I’ve introduced loads of people — 50 plus at last count — to tabletop roleplaying over the years, and the hardest moment is always the same. Not combat, not the rules, not remembering what a d10 is. It’s the moment the GM looks at a new player and says “it’s your turn” — and that player freezes.
I watched it happen recently at a game run by a very good GM. The new player asked “what do I do?” And back came the most natural, most useless answer in the world: “Whatever you want!” She meant it kindly. She was right, technically. But I remember what staring into that abyss felt like.
That’s why I built It’s Your Turn.
What it is
It’s a prompt deck — 52 cards, same as a standard deck of playing cards. Each card gives you a simple action you can take right now, on your turn, without any prior knowledge of how the game works. Draw a card, follow the prompt, done. It’s not a rulebook. You don’t read it front to back.
Two ways to use it: draw randomly from the shuffled deck, or browse by category if you already know the kind of thing you want to do or the situation you’re in.
Here’s an example card:
Why it looks nothing like a D&D product
Design-wise I wanted to make it look very different from a standard D&D themed product, so it was clear it’s not yet another thing to learn, not an official part of the game. It also needed to be fast. The last thing I wanted was to slow a new player’s turn down further while they poke at an app. And it needed to work offline — we play in a basement with no phone signal — so it’s built as a PWA: add it to your home screen, it works like a native app, no app store involved.
The inspiration was Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies — a card deck designed to break creative blocks — and the improv card decks you’ll find all over Etsy. But those aren’t built for tabletop RPGs, and I wanted something that was.
I deliberately chose cards over dice. New players already have enough trouble remembering which die is which. Cards are immediate — you pick one up, you read it, you do the thing. And cards, unlike dice, can be held in your hand, passed across a table, printed and cut out. Which brings me to the next bit.
This is a beta
The digital version is a prototype — a way to test the cards before potentially making physical sets. So if you try it, I’d love to know if it helped and if there’s anything I can improve.
I’m not going to tell you it’ll change how you play. It’s a small thing. But if you’ve got a new player joining your table, it might be worth having on your phone for when they look up at you and freeze.
Whitebeard's Realm 