Magical TF Card Game
Mythos
It started out in Cathay as an amusement for studying enchantresses. Originally local peasants were the cards, but as the game grew in popularity more and more elaborate cards came to be.
The Games
There are two general ways to play this game (which still needs a name); tournament duel or open cards. Tournament play is a tactical duel between two players with carefully built decks and is a much more controlled experience that relies on nuanced interactions of cards and special rules. Open Cards can be played with a group of players and only a single deck and relies heavily on enchantment woven into the cards themselves.
Both games use a fundamental dueling system. To understand how that works, its helpful to know that the game originated in Grand Cathay and reflects some fundamental differences in how the culture approaches conflict. Rather than being a game focused around war and combat like most western equivalents, Mythos is about sex, pleasure, and control. Victory comes from controlling opponents with sexual sensations while maintaining composure and control, oneself. Thus, the ‘combat’ of the game mostly focuses on bringing an opponent’s card to climax before they can do the same to your card.
Open Cards
Open Cards is a way of playing Mythos that only requires one deck. The game is commonly played this way in a ‘pick-up’ fashion at parties, conventions, carnivals, and even parks and street-sides in some cities. A player must own a deck of cards to play the game as such; the cards will respond to their owner’s intent and unleash the magic woven into their essence. This magic constructs the necessary infrastructure for the game, but also affects the players in a variety of ways.
It should be noted that the cards favor their owner, giving her a house advantage of sorts. This is usually most important in terms of winning or losing stakes, although the dealer will usually receive one of their own best cards without any sleight-of-hand or cheating.
Once the game is declared, players each draw a single card from their deck. They can elect to show or conceal their cards, but one by one each player issues a challenge to another. A player can only play one challenge per round, so one who was challenged cannot issue a challenge immediately afterward, or be challenged again that round. Once a challenge is issued both players put down their card and the duel begins.
The cards create illusory avatars of their images and link them to their respective player. The players feel everything their card feels, and can issue directives by thought and impulse. The objective of the duel is to make the other card orgasm first (and, in this case, the controlling player both feels the effects and somewhat influences how quickly it happens). To do this, each player has full access to the abilities and skills of their card.
Once the round is over, the cards themselves assign scores to each player based on their performance. This knowledge is simply and subtly shared to the minds of all people in the game, not just the two who dueled. A close match will reward relatively even scores, a quick trounce vastly divergent scores. The precise metrics seem to vary from deck to deck (perhaps implying that the perspective of the cards themselves plays a role), but usually factors in things like match length, player skill, orgasm quality, and sometimes even card disparity.
When every player has completed one duel, the round is over. Usually, Open Card games are played to three rounds, although the deck owner can declare a different length at the game’s beginning.
An Open Card game has an inherent wager involved. The winner earns a prize, and the loser pays a price. The winner is whichever player has the highest score, and the loser is the player who ends the game with the lowest score. There can be some modification of these rules by the deck owner, but usually the winner is granted a magical boon by the cards, and the loser is turned into a card. (There is an exception; if the loser is the deck-owner, the cards will instead cast a spell of servitude, granting the winner her complete compliance for a period from one night to three days. It seems most decks don’t want to lose their owners.)
It should be noted that an Open Card game quite literally opens up the cards magic, and that raw energy can have additional side-effects. It’s not uncommon for the cards to subtly change their duelists, layering minor changes on them after winning or losing rounds. The nature and extent of these changes vary, but they’re foreshadowing in nature; making the player more like the type of card they could end up as. Experienced or lucky players who favor Open Card games often resemble a monster-card themselves. While these changes can happen with Tournament Play, they are far more common with Open Card play.
Tournament
Tournament play is a much more ordered and tactical experience than Open Card play. Tournament play can be as simple as two players battling their decks against each other to grand tiered, sudden elimination championships with hundreds of participants.
In Tournament play, the magic in the cards is more subdued. Each turn allows a certain amounts of action by each player, enough to draw a card from their deck and issue instructions to the avatars of a few (though not necessarily all) of the cards they have in play. A tournament game can have dozens of avatars active on a table at once, in various poses and activities. Because of the inherent turn-based play, there is a staggered effect to a number of actions and reactions. It’s helpful to think of time in these games not passing by the second, but rather by the turn. Thus, if one card begins penetrating another that is already incapacitated by arousal, it can be pounding away for minutes while both players finish giving and receiving orders before the action actually brings the recipient to climax. Once a card orgasms it is removed from play. The winner is the last player with any cards in play.
The magic of the cards is much more restrained during a tournament game. Some physical or emotional changes can happen every round, and while it’s much rarer than with Open Card games most of the biggest names in the tournament circuits aren’t fully human any more, and hardly any remain fully male for longer than a year of frequent play.
While the rules of the game don’t change, most actual tournaments have a few extra rules to make the competition more exciting. Most tournaments will make a show of converting a few volunteers into new cards before the first games begin, as a bonus to the winner’s prize. However, a new system, the Tzen-zi Tournament style, is becoming very popular amongst the most viewed and biggest-name championships. Under a Tzen-zi tournament, each player has to submit a person to be transformed into a new card. The spell used for this change is temporary, but the reversal charm is only effective before a certain time-period expires, and the tournament will only have a few on hand. Usually, one reversal charm is given to the winner and, depending on the supply, a select few of the high-place runners-up.
The Seattle All-Stars Championship of 2021 was played under Tzen-zi rules. Each of the twenty contestants brought a partner with them (a fan, a lover, or a family member most frequently), and the (televised) competition began with each partner being enchanted into a playing card before the audience. Eight hours later Tanya d’Winters (Ice, 10) was returned to true animacy by the championships one and only restoration charm (although she retained the blue scales, wings, tail, and claws she attained as an ice-dragoness card). The other nineteen contestants added their partners to their decks, or in some cases, sold them online. Daine Fairweather (Cups, 9) sold for over $26,000.
Although rarely seen outside Cathay, the Ulmae Tournament rules require each contestant to list a recipient for their deck before they can enter. Should the player loose an elimination match, they are converted into a new card on the spot and given to the victor. Some tournaments outside Cathay have used this rule for their final round, or to settle highly publicized feuds between top players.
Most tournaments offer a monetary prize, as well as rare cards and, most importantly, a small number of Vivacity Gem. These gems contain enchantments that allow a limited restoration of a card; instead of being a projection on a playing surface, the creature in the card becomes tangible, physical, and full sized. In this form, the card can be spoken to, interviewed, and interacted with in any number of ways (although, given the nature of the game and the alterations made to each individual who becomes a card, a good fucking is by far the most common use). These gems can empower a single card for a period of two to sixteen hours, depending on the quality of the gem, and are highly prized beyond anything amongst the game players. They are, however, very expensive and must be imported from Cathay, so the supply is always quite limited.
The Cards
Every card is a transformed person, converted into a fantastical image on the high-quality hard-paper of the card. As a side-effect of their magical nature, the cards are effectively impossible to tear, fold, or stain. But the transformation is more than a simple flattening; the essence of the person made into the card is called upon every time the card is played. This usually takes the form of a glamour representing the card, acting out commands in contest with other images. The more potent the magic involved in a game, the more tangible the images become. If a person has sufficient magical skill, they can even animate a card for a time, creating a life-sized, tangible version of the person in the card. Amongst the best players and magical dabblers, many cards are valued not because of their strength in the game but because of their gifts in ‘private sessions’.
The cards are all identical on the rear side. On the front side they have the image of their subject and a suite and number in one corner. The suites refer to a number of classes with peculiar interactions, and the number is a rough estimate of general strength. There are four common suites and card rank numbers ranger from one (the weakest) to ten (the strongest). Beyond the common suites are a number of rare suites that tend to have powerful, esoteric cards, and interact with each other in special ways. The individuals are overwhelmingly feminine (a side-effect of the Cathayan magic is a strong tendency for transgender changes in male subjects, although there are some hermaphrodite and masculine cards in play). Generally, lower ranks appear as human while higher ranks appear as humanoid creatures. So, a rank one Wand card could appear as a woman in a form-clinging robe with a plunging neckline and a rank nine Wand card would be more likely to appear as a serpentine gorgon, nude or scantily dressed, with snake tail coiled at its base and a nest of serpents hissing about her head. The higher the rank, the more exotic the creature it contains.
Cups: On their own, cup cards are the weakest in the game. They will lose a contest to any other card of equal strength, barring intervening factors. Cups symbolize the fact that the card in question is intended to be a vessel, and have strong bonuses to modifications granted by other cards. In direct Open Card games, cup cards are fairly useless, but in Tournament matches they are valued strategic assets. Images on cup cards tend to be fairly mundane, usually women in various states of undress in revealing and exotic outfits.
Swords: Sword cards are the inverse of cup cards; directly strong but tactically inflexible. Sword cards will try to overpower an opponent and force them into submission. The lowest sword cards are simply rather fit women in sexualized armor, but the higher ones will come in more elaborate and mystical forms, frequently with extra arms, strong muscles, and BDSM gear.
Wands: These cards are the rarest of the common suites because their creators need to possess a degree of magical acumen. Every wand card comes with a mystic ability it can use in play. For the lowest cards, this usually takes the form of a strength or agility bonus that lasts for a few rounds of play. Higher ranked cards will take exotic and mystical forms and will have access to powerful abilities that can involve many active cards. Wand cards are favored amongst experienced players because, even in Open Card games, using their abilities wisely can overcome many tougher enemies.
Feathers: Feather cards emphasize agility, speed, and flexibility. Like sword cards, they tend to be very useful for novices since they can take a direct approach to the erotic play of the game and can naturally avoid many of the heavy-handed reprisals of other basic cards. The feather symbolizes grace and the teasing tactics that come easily to most of these cards. Low ranks will appear as nimble women in light clothing while mid ranks tend to have a number of cat-girls and winged women.
A few things should be noted before moving on to the other suites. Every card is created from a human, but the low and mid ranks of the four common cards are the core of the game, and will make up most of any given deck outside a grand tournament. But at the same time, most of the players who end up joining the game tend to become mid or higher rank cards, usually from the special suites. This is possible because Enchantresses of the Coast (a Cathayan company that is the only manufacturer of the core cards) produces basic cards using a special technique that converts one volunteer into hundreds of separate cards (each with an identical image, rank, and suite). The enchantresses test all applicants to determine what type of card they would become and sell packs that include nine random common cards (common suites, ranks one through seven) and one rare card (a high rank from a common suite or a unique card from another suite. As a rule, these cards are created one at a time). It is said that the enchantresses work to maintain a healthy balance of cards, and that the wait list to enter a deck for a girl divined as cup or feather card can be over two months. This also explains why so many of the cards appear as Cathayan women, or as creatures easily based off of them.
Rare suite cards are always made individually, and although Enchantresses of the Coast does manufacture and sell some, the majority of cards in play in the Western world came from players (or from certain tournaments… more on that later). The rare suites do not break down as simply as the common ones and while they’re usually independently powerful, they tend to have special rules and interactions that make them complex to use in tournament play. An extraordinary amount of variance makes describing the themes of each suite somewhat difficult. A rough listing follows.
Flame: Flame cards are offensive creatures united by an affinity for magical fire. In game this takes the form of a powerful innate ability that rapidly (and frequently decisively) arouses the target. They usually have other abilities, but this forward strength lets them end many match-ups quickly and decisively. They tend to feature creatures composed of or associated with fire. Flame cards are uniquely vulnerable to aquatic cards. The most famous fire card is Alys Weatherstone (Flame, 10) who appears as a cross between a gorgeous red-head and a ruby-scaled fire dragon, complete with crimson wings, tail, claws, and horn.
Water: Water cards are tactically diverse creatures united by an affinity for water. Mermaids of various composition feature prominently in this suite. Individuals from this deck frequently manifest as if floating or swimming in water, giving them a stunning degree of maneuverability on the playing table. Water cards are vulnerable to ice cards. The best known water card is Thelise Voorman (Water, 7) who is depicted as buxom and beautiful mermaid, with sea-green hair and tail and an exquisitely inviting pose. Although not amongst the most powerful in the water suite, Thelise was a swimsuit model and porn actress before being entered in a tournament, both of which give her seduction techniques a very memorable edge.
Ice: These cards feature frozen creatures or elemental modifications. Tactically, they are unified by the ability to project a numbing sensation, boosting their resistance to amorous advances or factoring into larger-scale offensive plays, depending on the situation and player. Stronger cards can use this ability to freeze enemies solid. Ice cards are rare, intensely powerful in experienced hands, and acutely vulnerable to fire cards; they have been known to melt when strongly countered. Janet Waters (Ice, 10) was well known as an ice-queen in the tournament circle before she lost a wager and made the title more literal; she appears as a pale and gorgeous woman whose form gradually darkens into a robe of hoary living ice, with crystalline claws and piercing blue eyes.
Daemonic: A very broad deck, these cards are unified a sexual insatiability that can manifest in different ways, ranging from a fetishistic focus that allows them to ignore stimulus unrelated to their objective to the ability to withstand far longer bouts of fucking without actually cumming. Daemonic cards have a critical weakness to celestial cards, greater than other vulnerabilities in th game. Appearances vary, with long tongues, wings, horns, hooves, extra arms, multiple genitals, and tails being the most common. Jessica Stonebrook (Daemon, 8) is a famous example of the suite; she has ebony hair, red skin, a twelve inch long tongue, four breasts, cloven hoofs, a knobbed tail, and small bat-like wings growing from her back. Although an excellent temptress, Jessica’s true fame comes from her ability to actively, and closely, engage up to three opposing cards at once before cumming.
Celestial: Sometimes also called Pure Cards, celestial cards focus around a purity or idea of naivety and are the functional opposite of daemonic cards. Their unifying trait is defensive ‘serenity’ power that will instantly reset arousal. Celestial cards are particularly vulnerable to fae creatures. In one-on-one duels, this can let celestial cards out-last other, more aggressive suites, but its true power comes from tactically supporting superior cards in tournament play. Annette Justinian (Celestial, 6) was the cover-girl of the first issue of the American version of Magic Cards Magazine. She was cosplaying a white mage during one of the first American Tournaments and is currently represented as fair monk in pure white robes that barely restrain an E-cup chest, golden curls escaping from under the hood of her robes, and a small pair of white-feathered wings emerging from her shoulders. Although an unremarkable card in play, performances of her (losing) duels are famous, and she has gone on to star in a very explicit fan-video that’s become something of a legend in the tournament circuit.
Fae: One of the most diverse suites, Fae Cards feature all manner of fairies, nature spirits, and plant-based creatures. This deck includes fluttering winged creatures, flowering plants, and stag-antlered huntresses. Tactically, the unifying theme of the Fae suite is a subversive bent; all their cards feature some sneaky or round-about aspect, ranging from subtly arousing perfumes to random bursts of transformative magic. Fae cards are particularly susceptible to daemonic cards. The best known Fae Card is Thelwyn (Fae, 9); her careful play won the 2018 World Tournament match in Seattle. She appears as a green-skinned woman, her hips below her pussy growing into a smooth willow-trunk rooted in the ground, her hair a flowing main of leaves and many colored flowers. Thelwyn was played early in the final match and ignored for the first few rounds. Her pink blossoms passively and subtly aroused her opponent’s cards, while the pollen from her violet flowers rooted any card that won a duel. She brought seven women to climax while they were helplessly rooted to the playing field, ultimately winning the match. In a post-game interview, Thelwyn casually revealed that she was a biology student named Terrance Whitewood before he lost an open card game at a travelling festival some six years earlier (as a side note, the interviewer spent a month in a flower pot after his chat with Thelwyn, and never did revert fully back to a male body).
Gemini: Generally considered the rarest suite, Gemini cards are made with two individuals at once who either become conjoined or closely synced. Gemini cards display a broad range of powers, their strength offset by a tendency for the individual entities in the card to turn each other on prematurely. As such, they are not particularly effective against any one suite, nor are they specifically vulnerable to one. The magic that creates a Gemini card is hard to predict, and efforts to create them with volunteers in a controlled manner have been largely unsuccessful; circumstances need to conspire to make these cards. The poster-girl of the Gemini deck is/are Julia and Annie Briggs (Gemini, 10), a pair of twins who entered a tournament pool together. They appear as a naga, sharing a serpentine tail that branches at their hips to form two separate, identical, armless feminine torsos, their skin matching the green and brown scales of their lower body, twin forked tongues teasing each other.
-Other Addendums and Items of Note-
-Vivacity Crux-
An exceedingly rare and costly artifact, this meticulously constructed device can, potentially, animate a single card into indefinite being. Only four of these cases are known to exist, each valued at several million dollars, each constructed by a Cathayan Enchantress as a special favor.
They appear as small gemmed devices of gold and crystal, designed to hold a single playing card. While a card is within the Crux the Vivacity Gems lining the device alternate in a rapid-cycle resonance cascade, duplicating the effects of a single vivacity gem indefinitely.
While restored through such a device, the woman who became the card is fully animate, but otherwise retains all the features of her play-self. It’s been found that while personality is largely intact, layers of their existence as a card still exist. They are likely to be horny and display other characteristics of their time in the game.
Metaphysically, they are a constant projection. Their true selves are still enchanted into the card. Because of this, they cannot venture more than a few miles from the physical location of the card, and because the magic of the game still affects them, they eagerly obey commands from whoever owns their card.