This is a mash-up of Fate Accelerated (aka FAE), Castle Falkenstein, and the Malifaux resolution system. Because I wanted to.

Characters should have a High Concept and a Trouble (as per FAE), which are for narrative flavor.

Characters should choose three positive and one negative ADVERBs (e.g. “swiftly”, “cunningly”, “clumsily”). These adverbs can be used to modify actions (“I *swiftly* attack an opponent”); doing so may create an Advantage (see below).

Players and GMs should agree on interestingly specific adverbs (e.g.: “winningly” is probably not a good adverb). They should reflect the character's personality and approach to life.

Characters should choose one (Great 8), three (Good 6), and one (Poor 2) skills. These represent the character's experience and training. Players are considered (Competent 4) at all skills not chosen above.

Skills have a natural Suit affinity, which affects outcomes as described below.

Clubs:

• ♣️ Athletics: grace at moving the body
• ♣️ Fisticuffs: ability in close combat
• ♣️ Marksmanship: accuracy with ranged weapons
• ♣️ Resistance: withstanding physical damage, exhaustion, or other conditions

Diamonds:

• ♦️ Education: breadth and depth of knowledge
• ♦️ Magic: understanding, resisting, and harnessing arcane powers.
• ♦️ Physician: understanding and remediating damage or conditions of living beings
• ♦️ Tinkering: understanding, creating, and repairing technology

Hearts:

• ♥️ Charisma: understanding and affecting individuals or groups in social interactions
• ♥️ Courage: withstanding terror, fright, and other mental conditions, and helping others do the same
• ♥️ Expression: appreciation and connection through artistic creation
• ♥️ Connection: understanding and connection through bonds of affection

Spades:

• ♠️ Society: breadth and depth of those who have reason to help you
• ♠️ Exchequer: understanding, building, and drawing upon material wealth
• ♠️ Social Graces: acting in a way that avoids offense and calumny
• ♠️ Subterfuge: acting in a way that does not betray one's intentions

Ability grants a base level according to the following table:

• Extraordinary (12)
• Exceptional (10)
• Great (8)
• Good (6)
• Competent (4)
• Poor (2)

E.g., if you have Great (8) ♠ Exchequer, you will be adding 7 to the results of your flip stack (see below).

The campaign is split into sessions, due to real-world constraints. Generally, things like spending experience and Token refresh happen between sessions.

Sessions are divided into scenes at natural narrative breaks (the end of a combat; arrival at a dinner party; etc.). Usually, players will get to rest and refresh between scenes, but sometimes scenes start _en courant_, robbing them of downtime.

Characters start with a Card Refresh of 5, which will be modified by events and experience. This is the number of cards a player may have in their hand at any time. If for any reason players have more than this number, they must discard down to their refresh limit IMMEDIATELY, choosing which cards to discard.

At the end of every scene, characters may discard any or all of their cards, and then draw until they are at their Card Refresh.

Characters also start with 3 Fate Tokens. The fate pool is only replenished rarely, e.g., at the start of a session, after a significant rest, or in the case of resounding victory. The GM may also award a Fate Token for exceptional characterization or role-playing.

Characters may be afflicted or blessed with various effects and conditions during a campaign. For example, a serious injury may temporarily give [- -] to Athletics, or local reknown may provide (+3) to Connections in a particular town.

These conditions may or may not fade over time, depending on their cause.

If a character is no longer in control of their actions (e.g. they are unconscious or possessed), their entire hand is discarded. A fresh hand should be drawn when they resume control.

When NOT flipping, i.e., not during a contested situation, you may do the following:

• Mulligan: You may spend a Fate token to discard your entire hand and draw that many cards.
• Preparation: You may spend a Fate Token to draw two cards. (This may trigger a discard.)
• Trust The Fates!: You may spend four cards to earn a Burning Fate token. This token evaporates if not used within the scene, and cannot be used for Mulligan or Preparation.

The heart of a RP system is handling contested outcomes. FalkeFateiFaux handles this via flipping over cards and seeing the result. It is recommended to have at least 2 decks of cards shuffled together, or (number of players / 2) for larger groups.

Cards are flipped from the top of the Deck Of Fate, with the exception of magic, which uses the Deck Of Magic. Additionally, players have a hand of cards which can be used to Guide Fate (see below). Hands are always dealt from the Deck of Fate.

Once a stack is resolved, it goes into the discard. When the Deck Of Fate is empty, the discard pile is shuffled and used as the new deck.

To achieve an outcome, the player must meet or exceed a target number set by the GM, or their opponent's total. This is done by flipping one or more cards in a “stack”; one of the cards in the stack will determine the outcome.

In the case of a contested action, the opponent is doing likewise, and the stacks are compared.

When used to perform actions with matching affinity, cards count as a value equal to their location within their suit:

• 1-10, J (11), Q (12), K (13), A (14)
• Red Joker: Counts as 15 of every suit. May always be chosen by flipper, even if at disadvantage.
• Black Joker: Counts as 0 no-suit, even if a token was spent. Must be taken, even if the Red Joker is also present.

Out-of-suit cards are much less valuable for an action. 2-5 count as 0, and other cards as 5 less than they would otherwise (e.g. a K is only an 8).

Some situations will make things slightly easier or harder. This is represented by a positive or negative modifier, written e.g. as +2 or -3. These modifiers are added to the outcome number before comparing with the target.

Rare objects and circumstances will grant a SUIT to a stack. These powerful circumstances allow cards of any suit to count either as their native suit or as the given suit.

Situations, qualities, and conditions may put you at an advantage [+] or disadvantage [-].

Some conditions are persistent, e.g., wearing Armor Of Shining that gives all melee opponents a [-]. Some are situational: standing in lava gives Fire Elementals a [+ +] to Fisticuffs and Resistance.

• For each [+] advantage, flip 1 extra card in a stack.
• For each [-] disadvantage, flip 1 fewer card.
• If the number of cards drops below 1, you are flipping in disadvantage.

Choose one card in the stack as follows:

• If at advantage: winner chooses card in stack.
• If at disadvantage: the opponent choses, or the worst outcome is chosen if there is no opponent.
• Jokers are exceptions to these rules (see above).

Example:

You have Good (6) fisticuffs and are using your Gloves of Boxing [+], but your opponent has distracted you [-] and you are exhausted [-].

You are at [-]: you will flip 2 cards, and your opponent will choose.

You flip 4H 8C, and your opponent chooses 4H. Your total is 7 (4H counts as '1' offsuit, plus 6 for your skill).

Positive adverbs used as part of an action grant a [+] advantage.

Negative adverbs can be used to grant a [-] disadvantage to the player, but the player also gets to immediately draw two cards (this may trigger a discard).

With rare exception, only a single adverb can be used in an action.

Prior to flipping, you may do any or all of the following:

• spend one Fate Token to gain [++] advantage
• spend one Fate Token to treat the upcoming stack as having a particular suit
• spend one Fate Token to give your opponent [-] disadvantage

After flipping, if you are NOT at a disadvantage, you may play one card from your hand. This card joins your current stack, and goes to the discard when the stack is resolved.

If this in contest, both players may choose to guide fate, but the currently-losing side must choose whether or not to play a card first.

You may play cards to influence the outcome in either direction. Sometimes it's good to fail!

Degree of success is given by the difference between the outcome and the target:

• -11 or worse: Abyssmal failure.
• -10 to -6: Resounding failure
• -5 to -1: Failure
• 0: Barely a success
• 1 to 5: Success
• 6 to 10: Resounding success
• 11+: Astonishing success

The details of such outcomes are left to the GM and players to decide, or may have quantifiable results.

Some abilities may list a set of quantitative results. For example, Armor of Ithan's duration is based on the degree of success:

• Armor Of Ithan (Target: 8): Grants [+ +] to Resistance. Duration: 1 second / 2N minutes / 10N minutes / N hours

This means:

• The target for succeeding at the spell is 8. If you have Good (6) ♦️ Magic and flip a 4D, you succeed by 2.
• On a bare success, the Armor lasts only 1 second.
• On a success, it lasts 2 N minutes, where N is the degree of success, e.g., 4 minutes in the above example.
• On a resounding success it lasts 10 N seconds; e.g., if you succeed by 6, it lasts an hour.
• On an astonishing success it lasts N hours; e.g., if you succeed by 12, it lasts half a day.

Over time, players may gain new adverbs and skills, modify old ones, or even lose old ones. Exceptional events may increase or decrease both Token and Card pools.

• Soft Cover (concealment): Gives [-] to opponent's Marksmanship
• Hard Cover: As soft cover; also gives [+] or [+ +] to Resistance
• Stunned: Discard a card
• Shy or Frightened: [-] to Hearts skills
• Embarassed: [-] to Spades skills
• Crushed: [-] to Spades and Hearts skills
• Winded: (-2) to Clubs skills
• Tired: [-] to Clubs skills, -2 to Hearts and Diamonds
• Exhausted: [-] to Clubs and Diamonds skills
• Blasted: [-] to all skills

As characters take mental or physical injury, they may gain negatives to, or disadvantages to, various stats, and in serious conditions their hand size goes down. Injury does not affect Fake Tokens.

• Niggling injury: -1 to Clubs or Diamonds skills (player's choice)
• Minor injury: -2 to -4 (GM's choice) to Clubs or Diamonds skills (player's choice)
• Moderate injury: [-] to Clubs and Diamonds skills, except Resistance
• Severe injury: [- -] to Clubs and Diamonds skills, [-] to Resistance, Card Refresh reduced by 1.
• Crippling injury: [- -] to all skills, Card Refresh set to 1.
• KO: Card Refresh set to 0.