Cards and decks at the table
Putting a deck on the table, drawing, dealing and showing cards.
Cards are played right on the table: whoever runs the game puts a deck down, deals or lets each player draw, and hands, discard pile and played cards are seen live. Here you will learn how to put a deck down, draw, deal and show cards, and what each deck lets players do.
Where it is
- Cards and decks opens the Cards and decks window. It is in the dock for players and for whoever runs the game.
- Your hand also appears along the bottom edge of the table, above the character bar: folded, only the cards peek out, and with the pointer over it or focus it fans open. If you hold no cards and nothing is played, nothing is drawn.
- The campaign's decks are set up in the GM area, under decks; a full card game, with its rules, is designed in Card games.
Requirements and permissions
- Putting down, removing and dealing decks belongs to whoever runs the game. Players draw, play, discard and pass cards as far as the deck allows.
- If the campaign's system brings its own decks, they already show; on one that brings none you need to turn on Card decks.
| Option | What it does | Default | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card decks | Adds the decks section to a table whose system has none | Off | The GM; everyone else sees it read-only |
Putting a deck down
- Open Cards and decks. If there are none, the window says so.
- Press Add a deck and choose among the system's decks, the classic ones, or Own deck to create an empty one with the name you give.
- If that deck is already on the table, you are asked whether you want another copy.
- Each deck put down is a tab, with the number of cards left in the draw pile.
The Announce in chat switch decides whether the table leaves a note in the chat of what happens with the deck (who draws, who deals, who plays).
Drawing, playing and discarding
On the deck's tab you see the draw pile, the discard, what is on the table and Your hand. Cards that are not yours are only seen if they are shown to you; of other hands you only see how many cards they hold.
- Draw takes from the pile. It can be one card or several. If the GM left the pile for themselves alone, it says so.
- Select one or several cards from your hand and press Play, Discard or Show. With Pass to… you pass it to another player.
- On the floating hand: click selects, double-click plays, right-click or long press opens the card's menu, and dragging takes it to the table, the discard, a zone or another hand.
- With the keyboard: arrows to move, Enter to select, Ctrl + Enter or double-click to play, Delete to discard, Ctrl + A to select all and Esc to clear the selection.
If the deck has a hand limit, the message Your hand is full warns you that you cannot draw more.
Dealing and showing
The deck's GM menu is for whoever runs the game:
- Deal to the players: 1, 2, 3 or 5 cards to each player at once.
- Shuffle, Gather the discard and Gather everything (hands included) (hands included).
- Look at the next ones: you see the next cards, for you only.
- What players may do: tick what players may do besides drawing and discarding (shuffle, take back the discard, take back everything, rebuild, take from the discard).
- Rebuild the deck returns every card to the pile and shuffles, and Remove the deck takes it off the table with its state and hands.
To show a card from your hand, select it and press Show: you can pick To everyone or Only to… one person. The ones you show to some people appear apart until you stop showing them.
Deck options
Each deck brings its own rules (it can be infinite, reshuffle itself when empty, be dealt face down, have a hand limit or let people answer a play for a few seconds). They are set when designing the game, not at the table; see Card games. At the table only the permissions menu above changes.
Tips
Tip. With one deck per player everyone has their own, with its own back: the GM's menu offers a copy to each player who lacks one. It suits decks of powers or personal skills.
Common problems
"The decks section is missing." The system brings no decks and Card decks is off. Turn it on in the GM area, in the campaign settings, under rules and settings, and put a deck down.
"I cannot draw." Either the pile is empty, or the deck is set so that only the GM draws, or your hand is full.
"I cannot see another player's cards." It is on purpose: of other hands only the count is seen, unless they are shown to you.