Fortuna

"So is it fortune telling or gambling?" Lodia frowned at the cards in her hand; a mace, a wheel, and a cup.
"Both? If you're asking me about the history of Fortuna, you're asking the wrong person." Vance placed a card face down on the table. "Your go."
She placed the mace face down next to the other card. "Sure."
Vance drew a third card and placed it face up. "Briars. Lovely. Reveal?"
The two flipped their cards, and Vance took a look at the scoring card, removing the relevant tiles. "Okay...Briars Mace is six, Briars Road is two, you take the trick. According to this, 'you'll be clearing the obstacles in your path with great force'."
Lodia picked up two of the cards. "I really don't see why this game is all that popular."
"A time killer, mostly. I don't put much stock in the fortunes myself."

History

Nobody knows exactly how Fortuna became a 'thing', but the factory in Patino, the Machine City capitalized on it quickly enough, producing decks of cards and scorecards by the wagon-load and selling them for pennies. Popular among the lower classes as a way to while away the time, many travellers will carry Fortuna decks and scorers with them.

Execution

Fortuna requires a deck composed of seventy five cards of fifteen different designs, a scoring sheet and grid, a bag of tiles to accompany the holder, and a fortune-teller's pamphlet. The game starts with the scoresheet setup; one player picks an available scoresheet to use, the other picks its orientation, and the sheet is placed into the grid. The score grid is a 15x15 grid of numerical values that are initially covered and hidden to all players, with each axis of the grid corresponding to the iconography on each card. On each round, a card is drawn from the main deck, and both players simultaneously play and reveal a card from their hand. Each player's card pairing with the center card is referenced on the score grid, with the values being revealed if not yet known, and the player who played the higher scoring combination takes two of the played cards of their choice, with the third returning to the bottom of the deck.
As the rounds progress, more and more of the score grid is revealed, making play less random and allowing players to make more informed plays to win a given trick. The game ends when a player runs out of cards; the winning player will then look up their winning card pairing in the companion fortune telling pamphlet, providing them with their fortune for the day.
It is considered bad luck for someone to win more than one game of Fortuna a day, as they would have two competing fortunes.

Components and tools

All that's necessary to play the game is a Fortuna deck, scoring sheet and cover, and a fortune telling pamphlet. The pamphlet is re-printed every season, issuing new fortunes for the new season, and scoresheets of varying values are commonly available.

Observance

Fortuna is played across the Principality of Etoile in various lodges and public houses.