Playing Swag
Playing SwagThere are infinite ways to play Total Swag. My friends and I have come up with a few good options that were pretty fun, I'm attempting to solidify and them explain below. Try reading a few --or all-- of the ways to play, and then give them a go, or create your own rules.
This is the most basic version of the game -- pretty much the first idea I had to turn Total Swag into a playable game. Basically, it's the card game War, but with semantics instead of card ranks.
As War goes, this game has each player flip over a card from the top of each of their decks simultaneously, without looking. Then with the two cards on the table, the player who flipped the better card adds both cards from the table back onto the bottom of their deck. Then they repeat flipping until one player has every card (or, more likely, they get tired and decide to get snacks or something) The fun of the game comes when deciding which card is actually the better one. The two players must debate the coolness of the played cards until an agreement is met. As long as the players can settle, the metric of a good card can be anything. Who'd win in a fight, which is prettier, funnier, has the most Swag? It's all up to you and your friends.
This version came about because the simplest version of Swag War ended up having a lot of weird arguments that couldn't easily be settled. Like who should win in this matchup: Foggy Lighthouse or Shorts? They're totally different things.
The solution we came up with was a messy multi-card war game that was loosely inspired by the weirdness of the Yugi-Oh anime, where cards could be played into different roles and have their effects combined.
This game is even more loosely defined than Swag War, and I recommend playing this one with whatever adjustments come to mind while reading this paragraph. So the idea is that you split a deck of Total Swag cards and each take a gander at your hands. Then each player has a chance to play down two (or three if that's more interesting) cards. The two cards you should be playing are one card with a character on it (think Yugi-Oh monsters or MTG creatures) and one addative card (think anything that could change the conditions of the match). You can choose to reveal them one at a time for that 'I activate my trap card' extravagance, or all at once. Either way, once the cards are on the table, it plays out like Swag War, except with a preliminary explaination of how the addative card effects the scenario. Then debate is made and winners are decided.
For an example of how an addative card might work (addative card is not an official name), take our two cards from earlier. Foggy Lighthouse could shroud its supported card in fog, making it cool and mysterious, or granting it ninja-like stealth. It could also be argued that Foggy Lighthouse gives the other card a vantage point, or highlights their swaggy silhouette with it's light. Shorts could give the wearer a stat boost, or make them more comfortable. Those are just a few interpretations!
This version of the game is perhaps my favorite, because of the circumstances from which it arose. Not too long ago, my D&D crazy friend tried to gather a few of us to play a one shot (basically a one-time game of Dungeons & Dragons). On the day of, one of our friends didn't do the necessary (and exhausting) prep work that usually comes with D&D, and so we had him play with Total Swag cards while the rest of us played totally normal D&D.
Although I've only ever played Dungeons & Swagons where others were playing normal D&D, an all Swagon table could theoretically work. The way we played involved using a Total Swag deck as a list of actions, spells, and abilities. When it's your turn in combat, or you have the chance to take an action outside of combat, simply choose a card from the deck that could represent what you want to do and explain to the Swag Master what effect you'd like it to have. As with everything in normal D&D, if it flies with the SM, it works! This is most fun with a small, silly deck that wasn't made specifically for this purpose. If cards are made just for D&S it might make the game less fun and more optimized. Finally, level ups in D&S can be simulated with the addition of new cards to the deck.
All Out Swag, like most Total Swag games, involves using improvisation, silliness, and semantics to decide the outcome. However, All Out Swag focuses in on the fast-paced yes-anding of it all.
All Out Swag has players split a deck of Total Swag cards into each of their hands. Then, they take turns playing out a card and explaining what it should do. In this game, however, arguments should be avoided. Once a card is played down and its effect has been described, it's the next person's turn to play something on top of the previous card. With each new card an evolving story is made. Perhaps two dueling players are using the cards to settle a battle. Or maybe a grounp of many players is creating great tale of adventure. All Out Swag is best played without hesitation, a back and forth of swaggy, silly, additions. In practice, playing something like this has had the energy of playing make beleive on the playground and constantly upping the stakes from sword to gun to kevlar to lazer to lazer-proof armor and so on. However, with more people, you could slow down the pace of this game to make a more thought out sort of story. All Out Swag ends when all the cards have been played out and the game (whether cooperative or competitive) is therefore resolved.
I'll keep updating this section as new formats come up!