I've only heard of this peripherally. It used some sort of card system instead of dice, I believe. Any experience with this?

Only seen at a distance. Never played it. But I was always curious about it.

I bought it and read it a while ago, but never played it.

It has cards, but it's a touchy-feely system where the tarot-like cards are interpreted qualitatively. So the GM draws a card for a given conflict, and just uses that as guidance for how to resolve the attempt.

Quote from: Trond on December 11, 2023, 09:20:17 PM
I've only heard of this peripherally. It used some sort of card system instead of dice, I believe. Any experience with this?

I remember it when it came out. But was never overly impressed with it. It used a Tarot-like deck. Similar to how Lace & Steel used a deck as a randomizer. There were 4 stats based on elements and it used a point based system combined with a sort of group discussion to create a character.

Thats about as far as I got at a glance through at a convention.

Quote from: jhkim on December 13, 2023, 01:14:55 AM
I bought it and read it a while ago, but never played it.

It has cards, but it's a touchy-feely system where the tarot-like cards are interpreted qualitatively. So the GM draws a card for a given conflict, and just uses that as guidance for how to resolve the attempt.

Reminded me a little of Torg's card system where you drew a card and then interpreted the phrase on the card.

I bought it when it was released and was obsessed with it for a bit. This was right after my Aria phase, so I was ready for something else in the same vein, i.e., a game with tons of cool concepts that is literally unplayable. It has so many good ideas, but you can't really PLAY it. You can look at it and be impressed at the design, the art, the concepts, but it's only a game in theory. If you've ever tried Changeling with the actual cards (I have tons of them) you'll sort of get the idea here. There were a lot of these design experiments in the mid-90s and I bought almost all of them, and they all failed in one way or another. Alas, Everway, what could have been...

Sold mine for like $5, I'd kind of like to buy another set but I know I'd just crack it open and lament at impossibility of being able to do anything with it remotely useful.

Quote from: Brad on December 13, 2023, 03:33:46 PM
I bought it when it was released and was obsessed with it for a bit. This was right after my Aria phase, so I was ready for something else in the same vein, i.e., a game with tons of cool concepts that is literally unplayable. It has so many good ideas, but you can't really PLAY it. You can look at it and be impressed at the design, the art, the concepts, but it's only a game in theory. If you've ever tried Changeling with the actual cards (I have tons of them) you'll sort of get the idea here. There were a lot of these design experiments in the mid-90s and I bought almost all of them, and they all failed in one way or another. Alas, Everway, what could have been...

Sold mine for like $5, I'd kind of like to buy another set but I know I'd just crack it open and lament at impossibility of being able to do anything with it remotely useful.

Oh, I remember Aria, but never tried it. I wanted to like it when I saw the book, but it looked a bit more like a wordy art project than a game.

Quote from: Trond on December 13, 2023, 05:55:05 PM
Oh, I remember Aria, but never tried it. I wanted to like it when I saw the book, but it looked a bit more like a wordy art project than a game.

Aria is without a doubt one of my favorite books to peruse, but it's not an RPG, honestly. You can create some badass myths and backstory and all sorts of neat stuff and essentially engage in a creative writing exercise; not an RPG, however.

What's interesting about games like Everway and Aria is that the authors pushed the limits and tried something interesting. They may have failed to make a playable RPG, but I'll give them credit for doing something cool. Contrast with modern garbage storygames that don't really do anything that interesting and also try to gaslight you into believing they're exceptional RPGs when they're marginally games at all. Having experienced legitimate avant garde stuff when I was looking for new stuff to play makes it easy for me to spot pure pedestrian nonsense; I'm not swayed by arguments that Nobilis is playable, for instance, because it's not. I tried. Contrast with Amber, which pushed the limits and succeeded.

That said, I really do think we need more Everways instead of an endless glut of OSR knockoffs. There are only so many ways I want to see how people play AD&D, I'd prefer a lot more variation that has nothing to do with jackass storygame nonsense.