Note: This is just a thought experiment and not something I’ve actually tried. It’s basically just an excuse to tell a story and play a bunch of Magic at the same time. What could be better? ;)

Adam Styborski’s Serious Fun column last Tuesday talked about several variant forms of Magic. All of them seem like fun, but the one that stuck out at me most was Horde Magic. In fact, I thought it was so cool I immediately emailed my best friend Gigz and told him to read the article. Gigz thought it was so cool he went and built a zombie horde deck with which to eat our brains. XD Later, though, I started thinking about other ways to use the idea, and that’s when I started thinking about Magic as an RPG: it is, after all, both a random outcome generator AND a definer of limitations and abilities. And in truth, that’s all an RPG needs: rules for conflict resolution and rules to regulate what your characters can and cannot do.

Here are my ideas of how to do it:

Starting Point

First, you’re going to need a way to structure the narrative, for which I recommend one of the story games out there that isn’t setting-dependent. For currently available games I recommend Blackbird Pie, although once it releases I recommend the core rules for Rule of Three (shameless shilling!). The benefit of these two systems is that you can play pretty much anything you want with either one (as noted on the Blackbird Pie page, “My mother is the moon and my father is the evening wind” is mechanically equivalent to “I have a motorcycle,” and R3 is really no different). Generic story games have three advantages that make them perfect for this idea:

1. They focus on storytelling aspects of your character, leaving you maximum flexibility with the mechanical bits you incorporate with MtRPG.
2. Since they don’t have robust conflict-resolution systems already (i.e., tactical combat rules) the incorporation of MtRPG adds a level of tactical combat that some players crave.
3. The lack of built-in setting provides you maximum flexibility in what you can do with the story and the setting.

Naturally, you don’t need a story game to provide a story-telling basis for the campaign. If your group is more interested in kick-in-the-door style gaming just build character decks and start playing Magic. :)

Setting

The first thing the GM needs to decide on is setting. Setting will help define chargen (character generation) as well as the cards used for the game.

You can, of course, just use one of the settings from Magic: The Gathering. There are plenty to choose from. If you go this route I would recommend only allowing cards from the appropriate block plus either the core set at the time of that block or the current core set (Magic 2012). The benefit of the former is that it presents all the cards appropriate for the setting as they existed at the time of the block. The benefits of the latter: it presents basic utility cards using the most current templating and it makes acquisition much easier.

Some GMs really love world-building, though, and if you’re that GM you’ve got more work ahead of you. Depending on how much work you want to do and how much time you want to spend on this step you can just say something like “All cards from these blocks, minus this banned list” or you could go through Gatherer and generate a huge list of allowed cards. I’m pretty lazy and not always blessed with copious amounts of time so I’d do the former, but YMMV.

Regardless of how you do your world-building, when you’re all done you’ll have a set of cards your players may use. As always, as the GM you are not limited the same way!

GM Setup

Just like any other RPG, it behooves the GM to have the most stuff. In this case, that means a large collection of Magic cards. Yes, you probably will want the players to provide their own for their characters, but as the GM you will need to be ready to provide them with cards if they have none and you will need cards for everything else in your universe. I’ll talk about the cards players need in the next section, so let’s focus here on what you as the GM will need for your universe.

Adversary Decks

You’re going to need decks for adversaries against which you pit your players’ characters, usually for the purposes of combat. Adversary decks play differently from normal decks, and are not unlike the Horde decks Adam revisited. Here are the rules:

• Adversary Deck size varies by relative threat. A goblin patrol deck might have 20 cards while a great wyrm red dragon deck might have 250, for example.
• The GM plays Adversary Decks and makes all decisions for them. You (the GM) always play first, may not mulligan, and do not draw on the first turn. You may play every card in your opening hand; this is the only chance you have to play more than one spell per turn.
• Adversary Decks contain no basic lands but can contain nonbasic lands for their special effects. Lands an Adversary Deck might control do not tap for mana.
• Adversary Decks have infinite mana available and can always pay additional costs required, but…
• Adversary Decks can only activate any ability a maximum of five times. This limit resets on the Adversary Deck’s upkeep step (so, for example, you can’t activate Azure Mage five times every player’s turn, but five times total between upkeep steps).
• Except for the first turn, Adversary Decks can only cast one turn per player’s turn (one on the Adversary Deck’s turn and one on each PC’s turn). The GM has no maximum hand size.
• Damage is dealt to an Adversary Deck by putting cards from the top of its library into its graveyard on a one-for-one basis.

Rewards

The most immediate way to reward players for their successes is to give them access to more and more powerful cards. Cards with higher converted casting costs and higher rarities will both be quite useful to the PCs as the campaign progresses.

You can also use these rewards to establish verisimilitude in the setting, such as with nonbasic lands. “You have rescued the princess of Somesuchland. As your reward, you are made a baron. Here are four copies of Eiganjo Castle to represent your new home.”

Other rewards include important NPCs the players meet along the way who join them in their quests. These NPCs might come in the form of allies, people of legendary potential, or even very powerful cohorts who serve the PCs quite loyally (but who have their own agendas as well and might ditch the PCs in a fight if they feel the battle is going against them personally).

Character Generation

Each player creates a character using the story game’s rules, as normal. And then…

Each player creates a character deck to define what what his or her character can do. The guidelines for these starting decks I think should be pretty simple:

• 25-card decks
• No more than 4 of any copy of a card (except basic lands, of course)
• Commons only
• Converted casting cost 3 or lower
• No nonbasic lands, legends, or planeswalkers

This lets a player build a character who has the potential to do what he or she wants but without the deck being overly powerful from the get-go. A weenie 20-card goblin deck might pose a challenge to a party of four 25-card beginners, but that’s kind of a fantasy RPG trope. So run with it and enjoy the simplicity of these early games.

There are some limitations imposed by the use of Magic cards in this way, but if you’re playing this kind of game I think people will forgive them. For example, as far as I know there are no Magic cards that represent you, as a player character, swinging a sword. There are swords in Magic, but they are meant for your summoned lackeys to use. Magic is built around of two mages dueling, so playing a mage PC is the easiest and most flexible option available, but it’s not the only one. Here are just some of the ideas I had off the top of my head. More creative people I’m sure can come up with more…

• A Mage: Your deck is filled with non-creature spells representing your arsenal. You have a lot of flexibility as to what kind of mage you want to play, and a multi-color deck suggests a more generalist wizard.
• A Leader: Your deck is filled with creature spells. Instead of summoning them, as in the standard backstory of Magic, in MtRPG they represent your retinue of loyal followers. (For example, an ousted elvish princess seeking to claim her throne is followed by those few elves who believe in her, and as her power grows she brings more elves under her sway [represented by her growing deck].)
• A Godling: Why not? It’s hard to represent that with low-CCC commons but as a reader of Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods knows, you gotta start somewhere. What you put into this deck basically depends on what kind of godling you want to play, but certain cards seem kinda appropriate.
• An Artificer: This is the deck for someone who wants to play a bunch of artifacts. Thanks to the two Mirrodin blocks there are plenty of common artifacts for 3 or less. And this needn’t represent a maker of such items, just someone who uses them.
• A Landed Noble: This deck is heavy into land and cards that fetch land. You’re going to want all the nonbasic land cards you can get your hands on, just as soon as you can. (Remember that starting decks can only have basic lands.)
• A Medium: Fill your deck with spirit cards and cards that make spirit tokens. The Kamigawa block is good for this, I reckon.

Experience & Character Advancement

PCs grow in power by acquiring more and more powerful cards (those with higher converted casting costs and rarities). The pool of cards from which they draw and expand their deck is expanded in three ways:

• GM Rewards: This is explained in the GM Setup section above. Don’t forget to hand out basic lands!
• Player Goals: Each player creates a list of cards (or just pull them from their collection) he or she wants to include later. This can include up to a full playset of a particular card, depending on how reliably the player wants to be able to use it. The player may add to or take away from this list at any time and only that player and the GM may look at the list or pulled cards. Whenever the PCs “level up” the GM goes through each player’s goal list and picks all the copies of a single card the GM thinks appropriate (taking into account the new power level of all decks, the quest just accomplished, the GM’s goals for the campaign, and any metagame considerations). So while one player might get a playset of an uncommon he wants, another player might just get two copies of a rare she wants.
• Random Treasure: In this case, “treasure” of course means “more cards.” The GM hands out a number of cards for the PCs to collectively paw through and put into their decks. The number of cards provided varies by what the GM thinks appropriate at the moment (as spelled out in the previous point) and what the players get can be semirandom (i.e., taken from a much larger pool of treasure cards the GM put together and shuffled previously; don’t forget basic lands!) or far more random (i.e., unopened booster packs).

Once the rewards are handed out the players then expand and tweak their decks accordingly.

Note to GMs: As this is the only way players can get new cards, don’t forget to hand out basic lands! This doesn’t mean you have to provide them unlimited access to basic lands (and in fact it might be more fun if you don’t!) but neither should you mana-screw your players by giving them cool new spells but not increasing their resources they can use to play them.

Combat & Conflict Resolution

Combat resolution is both easy and fun: play Magic!

Well okay, you do need a few added rules since this is a co-operative RPG environment:

• Initiative: The GM always goes first. Each player reveals the card on the bottom of his or her deck. The player with the highest converted casting cost goes next, then play proceeds clockwise as normal, with the GM getting another turn as appropriate (yes, this could mean the GM goes, the player to the GM’s right then goes, and then the GM goes again… sucks to be you if that happens). Ties are broken alphabetically. If the two players reveal the same exact card the first player is the one with the next-highest converted casting cost.
• Attacking: Players can attack anyone they want, but unless the group is into intra-party conflict they should all be attacking the GM. The GM, of course, can attack anyone he damn-well pleases. Players attack individually on their turns. This isn’t two-headed giant.
• Blocking: Players can block for one another. They can even block for the GM to set up cool plays, to backstab one another, or because one sees an opportunity the other doesn’t.
• Targeting: No limits on targeting.
• Communication: Players are free to communicate as much as they want, but once a player declares the end to his or her phase, unless the rules compel a forgotten situation to be resolved, nobody can force the game to revert to an earlier state to undo a mistake. No take-backs, in other words.

Non-combat conflict resolution is simplest if it’s done with the reveal mechanic. The only real decision here is whether it should be the top card or bottom card. It’s up to the GM as to whether or not deck-manipulation spells can be cast beforehand (and thus eliminating them from the next combat).

• Static Numbers: For some things, like climbing a wall or picking a lock, the GM should just invent the difficulty for that, write it down (consistency is a hallmark of RPGs!), and then ask the player to reveal a card. Add the card’s converted casting cost to whatever skill the character has (assuming you’re using a story game, otherwise all characters have a skill level of 0 for all skills). If the result equals or exceeds the set number, the character succeeds. That’s it.
• Opposed Numbers: Sneaking past a guard, engaging in diplomacy, or bargaining with a merchant are opposed actions. In this case, either the player and GM play a very quick game of Magic (say… until one or the other takes a point of damage) or else both reveal cards and add together appropriate skill levels. The higher total wins. Tie goes to the PC.

Casting Spells Outside of Combat

It might be necessary or desirable for a PC to cast spells outside of combat. Follow these steps:

1. The player searches his or her library for the card.
2. The player shuffles his or her library.
3. The player casts the spell by exiling it.

The order of events here are important. First, obviously, the player needs to get the spell in question. But then the player needs to randomize his or her deck, since all non-combat actions require revealing cards from the deck. The spell goes off last to give deck-manipulation spells a chance to function. Thus, a mage who is into fate manipulation can finagle her deck to have more positive results outside of combat, but doing so weakens her ability to modify her fate when it might be lethally important to do so (i.e., combat).

Note to GMs: The spell cast outside of combat remains exiled until after the next combat. Casting spells outside of combat is easier than inside combat, but doing so removes them from the pool of the player’s deck at an important time! These exiled cards are in a special place and cannot be brought into the next game by any means, even with a card that otherwise does something to all exiled cards or somesuch. I guess an appropriate wish might work, but that’s up the GM.

Final Say

I know I’m not the first person to write about this but I wanted to share my take on the situation. I’m not sure it would actually work as written, but it seems like something fun to try. :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this thought exercise, because I have at least one more similar post I want to write in the future (which I’ve been thinking about for years). For now, I’ll let you digest this one.

Enjoy!! ^_^

ETA:
Part Two (Character Cards)