DECKJAMMERS

BEHOLD, THE FUTURE

This world sucks. Fascist tech billionaires have remade reality to suit only them, and you are definitely not one of them. Recent advances in automation mean that unless you’re an owner or lucky enough to have a job that requires actual human skills, you’re slumming it. Hard. So what do you do? You hustle. You scam. You steal. You double-cross. You make friends. And you try to stay one step ahead of everyone who’s trying to do the same to you.

But the second tech revolution isn’t without some benefit. Most everyone gets hardwired for net access real young—hospitals are even offering it at birth—artificial organs can keep you alive and even healthier than human, provided you can either make your interest payments or stay one step ahead of the repo man, and cybernetic enhancements are as common as tattoos and piercings, if not more so.

You and your crew have managed to eke out a kind of anxious stability: you’ve got your turf, and you’ve done well enough to not be on anyone major’s radar. Until today that is, when somebody’s cousin limps into the door of the pizza joint, opium den, backroom casino, Hot Topic, community garden, tattoo parlor, underage bar, abandoned public school gymnasium, or wherever it is you and your crew call home. And they’ve got bad news—some bogeyman’s decided you’ve stuck your all’s head out just high enough from the human filth pile to be noticed. Time to put on your danger face.

WHAT IT IS

DECKJAMMERS is a diceless grid-based cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game  that puts an emphasis on combat and your Crew, made up of the other player characters at the table and some friendly NPCs. It features:

• No dice!
• Cool playing card system!
• Minimal rules!
• Super fast character creation!
• A CC BY-SA 4 license!
• Zine format!
• Cheatsheet on the back!

I wanted to experiment making a diceless game, and the one I came up with uses standard playing cards - jokers included. I gave this engine a fancy name and everything, DECK27, since each player uses and alters 27 cards (2 suits) to make up their character's abilities and such. I wrote this in 2023 but didn't get around to making it available until now. Lucky you!

HOW IT WORKS

This 22 page pdf contains all the rules players and the GM need to get started, including a fair amount of examples of how the system operates.

Contained inside are:

• The DECK27 System
  • DECK27
  • Making Checks
  • Combat
• Making Characters
  • Crews
  • Gear
  • Character Sheet (also available as a pdf below, check out the demo section)
  • Skills
  • Hobbies
• GM Tools
  • The GM Deck
  • Encounter Design
  • Creating NPCs
• Cheatsheet

Combat is fast and with meaningful choices. The hand that you draw from your deck might not always give you what you want, but you'll always be able to do something, and sometimes you'll be able to unleash any skills or equipment you've bought - including your very powerful joker skill.

Joker skills trigger when you play a joker card from your hand. Here's a handful of them:

Boom Boom Bullet: Attack all foes in a 4sq cube, 2x damage, destroy cover. Can be used with a ranged skill card.

Uno Reverso: When you discard this to defend, your attacker takes the damage. Draw 2 cards.

Golden Gun: Your gun is reloaded, even if you have no ammo left. For your next 3 gun attacks before resting, flip 1. If black, you do 2x damage.

Check it out below, and if you dig it, rate and leave a comment!

UPDATE v. 1.0.1: Fixed some language regarding incorrect probability math (shoutout to E5Burrito!), added bookmarks and internal links, caught a typo.