Hand of Fate

Hand of Fate turns deckbuilding into a tabletop-style crawl, with cards setting the encounters, gear, and events before each run drops into real-time fights. By our assessment, that mix is the point: it gives the game a strong sense of chance and momentum, and the dealer framing does a lot to make each session feel like a little story being dealt out. The trade-off is that the structure can feel rigid, because so much of the run is driven by draws and scripted branches rather than free exploration. In practice it has the appeal of a game that keeps handing you small decisions, then punishing or rewarding them with a sudden combat scene. It sits somewhere between a roguelike, a card game, and an action brawler, and it is most interesting when those pieces stay in tension. It suits people who like replaying a fixed system for different outcomes, and it loses force if they want broad, open-ended role-playing.