Tower of Aces (playing card/basic dice RPG)

Rules for a card game I made up in my boredom at my Grandma's last year; it's playable with simply a player marker (anything of your choice), a [6] die and a deck of standard playing cards. Pencil/pen and paper may help you, too.

OBJECT OF THE GAME:
To capture all four "Ace" items of supremacy, and bring back peace to the land. Or just make it yours instead, either way.

PLAYER SETUP:
Roll your [6] die once. This will be your Attack value, add 10 to that, and that will be your LP (life points, basically a combo of HP and XP). Draw a two-lane chart, one for your LP, the other for your DP (damage points). They both contiune to accumulate, until DP > LP, or you win.

Then subtract your roll from 7, and draw that many cards for your initial item inventory. A roll of [3] for instance, will net you 13 LP, a level 3 base attack, and 4 item card draws. There you go.

SETTING UP THE TOWER:
Take the remaining cards of your deck (shuffled) and starting at the top, make a grid that goes 4 cards across, and 5 cards down. It's recommended that you deal these cards sideways, due to the space they take up. Below that, deal 2 rows that are each 5 cards across, criss-crossing between the 4 columns above them.

Visual guide to dealing the cards.

PLAYING THE GAME:
You "enter" the tower at the top, beginning from either side - if one side proves unfavorable, and you're still on the top level, you can re-enter from the other side. But once you go down, there's no going back up. (Well, without the right item, anyways.)

Roll the die, and add your "base attack" to that. This will determine your charge-in ability; and based on that, you can elect to charge into a room (and attack first, perhaps even an outright win of a battle), or "peek" into a room, which will let you see what's there. There are consequences to both, but that depends on the kind of card that's there - for instance, you might destroy a potential item, or charge straight into a trap!

The roll + base damage is also used for battles.

You can also elect to move to the next open card to the left or right, or down from any open position - but there's no going back "up." A tower ends when one of the following conditions are met:

-You secure an "Ace" card (regardless of condition how)
-You reach the bottom left or bottom right corner (IE: the exit)
-You use an escape item (Queen)

Any time a tower ends, roll your die and add that amount to your LP. Then, redeal another tower setup and continue your quest.

TOWER CARDS:
Here's a listing of what cards mean as "Tower" rooms:

2 is for Toopher
Toophers are weak creatures with only 2 LP, you'll almost certainly take them out on one turn. But they're incredibly fast, and will always hit you for 2 LP first - even if you charge them.

3 is for Threebees
Threebees are creatures that travel in sets of 3. Each of them has 3 LP, and any of them left alive will recover their LP at the end of every attack turn.

4 is for Fortune!
You've discovered a treasure chest! Provided of course, you didn't destroy it first along with the goodies inside. It can only take 4 damage, you know. If it's there, open it up and draw yourself an item card from the deck - then return this one to the bottom of it.

5 is for 5 DP
5 DP you'll take, for running into this trap, that is. This will also cause you to do a 0-point "charge" into the room below it (IE: you fall into it).

6 is for Sixpenze
A basic grunt that has 6 LP, and will attack you by dice rolls. He's pretty keen, so spying on him is ill-advised, you'll be attacked right off the top.

7 means you're lucky
This is basically an item card just sitting there. Add it to your inventory and roll on.

8 is for Sleight
Sleight is a loudmouth, who's first move is always to call for backup (unless you waste them like a paper bag). Draw a card from the deck, and put it in the slot you just came from. They'll act as a basic grunt with that much LP, and do that much damage per turn... unless they're a face card! (FC's get normal properties.)

9 is for Ninemare
Ninemares are usually found fumbling in their nightmare-filled sleep. So long as you don't charge in and trip over him, you'll be fine. But if you do, look out! He does 9 DP to you every turn, and you have to dish out the entire 9 points of damage in a single turn to take him out!

10 is for 10 DP
...which is for hitting a calamity trap! Other than the base damage (and maybe the crazy imagined domino rally tumble involved), it acts just like a 5.

J means you got Jack't
Jack't will take the two highest-value (non-Ace!) item cards from you, and disappear with them into the deck - if you charged him with anything less than 10 damage, that is.

Q is for Q'weenie
Q'weenies often act in cowardice, preferring to let others do their bidding. At each turn, they will utilize the top card of the deck... either as an item or as a backup (ala Sl' Cool

; and have a tendency (where possible) to move in evasion of you, though they're still limited by the "no ups" rule. They have 20 LP too, so they go down hard.

Hail to the K!
Kings are the toughest suckers to nail, with a whopping 30 LP. Like you, they attack by rolling and adding to a base damage, in this case determined by a card drawn first. Each suit also grants them a particular advantage:

Spades will gain LP in proportion to their roll damage (not counting base).
Clubs may attack 2x per turn. (Roll each seperately)
Diamonds will reduce your attack value by their base damage.
Hearts will have 100 LP, and do +5 damage - but will only live for 7 turns, before passing away of natural consequences.

An A card appearing represents a K card in posession of it.
This gives them 50 LP (besides Hearts, who already has more), and grants them an additional advantage:

Spades will disarm an item card from you with every [1] rolled, and will block any item effect you use.
Clubs may attack a third time yet.
Diamonds will use an item card in conjunction with an attack every turn.
Hearts will gain the other Kings' basic advantages... but still only live 7 turns.

ITEM CARDS:
Here's what the cards mean in your posession, as items:

Aces
Clearly, the collectable objective of the game. Not much beyond that. "Drawing" one from chest eliminates one major showdown you'll have to survive, though!

Kings
Every K you get increases your base attack by 2.

Queens
Queens are your escape ropes. This allows you to escape an otherwise disastrous fate!

Jacks
This allows you to "Jack" one room of the tower, and keep it as an item card, rather than "charge" or "peek" it. You can "Jack" a peeked room, so long as the enemy of it isn't actively attacking you.

Spades
Value cards in spades are an extra, additional attack you can launch without costing you a turn. RPG-dorks, think "Magic Missile" here.

Clubs
Valued clubs give you temporary dual-wielding ability, allowing you to attack twice per turn. This lasts the number of turns on the card.

Diamonds
Diamonds serve a dual purpose - this can block or reduce the damage you take by it's value for one turn (a higher value will block entirely, but still be considered "used up"). Or, you can use a set totaling 15 or more to "buy" 3 more item cards from the deck (at any time).

Hearts
LP up, or course.

THE GAME IS DONE WHEN YOU'VE LOST OR WON.

But if you really want to call it a day, you can stop between towers, and then resume later - though doing so will sacrifice all of your unused item cards. The whole game usually takes 20 minutes or less, though - once you know what the cards all do. Maybe 30 or so doing reference checks.