Campaign decks

Put decks on the table, deal, shuffle and gather; players draw, play, show and pass cards according to the permissions you grant.

Campaign decks are the card decks that live at the table: a draw pile, a discard pile, what has been played and each player's hand. Whoever runs the game puts them out, deals, shuffles and gathers; everyone else draws, plays and passes cards within whatever each deck allows. They work for a tarot, a deck of omens, an initiative deck or any card game in your system.

Where to find it

Whoever runs the game finds it in the GM's backstage group of the campaign rail, named Decks. Players see it in their Play room, named Cards: it is the same screen, minus what only the GM does. During play, your hand also floats over the table, and the Cards and decks window in the dock manages decks without leaving it.

Requirements and permissions

• The section only appears if the campaign plays with cards: with the Card decks rule switched on, or with a custom system (which already brings its decks), or if there are already decks on the table. The rule is explained in Campaign rules and settings.
• Putting out, dealing, peeking at the draw pile, editing the cards, remaking and removing are GM things. Players can draw and discard unless the deck prevents it.
• What else players may do (shuffle, gather the discard pile, gather everything, remake, take from the discard pile) is decided by you, deck by deck, and by default they can do none of it.
• You only see how many cards another player holds, unless the deck lets hands be seen or that person shows you the cards.

Step by step

Putting out a deck

1. Press Add a deck. The menu has three sections: the system's decks (if any), the classic ones and Own deck, which asks for a name and creates an empty one for you to fill.
2. If that deck is already on the table, it asks whether you want another copy. When you accept, the deck appears in the list and becomes the selected one.
3. The Announce in chat switch decides whether what is done with the cards (drawing, dealing, putting out a deck) leaves a line in the chat.

Dealing and managing

1. Pick the deck in the list. You will see its summary (cards in the draw pile, in the discard pile and on the table), the named zones it declares, your hand and the others' hands.
2. The GM menu holds the GM actions: Deal to the players (1, 2, 3 or 5 cards each), Shuffle, Gather the discard and Gather everything (hands included), which also takes back the hands.
3. With Look at the next ones you see the next cards, only you. With Rebuild the deck every card goes back to the draw pile and is shuffled; Remove the deck takes it off the table and loses its state and hands (both ask for confirmation).
4. What players may do is a submenu with checkboxes: Shuffle, Gather the discard, Gather everything, Rebuild and Take from the discard. Tick whatever you want to allow.
5. For systems with one deck per person, One deck per player or Give a copy to… hands a copy to every player who does not have one yet, and each owner can choose their own Card back….
6. Edit the cards opens the deck editor: change, add or remove cards, and the Where they are tab tells you where each copy is and lets you move it.

Playing with your hand

1. Your hand is under Your hand. One click selects a card (several at once), a double click plays it and a right-click opens it large. You can also drag it to the discard pile, to the table, to a zone or to another player's hand.
2. The Draw, Play and Discard buttons act on the selection. Show shows cards to everyone or only to whoever you choose; More holds the rest: move to a zone, pass to another player, flip, or use a card's value as initiative.
3. From the keyboard: arrows to move, Enter selects, Ctrl+Enter plays, Delete discards, Ctrl+A selects all and Esc clears the selection.

Examples

• Omens at the start of the session: put out the omens deck, shuffle it and deal 1 card to each player. Each one looks at theirs and decides when to play it.
• Initiative with cards: during a combat, the GM menu offers Draw initiative from the deck: it draws a card from the deck for every token that does not have initiative yet.
• A shared tarot: let players shuffle and gather the discard pile; that way, when the deck runs out, they refill it without asking you.

Options

The order of your hand is chosen by suit, by value, by arrival or by hand, and the choice is remembered in the browser. If the deck has a hand-size limit, your hand's heading shows it ("hand full") and the draw button stops.

Tips

Tip. With the pointer over a card in your hand, it appears large at the side; that way you read the text without opening it. On narrow screens it is not shown, so it does not cover the hand.

• Put out cards with a cost or effects (from a custom system) and the table does the payment when they are played; if it cannot be paid, the button explains why.
• Use zones for what is neither hand nor discard (the pot, the tricks): they are named places where cards can be dropped.

Known limits

• The cards in another player's hand cannot be seen even if you are a player, unless the deck makes them public or their owner shows them.
• If the system brings its own decks, the Card decks rule is no longer needed; switched on, it adds the campaign's own decks to the system's.
• Removing or remaking a deck asks for confirmation before acting; read it carefully, because the cards' state is lost.

Common problems

"I do not get the Decks section." Switch on the Card decks rule in Campaign rules and settings, or put out a deck from the table.

"A player cannot draw." Only the GM draws from that deck, or the player's hand is full: the button says so when you hover it.

"I cannot see someone else's cards." That is normal: you only see how many they hold. Ask them to show you with Show.

See also

Campaign rules and settings, Campaign management, Players, roles and teams, Card games.

All Roliando guides