created a deck builder ttrpg looking for feedback
🎴 DECKBOUND RPG (Working Title)
A card-based tabletop RPG where your character is your deck.
🌍 What is this game?
Deckbound RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game where:
- Your abilities are cards
- Your character build is a deck with limits
- Combat is fast, tactical, and hand-driven
- The DM uses structured monster ability lists instead of dice tables
You don’t just play a character.
>
🧠 Core Concepts
Every character is defined by:
- 🃏 Deck (your abilities, spells, and equipment)
- 🎴 Hand (your current playable options)
- 📊 Capacity (how much your build can hold)
⚔️ Time System
🧍 Turn
One player or monster takes their actions.
🔁 Round
A full loop where every player and monster acts once.
⚔️ Combat
An encounter from start until enemies are defeated or escape.
🗺️ Movement System (GRID-BASED)
Combat uses a grid system.
- Each square = ~5 feet
- Movement is measured in feet per turn
- Your Race determines total movement distance per turn
Movement Rules:
- You may move freely during your turn
- Movement can be split before and after card use
- Movement does not require a card unless stated
Example:
- Human moves 30 feet → 6 squares per turn
- Elf moves 40 feet → 8 squares per turn
🃏 Cards
There are three main types:
⚔️ Action Cards
Attacks, movement abilities, physical skills.
✨ Spell Cards
Magic effects using Arcana and other stats.
🧥 Equipment Cards
Weapons, armor, and tools that remain active over time.
🎯 Hand System
At all times in combat:
- You hold 7 cards in hand
On your turn:
- You may play up to all 7 cards
- Then refill your hand back to 7 at the end of your turn
If you have no usable options:
- You may redraw up to half your hand once per combat
- After doing so, your hand size is reduced by 1 for the rest of combat
🎴 Card Resolution System
Every card uses a 3-step resolution process:
- Choose a card to activate
- Draw to determine hit/success
- Draw again to determine damage/effect strength
Cards define what each draw means (damage, success tiers, etc).
⚡ Instant Cards
Some cards are marked Instantaneous:
- Can be used outside your turn
- Only 1 per round
- Do NOT trigger hand refill after use
🧥 Equipment System
Equipment is persistent and tracked with simple tallies.
🗡 Weapons / Wands / Staves
- If used in a round → mark 1 durability down at end of round
🛡 Armor
- Tracks durability per combat (or table variation)
🧾 Tracking
All equipment is tracked using simple notes on the character sheet:
Example:
- Steel Sword — 4/6 durability
- Leather Armor — 3/5 combats
📊 Capacity System
Each character has three capacity types:
- ⚡ Speed Capacity (movement + physical actions)
- ✨ Magic Capacity (spells)
- 🎒 Carry Capacity (items and equipment)
How it works:
- Roll 1d100
- Add race + class modifiers
- This becomes your total capacity pool
Cards consume capacity based on their type and strength.
🧬 Stats
Stats are:
- Strength (STR)
- Dexterity (DEX)
- Arcana (ARC)
- Charisma (CHA)
Stats modify:
- card outcomes
- accuracy
- damage
- special effects
❤️ HP System
- HP = life total
- At 0 HP → character dies
Some classes interact with HP differently:
- Blood Mages
- Sanguine Summoners
- Other life-based archetypes
👹 DM SYSTEM (MONSTERS)
Monsters do NOT use decks.
Instead, each monster has an ability list.
🧠 Danger Levels (DL)
- DL < 1 → up to 20 abilities
- DL 2 → 30 abilities
- DL 3 → 40 abilities
- Demi-boss → 50 abilities
- Boss → 60 abilities
🧠 Monster AI System
Each ability has tags:
- melee
- ranged
- magic
- defensive
- reaction
DM uses tags + recommendations to choose actions quickly.
Example:
- Melee → Sword Strike
- Ranged → Throw Rock
- Reaction → Dodge (reduce damage)
🌍 Roleplay Rules
Roleplay does NOT require cards.
However, cards can still be used for:
- casting spells in RP
- equipping items
- performing structured actions in-world
🔄 REST SYSTEM
- After combat → equipment durability updates
- Long rest → full recovery/reset (table dependent)
⚖️ CORE GAME LOOP
- Build deck using capacity limits
- Enter combat
- Move using grid system
- Play up to 7 cards per turn
- Resolve actions via draw system
- Equipment degrades over time
- Combat ends
- Rest → recover and reset resources
🧪 WHAT MAKES THIS GAME DIFFERENT
- No spell slots
- No static abilities spam
- Everything is card-driven
- Equipment is persistent but fragile
- DM uses structured monster AI instead of random tables
- Movement is grid-based and race-defined
- Combat is fast but highly tactical
🧠 BEGINNER TIP
Start simple:
>
Speed, magic, and carry all matter depending on playstyle.
⚔️ FINAL NOTE
This system is designed to be:
- printable
- lightweight
- flexible for any setting
- easy to homebrew
- playable with just paper and cards