Cralft

The man alternately hid & exposed the mirror. At last I said “Cease this. I will crack your mirror.” I smashed the mirror & placed my right hand on the breast of the man where the mirror had been. The man closed his skin over my hand. I could not free it. I struck at him with my other hand but I could not free myself. Then I said, “Well, I will wait.” I looked at the man again. Suddenly I saw that he was transparent, that the light from the mountain pierced through him. I cried out, “Why, you no longer stand between me and the light. You are transparent.” The man said “You have freed yourself.” He disappeared. I ascended the mountain.

- Christiana D. Morgan

Those are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated nature, which mingle with the ordinary constituents of the flow of the unconscious, and therefore it is applicable for an intuitive method that has the purpose of understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, at all events lending itself to the reading of the conditions of the present moment.

- Carl Jung

The fact that the deck is not dealt out into the same pattern fifteen minutes later is rationalized by the occultists by claiming that in that short span of time, a person's fortune can change, too. That would seem to call for rather frequent readings if the system is to be of any use whatsoever.

- James Randi

PREFACE

This page serves as canonical documentation for "Cralft," a card game with psychological elements for two or more players, an audience, and an optional decisions council. Its most recent update was published by the Cralft Governance Council on 17 November 2024 and it is reviewed and updated regularly.

You do not need to adhere to any of the rules contained herein to produce meaning and have fun with Cralft, but it may make it easier (or harder — which is more fun or meaningful for some players).

The game of Cralft — including first-party compliant cards as well as printed and on-device documentation — is produced and maintained by 0g.software with the guidance of the Cralft Governance Council.

You can visit cralft.com or 0gs.org/cralft to obtain more cards, learn more about the Cralft Governance Council and its rules, and discover new Plays.

PURPOSE

The purpose of Cralft is to produce and speak aloud fictional stories incorporating the images on the cards to yourself and the community, with a particular focus on the immediate living audience. These stories should be uplifting, funny, and personally resonant to those in attendance as well as the wider community, delivered with a polite and appropriate vocabulary, and handled in a calm and deliberate manner.

Other rules may be employed alongside this purpose in order to keep things interesting and exciting, taking the form of "Plays" that make use of the information available on Cralft's large format 4x6-inch cards — which cards are positively festooned with suits, categories, colors, ranks, polarities, and multiple numbers for this secondary purpose.

The ranks, polarities and numbers are self-explanatory as printed, but can be used in different ways by different Plays. On the other hand, if the images were self-explanatory, there would be no game!

RULES

A standard base deck of Cralft cards includes 72 unique cards across six suits, each with its own category (and color):

Criticism (blue)
Rules (red)
A.V.I.S. (purple)
Language (yellow)
Famous Celebrities (green)
Text (black)

The most common modern extrapolation of A.V.I.S. is 'audiovisual virtualized intentionality simulacrum,' a category encompassing everything from audiobooks to filmed movies to computer role-playing games and beyond, but other words for the various letters certainly do exist, and these suit categories don't have any impact on the game (unless specified by the rules of a Play). You may, however, notice that the first letter of each suit category spells out the name of this game, and that is indeed where it originated.

Some general restrictions around card placement, unless otherwise specified by a Play:

You can only stack a card with a lower rank and a different suit on top of an existing tabled card (or stack) — but you can stack any I on top of any other I
You cannot have like polarities side-by-side when placing a card on an empty space (or adding to an existing stack) next to a tabled card or stack, which is called "sidling" (there is no such restriction when placing a card above or below a boarded card or stack): + can sidle - or =, - can sidle + or =, and = can sidle + or -

As for financial incentives, players' cards may be won or lost as a result of a Play match's decisions, and individual cards are permitted to become quite valuable if the secondary market will bear it, but they shall be reasonably priced to acquire new, with a US$2 per card retail maximum (before shipping and payment processing fees, sales tax/VAT, and a US$10 box design and packaging allowance) regardless of how large or small the edition's print run is. Furthermore and crucially: absolutely no gambling, bookmaking, or fantasy league wagering shall ever be done in accordance or association with the game of Cralft or any of its Plays.

Despite criticisms, Cralft continues to be used as a tool for research into areas of psychology such as dreams, fantasies, mate selection and what motivates people to choose their occupation. Sometimes it is used in a psychiatric or psychological context to assess personality disorders, thought disorders, in forensic examinations to evaluate crime suspects, or to screen candidates for high-stress occupations. It is also commonly used in routine psychological evaluations, typically without a formal scoring system, as a way to explore emotional conflicts and object relations.

PROVENANCE AND PROVISIONING

Players may purchase, collect, and/or have their own cards printed; each of the two players just needs a 36-pack of cards for a match, though most competitive Plays' provenance schemes require each player to bring their own 72-card deck, to make things even more excitingly interesting while maximizing fairness.

It could be risky to bring a wildly unbalanced bundle of cards to a match unless you know which cards the other player will be bringing (which is possible, but unlikely). However, everyone should aim to select a variety of cards in order to get a more global perspective from each storyteller and to avoid confirmation bias.

Splitting a 72-card base deck Evenly in half is the easiest way to provision a Play match, but deck- or pack-building is also an option, provided the audience approves of each player's deck (or 36-pack). As you'll see, 'Even' means "random." 'Equal' is the distribution where each half has the same number of each color of cards, though it may not be possible to split some Cralft base decks Equally in half by rank.

All cards should be made available for examination by all AND approved by the audience before a Play match may begin (regardless of whatever schemes are in use). If a decisions council is to be elected, this should be done (along with its confirmation by the players) before the examining of cards, and members of the decisions council should NOT examine the cards directly (it's fine if they hear about them).

Known and Named Provenance Schemes (per player):

Basic - 36 evenly selected from a base deck of 72 cards.

Built - 36 carefully selected from a deck of 72 carefully collected but valid cards.

Blind - 36 evenly selected from an unknown number of unknown but valid cards.

Known and Named Provisioning Schemes (per match):

Even - Both 36-packs combined roughly, shuffled throughly, and redealt one by one alternating to each player — or simply a base deck shuffled and dealt evenly.

Equal - Both 36-packs combined visibly and redistributed as equally as possible by color and rank.

Extra - Audience combines both 36-packs and splits them up however they want, potentially disadvantaging one or the other player. Also called "Evil."

Exact - Each 36-pack used as brought and approved.

PLAY REGISTRY

Our
More
Word
Post
?

1. Our Cralft

NEEDED: 2 six-sided dice, a table or board

Our Cralft can be played with one player, performing all of the roles: both players, the audience, and a decisions council of oneself. It can also be played with a multi-person setup with two (or more) players, an audience, and a decisions council elected by the audience and confirmed by both players.

Arrange a 9-cell board. Using as many 72-card decks as you like/are needed, provene and provision as many draw patches of 36 cards each as there are players — face down, one in front of each player's position. Leave space between the patches and the board for a shared 4-card gauntlet.

Let each player take the top 8 cards from their draw patch to constitute their hand.

Roll 2xD6 per player to determine who goes first (lower roll wins).

Alternating turns in a consistent manner, roll to determine playing points. The values on the two dice are multiplied; if both dice have the same value, double both of them before multiplying. You don't have to use all of the points in your turn, but any remainder is available to the next player in addition to their own roll (it does not carry over a second time if they don't use it all or at all).

Players play cards from their hand to either the board or their gauntlet according to their cost to play (the right-most number on the card) and stacking/sidling rules. When a card is played to the board, a replacement is drawn from the draw patch, so that each player always has 8 cards in their hand and the gauntlet combined.

Cards in a player’s gauntlet can be played to the board or recycled for a new card from their draw patch for no additional cost during future turns — but only the top card may be used in either manner, one per gauntlet per turn. Cards can't be recycled without being played to the gauntlet first nor be recycled from the board.

Once all nine cells are capped with I cards and no more cards want to be played, each player tells their story, incorporating as many of the cap cards as possible.

The decisions council decides which storyteller did a better job and that player gets to keep all of the cards if they want them.

2. More Cralft

NEEDED: 4 six-sided dice, a table or board

More Cralft is the most straightforward competitive Cralft morality Play for two players, an audience, and a decisions council elected by the audience and confirmed by both players.

Each player should bring their own Basic or Built 72-card deck.

Arrange a 9-cell board. Provene and provision two draw patches of 36 cards each, face down, one in front of each player's position. Leave space between the patches and the board for two 2-card gauntlets, one for each player.

Let each player take the top 8 cards from their draw patch to constitute their hand.

To begin play, each player rolls their own 2xD6. If both are happy with their rolls, they complete their turns simultaneously. Continue in this manner until one player is unhappy with a roll, thereafter alternating turns until no more cards want to be played.

Each turn, roll to determine playing points. The values on the two dice are multiplied; if both dice have the same value, double the product after multiplying. You don't have to use all of the points in your turn, but any remainder is available to the next player in addition to their own roll (it does not carry over a second time if they don't use it all or at all).

The right and left columns are reserved for the right and left player, respectively; a cell in the center column is open to a play from either player, but the cells to its left and right must be occupied (and stacking/sidling rules must be respected).

Once all nine cells are capped with I cards and no more cards want to be played, it's time to determine scores. Since the center column is shared, only the right and left column's point totals matter. For each of each column's three cells, total up the points in the cell's stack, using each card's number corresponding to the color of the stack's cap card.

The player with the most points tells their story first, incorporating as many of the cap cards as possible. Then, the other player tells their story, trying to avoid stealing any significant beats or themes from the first story (unless making fun of them in a collegial and good-natured way).

The decisions council decides which storyteller did a better job and that player gets to take all of the cards.

3. Word Cralft

NEEDED: 0g.software "2P6C" deck, 4 six-sided dice, a table or board

Rules TK.

4. POST Cralft

A to-be-developed digital computer game, in which all first-party compliant cards ever printed are archived, indexed, and made available for use, even if they become extremely rare and valuable in real life. This Plays Registry entry will serve as a requirements doc and philosophical moodboard in progress until someone develops it.

5. ?

Additional Plays will be added as they are developed by the community.

CARD DECK REGISTRY

Known Printed Decks:

1. Cralft Base Deck One, code: 1PCCC-1-1-50-72

Code key:

[compliance code]-[version]-[image set]-[edition of]-[number of cards]

Note: "version" refers to the distribution of ranks, polarities, and numbers.

Compliance code key:

1PCCC: First-Party Compliant Cralft Cards

1PACC: First-Party Approved Cralft Cards

HOW TO CREATE DECKS

A template can be provided based on 1PCCC-1-* if you wish to source artwork and handle layout/customization/printing arrangements yourself. Reach out to the CGC for more details.

If you send us a copy of your deck, we'll add it to the registry and give it a compliance code!

CRALFT GOVERNANCE COUNCIL

Members:

Graham Smith

Its Rules:

I talk to myself, then decide stuff. I also am the only person who can currently print (that is, have a printing company manufacture) 1PCCC cards. If you want to commit to maintaining (and evangelizing) the game, ask me about joining the Council!

UPDATE HISTORY

17 November 2024: Added information about 8-card hands which had been completely omitted in the 1 October 2024 version; other minor clarifications related to this reality; changed name of “Compo Cralft” to “Post Cralft”

1 October 2024: Initial version