Card Game: Divine Intervention

While the deities of Rimukyr are not normally the sort to get personally involved in the affairs of mortals, the epic encounters of the Realm of Runes Card Game are enough to draw their collective attention. It remains up to the Heroes to win the day, but the members of the pantheon use their various influences to alter the state of the game, for good or ill. Each of the twenty deities of Rimukyr are represented in the Deity Deck, and it is through this deck that Divine Intervention manifests while playing the card game.

Intervention is one of the main phases of the game, occurring after the villain and players act, but before the housekeeping at the end of the round. During this step, one random card is drawn from the deck and put into play, causing a deity to exert its influence over the game from that point until another deity supersedes it during the next Intervention step. Because this phase of the game happens at the end of the round, the first round of the game always plays out normally. It takes a bit before the deities take interest in the ongoing clash.

Each deity card has two aspects. One is an instantaneous effect which happens immediately. This effect might help or hinder the players, depending on whether the deity in question is good or evil. Neutral deities typically have an effect that is good or bad for both sides at once. Lawful deities often allow the players to make a choice related to their effects, while chaotic deities tend to have effects that are arbitrarily applied.

A deity also has a passive effect. This effect becomes active immediately upon drawing the deity and can apply to the instantaneous effect if appropriate. These passive effects linger throughout the round of play, adding extra wrinkles to the gameplay. Some deity passive abilities offer the ability for players to use one of their actions to invoke the instant effect again, while others might increase or decrease certain types of damage or make healing more effective or impossible.

Although there are a finite number of cards in the deity deck, two of the deities cause the deity discard pile to be shuffled back into the deity deck when they are drawn. It is possible, therefore, to receive help from a good deity more than once in the same game, but you're also never completely safe from an evil deity just because you've already suffered at its hands once already.

Some villains are so powerful that they can manipulate the influence of the deities in their favor. Against these villains, your party might find that there are no good deities around to help your cause! Even in more "normal" games, which deities choose to act, and when, can provide important opportunities or completely derail your plans for the round.

Overall, the deities of the Realm of Runes Card Game help prevent the game from getting stale as it progresses. The randomness of which deity is drawn, and when, also serves as one of the many game mechanics that improves the replay ability of the game. Even if you were to play against the same villain with the same party of characters, the changing influences of the deity deck help ensure that the play experience will still be different.

Next time we'll return to the Tome of Whispers to introduce another of the new classes, so stay tuned!