A Simple Heroic Adventure Game

02 Nov, 2026

I've been thinking about what I want to peel out of my old Hellbenders rules and playtests, and this morning Marcia at Traverse Fantasy shared a lovely post that crystallized some feelings I have had about class-based games. Specifically, I've wanted a framework for building a class identity around some small countable number of axes that lends itself to more intuitive DIY play. In response I wanted to snap a baseline on those thoughts and take my Overloaded Blackjack Table into a dedicated system framework.

I've also learned a lot about other games on the market since working on Hellbenders, so I think this framework is a lot more in line with Aaron Lim's Ithaca in the Cards or the Bakers' Murderous Ghosts, but I think this still has its own flair to it and could stand on its own as a pick-up-and-play adventure game.

Simple Heroic Adventure Game (SHAG)

This is a small game to be played with a deck of french-suited (or poker) playing cards. First, strip out the face cards from the deck so that you are left with a 40-card deck (A-10, all four suits) and a 12-card deck (JQK, all four suits). The deck of face cards is used for character generation and then set aside, the 40-card deck is used for play.

Character Generation

The four suits correspond to two core concepts: Training and Wellspring. When you create your character, you draw two face cards and assign one to your Training and one to your Wellspring as you see appropriate. Keep these two cards in hand.

Your Training represents the types of skills that you have honed in your path to heroism. Your Wellspring represents the source of energy that propels you when your strength flags. When you have determined both, think about the type of heroic archetype that this reflects in your character. Choose another player to compare and contrast your Training; how have your relative life's work to this point put you at odds? Then choose a separate player to compare and contrast your Wellspring; how do your respective propulsive forces complement one another? Do they make it harder or easier for you to relate to one another?

On an index card, record your character's name, preferred pronouns, Training, Wellspring, and notes from the above discussion. Make sure write your character generation cards down because you recover these cards after a full, restorative rest, typically between adventures.

What Limits our Heroes?

When play begins, the table should start by establishing some level of shared baseline setting logic. This framework intentionally does not codify the limits of your Training or Wellspring because the game centers what your hero is willing to risk to achieve their ends or complete their adventure. If your hero is trained in Rhetoric with a wellspring of The Occult, the rules do not say that you can't summon a devil to your service. The rules tell you that the consequences of failure and the costs of success should be commensurate with what is attempted.

Basics of Play

This is a game of ragtag heroes overcoming obstacles to achieve their goals. This framework can be used to play out old-school adventure modules or for other short- or long-form improvisational play. If your adventure requires one player to hold privileged information, then they should act as the Dealer rather than playing as a single character. If your adventure is suited for improvisational scene-based play where characters are acting against one another's interest, then all players may play as characters.

When heroes attempt something, they may either negotiate with the Dealer or the rest of the table along the following terms:

1. Objective: What do you want to do?
2. Capacity: Why do you think you can do it?
3. Cost: Would this expend a resource that your character has in the fiction? What do you risk if you fail?
4. Uncertainty: Do you have the time, tools, and Training to do this? If the answer to one of those questions is no, player Tempts Fate. Otherwise, it works.
5. Outcome. Show the consequences, respect the established risk, and progress.

Tempting Fate

The player Tempting Fate draws two cards from the play deck and sums the rank of the cards revealed. Aces may be counted as High (11) or Low (1). The player then makes a choice:

1. Accept Fate. Take the sum of the cards as shown and proceed per the results on the Resolution Table.
2. Act Recklessly. Draw another card from the play deck and add it to the sum.
3. Sacrifice. Choose a card-in-hand and play it into the revealed cards. If the card-in-hand represented gear, a treasure, or a favor, this represents permanently destroying it. If the card-in-hand represented your Training, then you have completely exhausted your skills/resources/forebrain faculties until you have a chance to deeply rest. If the card-in-hand represented your Wellspring, then your connection to your source of energy and propulsion is severed until you have a chance to deeply rest and reconnect.
4. Change Your Fate. If one of the currently-drawn cards matches the suit of a card-in-hand, you may swap the card in your hand with a revealed card and re-evaluate the sum.

These choices continue until the hero chooses to Accept Fate.

Resolution Table:

Any player may call for the play deck to be shuffled at any point; note that this means that the face cards from a player's Training and Wellspring may be shuffled into the play deck.

The Hands of Fate

The cards that a player has in her hand reflects the current health, vitality, and resources available to her hero. A fully refreshed hero begins an adventure with two face cards in hand, so think of a hand adding up to 20 as a hero in prime shape. A hero must have a card-in-hand representing her Training and Wellspring at all times in order to rely on her abilities and faculties.

When a hero chooses to Change Your Fate, they probably now have a lower-rank card in hand, which reflects the wear and tear of overcoming challenges and obstacles. On the other hand, a hero may refresh themselves by swapping a lower-rank card-in-hand for a revealed card!

While adventuring, a hero is likely to find treasures or earn favors, otherwise referred to as a Boon; this is reflected by drawing a card into your hand. When you draw the card, the suit may be interpreted as either a relevancy to a form of Training or a hidden Wellspring for the treasure or favor. The rank corresponds to the true potency of the Boon. If the table agrees that a Boon is particularly significant, then it may be drawn from the face card deck rather than the play deck.

If a Boon matches your Training or Wellspring, then you may Attune to it and replace or replenish a Sacrificed or otherwise depleted Training or Wellspring card.

When a hero has neither Training nor Wellspring in hand, she is on the verge of Defeat and may only Accept Fate or Act Recklessly when Tempting Fate; upon a failing result, she is Defeated until she can rest and recover or another hero can provide her with a source of Attunement.

Types of Obstacles

All challenging situations are adjudicated according to the action resolution procedure above. Fate is not Tempted until our heroes are in a situation for which they lack the time, tools or Training, and this includes confrontations with opposing forces.

Complicated scenes, multifaceted disasters, and imposing foes should be decomposed to specific challenges that the heroes may take on; consider each to be a 1-HP Dragon.

What is at Stake

Our heroes always risk being Defeated, but those are not the interesting stakes for an adventure. There is something villainous afoot, and the critical challenge is our heroes balancing recklessness and caution to resolve the conflict. The heroes should have something they are trying to protect and something they are trying to achieve, so that there are logical external consequences for when Fate Herself is tempted. If the entire party is Defeated, then the adventure is far from over. Who Defeated them? What does this villain want? What difficult situation can they put the party into?

Let me know what you think!

Does this feel like enough to build on as a standalone game? Where have you seen similar concepts exercised?