Cardsharps

Cardsharps is a generic RPG engine for rogues and reprobates, designed for GM-less play.

Armed with a deck of cards, this game helps you to nimbly guide your cast of characters on a merry waltz from mishap to catastrophe. For the tone, think of an old-timey farce, or a Coen Brothers movie, or perhaps your own muddled and terrifying existence.

In this brisk little PDF, you'll find the means to:

• Create a character, assembling a hand of cards. The suits determine your stats, and each card gives your character a Windfall they can use to get ahead, and a Complication that tells us how it can all go wrong.
• Resolve situations, either by drawing from your hand or by making use of your character's unique skills.
• Create Troubles for your characters to overcome or make worse.
• Give life to NPCs by assigning them cards from the deck.
• Change your character as the game goes on, swapping your hand out for cards from the same communal deck as your characters shift and learn from one another.

Along with a few other surprises.