Materials Needed

  • StoryHammer Rules
  • A Story
  • Protagonist Sheets (1 per player)
  • Vim Tracking Sheets (1 per player)
  • Decks of standard playing cards (1 deck per player)
  • Counters – (about 25 per player) (pennies or washers work best – they should be stackable and no wider than .75” or 20mm)
  • Index Cards or Scrap paper and writing utensils

Using Game Materials

Each Lead should have one Protagonist Sheet, one Vim Tracking Sheet, about 25 counters, and a Probability Deck. Players may use pencil & paper instead of counters, if necessary.

The Narrator will have the story at hand and should try to keep it and related information concealed from the Leads. Index cards are very useful for making maps (one card per zone) as well as sharing notes as sometimes information is gleaned from characters in secret from the other players. In addition, the Narrator will control the Perk Deck.

Cards: Creating Decks

StoryHammer requires the use of a regular pack of poker style playing cards. It is highly recommended that there is one pack for each player. Then each pack will need to be broken down into two different decks using the following rules:

Probability Deck

Each Lead has a Probability Deck from which to draw for resolving actions. Each Lead shuffles their own Probability Deck, consisting of the following cards:

Ace
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten

 

Perk Deck

A deck of cards, controlled by the Narrator, from which Perk Cards are dealt.

To create the Perk Deck, each Lead removes and hands the following cards from their deck to the Narrator. The Narrator then shuffles the cards into one big deck.

King
Queen
Jack
Ten
Nine
Eight
Seven
Six