The Book of Armaments
The Book of Armaments is both a storytelling game (creating the saga of a legendary weapon as it moves from hand to hand and deed to deed) and a roleplaying game (we learn its legend in the voices of those who’ve witnessed it, wielded it, or been struck by it). The game is designed for 3-5 tale-tellers.
The Book of Armaments uses playing cards (an ordinary Poker deck with all Jokers, face-cards, and the entire suit of spades removed) and tokens (12 per player: glass beads, pennies, etc).
The real object of the game is to create the most engaging characters, and to have those characters tell the best tales. The formal object of the game is to win the right to tell the final tale: to put the weapon to rest, and reveal its final fate.
Stage One: Forge the Weapon
Begin by deciding, as a group, the form and nature of the weapon. It can be anything from a futuristic laser-sword to a 20th-century prison shiv to a hunting rifle to a baseball bat, but it must be the kind of weapon that a single person can wield and operate, and must be re-usable (so, probably not a hand grenade, unless it’s a holy hand-grenade that reappears on feast-days to blow more enemies to tiny bits, or some kind of super-science equivalent).
Decide, too, the conditions of its manufacture (where it was forged, built, enchanted, delivered from the heavens) and the nature of the world to which it is introduced (Alcatraz in 1935, Detroit in 1972, Italy during the Second World War, some favorite world of fantasy or science-fiction, etc).
Shuffle the cards and place them face-down to form the Draw Pile.
Stage Two: The First Draw
In a round, each player tells a tale, in the voice and mannerisms of a specific character the teller creates (one of the weapon’s wielders, one of the weapon’s targets, or a witness to the weapon’s deeds). Each tale also has a specific tone (triumph, tragedy, or comedy/satire ... from the perspective of the character the teller will roleplay).
For the first round, each player draws a single card, and shows it (cards are never held in secret). The player with the highest-ranking card (standard Poker ranks with Aces high) will go first, the second-highest goes second, and so on. Ties in rank are broken by the trump order of the suits: Clubs trump Hearts; Hearts trump Diamonds. Cards drawn at this stage also determine the tone of each teller’s tale this round:
♣ Triumph (Clubs)
♥ Tragedy (Hearts)
♦ Comedy and/or Satire (Diamonds)
Stage Two: The First Tale
The first teller may choose to discard the tone card for a price of 1 token, replacing it with a fresh draw. To “spend” a token means to give it to another player (of your choice, it can be a different player each time). The teller must accept this second card. Players may never spend thier last token on a discard. If you have only one token, you may not spend it on a discard.
The replacement card’s rank is irrelevant, only the suit (which determines tone) matters now that the teller-order has been established. Once the tone card is accepted, the teller draws a second card to determine the character’s relationship with the weapon:
♣ Wielder (Clubs)
♥ Target (Hearts)
♦ Witness (Diamonds)
As above, the teller may spend a single token for a redraw, provided it isn’t their final token. Once the character’s relationship to the weapon is accepted, the terms for the tale are complete.
Then, the teller tells a tale, which begins with the teller introducing him- or herself, in character, and summarizing how the weapon came into their life (for example, a Wielder might begin: “I am Lady Holstead of House Raven, and I recieved the sword on my seventeenth birthday, a gift from my grandfather” while a Witness might begin “I am Staff Sergeant Chuck Bennet, USMC, and I first saw the rifle on my tour in Viet Nam”). The tale must be told entirely in the voice and manner of this character, and must describe one notable event or deed in the “life” of the weapon. The tale/deed/event must exemplify the tone determined by the draw. The weapon itself must survive until its final tale, but there are no rules limiting which people live or die, including the telling character.
When a player is telling the tale, others may interject with questions or comments, but the tale-teller is not compelled to pay them any mind.
Stage Three: Subsequent Tales
The round continues with each other player telling a tale in turn, and their turns are structured exactly like Stage Two, with the following additional notes:
No tale-teller may contradict a previous tale. Each must build logically forward from all prior tales, continuing to explore deeds committed with the weapon.
When a tale’s character is a Target or Witness, the weapon needn’t change hands unless the wielder died in the previous tale. When a tale’s character is a Wielder, however, it must be a new Wielder (the prior Wielder needn’t be dead, of course; there are many ways a weapon can change hands, including gifts, inheritance, theft, military re-issue, and more).
Stage Four: The First Vote
Tellers now vote, in reverse order from the round’s telling (so, the most recent teller votes first, and the first teller votes last). Voting is compulsory; no teller may refuse to vote. The process of the vote is:
First, the voter must gift three tokens to other tellers to reward them for their portrayal of character (for the most convincing roleplay and/or most compellingly-characterized perspective). They may not vote for themselves, but must give these tokens to others (distributed as they see fit).
Second, the voter must repeat the process, but this time for tone: three tokens to other tellers to reward them for truly tragic tragedy, clever comedy, or triumphant triumph. 
Once every player has voted, the round has now ended, and the next round begins again at Stage Two.
 Note that it’s possible for a player to run out of tokens during Stage Four. This is one of the three ways the game can end. When a player gives away their last token, the game ends immediately (see below for the game-ending rules). Even if other players were still waiting to vote, the game ends immediately (moving to the game-ending procedure) when a player’s final token is given away.
Stage Five: Further Rounds
Subsequent rounds are a replay of Stages Two through Four, with just two additional rules (both for ending the game):
 It’s possible during any Stage Two or Three for the draw deck to be depleted. If that happens, the game ends immediately when the final card is drawn. Everything stops in that moment, and goes to the game-ending procedure (see below). This is the second of three ways for the game to end.
Choosing to End the Game: During Stage Two or Three, any Teller with five or more tokens to spend may choose to end the game. This is the third way (after running out of cards, or any player running out of tokens) that the game might end. This must be declared aloud, by the teller, at the beginning of the appropriate stage. Then, the Teller making the declaration must pay out five tokens, distributed to other players as the teller sees fit, using whatever reasoning the teller chooses (it isn’t a vote).
Ending the Game
The ending is immediate (it takes place as soon as the ending conditions are met, interrupting whatever else may have been going on) and the ending process depends on how the current round has gone:
If two or fewer tellers told a tale this round, use Ending Method I.
If every teller (no matter how many) told a tale this round, use Ending Method I.
If the game stopped during the voting process, use Ending Method I.
If none of the above are true, use Ending Method II.
Ending Method I: Count tokens. The player with the most tokens tells the Final Tale (see below), and then the game is done. Play again?
Ending Method II: Hold a vote as if it were Stage Four, except: those who told no tale are excluded in all ways from the vote... they may not vote, and may not be voted for. Then, proceed to Ending Method I.
The Final Tale
The Final Tale is the story in which the weapon is destroyed, decommissioned, bejeweled and hung next to a crown, stolen and never seen again, or otherwise retired to its fate. The teller with the most tokens at game’s end has the honor (and indeed, the responsibility) of telling it. The cards are no longer necessary (the teller can choose the perspective and tone without a draw), and there is no vote (except: if the Final Tale is anything but satisfying, the other players might opt to “vote” by throwing popcorn or other non-injurious foodstuffs). The End.
Additional Rules
The following master rules apply during all applicable phases and rounds:
This is a game of spoken words and memory. No player may take notes or otherwise fiddle with pen, paper, stylus, brush, biting themselves or others really hard to make a mark, etc.
If at any point somone accidentally breaks a rule (contradicting a prior tale without intending to, for example) simply call the teller on the error, correct it, and move on. Given that nobody’s allowed to take notes, be forgiving of memory lapses!
Token transactions are public, but a player’s token supply is private until the final count; no player need permit other players to count their tokens while the game is underway. Players may, if desired, keep their tokens in a pocket, bag or bowl, or otherwise obscure them from inspection. Players may reveal their tokens by choice.
Voting must honestly reflect each voter’s opinion of the quality of the tales. Other forms of token-spending (redraws, for example) may be approached with cold-hearted tactical intent, but votes are on your honor as audience to the tales.
Optional Rule: Reflect the World
When playing a game set in a specific fictional unverse the players know well (the setting of a favorite TV program, or a beloved fantasy world, etc) it may be desireable to change the voting rules. Instead of 3 tokens for character then 3 tokens for tone, a vote becomes 2 tokens for character, then 2 tokens for tone, and 2 tokens for tales that feel truest to the chosen setting. Note that the order of voting-topics is deliberate, since it’s possible for a player to run out of tokens during a vote (the game thus deliberately, however slightly, favors roleplay over tone, etc). It may also suit to change the names of the tones to more closely represent the setting (triumph might become “thundering metal,” comedy/satire might become “dry irony” ... tragedy, on the other hand, typically goes anywhere, especially when you’re following a weapon).