Skywent of Gathering

Every tavern in Skyrim has a table, a drink and nothing to do at it.
Skywent of Gathering gives you a card game: Gwent and Magic mashed together, played on the real counter of the Sleeping Giant Inn against Orgnar, with the cards lying on the wood in front of you. You sit down, he deals, and the two of you play it out while the inn goes on around you. No menu pretending to be a table. The table is the table.

Why you'll want it

• A real game, not a minigame. 75 cards in five suits, 20 Health each, a 30 card deck and your own pile of 10 Locations. Locations pay for everything, fighters attack and block, Spells and Weapons turn a fight, and one Leader power a game can swing it.
• Played in the world. The cards are real objects on the counter. They slide in from your side, lunge when they attack, shake when they're hit and flip when they die, with the game's own sounds. Hover one to read it big.
• An opponent who plays. Orgnar runs his own deck and thinks about his turns. Set how well he plays in the MCM, from Easy to Master.
• Win his cards. Bring him to 0 and you take a card from his deck you don't have yet. Lose and you owe him nothing but a rematch.
• Stand up when you want. Stand Up pauses the game and Orgnar picks it up with you later, as long as you don't load a save or quit first.
• Light. One ESL-flagged plugin, no load order slot, nothing running between games. Add it to a game you're already playing.

Instant mod help: Join our Discord and ask in #mod-help.

A game at the bar

• Go to Riverwood, walk into the Sleeping Giant Inn and sit down at the bar, or at the table when Orgnar sits there.
• Talk to him: "Fancy a game of Skywent?" He answers, you both take your places, and the cards go down on the counter.
• He plays you whether he likes you or not. If he's still walking over, let him get to his spot first.
• Hold right click and drag to look around the table, roll the wheel to get closer, hover any card to read it.

How a game goes

• You both start at 20 Health with a hand of 5, and one free redraw. Whoever goes second draws a sixth card.
• Your turn: your cards stand back up, you draw, you put down one Location. Every Location on your side pays 1 Magicka a turn.
• Spend Magicka on cards from your hand: NPCs, Creatures, Weapons and Spells. A card also needs Locations of its own suit on your side, so a Barrow card wants Barrow ground under it.
• Attack with the fighters that are ready. Orgnar picks his blockers. A fighter nobody blocks hits his Health; a blocked one trades blows with its blocker. Then he does the same to you.
• A fighter can't attack the turn it comes down. Up to 6 fighters a side. Fighters still standing at the end of a turn are back to full Health.
• Each deck has a Leader with one power a game: Ulfric's Unrelenting Force stops every block for a turn, Aela's Beast Form turns one fighter into a monster.
• Weather sits on the table and changes the fight for both of you: Blizzard, Fog and Storm.
• First to 0 loses.

The cards

• Hold: guards, housecarls, Companions, Lydia, Irileth, Jarl Balgruuf. Many fighters who hold the line and heal.
• Wild: wolves that hunt in packs, sabre cats, bears, spriggans, a giant who hits harder beside his mammoth.
• Barrow: draugr, skeletons, necromancers and vampires. Things that come back from the discard pile and drain your Health.
• College: mages, atronachs and Spells. Firebolt, Fireball, Paralyze, and Urag who hands you two cards.
• Shadow: thieves, bandits and assassins. They slip past blockers, strike first and pick your pocket.
• Dragons belong to no suit: anyone can play one, if they can pay for it. Alduin brings every dead Dragon back with him.
• Weapons go on an NPC: a Steel Sword, an Imperial Bow, a Staff of Flames. Lydia can carry two.
• Every card has its own picture, and its words are on it. Hover it on the table or in your hand to read it big.

What's in the beta

• Orgnar at the Sleeping Giant Inn, with his voiced line.
• Your Starter deck against his, and the full first set of 75 cards.
• The cards you win from him are kept in your save.

Coming as the beta goes on: more opponents around Skyrim, each with their own deck and their own card to win, building your own deck from what you've collected, and a collection screen. Tell me what breaks and what you want next.

Installation
Built and played in a Nolvus Awakening load order. Nolvus users: install it like any other mod.

Install with your mod manager. The plugin is ESL-flagged, so it doesn't use a load order slot. Safe to install mid-game: load your save, walk into the Sleeping Giant Inn and ask Orgnar for a game. Needs Magelight UI 1.5 or newer, SKSE and Address Library; MCM Helper and SkyUI for the settings menu.

Compatibility

• Skyrim SE 1.5.97 and AE. Not tested in VR.
• Inn overhauls are fine: the game finds the counter or table you sit at and lays the cards on it.
• Nothing in the inn is changed. Orgnar keeps his life; the game only borrows him while you play.

Performance
Nothing runs between games. The cards, the camera and the screen exist only while you're sitting at the table, and the moment you stand up they're gone.

Uninstalling
This is a scripted mod with an SKSE plugin. Finish or call off your game first, then remove it. Don't remove it mid-playthrough.

Known limits

• This is a beta. Tell me in the posts if anything's off and I'll fix it fast. Screenshots and Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\Skywent.log help the most.
• One opponent for now. More are on the way.
• A paused game is kept until you load a save or quit.

Also by me

• Octavia - a fully voiced shield-sister follower.
• Warband - a follower framework and party manager in one.
• Oskar - a voiced blacksmith follower who works at his forge.
• Cassia - a voiced huntress follower with her own quest.
• Nadira - a voiced mercenary captain who commands your band.
• Hjertesten Hall - Extra Jobs and Features - 20+ jobs, a farm economy, raids and wars.
• Estates of Skyrim - every home you own becomes a living estate.

If you enjoy my mods and want to support them, you can donate here.

Credits
The hand, the words and the buttons live on Magelight UI by Severause (his page): please endorse it. Thanks to the SKSE team, meh321 for Address Library, Parapets for MCM Helper, and CommonLibSSE-NG (CharmedBaryon) and spdlog, used in the mod's SKSE plugin. Built with houseCARL and DevBench.

About AI use
This mod was built with the help of an AI coding assistant (the rules engine, the SKSE plugin and the scripts), and the card pictures are AI-made. I play it in my own game and fix reports fast, so tell me in the posts if anything's off.