The Great Debate

Reading Dragon Storm RPG Ace Cards. Science or Mysticism? Maybe both.
From time to time it comes to my attention that there is confusion abounding in the DS Universe. In response to one of these I have written an article to present what we do and what our intentions are. If you have further questions, please ask.

Reading Dragon Storm RPG Ace Cards. Science or Mysticism? Maybe both.

Reading the Dragon Storm Ace cards is complicated by the space available. Our shorthand does not always allow for correct grammar, or even complete sentences.

1. If a card is Independent it starts with "Independent Card." in the text. In recent cards we have added (IND) to the card Type line to indicate that a card is an Independent card, this is a space conservation move. If a Cards text starts with "Independent Card." or has (IND) in the card Type line, it requires an Independent Action to use. If neither of these are on the card they require an Action to play.

2. Cards that require additional Independent Actions to activate the card have a special notation. When this occurs the Card Type Line will include (IND-4) where the number represents the number of Independents to be used to activate the card. The Independents may be allocated over a series of consecutive rounds to activate the card.

3. Cards that require Independent Actions each round to maintain them as an active card, will say so in the text. This Independent should be allocated at the beginning of the round. If an Independent Action is not allocated prior to the rounds start the card is immediately drained.

4. When reading contest roll bonuses the first number given is the bonus for the User of the card. The second number is for the Target. If only a single number is given it is for the User of the card, the target starts with a "Zero" bonus.

5. The cards themselves are intended to be pliable. They are meant to be bent by the Gamemaster to fit her campaign, and the current magic situation. Chaos abounds in the Warp and in any location close to Warp, and that is everywhere on Grandillar. Therefore the GM always has the final say on the interpretation of cards and how they function. Arguing about a GM's ruling is fruitless, they are correct. (In a side note, Od also contains a major Chaos component and is unreliable in regards to "rules".)

6. Cards which list (0 / F) in the card Type line are combined with an active card as it is played, and prior to finding out the result of the contest it is being added to. They may not be played without an Action to combine them with. As a simple example Dragon Claws is a (0 / F) card that adds +4 STR to an attack by a Dragon. The player could lay three of these on the table and add +12 STR to the attack they are currently performing. This also means that Dragon Claws may not be added to a Tail Strike. A Tail Strike uses an Independent Action to activate, not an Action. (While Independent Action and Action sound similar, they are two different concepts. Hindsight tells us we should have used dissimilar words for these concepts to avoid confusion. *sigh*)

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