Blob's Card Engine

His Majesty the Worm ​

Blob's Card Engine plays His Majesty the Worm, the tarot-driven dungeon crawler, at a Foundry table: the decks, tests of fate, the Meatgrinder, every card table in the book, the Challenge Phase, and an adventurer sheet. The book's mechanics and game text may be reused (its legal page says so); no art from the book is used.

Setting up a world ​

Use the Simple Worldbuilding system. His Majesty the Worm has no Foundry system of its own, and Blob's Card Engine brings everything the game needs: the table, the reference journal and the Worm adventurer sheet. Simple Worldbuilding (by Foundry Gaming, in Foundry's system browser: Game Systems → Install System → Simple Worldbuilding) adds nothing that gets in the way.

  1. Create a world with Simple Worldbuilding and enable Blob's Card Engine.
  2. Create each player's character as a Worm adventurer (Actors → Create Actor) and give the player ownership of it.
  3. On the match manager's Games tab, start His Majesty the Worm. Seat yourself first: the first seat is the GM's (you can pass the GM's dealer button later). Give each player their adventurer.

Other systems

In a world with another system (D&D 5e, Pathfinder…), "Worm adventurer" stays out of the system's Create Actor list. Turn it on with the setting His Majesty the Worm characters (Always). Adventurers you already have always work.

The table ​

A Challenge at the Worm table

The bar at the top switches the phase (Crawl · Challenge · Camp · City). Test of fate and the Meatgrinder are buttons; the rest is in four menus:

  • Fate: Favor, Disfavor, Spend Resolve, the High Chant, My attributes (for a seat without a sheet).
  • Doom deck: Loud noise, Moving carefully, Draw on a table, Read the tables, the Fool's reshuffle.
  • Enemies: add a group from the bestiary or your own, wound them (Defense first, then Health; Piercing to Health; Critical to 0), remove them.
  • Round (in a Challenge): GM cards, Mulligan, Sweep, New round, End the Challenge.

The Reference button (book icon) opens His Majesty the Worm: reference: every card table, the bestiary, spells, talents, gear and the Camp and City actions.

Tests of fate ​

Card + attribute (± 3 for favor or disfavor): 14 or more succeeds; with a card of the tested suit it's a great success. After a failure, Push fate adds one more card: 14+ is a success, anything else (or the Fool) a great failure. The result is posted to chat. Tests can also be drawn from the adventurer sheet (the Test buttons under the four suits).

A Challenge ​

  1. Enemies → Add enemies, then the Challenge tab: four cards each, and the GM's doom cards (3, +1 per enemy type, +1 if they outnumber the guild, +1 more if twice as many, +1 per enemy larger than a human, +2 elite, +3 dungeon lord).
  2. Players drag a card to Initiative; the GM drags a lesser doom (I–XIV) into each enemy group's slot.
  3. Next count goes from Ace to King: cards at that number turn over and their owners act.
  4. Your turn: drag a card to Played and pick the action. The table adds the action's attribute and compares it with the target's Initiative (a tie hits unless the defender has a shield).
  5. Minor actions: drag a card to Minor action; the GM reveals them together. Face value only; the suit must match.
  6. Face-down actions (Dodge, Riposte, Aid Another, Vigilance) stay until they trigger.
  7. Sweep, New round (the Fool reshuffles both decks), and End the Challenge (or pick another phase).

The adventurer sheet ​

The Worm adventurer sheet

  • Attributes as the four Aces (your path's card is gilded), Resolve, lore bids.
  • Conditions: Stressed, and the wound track Staggered → Injured → Death's Door. Take a Wound offers only what the rules allow (armor, a talent, a condition) and posts it to chat.
  • Camp recovery: refills lore bids, clears Staggered, and burns charged Bonds to heal or regain Resolve.
  • Talents with XP toward mastery (Starting talents adds your path's and your kin's), Bonds, quest, motifs, languages.
  • Gear in hands (2), belt (4) and pack (21) slots, with notches and lights. When the Meatgrinder says the torches gutter, every lit light the seated adventurers carry flickers.
  • The chat button shows a talent, an item or a Bond to the table.

Credits ​

His Majesty the Worm is copyright Joshua McCrowell. Blob's Card Engine is an independent production by Big Blob Games and is not affiliated with Joshua McCrowell or Exalted Funeral.