Luck of the Draw: Instructions v2.1 · 31 Oct 2026

1. The decks

• WHO (book p.2, 6): who you've met (Mover, Shaker, Exotic, Criminal, Joes) and how many, compared with your Band: Same, 1 Less, 1 More or 2 More. A few special WHO cards are events.
• WHAT (p.3, 13): what happens: Talk the Talk, or Walk the Walk (a fight).
• WHY (p.3, 11): the Loot they have: Credits, Bling, weapons, Wired upgrades, Med Kits, Drones and more.
• Character (p.2, 6): one card per person met, with their Class, Race, Rep, People, Savvy and weapon.
• City (5150 City Deck): 90 Building cards, each with its Area of New Hope City and a 2d6 table for the NPC's Profession.
• Professions (5150 City Deck): the six Profession cards, with the NPC types on the front and the NPC table on the back.

2. Drawing and shuffling

• The decks run on a terminal screen. Pick a deck with the buttons along the bottom, then press Draw, or click the face-down deck on the screen, to flip the top card. The status line at the top shows the deck and how many cards are left.
• As in the book, when a Shuffle card comes up, every card goes back and the deck is shuffled. The tool does this for you and says so.
• Shuffle now starts the deck afresh at any time.
• Cards drawn since the last shuffle are shown small underneath, newest first, in a strip you can scroll sideways.

3. Character cards

Choose the Class your WHO card showed, then draw one card for each person you met. The next card of that Class comes up, as if you'd searched the deck for it. Leave it on "Any" to take the top card.

4. The City Deck

The City Deck's own sheet gives two ways to use it:

• The numbers in the top corner of a Building card: the big one is how many floors the building has; the small pair is the Area's Law Level by day / by night (e.g. 4/3). The screen spells them out under the card's name.
• Easy way: leave Area on "Any" and press Draw. The card shows the Area and the Building. If the NPC can't be in that Building, draw again.
• Harder way: decide the Area first (best rolled on the City Transit Map in New Beginnings), choose it under Area, then draw. Only that Area's cards come up.
• Who's there? Set Your Band (how many in your group, your Star included) and press Roll for an NPC here. It rolls 2d6 on the drawn Building card's own Profession table (each Area has its own), shows that Profession card front and back, and makes its rolls: 2d6 for the NPC type (from the front), ½d6 for the Leader's row and ½d6 for how many (1: one less than your Band, never less than 1; 2: the same; 3: one more). The NPCs are listed, Leader first, from the table on the back: Rep, People, Savvy, weapon and race.
• Professions does the same for a Profession you choose, or Random for a random Profession card each time.

5. What's remembered

Each deck's order and what's been drawn are kept in this browser, so you can close the page and carry on later. Nothing is sent to the website.