Section 27 started life as a purely gamist pursuit - I wanted to make a card game that encouraged style and theme decks. That is, a card game with in-character roleplaying. I started with a very minimal character sheet and it evolved into what you see above, a real fusion. Originally, I just tossed in Generic Fantasy Setting, but I've always had my own setting on the side even if I've not used it in a while, and this was a good time to revive it and make it a bit more modern.

The world of Section 27 is called Penthara. It was a world torn by near-endless war until the formation of a World Council, a forum for countries to solve things peacefully and in the open. The twenty-seventh section of the World Council charter allows for its Department of Peace to operate an independent division with little oversight or strict organizational structure. The PCs, naturally, play a cell of troubleshooters that operate in these Independent Divisions.

>>5607993
Ugly feet

When I originally created the setting, I decided to try and stay far away from 'humans with pointy ears' and 'humans with beards' and 'short, annoying humans' in my racial design. I pulled ideas from a lot of places, a few of them from my friends, and changed things a bit.

I'd also like to take a moment here to apologize for the names of just about everything. I am terrible at naming things. If you think something sounds familiar or stolen, it probably is. If I think of better names or hear good suggestions, they'll be changed very quickly.

The system is pretty simple - the cards are used pretty much in place of dice, determining what you can succeed at. What cards you can use depends on what levels you have in various skills - a card might require two levels of Long Blades skill or four levels of Fire Magic. You get a starting pack of skills (and a few abilities) from your Major, which is basically like a class. You also get a Minor that allows you to get a secondary skill and a small ability or two, a Nature that gives a bonus and a penalty, and your race determines what skills you learn quickly and what skills take more XP to level up.

I'm interested. Do continue. Will ask questions once done.

Damnit, I'm gonna feel guilty if I don't read your posts and respond.

>>5608317
Please, ask now - I'm just explaining random things to bump this, basically.

Let's see... Cards, and all other actions in combat like movement, using items, etc, are done by spending Action Points. You start the game getting three action points a turn, which is enough to play an average card and move, though you might be better off saving an Action Point or two in your pool - without them, you can't play Reaction cards, which are basically interrupts, attacks-of-opportunity, defensive maneuvers, etc. You can hold AP in your pool as long as you want, though you can only hold a certain amount - up to twice as much as you get every turn (so, starting characters can have up to 6 AP in their pool).

>>5608411
Fine.
1. How would this be distributed? Traditional starter+packs like you see with most TCGs, or something different?
2. Character advancement. How does it work?
3. How, if at all would this system change DMing?

The main antagonists of the game are, roughly, Dragon Cultists, Monsters, and Organized Crime. You're playing what is essentially a CIA officer operating overseas - you have to hope the locals respect you, that the authorities aren't corrupt, and that you can deal with what's on hand without backup because it's unlikely you can get it. Dragon Cultists worship a terrible God-Monster called the Great King of Destruction, which is ultimately responsible for all the monsters running around the world. The cultists mutate and change by basking in his power, becoming subhuman (or sub-whatever-they-were) creatures. That would be bad enough, but Cults tend to attract Monsters, which range from Drakes (essentially Cliff Racers) to Leviathans (essentially Godzilla). Organized Crime comes under the purview of the Independent Divisions because it corrupts local government, something the World Council won't stand for.

>>5608466
1 - I had put some thought into this. Starter packs are the way to go with any card game, because it vastly reduces investment. I'd also want to make full sets available, because it had been pointed out to me that a CCG-distribution method of random packs is unfair to people trying for a specific concept.

2 - Spend XP to buy up your level in skills, which increases the number of cards you can play.

3 - The DM puts together a Mishaps deck. Just as the players have cards in combat, so does the DM. Monsters have set abilities to spend AP on, the DM's cards are cost-free. They do things like make an attack miss, get a monster's attack through armor, make a PC drop his weapon, etc.

Nice idea. Very nice. The Mishap deck seems very over-powered. I mmean, sure the DM is supposed to be in control, but "lol you drop your weapon, and step on a bear trap" seems pretty sick. I guess I don' have the confidence in humanity to assume the DM would be reasonable.

Also: I REALLY like this idea. Please don't give up, or become discouraged, this is a great thing you are making here. A lot better than MY card game, anyway.

>>5608604
Well, you'd think it's overpowered except for two things - the DM doesn't draw more cards as combat goes on, and players otherwise cannot fail at the actions they undertake. There is, for example, no roll to hit.

>>5608686
Ok, wow. That makes sense.

>>5608728
Any other questions?

>>5608871
Do you have a publisher?

>>5608871
Chance - is that like rarity, kind of?

>>5608871
Yes. Can you count?
>There are three types of card: Physical, Spell, Universal, and Response.
:3c

>>5608947
I would guess that any of those three types could be a response, but i's badly worded in the text.

I'll start going through the races.

The first, and oldest, race is the Syllix. They were around long before the sun shone down on Penthara, and had a pretty nice empire going on. Then some wandering gods decided to make the world their own, creating a sun and starting a huge war that ended with billions dead, a sundered continent, and Kadathi as the only remaining god of the Syllix, who gave away three quarters of the world to save her people from extinction. The Syllix are eyeless worm-people, smaller than a man, boneless and pale. They don't get along well with other races, on the whole, but they're smart and they do what it takes to survive, even if it means playing nice and tolerating the people that destroyed their world.

>RPG/Card Game fusion

You mean 4e?

>>5608947
lol, oh wow. Well, that kind of thing happens as you build up and modify old editions. Still, as there are no universal cards any more, that is almost technically correct.

>>5608934
Nah. Not yet. Hope to get one once I have some graphics work done. If I can't find something else, I can always just use The Game Crafter.

>>5608939
No. Rarity is like rarity, lol. Chance is more complicated, but its main uses are determining initiative (discard card from top of deck, use the chance number plus your modifier as your init score) and movement (you can discard a card and add its Chance number in meters to your next movement action).

>>5608964
It's not badly worded, just a mistake - I added Response as a card type to clear up a rules issue and removed Universal.

>>5609033
Do you want one? If you can put some sample cards together I'd love to show this to the higher ups.

>>5608982
no he said it's in alpha still

The next race were the Lumiere. They are beings made of light, able to shift between a solid clay-like state and nebulous wafting tendrils of light. They were created to fight the Syllix by Lios, the Sun God, able to reincarnate instantly upon death, imbued with magic and wanting not for food or drink. They fought well, but after Kadathi sued for peace, they wanted little to do with the green world Jadiri, Goddess of Nature was building, and retreated far into the desert. They remain there to this day, though they've been present since before the beginning of human history, mentioned in legends as legendary warriors and wise sages.

>>5608972

Holy Shit, a race that appears to be original? FUCK YEAR!

But... Boneless, eh? Would they remain viable for PC use outside of the odd worm-wizard/cleric?

I hope this gets archived, because I'm going to bed now.

>>5609073
If you actually had higher-ups, I'd love to. Of course, this is 4chan, and extraordinary claims (such as to actually be 'in the biz') require extraordinary proof. That said, I have a few ideas for what the cards will look like - different card backs for the DM and Player cards, different card faces for the Player cards depending on what skill the card uses, etc.

>>5609109
They're very viable. Being boneless and eyeless doesn't actually have much game effect - they have extraordinary senses (like a shark's ability to sense electrical fields) and are only slightly less tough than the average. Their main disadvantage is that they're small, which limits what weapons they can use. However, they can be great swashbucklers and sneaks.

>>5609158
What extraordinary proof would you like? (Keep it legit, I'm not handing out my identity to channers, even the neckbearded ones, for a finder's fee.)

>>5609105
>Lumiere

A fan of early cinema?

Next up, the Humans. They were created by Jadiri, the Nature Goddess, who mostly stayed out of the war and just really wanted a garden to play around in. They're, statistically, exactly what you'd expect. Middle of the road, extra versatility, etc. They are also the most fractious race, which gives other races, most of which have a single leadership organization, all kinds of trouble.

Anyone else remember the first time someone combined a card game and an RPG?

So far I'm really digging this; debating running a test game with my roommate in the near to immediate future if I can drum up 'is interest.

Any way to get in touch for feedback? (Other than wait around for another thread ^^")

>>5609226
I wouldn't ask you for a name and address, no worries. An employee ID card, with name, picture, ID number shopped out, and a note beside it with the current date would be perfect. Of course, that might be a bit much to ask. If it is, just a few simple details - who you work for, etc.

>>5609233
Actually, I just grabbed it because it meant 'Light' in a different language, lol. This is one example of be being terrible with names.

>>5609272
Sure. My email is LawfulNice@gmail.com - I don't mind putting it here, I created the account just to deal with 4chan, and specifically /tg/, anyway.

>>5609298
I work beneath a middle management twatwad named Johnson. I plan on going over his head with this, as he'd likely steal credit for it. The guy's a douche and always demands the interns bring him black coffee, as he thinks it makes him look tough.

Sometimes he leaves his personal creamer on his office desk.

Next race, the Narichin.

The God of Mischief, Kiro, ended up with a quarter of the world that was far removed from the rest, separated by the impassible Sea of the Dragon's Eye, where the Great Lord of Destruction was imprisoned beneath a great mountain. He, of course, found this terribly boring, and so copied the work of Jadiri, adding his own twists that made everything just a touch more dangerous to the unwary, and created his own race by giving animals the ability to take the shapes of men. The Narichin can change, magically and near-instantly, from a normal animal to something that looks almost exactly human except for a tell or two - ears of a rabbit, or a small fox's tail, that kind of thing - which they try to keep hidden. They're natural spies and infiltrators, and formed a clan-based society with intricate rules of etiquette that serve mostly to give a host a reason to be offended at his guests and embarrass those too dull to dance around the political minefield. Now that the Sea is able to be traversed, they've infiltrated society on a large scale, and finding and stopping them from getting whatever goal they're after is a full-time job in most governments.

>>5609411
The Narichin exist to serve as that exotic almost-human in the game, but subvert the usual by encouraging them to try and appear human. Playing a Narichin is like playing a Russian in a Cold War-era game. Even if the government tells them that you're on the same team, the American agents you're working with aren't going to trust you. But hide that accent and lie about where you come from, and you're just someone from down the road.

After the Narichin, you've got the Vow. They were banished servants from a higher plane, an army that served a powerful warlord named Largetni who tried to defy their goddess' way of mercy and forgiveness in the name of safety and justice. They're catlike, winged, and extremely aggressive. They get along with humans - as long as the humans defer to them - but are otherwise almost universally hostile or at least suspicious and untrusting. The Vow have fractured into two main groups - the Keepers, under their Warlord Largetni and continue their fight for justice without mercy, and the Breakers, who mostly listen to Silver, and are outcasts, criminals, and barbarians - and yet are much more open to dealing with outsiders, and have gotten a larger piece of the political pie consequently.

>>5609407
>Sometimes he leaves his personal creamer on his office desk. (Like a Boss!)

>>5609550
The Vow have gotten a huge amount of gratis from the humans, though, in that they arrived (more properly, were banished to Penthara), just in time to save their bacon during a war against the Syllix. They're owed a lot of old favors, and many governments have treaties and laws that allow Keepers to act at their own judgment in their countries in the pursuit of justice - treaties a lot of governments are regretting as time goes on.

Carbunkles are odd creatures. They're essentially partly silicon based, with crystal bones and gems growing out of their foreheads (which are essentially worthless, turning to dust after a day or two if removed from their bodies). They look a bit like humanoid fox-lizards (if foxes had feathers instead of fur, and lizards had chips of gems instead of scales), though their internal structure is bizarre, different from every other form of life. No one knows where they came from, just that they were always here, always watching from just outside of society, standing on the fringe and laughing at jokes only they understood.

>>5609712
The Carbunkle are connected to each other in a psychic network. If they were more mature than a teenager, this would undoubtedly make them brilliant and give them the answer to every question. Unfortunately, they just seem to use it to tell jokes, spread rumors, and pass fads around. Ask a Carbunkle a question, and each one will tell you a different wrong answer. Tell one a secret, and they'll all snicker as you walk down the street, even on the other side of the world.

And finally, we get to the Klemenki. Their culture was imprisoned on a tiny island in the Sea of the Dragon's Eye, the Klemenki changing from some fairly normal sea critter into a race of sentient beings due to the mutating influence of the Dragon-Lord's power, radiating out into the sea even after he was imprisoned. Unlike most things imbued with his power, they aren't spitting fire, covered in scales, and hungry for blood. They learned to work together for survival, and are the driving force behind the World Council - freed from their tiny island where they had built far up and down to meet the needs of their population, they felt they owed their rescuers a favor, and decided World Peace was the best thing to get them. They've been working for decades, and have almost got it working.

>>5609778
This is turning into FURRY
THE GAME

>>5609871
Meh. Once you get away from the standard 'human with FEATURE X' fantasy races, you're always going to have someone yelling 'furry'.

>>5609953
Well, that's only partly true. The Vows were one of my friend's races and I added them to the setting. The friend is a furry, but is an enthusiastic (if not particularly skilled) roleplayer who didn't bring any yiffing or strange fetishes to the table. I figure since, in-setting, the Vow are a half step from being psychopaths and they get along with no one, they can stay. They were far less of an issue than trying to get my friend to play something other than an annoying rogue or a wallflower.

Preliminary browse of the rulebook looks very nice indeed. Very well done. Once I sit down and read through it word-for-word and hash out the rule structure in my own mind I'll comment more.

Quick question: Will this be a 'colelctable' card game with people having to buy infinite boosters, or an Inclusive card game like Che Geek, Flux, or Munchkin? The rules seem to indicate inclusiveness, but I thought it best to ask before assuming.

All in all, this looks like a brilliantly fun game. I look forward to reading a great deal more about this project in the coming months.

>>5609778
>The Carbunkle are connected to each other in a psychic network. If they were more mature than a teenager, this would undoubtedly make them brilliant and give them the answer to every question. Unfortunately, they just seem to use it to tell jokes, spread rumors, and pass fads around. Ask a Carbunkle a question, and each one will tell you a different wrong answer. Tell one a secret, and they'll all snicker as you walk down the street, even on the other side of the world.

So, an entire race of furry 4channers with built-in interweb?

>>5609847
Anyway, the Klemenki look basically like short fish-geckos with big, expressive eyes and fins. Most races think they look cute. They're moving in to most countries, adapting quickly and fitting perfectly into the native culture. They make great neighbors and learn fast. They also have big families. Really big. And they live a long time - two or three times as long as a human.

No one is worried yet, but in a hundred years, maybe two, they might become the majority over most of the planet.

>>5610056
I'm almost certainly going with inclusive. It fits better with character building. One model I'm considering is having starter decks that make it easy for new players to get in, and box sets that have all the cards so advanced players can build exactly what they want.

>>5610089
Exactly. Though I wouldn't use the term furry. It has too many connotations. They're more like gem-studded feathered lizardfolk who think the most fun thing in the world is trolling people IRL.

I gotta say, good work on the races. The kemonomimi-esque race has me a bit worried about the ^______________________^ crowd but oh well. Have you done any playtesting?

>>5610260
Sadly, no. This is my playtest document. I hope to start tests soon - I have friends who are very interested in the idea. And, again, I have a safety valve for anyone who thinks it'll be fun to skip down the street with a fox tail - that shit will get you thrown into a dungeon with guards demanding to know who you're working for, why you're there, and why you're REALLY there, and if you don't have some good answers, well, you're obviously a spy.

Might as well post a bit on how things work out of combat.

Out of combat, if you have the time and can afford to fail a few times, you can just play any card in your deck. It takes about ten minutes, but if you have the time to spare there's no issue. On the other hand, if you're rushing or need to get it right the first time (for example, disarming the trap so you don't end up with a dart covered in neurotoxin in your chest) you draw a hand of cards, with your hand size modified by the circumstances - easy tasks or a larger time limit give you more cards, more difficult tasks or a shorter time limit take cards away. If you draw the card you wanted, that's it, you did it. If not, you're boned, and something went wrong.

>>5610822
Now, since you build your own deck, you can load it to do what you want - lots of trap disarming, lots of speechcraft, lots of lore, whatever. But since the maximum deck size is 40, and most cards really useful outside of combat aren't so good in combat, you have to maintain a balance or you're going to get raped the first time you get into a real fight. Now, you can switch cards out of your deck, but it takes downtime to do it, it isn't something you do on the fly.

I'm out for the night to get some sleep. If this thread is still here in the morning, I'll answer any questions that've popped up while I was sleeping.