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Action Cards

7. Action Cards

Action Cards are the primary way players act in Scenes.

In Worlds That Remember, you do not declare an action and then roll. You play what you have ready — or you force something unready into motion.

Cards create scarcity, pacing, and hard choices without a GM.

7.1 Card Types (Deck-Level)

A player’s deck contains:

• Action Cards — your intentional moves • Condition Cards — harmful cards that enter your deck (Section 11)

Action Cards are played on your turn. Action Cards may also be spent as Support out-of-turn (Section 7.6 and Section 8). Condition Cards trigger when drawn (Section 11).

7.2 Card States: Ready, Unready, Spent

Player cards exist in three states:

• Ready — in your Ready Hand; can be played cleanly on your turn • Unready — in your deck; cannot be played unless you force it (Section 7.4) • Spent — in your discard; cannot be played unless a rule explicitly retrieves it

Ready Hand defines what you can do without strain. Everything else exists — but costs you to bring to bear.

Deck order is not mechanically important. Players are never required to reveal cards blindly.

7.3 Playing a Ready Action

On your turn in a Scene:

  1. Play one Action Card from your Ready Hand
  2. Declare intent consistent with the card (Section 2.3)
  3. Build a dice pool (Section 4) using: • Tags (Section 6) • Card text • Gear tags if relevant (Section 9) • Optional Support Reactions (Section 8) • Conditions if applicable (Section 11)
  4. Roll and resolve using Sections 2–5
  5. Discard the played card unless it says otherwise

7.4 Forcing an Unready Action (Known, Not Random)

You may play an Action Card that is not Ready. This represents improvisation, desperation, or reckless reach.

No blind reveals are ever used.

To force an Unready Action:

  1. Choose one Unready Action Card from your deck
  2. Gain 1 Fatigue (Section 10)
  3. Discard one different card from your Ready Hand (your choice)
  4. Play the chosen Unready Action immediately

Limit: • You may force only one Unready Action per turn unless explicitly overridden.

7.5 Empty Deck / Rebuild

If you must draw and your deck is empty:

• Shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck • Gain 1 Fatigue immediately (Section 10)

7.6 Supporting with Action Cards (Out of Turn)

During another player’s roll, you may Support if your assistance is plausible (Section 8.1) and the current Phase permits proactive intervention (Section 14).

To Support:

  1. Discard one Action Card from your Ready Hand (your choice) (this card is spent; it is not played for its normal effect)
  2. Add one die to the roller’s pool: • The supporter chooses the die by selecting one relevant Tag (Section 6) • The supporter rolls that die
  3. The supporter gains Fatigue per Section 10.3 (phase-weighted Support cost)
  4. The supporter must narrate direct assistance

Support never adds flat modifiers.

7.7 Condition Cards in the Deck (Reminder)

Conditions are not tracked on a separate sheet. They enter your deck (Section 11).

7.8 Deck Size and Limits

Default deck limits:

• Minimum Deck Size: 12 cards • Maximum Deck Size: 20 cards

Condition Cards count toward deck size.

If a player would exceed the maximum: • they must immediately remove (trash) one non-Condition card from their deck • or convert it to stored gear/wealth if an effect allows

7.9 Design Intent

Action Cards exist to ensure:

• players commit to what they have ready • desperation has mechanical cost • support has opportunity cost (spending readiness) • conditions poison capability over time • scenes resolve quickly through constrained options • the system produces emergent play without a GM