Tarot cards are not just for fortune-telling. They also make great brainstorming tools. In my search for ways to spark my imagination and brainstorm ideas, plots or characters, I've found Tarot cards to be a dependable method.
In this set of posts, I review the use of Tarot cards in gaming from how to use them to create characters and plots for your games to systems that feature them prominently to decks built for specific games. This week will be brainstorming tools.
Overview and Practicalities
So before I get too much further let me discuss the rough basics of Tarot cards. Those of you who know about Tarot, please skip ahead.A standard Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. 22 of those are the Major Arcana representing major events, life’s journey, archetypes, and so forth. This is where you have the cards like the Fool, Death, and so forth. The remaining 56 Minor Arcana cards represent more mundane events and resemble a typical deck of cards.
The Minor Arcana contains four suits of 14 cards each. Like a typical deck of cards 10 of each suit are simply numbered 1 to 10 while the 4 remaining "face" cards are the King, Queen, Knight, and Page.
Each suit has its own overall symbolism that link the cards together. Wands are associated with Fire, intuition, and spiritual experiences. Cups or Chalices correspond to Water, and symbolize emotional affairs. Swords represent Air, logic, reason, thought, and communication. Coins or Pentacles are associated with Earth, senses, and the material world.
For the purposes as a brainstorming aid, an important point to note with the Major (and to a lesser extent the Minor) Arcana is that you can interpret the cards by both their figurative meanings and the images printed upon them. These often correspond but remember that a picture is worth a thousand words. This can also help speed up any reading you do, since unless you are well-practiced, referencing a book to determine the possible meanings of every card can be fairly slow. Decks where all of the cards have distinct images (such as the Mage: the Awakening Tarot) are ideal in this case.
Brainstorming Tools
How can we use a deck of cards as a brainstorming tool?For those of you with any familiarity with fortune-telling, the concept isn't any different from doing a normal Tarot card reading. Instead of casting a fortune for a real person, you pose a question for your fictional character and use the cards to fill in the missing details about their history, situation, and personality.
For those of you with less familiarity, let's start with the standard Celtic Cross reading. Typically used to answer a specific question about the future, it looks something like this:
- a possible reading
For example, let us say you draw the Strength card as the second card, the Immediate Challenge or current obstacle to the character. The Strength card could mean physical strength, strength of will, overcoming obstacles, or even virility. How you interpret that is up to you but it gives you a jumping off point to spark your own imagination. Perhaps it represents a potent monster the character is fending off when the player characters first encounter her. Alternatively the virility of the character could be its own challenge as he faces an assault of paternity suits.
Each card indicates a range of possibilities which you can use to define a character or situation. Unlike a traditional fortune-telling, if you pull a card that indicates something at odds with how you envision the character or story you are free to ignore it and draw again. If you have enough of a feel for your creation to know what does and doesn't feel right, you already are well on your way to completing the character or story on your own. The point is to use the cards to fill in the blanks and unknowns about the character. Then you can run with what feels right.
Other Readings
In addition to the Celtic Cross, there are a large number of other possible spreads you might use. Some of these work better for characters, others for plots, and so forth. Here are a few:Three Card Spreads
A simple 3 card spread can be used to set up a basic plot or obstacle.The first card could represent the Goal of the character or mission. The Stakes would come next, showing what might occur if they succeed or fail. Finally the third card reveals the Obstacle.
Alternatively, you might use the standard 3 Act story. Act 1 (Card 1) shows the beginning and the trigger to the story. The second card corresponds to Act 2 and reveals the rising action. Finally in Act 3 (card 3), the black moment or ending is revealed.
Five Card Character Spread
I found this in the Mage: the Awakening Tarot booklet but I'm sure there is a more elegant name out there. Pitched for characters who have been introduced to the supernatural, the cards are read as follows:- The character's mortal mundane life
- The character's supernatural life: what route they took or had placed upon them upon becoming part of the supernatural world. This could be their vampire clan, Changeling Seeming, or Werewolf Auspice for instance.
- The event that transformed them and made them part of this secret world. This could be how they became a vampire, decided to hunt monsters, or learned magic. Generally this was triggered by an encounter with the supernatural.
- The character's virtue, higher calling, or particular strength.
- The character's vice, weakness, or dark secret.
Five Card Plot Spread
Another find from the Mage: the Awakening Tarot, this spread focuses more on setting up an adventure or story. The card interpretations are:- The Theme of the story or adventure
- The Mood of the story or adventure
- The main Antagonist
- The Allies of the Player Characters. These may be literal allies or advantages the PCs possess that others lack.
- The Twist, the element of strangeness that makes the story especially interesting.
Character Circle
As an alternative to the Celtic Cross or the 5 card spread, we have the character circle. This 9 card spread starts with a central card representing the character. We then lay out cards in a circle around this card. Starting at 12 o’clock you have the character’s Goal overlapped by a card for the Motivation for that Goal. Continuing clockwise you have:- Outer Obstacles
- Action Taken to Achieve the Goal
- Fear
- The Basis Behind that Fear (overlapping the previous card)
- Stakes
- Inner Obstacles
Character Creation
This 18 cards spread consists of 3 rows that describe a character physically, socially and mentally. The break down is:- Row 1: gender, age, body type, eye/skin/hair color, notable aspects, health
- Row 2: social class, occupation, education, religion, politics, amusements
- Row 3: personality type, attitude toward life, abilities, qualities, temperament, personal motto
The key to this reading is to be flexible and open-minded when interpreting the cards. There is no wrong answer. If the 7 of wands makes you think blond in one reading and brunette in another, it is fine. What we want is a tool to spark those random associations and get the ideas flowing.
World Creation
This spread is a 15 card clock-like structure where the cards are laid out starting from the top and around in a circle. A final optional card is placed in the center. The various meanings are:- Religion/Magic
- Economics
- Arts, Play, and Fun
- Military/Warfare
- Language
- Urban and Rural
- History
- Biome (Climate and Geography)
- Education
- Societal Roles
- Science and Technology
- Law, Crime, and Ethics
- Marriage, Sex, Kinship
- Political System
Final Thoughts
Another thing you can do if you want to develop a story or adventure further is to use one of the above spreads to do a reading of the plot from the perspective of the main nonplayer characters. This way you brainstorm up how they view the story, gaining insight into their influences and inner thoughts.Sources
Here are few helpful sources for those who want to learn more about Tarot cards and their use as a brainstorming aid:- Corrine Kenner’s book, Tarot for Writers
- http://jennareynolds.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/using-the-tarot-to-create-characters/
- http://raelynbarclay.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/using-tarot-in-writing/
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