#wicked grace

It's time for the first of the three art pieces I've got from Ariana for This Magic Cuts Deep. A moment of peace (well, as much peace as one can get when playing cards), no lyrium torment and no sour ale.

In Davrin’s handwriting

- No cheating

- No arrows at the table

- No Rivaini rules if we have to get up earlier than midday

- If Assan eats a card, it’s out of play

- Smelling the other players counts as cheating (this includes Spite)

- If you run out of gold, you can still bet something of similar value (just keep your clothes on in front of Manfred)

- Card counting counts as cheating (sorry, Bellara)

- Card counting while being a detective still counts as cheating

In Neve’s handwriting You’re just sore I cost you 10 gold

I've seen a few postings of people trying to create the full set of cards for Wicked Grace and I've decided to take a crack at it. Honestly, I had a lot of fun doing this and I think Bioware missed an opportunity to fully flesh out this card deck and use them instead of tarot for DAI. Lots of potential for cool symbolism. It's basically the minor arcana already.

I started with some research and focused on @alpaca-clouds' post on How to Play Wicked Grace. I then kinda just dug in and went with what felt aesthetically right. I don't know how to make a table here, so I'll just post a screenshot:

Bold is what is referenced from the game (except Knight of Age... couldn't make it work), Italics are what I changed, and non-emphasized ones are borrowed from alpaca.

My first gripe is with the "Angels" and I can't believe they're practically the most important (with the game ending Angel of Death card). Just because the lore has demons does not mean angels are the antithesis! In fact, spirits are! In my game, Angel is replaced with Spirit. Even better - it allows for each suit to be an "S", Serpents, Spirits, Swords, and Songs.

There are "special" cards like the Aces which each have two suits they can be coupled with (e.g. Serpent-Entwined Dagger can be used in a Sword or Serpent hand) and the "court" cards are all instances of time. The Page is a day, the Knight is a month, the Queen is a year, and the King is a lifetime. With the "wild" cards as the flowers just because it was alpaca's idea and idk what else to do with them. They can be used as a replacement for any card of that suit.

Since I went less with how to play the game and more of the symbolism and fun -- I started the numbering system at the "worst" emotion given so the lower the denomination the more "debased" the card. For example, 2-10 of Spirit goes from Envy - Betrayal - Grief - Empathy - Truth - Temerity - Charity - Penance. It's not a perfect system and I think, similar to minor arcana, there will be numeric indicators on the card to show their value. I kept "sacrifice" and "mercy" at the top because that seemed like a catholic thing to do and everything in Thedas is influenced by the Chantry.

Each number is to have a similar value, but with each suit I tried to give them different denominations. Serpents are more sinister/selfish while Spirits are the opposite and represent more a more selfless version (e.g. Judgement vs Truth). Swords represent strength/brutality while Song is more internal and soulful (e.g. Valor vs Hope).

I believe in order of priority (like the Italian coins being the most valuable) I think it would go Serpents < Swords < Spirits < Songs. I think this works because, like how the time cards go from day to lifetime, the suits go from a kind of selfish desire (serpent) to valiant action (swords) to selfless offering (spirits) and then like a cosmic concept (songs). Its like a sliding scale of mortal vices (selfishness and bloodshed) to the immortal virtues (selflessness and awareness). With Song being like the whole and Serpent/Sword/Spirit parts of the whole.

Anyway, how do you play the game? Like poker I guess. I've only ever played it in Red Dead Redemption 2 lol. But here's a quick and easy break down of the above paragraphs:

60 cards total

Angels are Spirits and changing Knights to Sword makes it all "S"s

Aces have double use

Wild cards can replace any card in the suit

The time/court cards are more valuable than the numbered ones and they are in the order of Day (sun), Month (moon), Year (seasons), Lifetime (age).

The suits are in priority list as followed Serpent < Sword < Spirit < Song.

I would love to have these for playing cards, but I'm still unsure how to represent "Song" visually on a card, but hey - if anyone has seen someone do art for Wicked Grace or make a deck, I'd love to get my hands on it. Or if someone has the ability/desire to do art for 60 unique cards, I have money and could possibly throw it at such a project (serious offer).

Fun fact!

The card game Wicked Grace in dragon age is a popular game I see used in fics a lot. So I feel like I should mention that it's a card game that's designed where you're SUPPOSED to cheat. If you ain't cheating, you ain't playing it right. The point is not to get caught. You get caught, you lose. That's why Cassandra and Cullen suck as playing it. They don't cheat. And that's why Solas' cleans house when Varric gets him to play --because the trickster god is unparalleled at cheating in fucking wicked grace no one sees him coming

Now, you don't have to cheat to play the game, that's not what I'm saying. So you absolutely can have a clean version of it. But i feel like there's a break down of characters that a) don't cheat b) only do basic little cheats that are common in game or c) cheat like a professional.

And then you have to break down who actually knows about cheating in wicked grace and the strategies involved about when to catch someone cheating or not. You're not going to point out someone cheating if you think your hand will still beat them. You'll pretend you saw nothing, let them raise the pot, and then clean them for all their worth.