Thyrs JOKER

Thyrs is a TTRPG designed to be played with multiple sets of 52 card decks of playing cards. It can be played by any number of players, but its usually best enjoyed with around 2-4.

This game has no concept of a "Game Master", and instead the primary dictation of events derives from cards drown from a core "Dungeon Deck" of cards, which provides the source of random generation of the what the players encounter and contend with. Players take turns molding these random prompts from the deck into describing what everyone encounters and sees.

About the game

Premise

Thyrs is a storytelling game where each player takes on the role of a character that has been trapped deep within the chambers of some form of ancient megastructure, which will further be referred to as the "Dungeon". Players start by discussing what sort of dungeon they are trapped deep within, and what sort of story they want to play in. The dungeon could be an ancient labyrinth, a lich's keep, or perhaps a long abandonded space station. What is important are a few key factors:

  1. They are trapped at the deepest part of this dungeon
  2. They want to get out
  3. Everyone starts gathered together in the first chamber
  4. And everyone has a very good reason for how they ended up here

The reason for entrapment should be agreed upon next. Perhaps you are all banished prisoners, or maybe you were adventures who took a bad turn and through mishaps ended up falling down deeper than anticipated, or perhaps your life support systems gave out on your ship and you had to make an emergency landing. The options are endless! but what matters is you are here now, and you need to figure out how to survive and escape.

The Thyrs

As per the namesake of the game:

Thyrs (þyrs)

Noun
monster, demon, giant

The Thyrs is the monstrous and supernatural threat that lurks in the dungeon. You see, you are not alone here, and you already can sense it. Something awful wanders through the chambers. Though you haven't encountered it yet, each character already can feel the chill down the back of their spines as they sense its presence. Players must agree on what the Dungeon's Thyrs is. It can be anything, as long as it fits the following criteria:

  1. It is unimaginably dangerous and certain doom to engage with
  2. You want to avoid it at all costs
  3. This is its home/territory, and you are invaders in it.
  4. It is without a doubt aggressive and will attack anyone in the same chamber as it

Its the minotaur of the labyrinth, the Typhon in Tartarus, the Kraken in the sea.

What you need to play

To Play Thyrs, you will need the following:

  1. A deck of 52 cards for each player (jokers removed)
  2. One additional deck of 54 cards (with jokers intact) for the "Dungeon Deck".
  3. (Recommended) Paper and pens/pencils for each player to keep track of their inventory and character's state
  4. (Recommended) The "Narrator Marker", a token of some form to track the current Narrator
  5. (Optional) A set of Resource tokens, approximately ~10 or so needed per player.
  6. (Optional) A set of *Action Point ("AP") tokens, approximately ~25 or so needed per player. Note you will want Resource and AP tokens to be visually distinct!
  7. (Optional) 1 larger "Stamina" container ("pool") per player, enough to comfortably hold ~16 AP tokens in it at once
  8. (Optional) 1 smaller "Energy" container ("pool") per player, enough to comfortably hold ~8 AP tokens in it at once (must be visually identifiable distinct from the Stamina container!)
  9. (Optional) Additional containers for storing Resource tokens for players, and larger containers for storing excess tokens in the center of the table.

Recommendation: You will be well served to choose a deck with different visual appearance for each player and the Dungeon Deck, to make it easier to keep track of which cards belong to which/who's decks. Players are encouraged to bring their own decks to the table for personal flair.

Setup

  1. Each player removes the jokers from their respective decks, shuffles them, then places their deck in front of them at hand
  2. The Dungeon Deck (with jokers intact) is shuffled, then placed at the center of the playing space
  3. Players choose 12 Augments from the Augment Table, ignoring the Face card Augments (those are Curses), and divide those Aguemnts as evenly as they can amongst the players' characters to possess.
    a. (Optional) for additional randomness, you may elect to instead draw cards from the top of the Dungeon Deck until you have drawn 12 non-face cards, and use those to select the Augments at random from the Agument Table via their associated card. See Augments
  4. Each player draws up to their maximum Stamina storage limit worth of Action Points and places these in their Stamina Pool. See Stamina for more information.
  5. Each player draws up to their maximum Energy storage limit worth of Action Points, and places these in their Energy Pool. See Energy for more information.
  6. Each player takes 2 Resource tokens. See Inventory and Resources for more information.
  7. Each player draws a random card from the Dungeon Deck, and uses that to look up a random piece of non-enchanted equipment on the Equipment Table that their character starts the game with Equipped.
  8. Select a player to have the first turn of being the Narrator by selecting them at random and giving them the Narrator Marker.
  9. All drawn cards are now shuffled back into the Dungeon Deck.

Game Rules

Decks

Decks represent the source of randomness in the Dungeon. Whenever you discard a card for a given deck, you place it face up beside it in a Discard Pile. Whenever you would draw a card from an empty deck, shuffle the Discard Pile back into the Deck first, then draw the card.

The Narrator

At any given time, one of the players is marked as the Narrator by being in possession of the Narrator Token. Whenever any random effect is rolled to signal something exists in the game (the Chamber itself, items or objects in the Chamber, events that occur in the Chamber), the Narrator gets to describe what it looks like. Most random effects will provide a few adjectives to describe the object vaguely, and it is up to the Narrator to fill in the gaps.

Note: This has no mechanical impact on the game, this is purely narrative for fun.

Everytime players take the Proceed Action, the Narrator Marker is handed one player clockwise. The recipient is now the new Narrator for the next Chamber!

Energy

Energy represents your character's form of useable Action Points you can use to perform Actions. Most Actions consume some amount of Energy as a cost.

Energy is stored in your Energy Pool, which by default has a maximum Storage Limit of 8, however various effects can alter this limit. Refilling your Energy requires Stamina and Resources.

Stamina

Stamina represents your character's form of banked Action Points, which you cannot actively use. You can, however, convert Stamina into Energy via spending Resources by taking the Meal action, and to refill your Stamina Pool you must take the Sleep action. See the Actions section for more details.

Capacity

Capacity represents how many items your character can carry with them at once. By default characters have a Capacity of 8. All Items and Resources cost 1 Capacity each to be carried.

A character may exceed their Capacity by up to 5 by allowing themselves to become Encumbered. Encumbered characters must spend an additional 1 Energy to take the Proceed Action. See the Actions section for more details.

Characters may discard any inventory Items or Resources they wish. Discarding does not consume Energy, nor does it spend their turns Action. If an Encumbered character reaches zero Energy, they are forced to Discard enough Items immediately in order to no longer be Encumbered. Discarded Items remain in the Chamber they were Discarded in, and can be retrieved later if the player wishes to.

Resources

Resources represent materials required to sustain life amongst your group. Typically they in some form represent forms of water, food, and fuel. Resources consume 1 Capacity each for the character carrying them.

Via the Meal Action, you can spend your Resources to convert Stamina into Energy

Items

Items take the form of one of two types: Consumables and Equipment. Either way they require one Capacity each to carry with you. Note: actively Equipped equipment do not count as being carried, and therefor do not consume Capacity.

Consumables

You will find and acquire a wide variety of Items in the Dungeon that can be Consumed to perform all manner of effects. After spending a onsumable item it is removed from your inventory and your character is no longer carrying it.

Equipment

Equipment comes in two forms. Normal and Augmented. Whenever you initially acquire a new Equipment (other than your character's starting one) you will have no idea if it is Normal or Augmented. To discover which it is, you must Identify it.

You can choose whether or not to carry or Equip a piece of Equipment. While carrying it, it consumes one Capacity and is not Equipped. You can choose to Equip a piece of equipment you are carrying, which makes it no longer consume Capacity and now count as being Equipped. These verbs are referred to as Equipping and Unequipping a piece of Equipment.

In order to Equip an Augmented piece of Equipment, you must first choose to Attune to it. Once you are Attuned to an Augmented Equipment, it can no longer be Unequipped by normal means while it remains Augmented. Various effects can bypass this restriction however.

Rolling the equipment

Whenever you acquire a piece of Equipment, draw a card from the Dungeon Deck and use that to look up the properties of what you found via the Equipment Table. The current Narrator gets to then describe, based on those properties, what type of Equipment you have found. For example if the properties are "Ornate-Arms", then they might describe a gilt inlaid pair of gauntlets.

Identifying Equipment

There are primarily two common ways to identify an item. The first is using an Identification Stone, which is a type of Consumable item. The other is by Equipping the unidentified item, at which point it will become Identified instantly.

If you choose to Identify an Item by Equipping it, and the Item turns out to be Augmented, you will instantly Attune to it

When you Identify an Item, the following steps occur in order:

  1. Draw a card from the Dungeon Deck
  2. If you draw a card that is any suit of HEARTS DIAMONDS SPADES, the item is Normal.
    3a. However, if you managed to draw a CLUBS suit card, the item is Augmented.
    3b. If you drew the JOKER card the item is Augmented with a guaranteed Curse, see the next step.
  3. If the equipment is indeed Augmented, draw a card from the top of the Dungeon Deck. If you got a gauranteed Curse, draw cards until you draw a Face card.
  4. Look up what Augment the Equipment has on it via the Augment Table, this piece of Equipment now has that Augmented on it, and anyone with that piece of Equipment Equipped has that Augment active on them while they keep it equipped on them.
  5. Either way, discard any cards drawn.

Augments

There are a total of 53 Augments in the game, one for each card in the Dungeon Deck. Augments are special effects that Equipment and Characters can possess. A character is affected by the Augments they directly possess, and the cumulative Augments of all their equipment they have currently Equipped. They are not affected by the Augments of Equipment they are Carrying*

To see the bonus any given Augment provides, you can look it up by name on the Augment Table

A special classification of Augments are called Curses, see the following section for info on them.

Curses

Curses are a specific class of Augment that has a negative effect, rather than positive. The general rule of thumb is Curses come from Face card rolls on the Augment Table.

Whenever an effect or rule refers to a Curse, it is referring to these specific types of Augments