Last night it hit me, that the books seem to thematically equal the major arcana of a tarot deck. When I did a quick search on the forums I found, that there were already threads about it, so I didn't create a new one in the books section.

But then I got another idea. How about using tarot cards to create themes for a game? Maybe just as a help to get you started on a game, to create city themes and threats, or even giving a character a trouble aspect or a way to tie a character to a city aspect, a lot is possible.

Now we need themes to the tarot cards. A card can be drawn either right side up or upside down, representing either the good side of the theme or the bad side. For example, the Magician can stand for confidence but it can also stand for being overconfident and getting in over your head.

The complete arcana:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Arcana

My ideas for themes and aspects derived from the cards so far:

0    The Fool
Trouble: A bit like cassandra's tears: even if the character is completely capable of doing something, people tend to dismiss him, because they think of him as a fool.

1    The Magician
City Theme/Trouble:
Trouble Aspect: In over my head

2    The High Priestess
City: the city has a terrible secret that could change it forever (for example an imprisoned fae, that only very few know about which lead to the city being much more prosperous than it should have been)
Trouble: my secret must not come to light

3    The Empress
City: The summer court plays a big role if this card is drawn
Trouble: The character is all about worldly pleasures (hedonistic)

4    The Emperor
City: As the empress is summer, the emperor represents winter, stagnation, the status quo. Either the city is in chaos and needs to be stabilized or the status quo needs to be broken.

5    The Hierophant
City: A church based threat or theme, maybe a rogue special unit killing of minor talents.
Trouble: Intolerance and arrogance

6    The Lovers
City: Obviously THE card for white court involvement.
Trouble: the card can stand for temptation as well as love, think along the lines of thomas' (my love in my families hands) or harry's (temptation of power) troubles

7    The Chariot
City: A war between 2 supernatural parties
Trouble: I fight alone

8    Justice
City: justice itself can be the enemy. Maybe an SI team that is much more than what chicago has, an elite special unit that is trying to catch anything supernatural, thus reacting to pretty much everything supernatural with the equivalent of a nuclear strike. Or someone being framed for a murder and the real killer can only be identified by magic, thus making it very hard to prove the innocence.
Trouble: Lawbreaker, Doom of damocles, my warlock apprentice

9    The Hermit

10    Wheel of Fortune
City: It is kind of hard to pin a city theme to a card that symbolizes random chance...
Trouble: When I thought I'm out they pull me back in (basically: anything weird that can happen are going to draw the character in)

11    Strength / Fortitude
Trouble: quick to anger, impulsive, easy to lose control

12    The Hanged Man
The card is tied to sacrifice and new beginnings (think changes), but I don't know how to make a theme or an aspect of it.

13    Death
City: An overwhelming air of death and despair might color the city. Black court involvement, kemmlerites, rogue necromancers, anything is possible. But the card can also simply mean change, if you don't want the theme to be too depressing.
Trouble: "And I saw, and behold, a pale horse" (meaning death always seems to follow the character around, no matter what he does). Or the character not only has a proverbial skeleton in his closet, but a literal one.

14    Temperance
City: In a positive sense it can mean opposites come together. A city threat could be a couple of small supernatural gangs that fight a war in the city, the players should try to bring them together to stop this.

15    The Devil
City: The difference between power and the absence of power. Maybe a cult leader enthralling his people.
Trouble: Obsession with an idea

16    The Tower

17    The Star

18    The Moon
City: Werewolf/Lycantrope/Loup Garoux, I think fool moon should provide a lot of ideas.
Trouble: The enemy within (the character is struggling with holding in his power(in case of a wizard of some sort) or his beast (in case of a shapeshifter) or maybe only his darker nature in case neither applies)

19    The Sun
City:
Trouble: The card seems to be completely positive, so it is hard to find a trouble derived from it. A very naive character comes to mind though.

20    Judgment
City: Troubles of the past return. If it is the first session, you could look into the characters troubles to find something to go with.
Trouble: from the spirits that I called, Sir, deliver me! (from the translation of the german poet "der zauberlehrling". Basically, the characters sins seem to follow him wherever he goes, he can never shake them and they tend to show up at the worst times.

21    The World


So, this list is by no means complete and I would be happy if some of you would help me complete it. Might be fun to give a character a random trouble aspect or just draw one if you can't think of anything. Or you need a new villain stat!, you can just draw some things to get a few ideas and flesh them out once you have the time.

Hope you like this idea.

I just found these links in a german FATE forum.

http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-1-paper-miniatures/
http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-ii-paper-mini-construction/
http://worldwithoutsyn.com/2010/06/gaming-on-the-cheap-part-3-fate-zones-with-index-cards/

Especially the index card idea stuck with me and is going to make a lot of fights a lot easier. The paper minis are a good idea, too. You could just use some random markers, but I think it is going to create a lot more atmosphere if every character and villain has its own personalised paper miniature, and this way it is going to be affordable 

Well I've been working on a few characters to familiarise myself with the system. Now I have this one character, a focused practitioner (chloromancy), with both Channeling and Ritual, that I can not quite figure out. My idea was, that she will only be able to cast spells if there are some plants around that she can manipulate, which will make her pretty vulnurable in a purely urban setting, but that might just mean you have to get a little more creative pulling things of. I was thinking about putting "the Catch" on it, but I don't think it is that much of a deal to actually grant refresh. She also has contact to some of the more summerly wildfae, but she does not get power from them or anything, although one of them has been teaching her to use her magic, because she saved that wildfaes life (I haven't really thought out that part completely yet).

Anyhow, she is working in a tree nursery, being good with plants and all, and she has some space set aside to power up some acorns, which means she puts them in the ground, waters them etc., but instead of growing they save that energy inside them. The chloromancer always carries around some of those acorns to supercharge some of her spells. On that point I am not sure how to handle this.
They need to be some sort of focus or enchanted item I think. Focus item would not fit, because in my imagination, the acorn will rapidly wither after being used to supercharge a spell so it can not be used again. An enchanted item as I understand them can only be used ones, but they are permanent, also not what I am looking for. Best would probably be to tweak the potions rule. The next question would be, how many shifts (as in supercharging a spell) per enchanted item slot can I put into any of those acorns? And is there a limit as to how much I can put into any item? Could I for example have just one acorn at me with 4 enchanted item slots on it.

The spells will mostly be defensive and maneuvers, for example letting the trees in the area shed their leaves in order to block the direct sight of anyone following the chloromancer or blending in with the plants in the area in order to prevent being detected (sort of a veil). Rooting someone to the ground or having a tree grow around part of him to hold him might also be something she would do. But for the most part, actively attacking someone (that means a spell that is an attack in the rules) is probably something that will never happen.

So, how do I stat out my acorns, and how would you handle the spells I sketched out above?