Card Draw System

To represent outcomes of complex actions, Orion Sphere LRP uses a Card Draw System - effectively a “push your luck” random system where the odds can easily be changed to reflect greater character skill or more difficult challenges.

There are currently three uses for the Card Draw System:

• Surgery, where Physician characters can operate on other characters to remove Conditions.
• Repairs, where Engineer characters can work on devices or technology to fix or disable them.
• Scanning, where Scientist characters can use their scanners to gather information or samples.

Surgery is a complex activity, and is represented by a Card Draw Action

Although the outcomes and effects of each type of Card Draw action will be different, the process is essentially the same for all of them. Any Card Draw action is broken into 3 phases;

• The Start Phase, where everyone gets organised and works out the details of the action - who is involved, the difficulty, etc.
• The Active Phase, where the lead character draws cards and determines when to stop.
• The Finishing Phase, where the details are worked out and roleplay is completed.

The core of the Card Draw Action is to draw cards from a deck specially constructed for that action - the deck may be a deck of physical cards held be a referee, or a digital equivalent on a phone app or purpose-built device. There are 4 colours of cards:

• Green Cards, which represent successes.
• Yellow Cards, which represent minor complications that can prolong the action.
• Red Cards, which represent major complications.
• Black Cards, which represent catastrophic complications.

The card deck is constructed to take account of player skills, the number of helpers, and how difficult the task is. In general, the more ranks of the relevant skill the character leading the action has, the more green cards they get, and more difficult tasks will mean the deck starts out with more yellow, red or black cards. Succeeding with some tasks might also require expending certain resources, like Medicaments, Exotic Substances, charges, or other things - which will be indicated where they are needed.

As the action goes on, the risks increase - more yellow, red and eventually black cards are added to the deck with each draw. The lead character can opt to stop the action at any time, if the risks become too great. If the lead character gives up on a task before succeeding, they can't try again at the same task for the rest of the day (although they can help out other characters trying).

All Card Draw Actions are divided into three phases - Start, Active, and Finishing. This is to make the roleplay make sense, reduce the time that the Action requires a dedicated Referee, and provide a good tension curve.

Throughout all Phases of a Card Draw Action all participating characters should be performing appropriate roleplay - tinkering with a device with engineering tools, performing surgery, using their scientific equipment and discussing their theories, etc.

• Start your roleplay.
• Figure out who is the Lead Character and who is assisting.
• Locate a Referee if required.
• Work out any bonuses and penalties you have.

During the Start Phase, the Lead Character gathers their team and begins their roleplay. Any character with able to use the relevant skill may join during the Start Phase, and decide on a Lead Character. Most Card Draw Actions require a Referee to be present - if so then this is the time to get one. If your action requires a Referee to be present, then they must be present before you move on to the Active Phase. The Start Phase takes as long as it requires to get a Referee, work out the details of all the participants, and perform appropriate roleplay to move on to the Active Phase. Once everyone is ready, then the action moves on to the Active Phase. The Lead Character should identify themselves to the Referee and provide the following information:

• How many ranks of the relevant skill the Lead Character has. When using a Scanner this can be zero.
• How many other characters with the relevant skill are participating
• What the characters are intending to do (fix a specific Condition, repair or damage a machine, examine or sample an object, etc)
  • Any difficulty requirements of what they are trying to do (may be indicated on the Condition or device card, or sticker)
• Anything else that is relevant (Medicaments, Exotic Substances, etc).

The Referee will then build the Card Draw deck for the action and get ready for the Lead Character to move on to the Active Phase by drawing their first card. Using digital devices or apps for the Card Draw Action process can reduce the need for a Referee, allowing the characters to submit the relevant information themselves.

Several Etherna Examine an ancient artifact while a Referee looks on.

• Continue roleplaying the activity.
• The Lead Character (or Referee on their behalf) draws a card and reacts to the result.
• Any instant results are applied by the Referee.
• The deck is adjusted and reshuffled between draws.
• The Lead Character may choose to stop before or after any draws.

During the Active Phase, the Lead Character draws cards to try and succeed at their action (or allows the Referee or a device to do so), and performs the roleplay for the action itself. This is the risky part of Card Draw Actions - if a card is drawn, then the characters must accept the result of the draw, although they can stop at any time between draws.

The Active Phase starts by the Lead Character drawing the first card from the prepared deck. They must draw another card every 30-60 seconds or elect to stop. The card deck is adjusted and shuffled after every draw. Characters must accept the result of a card draw. Characters should continue their roleplay (surgery, engineering work, science scanning, etc) while this process occurs, and are encouraged to incorporate the results of each draw into their roleplay. If the players prefer, the Referee adjudicating the Card Draw Action can draw for the player, and quietly show the drawn card to the Lead Character while they continue their roleplay - in this case, the Referee (or digital device/app) will usually give the Lead Character a 5-second warning before they draw, so that they can opt to stop.

The Lead Character can ask to know the makeup of the deck (and therefore the current risks) before every draw. If any of the assisting characters leave between Card Draws, then any additional green cards they provided to the deck should be removed for the next draw.

If the Lead Character opts to stop, or has acquired all the successes they need, then the action moves into the Finishing Phase.

• Finish up your appropriate roleplay for at least 1 minute.

The Finishing Phase represents the time taken to tie up the loose ends - closing the incisions of a surgery, collating the scanner results, reattaching hatches and service plates in engineering work. During the Finishing Phase, the risky part of the action is over, and the participating characters can relax a bit. At least one character who was participating must spend some additional time roleplaying to complete the action - at least 1 minute. Failing to complete the Finishing Phase may result in negative consequences - infections, spoiled samples, device malfunctions, etc. This is at the discretion of the Referee.

The moment of truth, time to draw a card!

To perform a Card Draw Action, you or the Referee needs some basic information from the players present to build the Deck. The default Card Draw Deck consists of 2 Green, 2 Yellow & 1 Red card. Other factors will affect what cards go into the initial Card Draw Deck;

• Every Rank of the relevant skill that the Lead Character has adds another Green card.
• Every additional character with the relevant skill that is assisting adds another Green card, up to the number of ranks of the relevant skill possessed by the Lead Character (so you can double your own skill with assistants).
• Any other modifiers and bonuses (for example the Steel Viscera skill adds +1 Green Card if the character with it is a patient).
• The Action being performed may add more cards of any of the 4 types based on how easy or difficult it is to perform.

After every card draw, the Referee may add or remove cards from the Deck to denote the increasing risk.

If a Green card is drawn, that indicates a success. In most cases, only one success is needed, but some actions might require, or benefit from multiple successes. When a Green Card is drawn, it is removed from the deck and placed aside as a Success.

If enough successes have been acquired to complete one action, the Lead Character may decide to continue to, for example, repair other Conditions in a surgery, or move from Examining a Phenomenon to Sampling it. This effectively counts as a separate Card Draw Action, but you can skip the Finishing Phase of the first action and move straight to the Active Phase of the next action as soon as the new action's Deck has been prepared.

If a Yellow Card is drawn, that indicates a setback or failure to progress. There is no direct negative consequence for a yellow card draw, but the risk of the action failing increases. If a Yellow card is drawn, then another Yellow card is added to the Deck. If there are 4 Yellow Cards in the Deck, then 3 are removed and replaced with a Red Card.

If a Red card is drawn, that indicates a negative complication - a nicked blood vessel in Surgery, a particle destabilisation while scanning, or an electrical discharge while repairing. The exact nature of the negative consequence depends on the action being performed, and the consequences may not become obvious until after the action is finished. If a Referee is present, then they will usually assign the negative consequences quickly, but may wait until after the procedure is complete. Sample negative consequences from Red Cards include:

• A patient in surgery receiving a LETHAL wound (note that any physician treating the wound no longer contributes their Green Card to the surgery).
• An engineer working on a device receiving a dose of mild radiation, or being badly burned - acquiring an appropriate Condition.
• A cluster of Exotic Particles destabilising and fading away.
• The scientist's scanner becomes Broken.

If a Red card is drawn, the Referee also adds another Yellow card to the Deck. If there are 4 Red Cards in the Deck, then 3 are removed and replaced with a Black Card.

If a Black card is drawn, that indicates that something has gone very wrong - severe consequences can be expected, either immediately or shortly after the procedure. In most cases, drawing a Black Card will end the Card Draw Action catastrophically. If a Referee is not present, then the Action ends immediately in failure - successes acquired up to that point may also be invalidated. If a Referee is present, then they may choose to allow the Action to continue - the Referee's decision is final. Some example consequences for different types of Action include:

• The Patient in a surgery dies on the table, or will acquire a permanent, long lasting and possibly incurable Condition (usually the Referee will confer with the patient's player and come up with a dramatically appropriate decision).
• A device being worked on explodes, and is destroyed as well as injuring any characters nearby.
• A sample breaks containment and infects the Scientist taking it with a nasty Condition.

If a Black Card is drawn, no additional cards are added to the Deck. If the action is allowed to continue, then the Black Card that was drawn is not returned to the Deck.
In devices or app-based mechanisms, Purple may be used to represent Black cards.

There are a number of additional mechanisms for Card Draw Actions that are rarer, and only arise in specific circumstances or if certain advanced Devices are used in the Action.

Certain abilities or Mods allow Automatic Successes in a Card Draw Action. These are additional “free” Successes that can significantly enhance the Action's outcomes.

• Automatic Successes are applied after the first Success is drawn in the Action - so you must draw at least one Green Card in order for your Automatic Successes to be applied.
• The maximum number of Automatic Successes that can be applied to a Card Draw Action is equal to the number of the relevant Skill Ranks of the Lead Character. So a Device that granted 3 Automatic Successes to a Surgery would apply only 1 extra Success if used by a character with Physician 1, but all 3 Automatic Successes could be used by a character with Physician 3.
• Automatic Successes can only be used by the Lead Character in a Card Draw Action. Assisting characters cannot make use of any device or ability that grants Automatic Successes.

Certain abilities or Mods grant Redraws in a Card Draw Action. Redraws are a very powerful ability that allows a Card that has just been drawn to be rejected and replaced with another draw from the Deck.

• Redraws must always be actively used by the Lead Character in the Action - they are not passively applied, and must be used immediately after a card is drawn.
• To use a Redraw, the Lead Character decides to use the Redraw and informs the Referee of it. The card that was just drawn is placed back in the deck, which is then shuffled and another card is drawn to replace it. This second card applies its result as if it had been drawn in place of the original card.
  • Another Redraw ability may be used on the redrawn card if the Lead Character decides to.
• Typically an ability that grants Redraws will grant a limited number per Card Draw Action of the relevant types (eg only in Surgeries to Implant or Remove a Cybernetic).

Sometimes a Card Draw Action must be performed in less than ideal conditions. If there are environmental circumstances that might hinder the Card Draw Action, such as a raging fire nearby, being surrounded by a cloud of toxic spores, psionic waves of emotion, or extremely cold conditions, then additional cards may be added to the deck to reflect this.

• Additional environmental risks may, at the Referee’s discretion, add more Yellow or Red cards to the Card Draw Deck when it is being built in the Start Phase. These added cards will compound with the difficulty of the action, converting 4 Yellow Cards to a Red or 4 Red Cards to a Black if necessary.
• At the Referee’s discretion the environmental risk may also add to the number of successes required to complete the Action successfully.