Untold: Finding the Sweet Spot between Collectible Card and Roleplaying Games

Man, do I remember when Magic: The Gathering first hit the streets. Sounds like I’m talking about a drug, doesn’t it? Well, I am. Those little cards were like gamer crack for several years. Me and the older kids had Dungeons & Dragons, comparatively a gentleman’s habit only supported by specialty retailers and usually indulged behind closed doors, but Magic was everywhere: hobby shops, craft stores, even big box retailers sold those little packs. It was an epidemic! We saw Magic games springing up at coffee shops, on campus and even at church…trades going down on the sidewalk…sharp-eyed street dealers feeding the habits of newborn junkies…well, maybe it wasn’t like that. But it seemed that way at the time, and as a fairly ignorant gamer, I looked down on it all as “kid’s stuff” not worthy of my adult tastes. The popularity only made it worse for me – the classic mistake of a culture snob, and a frightened one at that.

It wasn’t until about a decade later when I got comped a pack of those little cards that I actually gave the game a try, and you know what? It was a lot of fun. I had to actually try the game to “get it”, something I had not been willing to do. I was doing the same thing that I complained about when my friends refused to even try Dungeons & Dragons. In short, I was a hypocrite. While I still prefer roleplaying games to card games, I no longer look down my nose at people who love Magic. I even game with a few guys who enjoy both Magic and D&D equally. What can I say? Time has a way of mellowing you out. (CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES…)

These days, the line between roleplaying and other kinds of games is getting blurry, and I think it’s great. The DNA of an idea that first escaped from a Wisconsin basement thirty years ago can now be found in video games, interactive fiction and, yes, even those collectible card games I was so disdainful of as a young man. One of the most intriguing manifestations of this phenomenon is a hybrid roleplaying/card game called Untold. In a nutshell, Untold is a roleplaying game based entirely upon the use of cards, with only a single d20 used to determine the success of attacks and other actions. Players create their characters by settling on a concept with the gamemaster, and then selecting a handful of cards that represent that character’s abilities. All of the rules pertaining to that character is printed on the card already, so there’s no need for a rulebook or character sheet. Neither are used in Untold. The gamemaster has his or her own set of cards representing allies, antagonists, treasures, obstacles and hazards of all sorts, and much like a traditional roleplaying game, uses these to guide the course of the game. While Untold would be perfect for a one-off game, characters advance just like in other games, earning Untold Points which they can use to upgrade their abilities – again, represented by cards. Much like other card games, Untold is collectible, but where it differs is that you know exactly what you’re getting when you buy an expansion pack. Rather than relying on the luck of the draw, the contents are listed on the pack’s container.

Untold offers a welcome diversion from both traditional collectible card games and roleplaying systems, finding a sweet spot between the sometimes too random nature of the former and occasionally ponderous rules-mongering of the latter. Learn more about Untold at the game’s official website.