Into the Grey

Into the Grey is a mode of play designed to establish the characters and touchstones of the story your group is telling; the more cards you play, the more the world is filled in around your characters. By the end of the game, my expectation is that your group will have developed a comprehensive knowledge of the group’s narrative. I’m not expecting you to fill in the whole world this way, just the parts of the world that are immediately relevant to the story you’re telling.

For this variation, you’ll need enough dice for everyone, as well as a deck of cards split into three piles:

  • Face Cards (Ace, Jack, Queen, and King), shuffled
  • Number Cards (2 through 10), shuffled
  • Jokers (there should only be two of them)

Deal the face cards out to the players one at a time until none are left; then, deal out the numbered cards in the same way. Deal out the Jokers last.

Once the cards are dealt out, follow the Basics of Play to play out rounds of Individual Scenes and Group Scenes. To use a skill, players must discard a card from their hand that matches the skill’s suit.

You can continue in this way until all of the cards have been discarded, or (more likely) until you run out of time for your play session. I recommend taking a short break after each round of Individual Scenes to give players time to grab a snack, drink some water, or attend to any other pressing needs.

When the cards are gone, your group has (presumably) established everything you need in order to form a cohesive understanding of the current story arc. You can reshuffle the deck and play again to build on that understanding, or you can play Deck Burner to resolve a more specific conflict.

You will probably not be able to play through the whole deck in a single play session. To make things easier, I recommend having everyone write down what cards they have in their journal, and crossing each card out as it’s played; that way, if you need to pick up the same game later, you won’t have to physically keep track of the cards. You don’t even need to use the same deck.