Calling Cards

A family that keeps in touch by tarot card. Nobody ever lets it go to voicemail.

Calling Cards is a rules-light tarot game by Josh and Cat Heath of High Level Games, inspired by Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber. You are a member of the Court of Sapphire, a family able to travel between Sapphire and the Unbridled Realms, a multiverse lying somewhere between Order and Primal Chaos. The current version uses Pamela Colman Smith's 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith art.

You draw a court card and describe the relative it shows: their memories, what they are best at, where in the multiverse they have got to. Then you place the call and hold the conversation, out loud with a second player or in a journal if you are on your own. Optional guidance adds complications and family drama, and the cards can also be used to frame adventures in other games.

Perfect for: Anyone whose family group chat already reads like a fantasy epic, with more grudges and fewer dragons.

1–2 players | Tarot-driven storytelling