Silverball Strike, the pinball TTRPG! What Face Cards Do
Alright, so in my first post, I explained that, when you Take A Shot, you reveal a number of cards and take anywhere between one and all of them, and if they're number cards (2-10), you add them to a score pile. But what about the face cards (Jack, Queen, King, and Ace)? Well, those give you special effects.
In pinball, you of course mainly play to gain points and get a high score. But sometimes, there are special shots you want to make, not just to gain points, but to get certain perks, like extra balls and multiball modes. that's what face cards represent in Silverball Strike.
Jacks are for the multiball mode. I'm honestly still trying to figure out how to properly portray that in this game. Multiballs are weird, because they make a game more chaotic because you have to deal with multiple balls rolling over the field, smashing into one another etc, but it also makes the game a little safer, because now you have (usually) two extra balls you can lose without a real penalty. Also, multiballs often come with a jackpot mode to make a lot of points. Right now, my idea is this: Once you have at least two Jacks, you can turn them facedown to indicate you're now in multiball mode. While in Multiball mode, if you don't take all the cards you revealed, you keep the ones you didn't take open, and once you reveal new ones, you put them on top of the ones still there. Keep doing that to build your jackpots. If you take a pile of those cards, it will only cost you 1 point of control per pile. If you go below 1 Control, you lose one of your Jacks instead of losing a ball. However, once you lost all your Jacks, you have to shuffle all the revealed cards back into the deck, losing the chance for jackpots.
Queens are thankfully much more simple. They represent your point multiplier. If you lose a ball (if you haven't tilted), you take as many cards from your score pile as you want, add their values together, then multiply that with the number of Queens you have plus 1.
Kings are even simpler. They're extra balls. You can only have one King active at a time. If you go below 1 Control, instead of losing a ball, you just lose your King (if you're in Multiball Mode, you lose Jacks before you lose a King).
Aces are Skill Shots. If you have any face-up Aces after losing a ball, you gain a certain amount of points (unsure how many yet, probably 10 or 11) times the number of Aces you have, then flip all those Aces face-down. If you gain an Ace while you have face-down Aces, you flip all the Aces face-up. If you lose a ball and your Aces are face-down, you lose the Aces.
Aaaaand... that's what face cards do. Unsure what I'll do next, since there are things I'm still brainstorming. We'll see!

















