Card based actions system...
The number of cards you get per turn is equal to a roll vs DEX+WITS, converted to VPs (divided by 3). If you roll more then you are limited to one action.
Each extra card will be performed at -2 accumulative after the first. This modifier however will be added to your fumble result roll, so if you fumble a -6 action you get +6 to the fumble roll (bad).
If you roll a critical you get twice as many cards but only keep half of them (get better cards).
Red joker is free action.
Black joker is discard, no action.
Actions are performed in card order, starting from Aces and going down. As a card is called you must decide to do one of three things:
You can complement an initiative roll with a 'focus action' by spending a whole action (the last for that round) before on it. Any penalty is applied to this roll. A focus action is a skill roll but actions of the next turn must use that skill or be non-activity based (no other skills).
Eg:
Kevin has D+W of 12, he rolls 8, which means he can tale 2 cards. He MAY perform upto 2 actions. The second action will be at -2.
Eg:
Kevin has D+W of 12, he rolls 12, he draws 8 cards and keeps only 4. He may perform four actions with mods of 0,-2,-4,-6. If he picked a red joker he may take a free, no mods action at anytime. If he draws a black joker he discards immediately, then reduces to 4 cards.
Eg
Kevin has D+W of 12. He has Shoot+Dex of 16. He decides to prepare for a concentrated round of shooting, so he spends an entire action complementing his next action, which is specified as a "shoot" round. He rolls 13 and gets +4 to the SUCCESSES of his next rounds initiative roll. Next round if he rolls 13 or more he only gets one action! If he rolls less then 4 is added to that value and that is counted as his roll. If he rolled 8, +4 = 12 which is 4 cards.