Sometime after Caltrop Core and FU, I happened across a game called Tadhana. This game intrigued me for two reasons. First, I had already decided that I wanted to do something non-Western Medieval for a change, and Tadhana's setting is based on Filipino culture and beliefs. Second, I've tried a couple of times to create a card-driven system with varying degrees of success (frequent shuffles will wreck your flow, just so you know). Tadhana's resolution mechanic employs a deck of forty cards numbered 1-10. Players draw a number of cards equal to the value of one of their attributes, and if they draw at least a pair of the same number, their character succeeds at whatever they were attempting. These cards are also used to generate the values of those attributes in a way that I really liked. Almost makes character generation feel like a mini game. Four broad attributes and fixed damage categories for weapons greatly streamline the rules and reduce the number of dice rolls, or card draws in this case. Great game. I'd gladly play it, but I wouldn't feel comfortable refereeing anything that was this culturally specific. I have some personal but admittedly ephemeral links to the Philippines and Indonesia that make me think I could probably do it justice at the table, but no, not gonna happen.
It's OK, though, because then I got distracted…