Since playtesting began on Dark Heresy I have been working with other players and artists to design a workable deck of the Emperor's Tarot to use in game. Although all the art is not yet complete for the card images, the card list and interpretations can be found here: nationaldinosaurmuseum.com.au/tarot.htm . To my knowlege this is the most complete listing for the Tarot and meanings for the 40K universe, but is by no means set in concrete, even the modern Tarot decks vary greatly in style and interpretation - one can imagine that it would still be so in the far future. I have seen cards created based on my deck list using GW art which is totally unfair to the artists and GW as it is effectively pinching their stuff - All the icons & design elemements in this Deck were either created by myself or Hellebore, with art from many artists who have given specific permission for it's use in this project (and are credited on the cards themselves). Feel free to use the cards so far complete, and the list in games, and if you know of anyone who might help us fill in the gaps then plese let me know. More details and the latest finished cards can be found here: inquisitorminmi.deviantart.com/

My thoughts were that the GM could provide some direction to players through the cards, by selecting those generally appropriate to the situation as a "reading" for players with the appropriate skills. By necessity the interpretion of the cards is no specific, by the inferences can be made to cover every situation, especially as meanings are reversed when cards are revealed in an inverted position. Sample layouts can also be found on the main Tarot Page, created by CELS from the ASP.

The end aim of the project is to provide 2 physical decks of cards, one in the "Magic" style with interpretation on the card itself, the second in the more traditional tarot style with image and rank alone. The final part of the project was to create a computer program to do a virtual layout of the cards to provide a further way to use them in game - the techpriests are working on this.

Hope you can find a use for them in game, thanks to those who've helped so far, and I hope to recruit more to the cause to finish the project soon.

Tiger's Heart

WOAH! That is awsome! *applaughs* I can't wait for the finished set, going to get them printed out and onto oak tag for actual cards for a nice prop and just to have becuase they are awsome!

Is there a image for the back of the cards up though? I don't recall seeing one.

I think there is one in my gallery,

inquisitorminmi.deviantart.com/art/Tarot-Card-Back-I-53460499

and also one that Darthbane (from the old BL forums) did too... but I can't find it atm - will update when I do.

Tiger's Heart

anyone made a Heretics deck seen in IH?

Sorry for double posting - I can't find an edit function

Firstly the other Tarot Card Back I mentioned by DarthBane (Emass on DA) emass.deviantart.com/art/Tarot-Back-Test-3-53480350 is here, but again there is that choice to have a specific back for your Deck: Either by creating your own using the same dimensions, or make a suggestion. The designes so far were intended to be Ambigrams, so they gave no indication of which way up the cards were in the deck, allowing for those varied readings...

Secondly for in game use, some sugestions:

The Simplest mechanic for using the tarot is as a mechanism for a psynicience test. I know that it was frustrating when playing a psyker to be unable to contribute to the party's efforts at times while they were investigating rumours etc.

By allolwing the player to glean information through a "reading" of cards provided by the GM they can make some conclusions of their own - erroneous or otherwise as the cards can mean many things.

I wasn't thinking of it being like the reveal in Cluedo (It was Brother Judius with the Candelabrum in the Abbey Forecourt): Rather that the Pilgrim, Ship and Duel cards may for example mean that the acolytes needed to journey subtly to another destination through the void there to encounter an enemy who might lead them towards their final goal but the Rogue Trader and the Deamon Cards following the first 3 warn of jumping to conclusions, giving up the advantages of a subtle approach and straying from the true path in to great danger.

Of course they could be meant to deliver a different message in another context - the ship for example doesn't literally mean a spaceship which would be meaningless on a planet based adventure, the sun and the moon are not literal titles either. The whole deck though can be used to add a further dimension to the game for players and the GM both.

Perhaps the success on a test indicates how many of the prepared cards (for example the 5 above) are clearly seen by the acolyte; 3 cards for success, 4 cards for 1 or 2 degrees, and all 5 for 3+ degrees. Failure may result in 2 cards only, or really bad fails could just be random snatches drawn from the whole deck.

Without the complete physical deck, Dice rolls could be used to determine random cards, roll d6 1/2: Major Arcana or Minor Arcana 3: Excetuteria, 4: Discordia, 5: Adeptio, 6: Mandatio. There are 22 Major Arcana Cards and 14 in each sept of the Minor Arcana; (without a dice generator these are a bit tricky, but I'm sure some smart cookie out there can work out the best way to do it).

I'm keen to hear any other ideas, and how this works out if you use them.

EDIT: as for the Heretics Deck... Well I 'll have to look into that, but one could follow from the other as I assume it is a corrupted form.

Tiger's Heart

well thats what i meant but id like to hear the names you come up with and pics maybe

Again, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project goes TH. In my games I allow three different ways of using the tarot:

1) Regular folks can do a reading, then make a Common Lore: Imperial Creed check to get some insight on their situation (not so much divination, but a way to get a hint about information they already have but have forgotten or failed to connect on their own).

2) Psykers may, if the deck is also a focus, make a psynisense check as they do the reading. Vague hints about what is going on may be had with a success, more success equal more insight, but no direct answers.

3) A diviner or astropath may use the deck to great effect, depending on their abilities and the nature of the question. At times they could get outright answers up to and including "Mr. Green, in the Bedroom, with the Rope..." of course then they need to find out which bedroom, and who Mr. Green is. Might be good to know what he did with that rope too...

Once I have the actual card/deck available (physically or via application), I'll just use the reading itself rather than a roll (how usable the cards that come out are will determine how good the reading is for the characters). I nearly broke a LARP once doing that actually... pulled out my shiny new Mage Tarot and, totally intending to just screw with some folks while waiting for things to get moving, accidentally broke open multiple plot threads in the first ten minutes.

ThenDoctor said:

Okay I have the reference, and will have to think about how best to rename each card as a parody or alternate perspective. As this seems to be a little more nebulous than the Tarot and as to the use for fortune telling.... I think I'll try to find names and stick to a Standard Tarot/Playing Card style.

The Emperor / Corpse God springs to mind.... Discordia would become positive and may not need to be changed in image only in titles, The other suits become more negative, and will be more difficult to do.

But the challenge is there - perhaps people could suggest other alternatives?

Tiger's Heart

To those who designed the tarot divination layouts, you are a genius. That will come in handy for my group the most.

I used something very similar for an investigation based WoD game, where one of the players was playing a occultist with a number of divination powers and I can would definately recomend playing around with it. Little props like that can definately add to the feel of the game, and I think it spiced up some otherwise average sessions.

It was one of my favourite stalling techniques (As well as handing out exp - which for that reason I tend to give out in the middle of sessions), I would set up a spread or two in advance and any period where the players did something unexpected or bypassed some chunk of the plot I would put down one of the readings, say some phrase and ignore them when they spent 5 or so minutes argueing over cryptic meanings of cards. - On that note they also work quite well as a inspiration device.

I actually kept it completely free of system, they got the number of cards I needed to give them, and I generally kept to the major Arcana purely since it was easier that way.

A free system is the best if players and GM can handle it

Just to let you know that I have uploaded a few more cards to my DeviantArt site.

Tiger's Heart