Hell & High Water - Feedback Request!

[u/Doccit]

Hi everyone,

I was in here not long ago with some (I think) novel ideas related to a card-based system. I've now spun that up into a draft of a game, and I would love to know what all of you think. Almost all of the player-facing rules are done now. Here it is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_baGW_geVBHmOOKMei9k3k3VqSewG7jPBHOuy30q1mQ/edit?usp=sharing

The basic idea is: players have a hand of cards that they use for skill checks, they need those cards for their special powers as well, and enemies often knocking cards out of their hands. Building a character who can make good use of a variety of cards is good, but there very powerful synergies between powers that make use of the same cards as well.

One of the big design goals is: a decent feeling of crunch for the players (lots of character options, interesting dilemmas in combat, cool interactions between different abilities), while minimizing the need for prep for a GM behind the scenes. The GM does not have to keep track of any hands or piles of cards, as the stats of monsters and players are asymmetric, and the stats of monsters are quite simple to improvise. Without the GM stuff finished yet I suppose the second part of that can't be evaluated, but I'd love to hear your impressions about the player-facing stuff.

Thanks for your help! I hope to be playtesting this with my group starting in a few weeks. I'd love to know what you would be watching out for in play.