AUGUST 6, 2024
by Keaira
<aside> đ This is my contribution to Autocratikâs event happening during the month of August aimed to talk more about the hobby of table top roleplaying games.
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There are RPGs with hundreds of pages of rules, some only looked into when the game hits that specific problem. There are lighter systems, books full of setting with little mechanics, all the way to one-page RPGs. And then there are games that you simply put on the table and start to play in matter of minutes - and these, specifically one of them and the line it started, will be my pick today. Day six. Time to talk about card roleplaying games.
For the Queen (by Alex Roberts) is a story-building card game designed to be played without any kind of preparation just using a pack of cards. The table takes turns reading instructions also written on the cards and jumps right into the story - created by series of prompts - of a perilous journey to broker an alliance to stop the war. A queen and her companions, who love her.
There is tragedy, and heart-break and betrayal. Everything that you could expect from such setup, all fitting neatly in a single afternoon - no matter if you have an hour or three. You ran out of time? Just skip some prompts. It does not go easier than that, does it?
Recently, For the Queen got 2nd edition at Darrington Press, that I am not familiar with, but looks pretty.
A licence was made public to create games based on this simple yet clever concept in 2019, under the common name of Descended From the Queen - and the community responded with boom of creativity. Itch.io has now many games available under this tag with themes that seemingly touch any kind of subject. âA warâ between parents and teachers in a nursery school. Journalists fighting for best headline. French infantry during brief respite in Great War in 1916. A group of people trying to escape a nightmare haunting them. Wizardâs apprentices dealing with wizardâs disappearance. And many many more.
Online play of such games is also quite easy. ForTheDrama or StorySynth website have several of them implemented for quick access and sites like playingcard.io give possibilities to import cards and create rooms for handling cards easily, especially if you donât care about graphics.
Honorable mention for one of these little Descended From the Queen indie games: The Newly Arrived - a game about outsiders trying to become part of a community (what kind of community is decided by the table). In my favourite playthrough of this game, the Council of Supervillains was judging new applicants, who had to prove themselves to be the evilest of the evil! The game was not only as ridiculous as it sounds and a lot of fun, but can serve as a good ice-breaker for new player communities.
These card games, understandably, do not compete with their bigger siblings in terms of roleplaying depth or epicness, but for a light game to pass few hours, they are perfectly suited.