The Emperor's Tarot [Imperium-only Fate cards]

[Content from White Dwarf #210 page 48 to 49.]

By Warwick Kinrade

The deck of Fate cards which comes with the Epic 40,000 game is an entertaining way of including the unpredictability of battle in your games. However, we thought we could add even more character if we did a deck specifically tailored to an individual army. Enter the Emperor's Tarot …

The card section this month contains a new deck of Epic 40,000 Fate cards, the Emperor's Tarot, specifically for use by armies of the Imperium. As there aren't special cards for everyone (yet!) it's only fair that you get your opponent's permission before you use them in your Epic 40,000 battles.

See Downloads for a complete set of re-drawn Fate cards that you can print for use in your games.

Using the Emperor's Tarot Fate cards in Epic 40,000

In this issue we have provided a new deck of Fate cards for Epic 40,000, based on the Emperor's Tarot. An Army of the lmperium may draw cards from the Emperor's Tarot instead of using the normal Fate card deck from the Epic 40,000 game. Armies of the lmperium must draw from one deck or the other, not both.

The Emperor's Tarot works exactly like the normal Fate deck except that the cards come in four Arcana. Each card can be used in one of two ways. Firstly as the power of the individual face card, which is given on the card itself, for example the Judge, the Space Marine or the Emperor. Alternatively, each card can also be used as its Arcana.

The Arcana, or suits, are as follows:

Adeptio — the Arcana of heroes, servants and great deeds (blue).
Discordia — the Arcana of enemies and threats (green).
Mandatio — the Arcana of government, stability, wealth and leadership (purple).
Excuteria — the Arcana of the unknown, exploration, the future and the mind (red).

As well as its face ability, each Arcana has another power associated with it, as follows:

Adeptio and Discordia cards: Any cards of these Arcana can be used to re-roll a single close combat or firefight die. Only one re-roll is allowed per close combat or firefight. Play the card after rolling the die for a close combat or firefight for the first time.

Note: The Harlequin card is an exception to this. Although it is of the Discordia Arcana it cannot be used as a re-roll like other Discordia cards; it is a wild card and has a special ability of its own:

The Harlequin

This card cannot be used as a re-roll like other Discordia cards, instead The Harlequin can be used as a wild card. The Harlequin can be played at any time, allowing the Imperial player to take a card at random from the unused Tarot deck. He must play this new card immediately, using it either as the face card or its Arcana. If this new card cannot be used because of the battlefield situation or because it must be played at a certain time, then it must be discarded and The Harlequin is wasted.

Mandatio and Excuteria: Any card of these Arcana can be used as a psychic blast. Pick an enemy unit within 30cm of one of your psykers. The unit takes a hit unless the opposing player nullifies the attack by playing a psychic attack card of a higher value. Each card has its psychic blast value marked on it.

These powers are also summarised on the card. Although they have two powers each card can only be used once per battle. Each card also indicates when it can be played.

Related information

The Emperor's Tarot [lore]