Virtue-Walker

Virtue-Walker, also known more briefly as 'Walker' or 'Virtue' among its players, is a lightweight sword-and-sorcery roleplaying game that uses a standard set of Vyozha cards as part of its primary resolution mechanic. Redolent of Unexpector mythological and philosophical concepts, the game is most popular in its homeland of Voxelia.

Setting

Greater Domain of Aquardion by BCGR_Wurth

The primary setting of Virtue-Walker is a Terra Virtua, a medieval-style world set in the mythical era before The Curved Time. In this world, the titual Virtue-Walkers are a class of archetypal heroes who set out to right wrongs, battle fearsome monsters, secure peace and prosperity for the common folk, and gain reknown for their virtuous deeds in accordance with the mandates of the Gods of Irony at the height of their power. The actual world of Terra Virtua is loosely defined to allow Dealers, in their role as the messengers of the gods and arbiters of the natural world, to create adventures for the player characters that might go beyond what official content exists.

History

The first edition of Virtue-Walker was released in 9980 AR. Since then, whether the game represents a lavish and stylized love letter to classical Unexpector virtue ethics, a burst of self-aggrandizing New Voxelian sanctimony given written form, or a caricature of what Unexpector philosophers think the 'idea hero' would look like has been an ongoing matter of speculation among critics and players alike. One thing that is certain is that Virtue-Walker represents an uncommon take on religious concepts as a form of explicit magic, with the Mystic, Sage, Craftsman, Artist, and sometimes Jester and Healer (see Participants & Key Roles) being treated in the theming as wielders of various forms of magic that can be experienced in the world beyond being some internal psycho-spiritual phenomena. Though still not a widespread past-time as of 10,000 AR, Virtue-Walker has carved out a niche among fans of high fantasy games and its materials have remained in circulation for almost two decades - not necessarily long enough for nostalgia to kick in, but long enough that generations of players have begun to differentiate along the lines of the pre-published story arcs that were circulating when they joined the hobby.
Aside from religious and philosophical concepts, color is also an important part of Virtue-Walker's theming. The six suits - and, thus, the archetypes related to them - are arranged along the color wheel in the core materials to better illustrate the concepts of 'alignment' and 'opposition' via the concept of opposing colors. There are ongoing fan theories about primary (blue, yellow, and red) and secondary (orange, green, and purple) factoring into the idea of primary and secondary archetypes within an adventuring party, but the game's publisher is notoriously mum about its creative process.

Execution

At the beginning of each play session, each player (including the Dealer) draws a hand of ten cards from the deck. Non-Dealer players may then discard a number of cards up to their character's level and draw new ones to replace them as a 'mulligan'; this means that higher-level characters are better capable of assembling their hands in a way that emphasizes the suits that best power their abilities based on their archetypes (see Participants & Key Roles). The Dealer's own hand is called the 'world hand', representing the overall potential for unusual events in the world, and is used in comparisons involving out-of-combat situations or to supplement the 'opponent hands' of any NPCs or creatures who oppose the players (see below).
When undertaking a heroic action that requires more effort than day-to-day activities, the Dealer (the 'game master' for the adventure the characters are involved in) gives the player the option of using their cards to adjudicate success or failure; potential combat and other climactic events are always considered heroic actions. The player places one or more cards face down on the table as their 'offering' (see below). The Dealer then plays a set of cards from their own hand face down as their own offering; for the purposes of this offering, the Dealer may declare any one situation-appropriate archetype (see Participants & Key Roles) or the opposite of one of the player's associated suits before playing their role for the purpose of adjudicating the offering's value. The player and Dealer then, in that order, take turns changing their facedown cards in response to what they see laid out on the table until both are satisfied that they have made a good decision about which and how many cards they have played. Finally, these offerings are turned face-up and compared to determine whether or not the character succeeds at the given action, with the winner being the person who gave the highest valued offering (see below).
After all offerings are adjudicated, the cards are discarded. The discard pile is re-shuffled and turned face-down to create a new deck whenever the current deck cannot supply enough cards for draws being conducted.

Offerings

12 of Zevtwill by BCGR_Wurth

Offerings are collections of one to three cards played from the hand of a Dealer, player, or (in combat) a combination of an opponent and the Dealer. The Vyozha cards with values ranging from 1 to 12 are treated as their listed values for the purpose of comparing the values of offerings derived from them, with some exceptions. Players treat domains of the suit associated with their archetypes as maximum if they are a single suit archetype, as maximum -1 if the card is of an associated suit for a dual suit archetype, maximum -3 if the card is not associated with any of the suits associated with the character's archetype, and minimum if the card is of a suit that is opposed to the character's archetype.
The valid types of offerings are as follows:

A single card matching of a suit that matches the archetype of the character. Before bonuses or penalties, the value of the offering is the value of this card.

Any two cards that share a value. Before bonuses or penalties, the value of the offering is the value of an individual one of the cards (but see above). Before bonuses or penalties, the highest value amongst all three cards is treated as the value of the offering.

Any two cards that share a suit. Before bonuses or penalties, the value of the card is the higher of the two cards.

A card of the suit matching the archetype of the character, a branch card, and any other card. Before bonuses or penalties, the value of the card is the higher of the two cards. In such 'hybrid offerings,' both cards are treated as though they have the suit matching that of the character's archetype.

A card of the suit matching the archetype of the character and one or two branch cards. This applies a x2 bonus to the offering's value for one branch card and a x3 to the offering's value for two branch cards. Apply additive bonuses after this multiplication step.

Any three valued cards. Before bonuses or penalties, the highest value amongst all three cards is treated as the value of the offering. This is done to help the player get rid of cards that might not otherwise be useable.

Bonuses and penalties applied to offerings include:

Characters of single suit archetypes add +2 to the value of any offering that includes a card of the suit associated with their archetype. This is done to offset the comparatively reduced flexibility of only having regular access to a single suit.

All characters apply a -2 penalty to the value of an offering per card of an opposed suit included in the offering.

If a character can justify that an action calling for an offering plays to one of their three defining traits (see Participants & Key Roles), as set forth at character creation, then they add +1 per defining trait applicable to the situation to the value of the offering involved in that action.

Combat

In Virtue-Walker, there is no set turn order in combat. Combat encounters are divided into rounds. During each round, each character and opponent picks another to 'engage'; a character, NPC, or creature can only choose to engage a single opponent in a turn, but may be engaged by any number of opponents themselves. Downed and worn down characters cannot participate in combat encounters - starting in the round after the one in which they recieve the status effect(s) - until their status is resolved through rest or healing (see below). All entites involved in the encounter place face-down offerings simultaneously, going back and forth with their oppnents as outlined above until everyone is satisfied with their offerings. All offerings are turned upright simultaneously and the values compared to assess injury and exhaustion points (see below). Then, all offerings are discarded and the next round begins. This cycle continues until all player characters are downed or exhausted (resulting an a defeat for the party), all of the Dealer-controlled opponents are downed or exhausted (resulting in a victory for the party), or some bit of roleplaying causes an alternative resolution to the encounter.
Importantly, 'combat' rules in Virtue-Walker can also be applied to tense social situations, such as debates. In these cases, any 'injuries' suffered (see below) as a result of social combat may 'down' a character or NPC, but these injuries are tracked separately and removed from the character shortly after the encounter is concluded.

Hands, Exhaustion, Injury, and Healing

For player characters and non-player characters - but not for the Dealer - hands represent both the repertoire of actions that that individual may undertake and, over time, that individual's daily energy allotment. Whenever a character runs out of cards or becomes incapable of playing the cards in their hand because they cannot be formed into valid offerings (see above), that character suffers a point of exhaustion. The exhausted character automatically fails the action they attempted to undertake (if any), discards their remaining hand (if any), draws a new set of ten cards, then mulligans a number of cards up to their level as though starting the play session anew (see above). If the number of exhaustion points on a character reaches a value of their character level +3, then the character is 'worn down,' meaning that they can no longer take strenuous action or engage opponents in combat until they rest; this rest generally entails a full night of sleep or 12 hours of wakeful inactivity.
In combat, whenever a character makes an offering that falls below that of opponents they are facing, they gain a point of injury per opponent they are engaged with that surpasses their offering. If a character's total injury points reaches of a value of their character level +3, then they become 'downed' and are no longer able to engage opponents. Downed characters can still be engaged by opponents, however; if their injury points reach a value of their character level +4, then they also gain a point of exhaustion whenever they gain a point of injury.
In Virtue-Walker, 'healing' can take the form of physical, emotional, or spiritual support. A character may chose to 'engage' themselves or another in an attept to heal wounds. In this case, the character to be healed does not make an offering. Instead, the character applying the healing to the character must make an offering of a value that meets or exceeds the combined number of injury and exhaustion points that the character currently has. On a successful healing offering, the character to be healed loses the healer's choice of an injury or exhaustion point. However, if a character is healing themselves, then only injury points can be removed in this fashion, and no amount of healing can restore a character from a state of being exhausted into ineffectiveness (see above).
In all cases, the Dealer themselves is not subject to exhaustion or injury - as they represent the flow of the world, the cycles of nature, and the whims of the gods themselves - though the NPCs or creatures they control can in the same manner as player characters can (see below).

NPCs and creatures

Non-player characters (NPCs) and other creatures in the world are controlled by the Dealer function almost exactly like player characters (PCs) with a few unique exceptions. The archetype and level of these special characters are set either by listings in a pre-made adventure the Dealer is putting the party through or, in the case of homebrewed adventures, is set by the Dealer themselves in the course of writing the adventure. An NPC or creature only has five cards in its hand, but can supplement its offerings with cards taken directly from the Dealer's hand. These special characters perform their draw and mulligan steps whenever they are first encountered, often at the outset of a combat encounter (see above). Whenever the level of a monster or NPC is high enough that they may mulligan more cards than their entire hand consists of, then they may 'donate' these extra mulligans to the Dealer or other entities involved in the encounter at the Dealer's discretion.

Components and tools

Virtue-Walker is not a tactical game in the sense that encounters don't generally require specific placement of characters unless doing so enhances the drama somehow. Thus, the only tools truly required to play a session of Virtue-Walker are pencils and paper to write down character information and a standard Vyozha deck. An adventure book (if the current adventure is pre-written), a rulebook (if the players have not memorized the rules), and a large sheet of paper to draw maps are common additional accoutrements, as are snacks and drinks for the comfort of the players.

Participants

Virtue-Walker can be played by up to seven players, including the Dealer (see below), but generally groups larger than five players are considered too big.

Player Characters

6 of Lyvianne by BCGR_Wurth

Players take the role of player characters (PCs) that embody one of twelve 'archetypes' based on the choice of one or two suits of cards that will best power the abilities of the chosen archetype. In terms of roleplay, the available character archetypes also broadly divide characters into a role that they generally occupy in the high fantasy world in which they are situated and, through association with the Vyozha and the deities represented therein, to certain virtues these roles might embody.
Though there are more combinations of two cards than twelve among a set of six suits, others are not generally considered because of the oppositional 'alignment' system baked into the rules of the game. Single color archetypes are strong in the sense that they add a +2 to their integer value cards and take the highest possible value from associated domain cards, but dual-color archetypes gain the benefit of a larger variety of cards they can use to power their abilities (see Execution).
The twelve archetypes and the suit colors they represent are as follows:

Mystic

Associated Suit(s): Purple (intuition)

Opposed Suit(s): Yellow

Knight

Associated Suit(s): Purple/Blue

Opposed Suit(s): Yellow/Orange

Guardian

Associated Suit(s): Blue (fortitude)

Opposed Suit(s): Orange

Tactician

Associated Suit(s): Blue/Green

Opposed Suit(s): Orange/Red

Sage

Associated Suit(s): Green (knowledge)

Opposed Suit(s): Red

Healer

Associated Suit(s): Green/Yellow

Opposed Suit(s): Red/Purple

Noble

Associated Suit(s): Yellow (temperance)

Opposed Suit(s): Purple

Merchant

Associated Suit(s): Yellow/Orange

Opposed Suit(s): Purple/Blue

Craftsman

Associated Suit(s): Orange (adaptability)

Opposed Suit(s): Blue

Artist

Associated Suit(s): Orange/Red

Opposed Suit(s): Blue/Green

Jester

Associated Suit(s): Red (wit)

Opposed Suit(s): Green

Bard

Associated Suit(s): Red/Purple

Opposed Suit(s): Green/Yellow

In addition to an archetype chosen by the player, a character also has three 'defining traits' that help further customize them and provide springboards for interesting roleplay at the table. These traits might represent professions within or adjacent to the archetype (i.e. a Craftsman that is specifically a blacksmith), a creedo (i.e. utilitarianism), a religious attestation (i.e. a Forgist), a hobby (i.e. writing), or any other narrowly-defined unique trait that might serve to differentiate the character as an individual. At least one trait should relate directly to the archetype in some way, but the other two can be more diverse. In specific situations where a character might be able to leverage their experience around one or more defining traits to tilt the odds in their favor, they may recieve a bonus to their offerings (see Execution).
In general, characters start at level one and generally gain one level per adventure they complete.

The Dealer

Vyozha Start Token by BCGR_Wurth

The Dealer is the game master, storyteller, and rules adjudicator for a group of players. The Dealer represents the natural order of Terra Virtua, the voices of the gods calling upon the heroes to take up their efforts, the will of the common folk, and the schemes of evildoers and monsters everywhere. In more concrete terms, the Dealer controls NPCs and creatures, lays out the locations, challenges, and encounters that constitute an adventure, and help establish a running narrative into which all adventures within a campaign are integrated. The Dealer sets the difficulty values that players must reach with offerings beforehand, applying modifiers as necessary to ensure that the players experience an appropriate level of challenge throughout an adventure. Generally, it falls to the Dealer to arrange times and places to play, though this is not a hard and fast rule and many groups make these sorts of scheduling decisions collectively instead. If an adventure is pre-made, then it falls to the Dealer to read the adventure beforehand and understand it well enough to run it for player characters.
While it may initially appear that the Dealer and the other players are meant to take on an adversarial relationship, this is an illusion borne of the asymmetry of character player and Dealer playstyles. In fact, the role of Dealer is meant to rotate among members of a play group if possible, with campaigns being broken up into smaller chunks in such a way that Dealers have a chance to take a break and play characters themselves from time to time. In this way, broad campaign arcs with multiple parallel storylines can be created, enhancing the experience for all involved.

Related Organizations

• Church of the Unexpected

Related Ethnicities

• New Voxelian