Queens of Fate

You are a modern day shaman and supernatural champion. Waging your secret war against dark forces intent on reshaping the universe, you also face off against destiny in the wake of an uncertain prophecy that foretells destruction but gives the promise of hope. Across the world, the infant Queens of Fate are being reincarnated into the world. Can you find them before the dark powers get to them?

-- These are the complete instructions on how to play a solitaire game called Queens of Fate, using only a deck of tarot cards and a large playing surface. I made up this game as a tool to help me learn to use and interpret the multi-faceted meaning of the tarot cards in different ways, and soon found both the game and its story to be quite addictive.

Gameplay consists of turning over cards from the deck, one at a time and resolving them. Depending on the type of card (classified in the game as Opposition, Arcana, Source, or Court), you will either play it into your play area, confront it in a challenge, or compare it to the previous card drawn. You have a set of Arcana cards and Source cards to use in battles, but each can only be used once.

The strategy of the game involves using (discarding) cards you have in play when an Opposition card comes up, or deciding whether not to confront at all and deal with the consequences. Playing cards in certain combinations allows you to "resurrect" cards from the discard pile.

The goal is to play the four Queens, and place one in each suite-themed play area. If you run out of cards before this happens, you lose the game. The Queens can be lost through losing battles to Obstacle cards, which may attack your Court cards or random cards from your deck.