An interesting idea I thought of this evening -- what if the Tarot cards were associated with the various Pathfinder classes?
I've come up with the following associations:
Wands -- Commoner
Swords -- Warrior
Pentacles -- Expert
Swords -- Aristocrat
I. The Magician -- Wizard
II. The High Priestess -- Witch
III. The Empress -- Oracle
IV. The Emperor -- Fighter
V. The High Priest -- Cleric
VI. The Lovers -- Druid
VII. The Chariot -- Cavalier
VIII. Strength -- Monk
IX. The Hermit -- Ranger
X. Wheel of Fortune -- Gunslinger
XI. Justice -- Paladin
XII. The Hanged Man -- Sorcerer
XIII. Death -- Anti-Paladin
XIV. Temperance
XV. The Devil -- Rogue
XVI. The Tower -- Alchemist
XVII. The Star -- Bard
XVIII. The Moon -- Barbarian
XIX. The Sun -- Summoner
XX. Judgement -- Inquisitor
XXI. World
0. The Fool
Thoughts?
If you're going by card art alone with a Rider Waite Deck than you could go with that... however, the meaning of the cards are actually different... for example:
I would think the sun to be a bard as the sun is usually a sign of happiness and good tidings. Also, death is a card of change and in a reversed position it is stagnation... somewhat like the hanged man. The antipaladin falls more under the devil ironically, as it is connected to bondage and restriction. If you'd like to more let me know... however if you're just going of the card art, then that's alright.
EDIT: I didn't mean to sound like a know it all. :p
I'm going off a number of things. The card art is part of it. I'm also considering the art of other tarot decks -- there is one deck that shows on the Devil Card a man and woman trying to carry off a treasure chest but going in opposite directions.
I made the Star the Bard card based partially on the story of Odin and the theft of the mead -- the story being that those who gain inspiration from the drops of mead dropped by Odin are bards.
Stories about Odin also prompted me to associate the Hanged Man with the Sorcerer. The story is that Odin discovered the secrets of magic by hanging himself. I decided to give the Wizards the Magician card and, based on the theory that preliterate Nordic practitioners would be more like Sorcerers with a limited number of runes than Wizards with their libraries of books, gave the Hanged Man to the Sorcerers.
The Summoner got the Sun because that was one of the few cards left. But the idea of the Eidolon which grows and evolves as the Summoner gains power reminded me of the figure of the child and of life forms being nurtured by the Sun. Some tarot decks depict a pair under the sun rather than a child.
The Anti-Paladin was given the Death card because there were a few cards left, one of which was Death, and Death and Anti-Paladins both seem to have a sinister reputation. But this association suggests that anti-paladins might play more of a role in my setting than just being bad bad guys.
very intersting idea, I might just steal that from you to see what class a random NPC has.
however: this might not hold for the future, ass (Despite no class-bloat) there will at anytime come more classes than the great arcana holds.
If you include the anti-paladin (and the gunslinger) you should also include nina and samurai. Altough they don't fit seem to fit the remaining 3.
The Art of Tarot decks is very different (yes I know that it's tarot because every style has simliarities), but everyone will probably swap a few cards, no need to please everyone with the first try.
An idea:
Harrowing deck gives alignment. Tarot deck gives class (and class lvl for NPC-classes). And a normal playing card deck could give class lvl for PC-class (perhaps with an attitude: sneaky / aggressive / defensive / diplomatic).
anyway, great idea.
I don't think there will be any Ninja or Samurai in my game. I only brought in the Gunslingers because the setting I'm using is noted for the presence of musketeers.
I am thinking of making some sort of Philosopher class. That would be good for the Temperance card.
That leaves the Fool and the World, but I think I'd like to leave those unassigned.
For those using the Samurai, the Sun card would be good, and perhaps move the Summoner to the World. The Ninja could get the Moon card, although then you have to move the Barbarian somewhere.
Definitely leave Barbarian with The Moon, that has a lot of flavor. I would move Summoner to either Temperance or The Fool (based on how you want to flavor their...summonings). This would also free up The Sun for samurai, if you choose to include them.
The next question is what to use this idea for. Here are some ideas I've come up with so far.
1. Organize my campaign write-up notes. Right now I have a complicated hash of classes and how they relate to occupations and how this all fits into the 17th Century. But I can rewrite it so that it is organized by the Major Arcana, and that puts everything in its place: the major arcana indicates class, and then under the class I can list probably occupations.
2. Encourage players to think outside of the box. Everybody knows that Barbarians are warriors from primitive "barbarian" tribes, except that in the 17th Century that's not really true, unless the PC comes from Siberia or something. But think in terms of "your character is ruled by the Moon Card, and you use the Barbarian stats to run your character" and the options now open up and make sense: what sort of person in Stockholm would be ruled by the Moon Card?
(I think I am mutating from the established definitions of the cards a bit here.)
3. I can use the cards to determine the PC's background and destiny. The first card indicates who the PC's father is, and other cards indicate information about him. Then I can draw cards to indicate who the PC's mother is. The player, of course, chooses the PC's class or classes, but I can use the standard layout then to give the PC a destiny.
To support this, I would like to associate cards with places where characters can be from. Perhaps drawing the World card indicates that the next card indicates the place the PC is from, but indicates a place farther away. Maybe the Chariot normally means Prussia, but if the World is drawn, then the Chariot means Asia Minor.
Wands -- Commoner
Swords -- Warrior
Pentacles -- Expert
Swords -- Aristocrat
You have swords listed twice. The other Minor Arcana you're missing is Cups. In that light, I think you should drop Commoner from the list of Tarot and assign it to Adept (the NPC class spellcaster) for obvious reasons.
I'm definitely using Tarot cards in my Gramarye setting, though I'm sticking with the older versions of the cards (pre W-R). The cards signify specific factions and archetypes, a la the Nephilim rpg (highly recommended).
I also have the Mantegna Tarot handy, which makes an interesting set for creating adventures (it's not a true tarot deck-- more of a cosmology and theological tract in cards-- i.e., the Aristolean cosmos, the virtues, sciences, arts, God, Nature, etc.). I use them reversed to signify evil/unnatural things.
You have swords listed twice. The other Minor Arcana you're missing is Cups. In that light, I think you should drop Commoner from the list of Tarot and assign it to Adept (the NPC class spellcaster) for obvious reasons.
Wands -- Commoner
Swords -- Warrior
Pentacles -- Expert
Swords -- Aristocrat
Sorry, I meant to say "Cups -- Aristocrat".
As for the Adepts, I think I'll drop them. I never did find a use for the Adept class, especially since Pathfinder now has a Witch class. If I want an NPC with a little bit of magic, I'll put in one with a few levels of a spellcasting class.
Still, if someone wanted to associate Wands with Adepts, then they could say x% of the population are Commoners, and the rest apply to the cards.
Actually, using the cards to generate NPCs would result in a strange campaign. Instead, I'll probably just use them to generate the PCs' parents and in other similar contexts where Aristocrats and the PC classes would be overrepresentated. This gives PCs a chance to have noble blood.
I think it would be awesome to make a system that ran on tarot cards :D
(You'd have to get a throw away deck though... T.T)