ALIEN PASSION DISASTER
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
INTRODUCTION
Alien Passion Disaster (APD) is a role playing game of discovery, interaction, conviction, passion, conflict and xenodiplomacy in an open universe from three to five players.
Each player will play the role of a race, one of their factions or even a single character. This game can be played in a single session as a whole, as the previous step to set up any scenario for other purposes or like a traditional RPG. 
There’s not just one Game master, each player will participate with their narratives and decisions to construct the full history from the initial set-up to the standard game.

NEEDS
Take two packs of regular poker playing cards that you don’t mind getting soiled. For a character game you will need one or two extra decks. All of them must share the shame back to avoid trick temptations.
Also take a pen - preferably a permanent marker - that you can soil the cards. Pens from different colors, once for each player, would be great to remember the origin of each contribution but are not mandatory.
In terms of play the scale and values of cards are the same as in Blackjack (A=1; K, Q, J=10; the rest counts as their printed numbers).
Diamonds, spades and clubs are used as faction’s or player’s decks (the character sheets of classic RPGs). If it’s your first game with this system or all of you desire that humans play any role in the adventures, book diamonds for them. 
The hearts and jokers from two decks form together the passion deck so it will start with 30 cards. It represents the emotions, goals, risks or adversity that players will find during the game. 
You can play with the role of a whole faction (faction game) or a single character (character game). Both kinds share the mechanics and basic rules, but the second usually need a complete set of full playable faction decks so we will start explaining…
 
FACTION GAME: SETUP
In this case only two decks are needed. Each suit represents a different race and each pack of ‘13’ a different faction. Each player will play with just a whole play set (from A to 2) of one race so in a faction game there will be always at least two different races.

1.	CHOOSING RACE & FACTION 
Shuffle the six aces corresponding to the factions. The first player will be the person who has travelled from the longest distance to play this game. This player draws three of the face down mixed aces, chooses one, shuffle the rest with the remaining aces and keep the selected one in secret until the end of this process. Each player must repeat this process proceeding clockwise. The fifth player, if any, will have only two cards to choose. Give each player the twelve remaining cards from the suit of their chosen ace.  
The chosen ace must be kept visible during all game so players can see the race of others in any moment. Players must give a name for their races. When there are two players sharing it they must agree about it, we will have time to create conflict between them in the… 

2.	TRAIT AUCTION
As a group, discuss the kinds of alien that you are interested in exploring. As part of this, discuss physical features, social traits and any other interesting thing (biology, technology level, religion…). You must talk about things you want to appear in the game not only about the specifics things you would like just for your race or faction. After some minutes of discussion you should have a list with at least (but not limited to) two traits per player. It will be also important be agree about the biggest prize, the most succulent trait, the final reward. Now is time to bid for them!!
Basic rules
For the auction each player must use any of their twelve remaining cards from their player’s deck, valued as their printed number or as ‘10’ if faced. The auction process must be repeated by players clockwise. The last lot will be auctioned when all other traits of the list have been used or when all players have three or less cards available to bid. For this final reward or in games of just three players, auctioneer can participate also as bidder.
Resolution
First player (the one who chooses the last while establishing races) chooses one on the traits, describes it in a positive way, and acts as the auctioneer. 
Winner (the biggest bid) must complete the proposal with some extra details and write it as positive trait in one of the cards used during the auction.
The player who bid the lowest bid must invert the trait turning it to a drawback and write it in one of the cards used during the auction.
Both sides of the chosen trait must be connected if more than one card per player were played during the auction (e.g. more than 4 cards played in a 4 players game). In any case the auctioneer can ask to reformulate any trait if considers that has no relation with the initial proposal. All used cards are discarded face down after use even when they didn’t take part of the higher or lower bets.
Players of the same race can bid together (converting the trait in something intrinsic of their race, a racial trait) or separated (converting the trait in one of the things that differentiate them as factions). In the first case each player must write the same trait in one of the cards played so they must agree about it. Any racial trait must be written between brackets. This cooperation is limited to two auctions so choose them carefully! In the case of humans, racial traits can be explained thanks to technology knowledge. Let’s your imagination fly free, this is a role playing game!
The faced cards have an especial rule. Besides traits, any of those card used in bets must be written with the name of a person who will be part of the faction’s contacts. This one must be someone important for you. Each letter is related with the general nature of the contact, so the PERSON must be described according it: 
•	K – Some positive contact. E.g. Ally, inspiriting leader, good friend…
•	Q – Some neutral contact (positive at a cost, with their own interest mot always aligned with the player’s ones). E.g. Expensive informant, lover, contact from other faction…
•	J – Some negative contact. E.g. Old enemy, traitor to your faction, dead comrades…
Examples
Detailed example (something physical):
Proposal from the auctioneer: Poisonous.
Noted as positive by the winner: Our blood is poisonous to XXX race.
Noted as negative by the loser and related: The blood of YYY is poisonous to us.
Converted as racial and noted as positive: [Our blood is poisonous] (in future auctions opposite bids can differentiate between factions for example with different opinion about the free use of this poison).
Converted as racial and noted as negative: [The blood of YYY is poisonous to us] (in future auctions opposite bids can differentiate between factions for example exposed to this at different levels).
Detailed example (something social):
Proposal from the auctioneer: An important leader.
Noted as positive by the winner: Earl Gupta, a victorious general. 
Noted as negative by the loser an connected to the first: Our king was killed in a battle against (or after the betrayal) Earl Gupta army.
Noted as negative by the loser an unconnected: Our king has just died without heir.
Converted as racial and noted as positive: [We follow the teachings of Azath the Great, prophet of the Big Mother] (in future auctions opposite bids can differenciate between factions for example with different religious interpretations).
Converted as racial and noted as negative: [After the death of one of our big kings we wander through Universe without a clear destiny] (in future auctions opposite bids can differentiate between factions for example after each group travelled to different places).
Examples of good final rewards: slavery, telepathy, EMP grenades, shapeshifting, prophetic third eye, reactive scales, laser rifles, infrared/ultraviolet vision, solar regeneration, robotic prosthetics, hereditary memories, poison secretion, high-tech spaceship, predator...
Once these auctions have been completed, each player recaps to the other players a summary of their side. Each faction should describe their morphology, psychology, behavior… based on the chosen traits and drawbacks.  

3.	THE STAGE & THE HIDDEN TRAIT
As a group, decide on the setting for the game, a region a planet or even a galaxy where your factions are going to have an interest or just the excuse to meet the other races. This is a game about strange morphologies and unfamiliar locations. Think about the environment of the location and emphasize the difference - “We know this could never be Earth because…”
After that and with that premise, players must think about what interest they have in this stage. They must note it as their hidden trait in their higher free card. It must be something related to the real objective, a tool, hurdle needed to solve, clue… needed to achieve it. After the game session ends other players should be able to say: “Ok, so that were your final intentions…  Now I can see the uses of that trait”. As a big difference with previous traits this is not public, some cunning players prefer to reserve their use to hide their real intentions.
Example: 
Real target: Complete in secret the production of the definitive weapon that you make in planet Z56-X.
Hidden trait: Interest in technology, military training, finding stolen technical documents, metal trader… 

4. DETERMINE CHARACTERISTICS
There are four characteristic which all actions of the game will fall into:
•	FINESSE - precision in word & deed.
•	RESILIENCE - hardiness in plan & performance.
•	DOMINANCE - power in conflict & conscience.
•	ASTONISHMENT - amazement at places & people.
Players must take the ace corresponding to their suits and write there the name of characteristics. They start with a value of “DRAW ONE” in them. First player chooses one and increase its value by “DRAW ONE EXTRA”, following players must do the same clockwise but, one characteristic cannot be chosen if any of the two previous players did it as their last selection. Maximum value of any characteristic is “DRAW FIVE”. There are seven of such rounds so players will end with their characteristics valued from 1 (bad at this) to 5 (maximum chance at this).

FACTION GAME: CURRENT PLAY
Once characters have been created, all players leave their ace on the table before them and shuffle together the rest of their suit. They place this pile (in this case called faction’s deck) to their left. On their right is a currently two empty pile, one face-up (discard) and the other face-down (consequences). Those two piles must be placed rotated 90º to distinguish from player’s deck.
The passion deck (two full jokers and heart packs for a initial of 30) must be placed in the middle of the table. The discard for this deck should be immediately beside it. 

BASIC MECHANICS
-	The golden rule is that this should be a funny game so adapt any rule to your likes.
-	The silver rule is that, to play any soiled card, a player must use it in a narrative way using the text that appears there.
 Whenever players need to know the result of an uncertain action they must draw as many cards as their value in the corresponding characteristic from their player’s deck. 
Starting with the active player, each player bids a card from their hand. Players may choose to increase a bid after seeing how their foe responds: the highest total value wins the narrative auction and players may bid as many cards as their hands allow. As players make bids, they should describe what their faction is attempting to do - this should be influenced by whatever is written on the card being played and it is through this conceit that the faction goals and faction traits directly influence the story.
Higher sum wins being the victory margin the difference between bets. Drawn but not-played cards are shuffled with the faction’s deck. Played cards are put face-up in the discard and shuffled back only after it has four or less cards.
To play one of the soiled cards for its value the player must justify and introduce with narrative the trait or contact (independent if it’s positive or negative). If the explanation is extremely good the card should be considered with a ‘+2 value’. If the explanation is not good the card should be considered with ‘-2’ instead of its original value (or even worst if a player makes this repeatedly). In both cases the moderator will have the last word about this.
The winner of the bid must describe the resulting action with an end proportional to the margin victory and including all the narratives that were put into play. Some of the effects that can be chosen by the winner are the following:
•	For every two points of margin an adversary suffer 1 consequence.
•	For every three points of margin recover 1 random card from the consequence to your faction’s deck.
•	Note one new trait to one of the played cards. The margin will determine the maximum value of the chosen card that must be unsoiled and cannot be a heart or joker.
•	After an epic victory with a margin of more than ‘10’ gain an extra card from the passion deck.

CONSEQUENCES
To reflect bad results, damage, stress or simply wear, affected players must remove cards from their player’s deck. Those must be placed face down randomly in the consequences pile. Perceptive readers could notice that this mechanic it’s not always bad as discarded cards could be those of lower values, ok, we know, sometimes clarity and perfection merges after a high impact situation. In any case players are considered out of game (temporary or not) if their consequences pile has eight or more cars.

WHAT ABOUT THE HEARTS? or WHY IS THIS CALLED ALIEN PASSION DISASTER?
So, the hearts deck represents an extra trick, a prize for the use of passions, good interpretation, construct a funny moment or just have good ideas. Whenever you make any merit moderator can reward you with one card from the passion deck. From that moment the card is added to your own faction’s deck and can be played as a normal card in any resolution but, if it’s not soiled, as soon as it’s played, player must note on it something related to the action and return to the hearts deck. This notation must be one or two words related with some kind of sensation, feeling or general impression about the played scene. Think of it like the title of the chapter of TV series. They work as traits or characters and could be narrated before play them (by moderators or players who gained it) just like any other soiled card. No more than four of cards from this deck can be part of any player deck at the same time.
 Figure cards must be soiled with one of those descriptors or with an extra person just like the other figure cards.
The jokers are special because they must be soiled multiple times (as long free space in the cards allow it) when they were returned. Their value is twice the number of “narrative snapshots” written on it and used in the scene plus two (12 maximum).
Those cards are special because, probably you will find yourself trying to play one card that you didn’t soil. Confidence is everything, I can explain my intention, but I can’t describe your interpretation. Learn to listen your partners and find the gathering point between your perception or likes and the others.
Examples: A big surprise, it hurts, teacher and student, flying high…
The passion deck provides also the non-player resolution. For the purposes of this, the hearts deck draw different number of card depending the kinf of action, being “DRAW TWO” the default and “DRAW SIX” the most complicated action. The played cards are discarded face up and are shuffled back to reconstruct the deck only after it has eight or less cards.

PLAYING THE GAME
The game plays out in a series of scenes. In each scene, the involved players declare what their intentions of their factions or characters from it are and then bid on controlling the narrative outcome. These scenes will have narrative repercussions, most of which will be written on the cards as they are played out. Likewise, things that happen in earlier scenes should influence the outcome of future scenes - despite the rigid turn structure, the story continues across the entire game.

MODERATOR’S ROLE
Scenes are played out between most of the players at the same time, being one of them the moderator.  Moderators have two main missions: 
•	Mechanics: Ensure the smooth running of narrative auctions, to make sure that players are drawing the correct number of cards, to determine exactly what statistic is relevant for the player’s actions.
•	Narrative: Complete the scenarios for the action of other players if something is missing, decide about the correction in the explanation of traits (to modify them by -2/+2) and play the role of non-player races, factions or non-player characters. 
When the scene changes, the player who has a larger consequence pile, becomes the moderator. As a reward, players who made good job as moderators can shuffle up to two of their consequence cards before transfer this responsibility. If a player thinks that could be any conflict of interest while being moderator and following the history he/she must choose a substitute at the cost of adding one card to the consequence pile.
At the beginning of the game, if there’s no volunteers the first moderator will be the player who know better the rules of the game.
Full example: The active player describes a little bit about the scene - its scope, its time of day, how it links with what has come before - and explains what their culture intends to achieve with this scene. If another culture is involved, they should describe why they too are here & similarly what they hope to achieve. “Humanity needs a solid source of food, since the spoiling of their stocks in transit; she aims to control the entirety of this sector. The Kerryn’s Queen have used this cave as a nursery for generations, its soft light perfect for juveniles to play in; she is happy to concede some of the space but mostly aim to remain here”.
The moderator will determine which statistic is relevant for each player’s interaction before the players draw from the stock. In this example, humanity is being aggressive - the only solution is DOMINANCE. For the kerryn however, it could be a case of diplomatic FINESSE or out & out RESILIENCE to hold fast; talking with the moderator, the kerryn player decides she would prefer to use FINESSE here.
The players now draw cards from their stock according to their statistic value. Humanity has DRAW THREE for DOMINANCE & the kerryn have DRAW TWO for FINESSE, however the arbitrator decides that the nursery has narrated an original and passional history so the kerryn draws one extra card from the top of the passion deck - both players draw three cards. The Kerryn draws a joker with five narrative notes. When she decide use that card she could use any of the written narratives with af value of ‘2’ per each right use. After the use the card is returned to the passion deck with an extra trait written by the Kerryn player.

ENDING A FACTION’S GAME
As this stands, a faction game is set to run over a single session. As such, each player should determine their overall goals and intentions from the outset & state what they have to lose. The narrative will likely continue until these elements are resolved. 
This kind of game will lead to a very detailed deck of cards at the very end (which frankly will be a beautiful thing to look at). Because narrative repercussions & influential traits are written on the cards, looking at the final pack will serve as reminders for the many things that have happened. Likewise, things that haven’t come up in a while will invariably surface later. Alternatively, it is possible to play space-opera style across a series of play sessions. In that way you will extract the maximum potential of created factions decks and use them for the…

CHARACTER GAME
As a summary think of it like a faction game but played with single characters. Of course the factions will be around the history but, as the interpretation is done just with individual characters history should evolve in a different way. The only differences with faction’s game come when creating the characters.
 
1. CHOSING RACE, FACTION & TRAITS
The most desirable thing is that all of the players participate in a previous faction game but is not mandatory. You can take the completed play sets from other players. We have created a facebook group (“Alien Passion Disaster”) as a place to share them. Each player can choose any faction for their characters. All of them should be created in the same session of faction game to fasten cohesivity between them. Take the faction deck and remove the racial soiled cards (those with a trait under brackets), you must copy them to the card of their decks with the same number. After that repeat the process with the non-racial soiled cards in their faction’s deck choosing up to three. You can select positive or negative traits, depending of the kind or character you want to play.
In the case of a lot of players of the same faction cards must be distributed randomly face down between them, then they can trade the cards as they want (“Please give me that person, she will be very interesting for mi character. I could offer to you the following traits…”). In this case, to increase the character creation options, you could mix the cards of the same race but different factions. In that case the only restriction is that replaced cards must be changed with one with the same value.

2. STAGE & HIDDEN TRAIT
Talk about the general ambient you want for the game.
Examples: OK, All of us are burrowing races, let’s play a kind of Dungeon game. There are a lot of things that are still open after the previous faction game, let’s play a diplomacy game.
After this talk you must write any of your two unsoiled cards with your own traits related to the playing stage. If the trait is related to a person use your free faced cards. At least one of those traits must solve one of the questions: How I know the other player characters? or Why I’m working together with those characters? Players could write it like an hidden trait, avoiding to be explicit and making more difficult for other players to know their real intentions. 

3. DETERMINE CHARACTERISTICS
Players must take the ace corresponding to their suits and write there the characteristics and their names. There are only six rounds to increase characteristics. Players can participate in a extra number of rounds equal to the number of flaws they chosen from the faction deck. Maximum value of any characteristic remains as “DRAW FIVE”. 

CHARACTER GAME: CURRENT PLAY
We recommend the use of a new passion deck every time that the play campaign suffers a big change. Start with a new set of 30 unsoiled cards and Copy two or three non-joker traits to cards with the same number (e.g. a recursive antagonist, some unsolved business…). Finally each passion deck will be like the season of TV series. Over time your group will have several passion deck constructed, then you could choose one of them to drive the history to a certain theme or ambient.

FINAL REMARKS
The game is not limited to aliens and other races from outer space, classic fantasy settings with their dwarf clans, elf tribes or human kingdoms could be also easily played with APD mechanics.
	Thanks to Paul Czege to have the half-crazy half-brilliant idea of creating this challenge and to the anonymous co-writers who let me complete (destroy sometimes, sorry about it) their ideas.