The Game Moves

The first Mode roll was a 4, which asked me to make six couplets with a final line summary. The card draws were then:

  1. Queen of Clubs
  2. 7 of Hearts
  3. 10 of Spades
  4. 5 of Clubs
  5. Ace of Spades
  6. King of Spades
  7. 8 of Spades
  8. 2 of Hearts
  9. 4 of Hearts
  10. 3 of Diamonds
  11. 5 of Hearts
  12. 7 of Clubs
  13. 9 of Clubs

This draw had two pair, so the next poem was in the framework of a past deed that was devouring the Gentleman Bandit, that was causing him suffering.

The second Mode roll was 3, which meant I had to write the poem in a specific meter. I chose Trochee.1 The draws were:

  1. 5 of Hearts
  2. Ace of Hearts
  3. 4 of Hearts
  4. Queen of Clubs
  5. 5 of Spades
  6. 3 of Spades
  7. King of Clubs
  8. 2 of Diamonds
  9. 10 of Hearts
  10. 7 of Hearts
  11. 9 of Hearts
  12. 6 of Diamonds
  13. 2 of Clubs

This hand gave me both a flush and a straight, so I chose to go with Flush — the Gentleman Bandit has been left behind by their beloved.

The Mode roll was a 6, which asked me to use specific words for each line of the poem. I chose to use the more restrictive version, meaning I rolled a die for each colomn, and then chose the same number word for the line I was writing (the first word for the first line, the second word for the second line, etc.) The words were, in order:

  1. Cavern
  2. Scrub
  3. Wobegone
  4. Blood
  5. Bind
  6. Expel
  7. Home
  8. Alone
  9. Grace
  10. Heart
  11. War
  12. Arid
  13. Loathe

The card draws were:

  1. Jack of Diamonds
  2. 10 of Clubs
  3. 2 of Clubs
  4. King of Diamonds
  5. 8 of Hearts
  6. Ace of Spades
  7. 7 of Spades
  8. 4 of Hearts
  9. 2 of Hearts
  10. King of Clubs
  11. 5 of Clubs
  12. 9 of Diamonds
  13. 8 of Clubs

Final Thoughts

A quick and easy game, I found the process charmingly fun. The last poem was easier than I thought it’d be, slipping in a single word here or there wasn’t as complex as it could have been. The most difficult part, actually, was picking the last word for rhyming, as I had decided not to go back and edit. The rhyme locked me in to word choices, so it was a bit of an unnerving process.

As for the poems themselves, they’re hardly premium quality, but they do the job, and they do end up telling a bit of a “story” about the Gentleman Bandit. It’s certainly a quick little process, too; definitely worth toying around with if you have some time to kill and want to play around with poetry.

  1. Stressed, unstressed. ↩︎