Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Welcome to the Cards on the Tabletop podcast, the official podcast for Port Chirin: Crucible of Cards. 0:16 I'm Mark, the creator and the designer of this game. All right, here we go. Right, we're live, the deck shuffled, the mic's working, hopefully. 0:29 The character sheet's in front of me, and this is Port Chirin: Crucible of Cards, pronounced Port Chirin. 0:37 It's a tactical solo first tabletop RPG, and your character is a Port Chirin, a stranger pulled through a naturally occurring rift into a world that isn't theirs. 0:48 Now, the natives call people like you this, and you're aware of it too. It's where the game itself gets its name. Now, I'm a bit excited. Yeah, excited. I'm going in cold, a dry run. 1:03 Whatever the cards give me is what I get. So, here we go. First draw for activity select. It's, uh, two of spades. 1:16 Low card, aces through six count as low, and low means I hold the edge going in. Now, spades means that this is an infiltration scene, not a bad way to open. All right, going according to plan. Good. Draw another card. 1:30 Second card for the situation oracle. This just, uh, sets the flavor for the scene. Wants right now, nothing gets checked against this later. Nah, this is just narrative. The queen of spades, uh, spades again. 1:45 Okay, that sets the situation type, character versus character. So whatever's coming, it isn't gonna be like automated turrets or a locked door. It's people who are actively working against me. Draw this third card. 2:01 This is gonna set the time, the location, and the balance. It's, uh... All right, here we go, a jack of spades. Huh, spades again. 2:12 All right, that means it's day exterior, and the jack's a face card, which is gonna be an odd, um, value, so the balance comes out negative. Now, here is where I land. 2:23 I've got the edge going in, but the whole situation is tilted against me. So picture it, bright daylight, some kind of outdoor perimeter, and I'm trying to slip past people who are actively looking for me. 2:39 Um, maybe this is a courtyard, uh, a wall lane with, like, guards on the catwalk, that kind of stuff. Okay, one more draw to set the scene itself. Uh, and here we go. It's, uh, two of diamonds. 2:55 All right, diamonds is the technology domain, and a two on the intensity table gives me, let's see, a long empty stretch, sound carrying far. Footsteps echo down it, heading my way. That's where things stand. 3:11 That's where I am. It's a long sun-baked concrete alleyway running between two industrial-looking blocks. Nowhere to hide in this space, and somewhere ahead of me, boots. I'm hearing boots. 3:25 Heavy, rhythmic, getting closer. Okay, all right. My first move. Every check I make from here, it now runs the same four steps. 3:36 I declare what I'm doing, I'm gonna draw a card, I'm gonna check the suit, then I'm gonna resolve it. That's the whole loop every single time. All right, I need to get out of this stretch that I'm in now. 3:48 I'm going hacking. That's my trait. It's, uh, six, and it's paired with the disable skill. Now, how am I gonna use this? All right, hacking sits under the technology domain, which links it straight to the diamonds suit. 4:04 There's a utility hatch, um, it's further down the wall with an automated lock on it. I'm gonna try to slice it open and get into the crawl space before whoever is coming, you know, comes around this corner, 4:19 spots me in this alleyway. Drawing a card. It's, uh, eight of diamonds. All right. Then because I declared technology and the first card came up diamonds, that's an advantage, so I'm gonna draw a second card. 4:34 Huh, another diamond. Nine of diamonds. All right, two plain numbers. Advantage keep means I keep the higher one. That's the nine. Here we go. So nine plus my trait value of six, that's 15. 4:47 Red cards check against my ceiling, black cards check against my floor. Um, that's the target numbers I'm aiming for, and that's the rule every single time. 4:57 This one's red, it's the ceiling, which is the higher, which is 18. Target number 18. 15 isn't gonna get me there. All right, let me narrate this out. 5:05 So cables in the port, I'm running the bypass, the bar is climbing, hits 99%, and then boom, the boots come around the corner right as the lock throws up a red error and hard seizes on me. 5:21 The clunks loud, too loud, heads start turning towards me. So my character, I've got no time to think about this. I need to break line of sight before anyone shoots at me, raises a weapon, something. 5:35 I'm gonna forget the hatch. I'm gonna declare a new skill, reflexes. Uh, that's a trait. Uh, the skill is catch. Reflexes sit under biology, so that is gonna link to the heart suit. 5:47 There's a bank of cooling units further along coming away. I'm throwing myself over them into the shadows behind. Now to draw another card. All right, six of clubs. Frig. All right, no hearts, no suit match. 6:01 I called hearts, but this is a club, so I don't get an advantage this time. Play number is a six. Onto my five, that gives me 11. Black card, check it against my floor, which is eight. Ha. 11 clears it easily. Excellent. 6:17 So I'm in. I slide sideways over the units into the gap between them right as a patrol comes around the corner. Oof. All right, so rifles are sweeping the alleyway. Nothing there to see. Ha. 6:30 I'm flat against the dirt, and they don't see me. All right, great. But I can't stay wedged here forever, though. All right. What do I need to do? Um, I need to know where they're going next. 6:42 I'm gonna declare perception, my trait, um, the scrutinize skill, that's a seven trait value. Perception sits under psionics, which links to clubs. Let me see. 6:55 Watching through the gap, uh, I'm tracking their sight lines. So now to draw a card. Drawing, huh, another spade. Four of spades this time. I called clubs. Uh, I got a spades, no advantage again. 7:10 Four plus seven gives me 11. Uh, black card, floor of eight. I clear that target number. Great. Good dice payoff. Uh, through the gap, I catch it. 7:20 Their coverage isn't quite so tight, so there are these two guards, and both of them turn towards the far end of the alley at the same moment. About five seconds maybe where neither one is looking my way. 7:31 Past my window, I need to move straight through it. All right, time to declare something else. Uh, handling is my trait, um, paired with a value of four. Improvise skill, handling technology, same as again. 7:45 All right, I spot a grate on the ground level, a drainage culvert, uh, underneath. It looks like it's rusted solid, but there's a length of rebar laying nearby that I can use for leverage. Okay. All right, cool. 7:58 Time to draw a new card, uh, and it's a king of clubs. Called diamonds, no advantage, but it's a face card. All right, the numbers don't matter here. Uh, what matters is that it's a black card. 8:11 That means whatever happens, happens in my favor. Good, good, good. Uh, a face card always lands a condition. Let me see. Check the table. It lands on them, not me. Excellent. Here's the formula every time. 8:25 The card rank sets how severe it is, and its suit sets which specific condition. So suits, clubs, psionics, uh, the rank's a king, that's pretty much as high as it gets. Severe. Severe plus psionics is suppressed. 8:42 Uh, that means that they can't use a psionic type skill for the rest of the scene. Okay. Now, ready. So the grate pops on the second pull, and it doesn't just open, it lets go. 8:53 Uh, there's a wall of steam that blasts straight out of the culvert, straight into the face of the nearest guard. Ha. He staggers back, blind, his flashlight gone. 9:04 He's completely rattled, can't coordinate, can't call in properly. Not for the rest of this. Uh, my character's gonna slide into the dirt, the culvert underneath him. All right, I've got one last check. 9:18 I'm in the culvert now, but I need to make sure nothing follows me down. All right, let me see. Another skill, trait is engineering. Uh, a three, that's my trait value, and that's paired with the skill construct. 9:31 All right, engineering is technology as well. Uh, got quite a few of those. Diamonds again. Uh, here's a control panel for the flush valve just behind me. 9:41 If I can cross the wiring, hmm, flood the tunnel and wash out anything behind me. All right, sounds like a plan. Draw a card, two of clubs. All right, no diamonds, no advantage. 9:54 Two and three gives me five, fortunately is a black card. The floor trait number is eight. I don't reach that. Hmm. All right, the wiring is corroded through. It snaps in my hands before I can bridge it. 10:09 The valve is staying dead. Anyway, I keep moving deeper into this culvert, but behind me, right under that grate, there's mud, and it's holding a perfect set of my prints. Ah, that's the scene. 10:22 Three of these action checks went my way. Yeah, two didn't. Okay. That's three to two. That's enough to call it a win, uh, in my favor. 10:30 So the rules are clear that with a win like that, um, you know, it's still a win, but it costs me something, and I can exactly feel what it costs. My character is clear of the alley. 10:40 Uh, the guards top side are still stumbling around, half blind, unable to raise anyone, but my tracks are sitting right under that grate, plain as anything. Sooner or later, someone's gonna follow them. Ha. Oof. 10:55 That was fun. All right, I got myself a little head start, not to safety, not yet, and that's where this ends. So, uh, that was fun. Oof. That's Poor Children, Crucible of Cards, the quick start. 11:12 Uh, I just played it live straight through. If any of that, you know, sounded cool for you, um, the way it was cool for me to play, the quick start is pay what you want. You can grab it on rpgtrader.com or on itch.io. 11:27 The links are gonna be in the episode notes. You can go and build yourself your own adventure to play. 11:33 Now, Crucible of Cards is an indie project, and it's in active development, and I'm building it right out in the open. If you wanna follow along, you can enter the portal by joining the mailing list at poorchildren.com. 11:45 Again, that link is in the episode notes as well. Now, that's been the Cards on the Table podcast. I'll see you next time, and remember, if the cards you're dealt aren't kind, don't flip the table. 12:01 Try to have fun anyway. I'm Art. Peace out. 12:04 [outro music]
