Tarot Cards Quest

Tarot Magical Girls Quest

Conceptual idea for a quest using the Tarot deck as the basis for a magical resolution system. Jumping off is similar to a magical girl story; young women blessed with a companion guide and access to incredible powers with which to interact with the world at large.

A tarot is made of 72-ish cards separated into two sections: Minor Arcana and Major Arcana. Minor Arcana refer to emotions and verbs, everyday life. Major Arcana are large personalities that cover aspects and domains, significant events.

Wand	Fire	Artisan		Creativity & Will
Coins	Earth	Merchant	Body or possessions
Cups	Water	Clergy		Emotions and love
Swords	Air	   Nobility	Reason

Magical Girls are a sort of medium with which they can interact with the spirit world and souls. A person's soul can be represented by the tarot, predicting their actions and capabilities. Remove someone's cards and they become lost. Add cards to them and they may act differently. A person's tarot changes all the time so its rarely fixed. A person's "deck" is fluid and ever-changing to meet the circumstances of their life.

While their main duty is simply helping people live good lives and avoiding peril, they come in conflict with demons. Demons are often represented by aspects of the Major Arcana, but can also be spirits of the Minor Arcana. A spirit can be ranked on the tarot by its power, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is JUST that card. They simply embody that power.

Wands spirits tend to be high on creativity and enthusiasm. They are bright sparks that flare brightly but tend to exhaust themselves.
Cups are emotional forces that bring people together or set them apart. They deal with grief and community and tend to like being around lots of people.
Swords are dedicated and strong creatures of honor and nobility. They can be aggressive and vicious but very loyal, and tend to succumb to vices or end themselves.
Pentacles or Coins are the forces of material possession and prosperity. They concern the physical world and human desire to possess and own, as well as understand and improve body and mind. Generally good fortune.

Spirits of the Court are longer lived generally or quite potent, in the case of pages often being very young but potent spirits. They tend to fade up and down in ranking but when they embody the court they are often connected to strong material realm or embody a strong desire or force.

The spirits of the Arcana are the most powerful and hold the most direct sway over material world. Demons and monsters tend to align to an Arcana as magic responds to powerful intent. They tend to have a fixation on one specific aspect and are dogged in their intent to embody or creature or influence it in the world, either to benefit or degradation.

Any spirit can be reasoned with and possibly captured into your personal soul to use. In fact, people start often consisting of many souls, but magical girls are often more aware of their own changes.

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A magical girl's deck is where her magical power comes from. Spirits of the arcana have power over the material world in different ways and quantities. The lower the value, generally the broader the spells that can be cast. Aces of a suite are very wide effects. Higher values tend to be very focused but very potent. The courts are the most focused but strongest of the suites, and Arcana are the top tier of power and have strong aspects. Theyre often a good focus for spells.

A girl will start with a deck of cards representing her at that time, but the deck is fluid. She can capture and convince spirits to join her as she goes, and release them to fulfil spreads or pay for spells. The more a girl acts akin to her cards, the more likely they are to stick with her. Though simple casting doesnt run the risk of losing them, just exhausting them temporarily.

A girl's deck maxes out at 12 cards, and she can draw 5 at any given time. The rest are considered to be resting inside her soul. She can draw new cards after time passes. The smaller the deck, the more consist the pulls but the less she'll be able to do overall.

Enemies and hostile spirits can also invade her soul unless she contests them. When this happens they'll attempt to compel her to perform an action, and may stay afterwards or be content from the result. They can then be used like any other card in the deck.

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Conflict is where a magical girl steps in. They have the ability to perceive the spread of an event and predict where it might go, where it came from, what causes it. By viewing the elements of the arcana they can directly interact with them; altering the fabric and flow of time and reality. A spirit is generally quite insistent on its own meaning.

A magical girl can generally contest with a spirit in a few ways:

Peacefully, through talking. Spirits can be reasoned with and affected by arcana passively inside the magical girl. They may be convinced to stop if their action wont lead to their desired result or goes against their suite or aspects, or came from opposing sides. Generally if the girl can produce a higher value arcana, she can simply remove the spirit.

Aggressively, through battle. She can activate her own arcana to cast simple spells and diminish the spirit. Its value corresponds to its power and it can attempt to contest her, or else be banished back to the ether.

Or by contesting the result of the spirit directly. If a man in hardship is offered help, the spirit may dissipate in power and leave frustrated. Or if the spirit is distracted by something else, such as a spell with a more tempting offer or a better opportunity for their aspect, they may leave of their own free will.

Once a spirit is dealt with, their role in the spread can be replaced with a card of the magical girl's own, or left empty. If empty, it may be filled by a wandering spirit or left empty for long enough it will cause knock on effects to the rest of the spread, destabilizing it.

Spirits can often be convinced to leave a spread and enter a magical girl to share her power, especially if she tends to act as they want.

Major Arcana are generally difficult to fight or convince, as they cannot be contested by any number of minor arcana, only another major. Major arcanas are capable of summoning minor arcanas at will as their power, and using them to contest or influence the magical girl. They can even invade the girl to try and change their mind towards their outcome.

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Finally, magical girls can create their own spreads by casting complex magic. Simple spells just activate pieces of their personal arcana, using the spirits power for an instant effect along its meaning, suite, and power. Complex spells provide far more power, permanancy, and far-reaching effects, warping the very fabric of reality to the caster's desire. The more complex the desire, the more complex the casting.

These take the form of their own spread, ranging anywhere from 1-10 cards, with each one representing a different potential side-effect of the spell including past, present, opposition and favor, people it affects, emotions it inspires. They always have a final card which is the result. This often comes from the caster as asking for a random result and feeding it power can lead to very chaotic outcomes.

For example: if a magical girl uses the 9 of Coins, she may use it to wish for high fortune or material possessions. In this case, we can say it must come from somewhere, and may attract attention (so a 3-spread). If the fortune was granted to another, perhaps a 4-spread with the last slot being how it afflicts that person or how they might react.

Unless the magical girl presents cards, other spirits will be eager to enter the spell to affect it, as they love affecting the material world. if they're desired or otherwise dont cause issues. If they do, then the magical girl can contest them just as they would with a normal spread. magic can be a good way to meet and collect spirits as well, as they could join simply after completing the spell if it went their way.

In an example; the 4-spread from above, we drew:

What is the reaction of others? Justice.
Where does the fortune come from? Death.
Desire: 9 of Coins
How does the recipient react? The Heirophant.

From this we could assume perhaps that Justice considers fairness, equality, and accountability so it may push others to want them to distribute that money. Death could produce the money from an inheritance, turning stone to gold, or simply having it fall out of the sky or come from a falling company. Lastly, the heirophant values faith, education, knowledge, rules, so the recipient may become fascinated with where the money come from, or perhaps it may inspire them to become dedicated to an organisation or charity.