No Tarot Deck? No Problem: How to Play Deify Solo RPG with Standard Playing Cards

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So, you’re ready to dive into the world of Deify Solo RPG, but you’ve hit a snag: the game calls for a Tarot deck, and all you have is that dusty pack of Bicycle playing cards in your kitchen drawer.

Don’t put the game away just yet. You don’t need a specialized deck to build your pantheon or chronicle the rise and fall of civilizations. In fact, using a standard 52-card deck is a time-honored tradition. People have been using ordinary playing cards for divination, storytelling, and symbolic systems for centuries.

Here’s how to translate a standard deck into a Tarot-ready format for your next session of Deify.

The Secret Language of Suits

Tarot has four suits, also called the Minor Arcana. Standard playing cards map to them almost perfectly. When Deify asks you to draw from a specific suit, just use the equivalent below.

Hearts = Cups: These represent emotions, relationships, and the soul. In Deify, these often relate to the feelings of your followers, faith, devotion, or the emotional state of your civilization.

Diamonds = Pentacles (Coins): These represent the physical world—wealth, land, structures, and resources. Use these for prompts involving temples, cities, economy, or material growth.

Clubs = Wands: These represent action, energy, creation, and momentum. These are your expansion cards—war, invention, building, and sudden change.

Spades = Swords: These represent intellect, conflict, truth, and difficult decisions. These often signal power struggles, philosophical shifts, betrayal, or necessary sacrifice.

Translating the Numbers (Ace through 10)

This part is simple. The numbers translate directly. If you draw the 5 of Hearts, it functions exactly like the 5 of Cups would in Tarot.

Aces: These function as 1s. They represent beginnings, emergence, or the purest form of a suit’s energy. In Deify, this could mean the birth of a belief, a new godly domain, or the first spark of a civilization.

2 through 10: These work exactly as written in the Deify rulebook. Just match the number and suit.


What About the Face Cards?

Tarot has four court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Playing cards only have Jack, Queen, and King. Fortunately, this is easy to adapt.

Jack = Page: The Jack represents the Page—the messenger, student, or emerging force. If your prompt specifically calls for a Knight, many players use the Jack for that role as well.

Queen = Queen: No change needed. The Queen represents authority, stability, and influence.

King = King: Also unchanged. The King represents ultimate authority, control, and established power.

Optional rule for more depth: Red Jacks (Hearts and Diamonds) can represent Pages, while Black Jacks (Spades and Clubs) can represent Knights. This creates a more complete court system if your game distinguishes between the two.

Handling the Major Arcana

This is the only part a standard deck cannot fully replicate. The Major Arcana represents massive, world-changing events—things that reshape reality. But there are simple solutions.

The Joker Method: Most decks include two Jokers. Treat them as divine intervention. When drawn, something unpredictable and transformative happens. A god ascends. A god falls. Reality fractures.

The High Card Rule: You can assign Aces or Kings to act as Major Arcana substitutes when needed. These already represent powerful forces, making them natural stand-ins for cosmic-level events.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

Hearts → Cups: Emotions, faith, devotion, followers
Diamonds → Pentacles: Wealth, land, cities, physical world
Clubs → Wands: Action, creation, expansion, war
Spades → Swords: Conflict, truth, philosophy, power struggles

You don’t need a Tarot deck to play Deify. The symbolism isn’t in the cards themselves. It’s in how you interpret them. A forgotten deck of playing cards is more than enough to build gods, shape civilizations, and watch entire worlds rise and fall.