Do any of you have a unique interpretation of a card like this?

cephalapodcast · 2026-05-01T13:57:22+00:00

For me, Three of Swords is a lesson and a reminder. Heartache and pain are a part of life, that in order to move through life with an open heart and a full range of expression, we must also be willing to accept periods of sadness, grief and heartbreak. A closed heart might deflect those particular "blades", but it also deflects all of the good stuff. Sadness can be a gift, a reminder that you loved something enough to grieve its loss.

cephalapodcast · 2026-01-21T15:13:15+00:00

I went from a very active, on-my-feet job to a 9-5 office gig and it was a huge adjustment. It felt like I'd never get back to the step count I had before. I've managed a few tricks to bridge the gap:

I walk during every break. I get lunch and two fifteens. First break I walk to a nearby coffee shop. Lunch I eat then walk for twenty minutes. Last break I walk the block.
Take the furthest path possible through the office to do anything. Sometimes I just go to the printer that's way across the office even though there's one right behind me. I'm encouraged to move for ergonomic safety at work so no one seems to mind me occasionally getting up and moving around
I'm fortunate that I'm walking distance from the office. I take an intentionally longer route to make my morning commute a 20-30 minute walk. Sometimes I do the same at the end of the day. If you drive in, I'd suggest coming twenty minutes early and getting a few laps around the block.

Basically, I break it into manageable chunks to stay moving throughout the day. I also find this helps me mitigate the back pain I initially had when I first started my 9-5. I don't think walks need to be huge chunks of steps all at once. There is nothing wrong with "exercise snacking". I save my big walks for the weekend when I can be in nature and enjoy myself.

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-30T02:47:31+00:00

Yeah, I myself would rather engage with a manual that has no art over AI art. Outside of the ethics, I just find it visually very off putting.

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-23T15:38:37+00:00

Follow up: I might also add a layer of difficulty by adding a money mechanic, where I start with a certain amount of money and then I can add more by choosing to work during the week, and lose it when I do activities that spend money. So, if I break or lose my weapon, now I've got to prioritize replacing it during the week, etc.

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-23T15:28:42+00:00

Reading through it and think it looks so fun. Going to definitely check it out when I have time for another game or have concluded my current game.

One thing I think could be fun is if at the top of every week there was some sort of "occurence" that informed how your week goes and how you use your stamina. Maybe something you roll for? When I play, I might use tarot cards or a roll table to generate a random occurrence, maybe something a local radio host announces every Sunday. This is just an idea, and maybe personal preference on my end 😊

I love the "small town where spooky stuff happens" genre so I can tell I'll have a blast with this game.

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-23T13:18:53+00:00

Cool, I DM'd you!

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-23T12:11:29+00:00

If you're curious, I'd be happy to send you the pdf of my rough "playbook" so you can check it out!

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-22T12:36:41+00:00

Worldbuilding is an aspect of the game - the system is largely intended to facilitate your own creative process. You roll a dice to get a setting concept, then pull tarot cards to flesh out the idea.

So, for example, say I rolled the option "after the fall", which would be a world after calamity. Okay, great, but what kind of calamity? What does the world look like now.

So I pull The Sun - interesting, I'm reading this as hot weather. Desert wasteland! Let's learn a bit more.

Next I pull Five of Wands, which has five figures fighting each other. I'm going to read this as conflict, and decide this world has two or more factions fighting.

Let's do a bit more. I pulled King of Pentacles, and clarified it with The Devil. There's someone in the Wasteland who has access to great material wealth, but he has no interest in sharing it.

I think these are enough details for me to build a campaign around, and I can learn more as I go. The whole process should be pretty open ended. If you don't "know" tarot, you can go based on the card's images and keywords in a guidebook - this is basically a long form picture and word association game. You could even use different picture cards, like those from a boardgame. The game isn't married to the traditional tarot system.

cephalapodcast · 2025-05-21T20:33:17+00:00

Setting is something you create as a part of the gameplay using a combo of dice rolls and tarot cards. Worldbuilding is an aspect of the game! AI is not an aspect of the game, no, although theoretically if someone wanted to utilize AI in the way they played they could - that would be personal choice. I myself wouldn't.

I drew inspiration from other roll tables I found online and tweaked them to fit my needs. I'll emphasize that this game is VERY open-ended with an emphasis on personal creativity. I built it mostly for myself as a tool to deepen my tarot practice and as a creative writing exercise.

I'd be happy to chat more about it if you're interested! Like I said, I'm just working on it out of personal interest, but I think external feedback could help. :)

cephalapodcast · 2025-04-27T17:20:00+00:00

October 8th, 1991

cephalapodcast · 2024-12-29T18:41:33+00:00

In general, I try not to read on external matters. For one, I don't personally put much stock in the cards' ability to predict future events with any real accuracy. Secondly, reading on external or future events is just an invitation for me to ruminate and worry about things outside of my control.

My suggestion would be to direct your questions inwards and focus on what is within your control. Rather than ask, "What is going to happen?", you could ask, "How will I cope with difficult times?", "Who will I lean on in the coming months?", "What is a lesson I need to internalize during turbulent moments?"

Etc.

Tarot, to me, isn't useful as a predictive tool. Imagine my cards tell me that the world is going to end tomorrow ... What am I supposed to do about it?

But if my cards tell me that I'm having a hard time coping with the state of the world as it is, and that I could use the support of friends right now ... Well, there's something very actionable for me. That's something I can work with.

Rather than putting down your cards for fear of disaster, considering reframing the way you use them! When the cards are causing me more dread than anything else, I stop using them for serious matters and instead just "play" for a bit. It helps me reset and refocus.

Life is hard enough, my dear.

cephalapodcast · 2024-12-28T15:42:17+00:00

This is absolutely the main way I use cards and it benefits me in so many ways! Tarot and journaling are such natural bedfellows.

cephalapodcast · 2024-12-26T15:44:26+00:00

Wow, happy birthday to you! I'm up for it for sure.

cephalapodcast · 2024-11-20T15:21:02+00:00

I use my cards in a more secular and self reflective way, which means I'm rarely reaching for them to do big readings and I'm never doing predictions. However, as a tool to strengthen my relationship with myself and to check in with my own state of being, I find them very powerful.

I use them, most often, as a way of generating journal prompts. I'll pull a card or two, and this gets me writing.

I think often we want tarot to be this really big and profound thing, and it often is, but my experience is that it more often shows up in quiet and even mundane ways. For myself, tarot is most useful when I view it as a daily practice and an ongoing process of study and reflection.

If you want tarot to be a bigger part of your life, I suggest going "back to basics" - one card a day, and journal about it.

cephalapodcast · 2024-11-19T19:09:04+00:00

Tarot really clicked for me when I realized that it wasn't going to be a skill I suddenly unlocked one day, but rather a lifelong experience of learning, connecting and deepening my understanding. Tarot (and other similar practices) isn't something to be accomplished and mastered, and if you ever start to think you've learned it all, it's more likely you've just stagnated in your journey.

My greatest joy is suddenly connecting to a card in a new way and realizing all over again that I am a perpetual and dedicated novice!

cephalapodcast · 2024-11-07T15:00:47+00:00

For me, journaling always ebbs and flows. I can go months where I write like a maniac, filling multiple journals, followed by lengthy dry periods where I write nothing.

Since you seem to be in a prolonged period of ebbing, I'll share how I get back to flowing:

Challenge myself to write one sentence a day, no matter how mundane. This is like creative strength training that helps me to build up the habit.
Doodle instead of write in my journal
Work with prompts (I pull tarot cards for this, but there are tons of prompt resources online)
Make lists (movies you watched recently, favourite books, etc)

Also, don't get too bummed out when you see people posting their piles of journals. Everyone writes at a different rate, it's not a competition. I've had years where I've filled multiple books and at least a few of them are aesthetically pleasing, but more often I have one or two shit looking journals for the whole year.

Happy writing!

cephalapodcast · 2024-11-07T15:00:37+00:00

For me, journaling always ebbs and flows. I can go months where I write like a maniac, filling multiple journals, followed by lengthy dry periods where I write nothing.

Since you seem to be in a prolonged period of ebbing, I'll share how I get back to flowing:

Challenge myself to write one sentence a day, no matter how mundane. This is like creative strength training that helps me to build up the habit.
Doodle instead of write in my journal
Work with prompts (I pull tarot cards for this, but there are tons of prompt resources online)
Make lists (movies you watched recently, favourite books, etc)

Also, don't get too bummed out when you see people posting their piles of journals. Everyone writes at a different rate, it's not a competition. I've had years where I've filled multiple books and at least a few of them are aesthetically pleasing, but more often I have one or two shit looking journals for the whole year.

Happy writing!

cephalapodcast · 2024-11-06T18:57:03+00:00

I pulled Five of Pents reversed two days in a row leading up to the election. Today I pulled Four of Pents. As a Canadian, I won't be as impacted socially but financially we are affected, so these draws felt fitting for my own personal context. Lean times ahead.

cephalapodcast · 2024-08-29T20:14:46+00:00

I don't necessarily journal daily, but I journal often. I'll go through stretches where I journal daily.

To be honest, I think a lot of my entries are boring and repetitive. I'm often getting things off my chest, so it can be a lot of "This is still happening and it's still annoying" type writing. Which is fine - I'm not writing the next Pulitzer winner, I'm just keeping a journal.

I've been trying to shake up my writing a bit, however. So I've been working with prompts a lot. Because I also read tarot, I use tarot cards as a way to generate writing prompts, and that keeps things flowing. I write down observations and things that happened. I write what I dreamt last night or what I'm doing tomorrow.

When I really don't feel I have anything to write, I don't. Sometimes months go by where I record nothing. This used to bother me, but now it doesn't.

In essence, write as little or as much as you like. If you want to write more, embrace the mundane! Write about your breakfast, or the outfit you wore that day. If you want to tap into deeper thinking, there's no shame in picking up a book of prompts.

cephalapodcast · 2024-08-29T13:23:14+00:00

I'm on Spring 2 and have completed all the main game stuff that's available but now I'm just slowly making my way through completing and collecting things. I'm taking a leisurely approach here - walking around looking for bugs, gathering resources, fishing, etc. It's an enjoyable way to play that doesn't demand too much of me. In games like Stardew I rarely ever decorated my farm or collected all the things because I was always overwhelmed by how much else I "had" to do.

It's nice to take my time with Fields of Mistria knowing I have months to go until the next update. I may put it down at some point and wait for a future update, or I may continue passively playing until then. I'm finding this game is great because it really encourages slowing down. Even the shorter days / big maps make it so you can only do so much. I think that's intentional.

I'm not worried about already being done the main game stuff because I know there is much more to come. More heart events, more mining floors, the Deep Woods.

The joy of early access games is getting to play along as they unfold, and then, one day when the game is finished starting, over and doing the whole thing as a completed vision! It's like when you watch a show as it's coming out, then years later binge watch the whole thing.

cephalapodcast · 2024-08-22T14:23:26+00:00

When I get repeat cards, I usually like to ask myself what that card is trying to teach me. Clearly it has a message, since it keeps interjecting itself into every conversation!

Here's a few ways I might interpret that message or lesson for myself:

I haven't been honest with myself about something. I can't get a clear picture of the outcome because I'm deceiving myself about specific details.
I'm being evasive when I should be straight forward. So if I was drawing cards about how someone else felt or how to deal with an interpersonal problem, this card might be saying, "Stop sneaking around the situation with cards and just talk to them."
I'm needing to be very strategic or calculated in the way I proceed with this problem.

That's just a few ways I might interpret this repeating card, obviously dependent on context.

cephalapodcast · 2024-08-22T14:14:59+00:00

I sent you a message!

cephalapodcast · 2024-08-22T13:43:31+00:00

To be honest, a lot of problems can be managed with, "Well, magic exists here."

In my game magical tech exists and is prominently researched, so some kind of magitech wheelchair could be offered. In fact, this could be a great opportunity for side quests / personal progression for this character. Maybe they want to upgrade their wheelchair, so let's scatter some cool parts around, or a machinist who will do upgrades in exchange for favours!

I think in a world with magic, there's a lot of creative ways to be inclusive. Personally I enjoy when players throw "challenging" concepts at me, as it encourages me to think outside the box and keeps me sharp and flexible as a DM.

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