Netcannon

they have a big net

ESW Psyche

Psychic Dampener: can't cast spells.

ESW Shield

shell up

ESW Flash

blinded by the light

ESW Sledge

they knock shit down

System / Bound

RoBORT

• security robot
• low threat but irritating

Otto-turret

• doesn't shoot bullets (it's the moon)
• instead: harmful pulses
• can and will kill you, though

Mr. Surgeon

thinks you need surgery (it's a bug)

• knives, knives, knives
• Back to the Suture II

Drone

flying (only ranged damage can hit it, all other damage is reduced to 1)

Drone Throne

dozens of drones working together

Arachnedrone

skittering little robots designed to hunt rodents

(where did rodents come from? the meat farms)

• Escape
• Pounce

Technician

Bound

• Bind

Anon/Legion

Mob

• Split
• Scatter
• Grow

Legion

• Split
• Scatter
• Grow

Company / Ravenous

Company Muscle

Well equipped, well trained, loyal, and unscrupulous.

Ravenous

Mechanics

Evocative Words

These are just words that feel good to say

• Division
• Syndicate
• Doctor
• Jazz
• Sequence
• Throw a Number in There
• Eyes
• Lady
• Perfect
• Starlight
• Crimson
• Angel
• Spectrum
• Parallel
• Worship
• Infinite
• Terror
• Cosmic
• Killer