Cards Mechanics

[Senkusha]

I've seen more than one game now that features regular playing cards as a functional mechanic to offer additional play-ability for role playing games. Savage Worlds, for example, uses playing cards to determine Initiative, and it's quite brilliant. There's no more ties to worry about. Kings are high, Aces are low. In the event of a numerical tie, the next level that breaks the ties is based on the suit of the card, where Spades are top, then Hearts, then Diamonds, and finally Clubs comes in last. The ordering is actually Reverse-alphabetical. No more looking at your Dexterity Score to determine who's better-- and God forbid if two players rolled the same Initiative, and both have the same Dex score. The result is, yet another dice roll.

Armed Girl RPG: Princess Wing exclusively uses playing cards to determine what happens within the game, and they also define your character with a corresponding set of tables to look up the value of the card.

For my own game, I'm planning on using the Cards to work similarly to Tags in Narrative based games, like FATE or City of Mist as examples. I feel that using playing cards in this way will help relieve the Game Master of some stress, and invoke a sense of tension among the players.

What do you think about using Playing Cards as a mechanic to add variety to a role playing scene? How would you incorporate the use of cards in your game?