Push and Pull

Push and Pull

A Strategy/Roleplay/Godgame in which players play gods (duh) of various Houses. They influence the events of the Game via the use of Cards they are dealt. Various Combinations of Cards may have vastly different effects and may turn events upside down quite easily.

The Game is broken up into gambits running simultaneously. In these Gambits players try and become the only influencing House in a Gambit. A gambit usually includes a general area in which a conflict is brewing and powers start to converge. Players actions and especially the winning house largely influence the events going on.
There are several ways to lose a gambit: If you lose the King of your House your ic-character dies and the throne is abandoned. That means that you are out of the game. All cards however will stay in play and will continue as unbound cards.
The other possibility is to withdraw. Withdrawing means abandoning all your cards in play in that gambit, which could cause you to lose vital resources for further gambits.
Finally one can play Salvation. Salvation allows one to withdraw all House Cards within a gambit (plus hand cards) as well as all unaligned Cards from the Gambit and mix them back into the deck. Then one draws three new cards.

The goal is to create an interesting story here. The game per sé cannot be won.

At the beginning of the Game there will be three open gambits and (up to) six(seven) players. To each gambit two players will be assigned.
In each gambit the two players will oppose each other. However as the game drags on cards will allow players to enter other gambits which will help them in the long run.

Each player recieves three cards and draws one card per turn.
Additionally a player can do a reading of the Deck of Dragons once per turn.
Furthermore each player can give his House Cards orders on what to do.

Each House(Player) consists of ten cards:
Of those Ten Cards there are High Profile Cards and Low Profile Cards. High Profile Cards cause a ripple of effect when brought into play openly and usually represent supernatural beings of great power. Low Profile Cards are beings influenced by the House but with no special Powers granted to them.
When losing a confrontation Low Profile Cards are always destroyed, High Profile Cards have the Wounded state and can retreat although in their wounded state they are obviously weakened. Exemption is the Hound Card which has seven lives and thus can survive considerably more confrontations.


King/Queen: The Player Character, a God and strongest Card in the House. If you lose this card you are out of the game.
- The King can be played openly which brings events immediately to a head. Playing the King openly is the Nuclear Option. He will bring all his power to bear and whatever Gambit you are in escalates to apocalyptic levels.
- The King can also be played concealed in which case he will possess a mortal. Possessing someone severly curtails his powers, however he cannot be killed directly this way. Being concealed this way he can only be found out via common sense of players or by a reading of the Deck of Dragons by an active unconcealed King/Queen.

Consort: Another god not as strong as the King/Queen but you won't lose if you lose this card.
- same as the King/Queen, the Consort can be played openly and concealed. Dploying the Consort openly will cause similiar escalation as King/Queen.

Knight: Your go to Card for open shows of strength without causing massive collateral damage. The Knight cannot be concealed and will always be played open. Apart from openly killing another card in a confrontation, the Knight can also disable another card for the duration of the Gambit.

Magi: Next lower in Strength level, the Magi will always be played concealed. The magi is non permanent he needs to be assigned anew for each gambit.

Hound: Can only be played openly. The use of Hounds equals a declaration of War. Hounds do not necessarily need to be dogs but can be a variety of powerful beings forming a group of seven. Hounds is the only card of which there are several (up to seven). While one can use a single card to deploy all seven Hounds one can also use it to deploy a single Hound. Why would one do that? To prevent escalation of course. However if all seven hounds are deployed simultaneously they can even take down a Knight.

Low Profile Cards:

Herald: played concealed, the Herald allows a House to influence unbound cards and nudge them to do their bidding.

Soldier: Not imbued with any power the Soldier will always be played concealed. Representing a Military Man, Warrior or other being with martial skills Soldier is used to fight in confrontations. He is non-permanent, meaning in each gambit he needs to be assigned anew.

Mason: Concealed, Mason is a relatively passive card. It cannot be ordered or given active influence by the Player however it works always favorably towards the Players Agenda. Non-permanent

Weaver: Concealed, Weaver usually is a politician or somebody dealing in intrigue. Weaver rarely gets into active Confrontations. Weaver is non-permanent

Virgin: Concealed, Exemption to the Low Profile Cards. Can be assigned to any other Card to protect it in confrontations. Virgin weakens a stronger enemy card and protects its charge at cost of its own life. Virgin is non-permanent

Unaligned Cards:
Unaligned Cards are various Cards which any player can play for various effects. They can turn around the game significantly but might also hinder the one who played it.

Obelisk: Represents Fate. Can be played several ways. Obelisk can be dropped into a confrontation.
-If played "Rooted" it will ensure that fate will take its turn (aka the stronger card wins no matter what).
-If played "Upturned" fate will be reversed and the opposite will happen (the weaker card wins).
-In a situation where low and high profile cards oppose each other, the high profile card won't be destroyed but severly weakened.
-If coupled with Virgin it can save her.
-If applied to a Character it will create a strong Unbound Card striving for balance. <- cannot be influenced by Herald.


Coin: The Luck that Prods and Pulls.
 - When dropped into a confrontation all bets are off, the winner will be determined randomly as well as the result (Weakened, Death and Imprisoned are possible for all involved parties)
 - If played concealed it will influence all events and confrontations randomly.
 - If attached to a Character it will create an Unbound Wildcard, Chaos will follow.
 - in conjunction with Crown will cause a character to be the sole reciever of influence of the Coin. if the Character dies both coin and crown are removed.

Crown:
 - Can be affixed to a Character to ensure all of Coins attentions are turned towards that character.
 - Can be used to prod an unbound card. The Unbound Card will follow your orders for a single turn.

Scepter:
 - Target unbound card will join your house for the duration of the gambit and can be controlled by you.

Orb:
 - playing it will reveal all cards played by another House and to whom they are afixed

Throne: gives a player the ability to take over empty thrones and thus enter the game with a destroyed old house

Chain:
Allows you to imprison another Card. That Card will stay imprisoned until the end of the Gambit (if the Owner wins that Gambit) or until the Owner wins another Gambit in which he saves the Card.

Master of the Deck:
a New House will rise (up to 7) or an existing one will enter a gambit.

Lifeslayer:
Attach this Card to a Character to make him an Unbound Card. Can be claimed by a Herald and will then destroy any Card. Extreme Escalation, will end the Gambit immediately. Massive Collateral Damage.

Deathslayer:
Saves Card from Destruction. If used against Lifeslayer will weaken and or imprison him.

Salvation:
Discard all hand cards and all of your deployed cards as well as all unaligned cards and mix them into the deck. Leave the Gambit immediately and draw three cards.

The Apocalyptic:
All players discard all hand cards, no new Cards may be deployed in the Gambit until it is finished. (all unbound cards are removed from play also)

Assigning Cards and Unbound Cards:
As you start the game you only have the two Characters of your King and Consort (as well as Hounds), all other Cards have not yet an assigned role. As the Game progresses fitting characters will be pointed out to which a Card may be assigned.

You will also end up having Cards of other Houses in your Hand. Once assigned to Characters (and if these are not Cards of Houses who are already taking part in teh Gambit) they become unbound. These Characters while they usually belong to another House are not led by said House since it has no stake or interest in the current Gambit. Thus these characters will follow their own whims unless otherwise prodded into certain directions.

If at any point during the Game the King/Queen of a House dies the remaining characters in play will become unbound. Such characters will stay unbound and in their role indefinitely until either the throne is reoccupied or they die.
If a House enters a Gambit later on it will take control of all unbound Cards belonging to its House.

Escalation:
While it may seem a good idea on the surface to immediately deploy Rulers, Consorts, Lifestealer, All seven Hounds and Knights, it is in fact not always preferable. These Cards represent Beings with extreme amounts of power. Deploying them means going all out. it is the nuclear option. When you use such extreme measures the world around you will suffer in the extreme. Hundreds and Thousands will die, cities will be destroyed, things will be irrevocably changed.

A big concept of the Escalation is the Theorem that "Power draws Power" if you start deploying Gods and Ascendants you will draw more of them. Unbound Cards formerly running around aimlessly will inexorably converge towards Conflicts and engage in them, Cards like Obelisk, Coin, Throne and Master of the Deck will deploy themselves without the players doing and other effects will happen. While all of them are random your sudden deployment of a Coterie of Ruler, Consort, Knight, Hounds and Lifestealer may suddenly find that all other Houses have been inexorably drawn into the conflict even against their will and that you may suddenly face a stiff opposition.

Conflicts:

Generally Conflicts are resolved simple: A Ruler defeats a Consort defeats a Knight defeats a Magi and so forth. However many cards will change the outcome. Coin and Obelisk are two such examples. Virgin can also change the outcome of many a battle.
All seven Hounds can defeat the Knight as another thing.

However not all Houses are equal from the get go. Houses have levels of Power which determine how powerful their cards are.
You remember trump Cards from other Games? It's pretty much the same principle, only that each House has a ranking. That ranking determines the raw power of your own cards.

Power Levels:

The Power of a House is usually determined by its age. The Older it is the more powr it has aquired and thus fighting it might not be a good idea. On top of the Heap are the First and Second House.

The First House is marginally more Powerful than the Second one and both are locked in an eternal struggle for supremacy. However both are also inexorably connected, if one is destroyed the other falls too. If one is weakened the other is weakened also. They are generally always opposed and their connection has no advantage at all, except for their beginnign strength over other Houses.

Following the First Two are the Three Elder Houses. All Three have the same amount of power, they are not connected and are free to do as they please. When one of the first two falls they move up but without that pesky relationship.

Then Follows the Two Younger Houses. Both are considerably weaker than the Elders and the Second and First House. Their advantage lies elsewhere. they draw two cards each turn.

Finally there are Emergent Houses. As thrones become vacant and Houses fall apart, new ones rise. These Newcomers are considerably new and weaker than their competition but they are tenacious and have often planned their rise from a long hand. All House Cards are concealed and can only be revealed through the players own common sense or through the Use of a Reading by an active House Ruler.

Reading the Deck:
An action a player can take to get a better grip on who is in play and who has taken part in this gambit. Depending on the Character doing the reading (Mason, Herald, Magi, Consort, Ruler) it will be more accurate or reveal different Things.
Be careful however the Reading may reveal past, present and future actions, it may be blurry or accurate. But worst of all, power draws power and a reading might draw other factions and houses.
A reading can cause the simple effect of letting other players know that somebody is doing a reading, over who and where that person is up to summoning the cards of the reading itself or even worse bringing new houses into the gambit.