Best TTRPGs That Use Playing Cards

Key Takeaways

• Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons use playing cards for point distribution and random events, alongside dice.
• Through The Breach and Deadlands rely solely on playing cards for gameplay mechanics, allowing for fate-altering decisions.
• Savage Worlds and Saga Machine incorporate playing cards for character initiative and combat resolutions, offering an alternative to dice.

If you’re going to get the tabletop team together, you’d better make sure that your table can support not only all of them but also all the accessories associated with the game. You may have to gather boards, miniatures, random game pieces, dice, and whatever else will help create the world on the table.

Dice seem to be the most commonly used, but there are some games that have their own systems to determine chance and how things unfold, with playing cards being some of the most popular. Check out these TTRPGs with playing cards to try another way of playing.

7

Pathfinder

Find The Path, Cut The Deck

Pathfinder is another delve into a fantasy realm of magic and adventure where a band of heroes can get together to go on quests. Though it has similarities to Dungeons & Dragons in how things like combat and events play out, some of its key differences come in how magic, classes, and character crafting work.

You can use dice, but it’s also possible to use playing cards to assign random values for point distribution, random events, or how magic takes form. There are also playing card items in-game with effects that can be called upon using your real deck of cards for a more authentic feel.

6

Dungeons & Dragons

Dice It Up With Cards

It’s no surprise that Dungeons & Dragons set the bar when creating tabletop gaming systems. Many of them can be spotted in other games with tweaks and twists to change them, but the original systems are some of the best. Of course, it’s also largely based on dice, since nearly everything that happens in the game is based on chance. However, playing cards is becoming more of a standard item in sessions for various reasons.

They can help with point distribution in character creation and level-ups or determining random effects, such as when wild magic is in play. It’s also a handy tool for portraying notorious percentile items like the Deck of Many Things.

5

Through The Breach

Cards To Change Fate

If you’re looking for another reason to go steampunk, Through The Breach can be that reason. It’s a game that combines the concept of steam technology with fantasy elements like magic and monsters. The players take on the roles of characters called the Fated who have seen part of their destiny.

There are no dice involved in this, as players will need to use playing cards to make things happen. They can use the cards combined with their characters’ stats to quite literally change their fate in the game, whether it’s to ensure that you land a successful hit on a monster or manage to avoid getting caught in a lethal trap.

4

Deadlands

Gambling In The Weird West

The idea of the Weird West has become more popular in recent years, but you could say games like Deadlands helped bring it to our attention. This is a tabletop experience where you play a character living in the Weird West, a version of the American Old West but with the presence of supernatural elements including magic, spirits, demons, and monsters.

You can craft all sorts of characters, but the systems in place are simple enough that they only need a few dice and a deck of cards. There are magic abilities and character roles that incorporate playing cards directly into their gameplay, such as playing as a gambler who plays hands against dark forces in exchange for power.

3

Savage Worlds

A Savage World, An Orderly Chance

Rather than referring to one game in particular, Savage Worlds is a system that applies to multiple games but is frequently used in action/adventure and survival settings. Though it does make use of dice for things like leveling up and determining certain outcomes, Savage Worlds requires the use of playing cards.

These cards are primarily used to determine character and enemy initiative when it comes to combat, with certain features allowing combatants to take multiple cards. It’s also fairly easy to substitute dice rolls for playing card draws if you switch up the RNG.

2

Saga Machine

The Epic Saga With A Simple System

Similar to Savage Worlds, Saga Machine is another combat system that can be applied to all sorts of settings but sits quite comfortably in sci-fi games. This is likely because, despite its name, the system aims to make the more complex settings and concepts easier to play through with limited accessories.

It’s possible to play the game using just a deck of playing cards with face cards and jokers working however you want. By drawing cards and combining them with the relevant character abilities, you can play out combat scenarios and everyday actions to see what unfolds.

1

Shadows Over Sol

The Final Frontier Is Terrifying

Looking into the sci-fi side of things, Shadows Over Sol is set a few hundred years in the future when humanity has traveled across the stars and made some horrifying discoveries. Despite the complexity of the space exploration angle, the game is simplified in terms of how it can be played.

You can play it using a few ten-sided dice or just a deck of playing decks. Everything can be resolved by drawing the right card and then combining it with the character’s stat score to see whether they succeed or fail. You can even complement them further by picking up game-tailored consequence cards.