Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools
is a card game from Diamond Dust Dreams where the players take on the role of one of fifteen unique fox spirits inspired by Japanese mythology, with some bits from Chinese and Korean legends too. The objective of the game is to play tricks on "Fools" to punish them for their foolishness, and in the process gain the approval of the Kitsune elders and be granted new tails.
Includes Examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: The Scumbag Lawyer fool, who has some oddly shark-like teeth.
- Asian Fox Spirit: Mostly Kitsune of course, but there are a few gumiho traits added as well.
- Bankruptcy Barrel: Shown on the Stripped (discard all trick cards and can't draw more for 2 turns) consequence.
- Bucket Booby-Trap: The Hidden Trap trick card.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Arrogant Shrew Manager, Influential Banker, Lecherous CEO, and Overbearing Boss fools.
- Cunning Like a Fox: Actually varies based on their "Wits" stat.
- Cuteness Equals Forgiveness: April is cute enough to have about a 50-50 chance of avoiding a given consequence.
- Dominant Species Genes: Akira, Cori, and April are all kitsune with human fathers, but they appear to be no different from the other Kitsune characters. While Sharmarali'snote father was a dragon, and she's said to have chosen her fox side, she has the highest overall stats but due to prejudice from the Kitsune Elders she has to work harder to earn tails.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: The Doughboy Cop Fool.
- Everyone Is Related: Most of the foxes belong to one of two extended families.
- Akomachi: Sharmarali and April are her daughters, Akira and Cori are Shar's twin son and daughter, Aoki is Ako-chan's apprentice, Kip is Aoki's good friend that she intends to marry, Sadoko is Ako's old friend from training, and Ako taught Naoko how to use her powers after she was turned into a kitsune.
- Saski and Sareiko are married and Kenji is their mutual son. Later Saski and Sareiko competed to seduce the Sex Shifter Hayako, and both "won"; Saski impregnated Hayako with the twins Ai and Midori, but not before Hayako got Sareiko pregnant with Seiki.
- Evil Twin: A possible consequence, according the the text a result of improperly executing the Doppelganger spell.
- Face Paw: The Kitsune Elder depicted on the box cover in response to the antics of the foxes around her.
- Forced Transformation: The "Transformation" trick turns a Fool into a frog.
- Geas: A consequence that takes away the victim's foxfire for 2 turns.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The "Bloodthirst" consequence card causes a fox to develop a craving for human liver and eat the next fool they scheme against, getting no tails for it.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Some of the foxes are drawn dressed in just tops, both male and female.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Akira, Cori, and April have human fathers, though they're no less powerful than purebred kitsune. While Sharmarali is half-dragon, which would technically make Akira and Cori a quarter dragon, quarter kitsune, and half human, if their "genetics" worked that way.
- Half-Identical Twins: Ai & Midori, or possibly identical twins, they're sex shifting white foxes like their mother.
- Kid from the Future: Akomachi's daughters, grandkids, and apprentice went back in time to see what she was like when young.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Saski and Sareiko always get tails from schemes against lusty fools, but they also have to target fools of the opposite gender if available. Their son Kenji isn't choosy about genders but has to target lusty fools and gets no special benefit from doing so, and fools treat him as being whichever gender is less favorable for him.
- Love Triangle: A trick card that can snare two fools or foxes in the same scheme. There's also Saski and Sareiko's contest to seduce Hayaku.
- Luminescent Blush: Shown on the "Sexual Fantasy" spell card.He wants to do WHAT? Dream on...
- Make a Wish: The Grant A Wish trick allows a player to discard one fool with a level >or= half their current tails and gain a new tail by spending foxfire equal to the fool's foolishness. It's mostly useful for getting rid of fools too weak to get tails from normal schemes.
- Mana: Foxfire.
- Master of Illusion: Illusion spells double a fox's wits or halve a fool's foolishness when used in schemes against a specific sin. For instance "false riches" against greedy fools. Of course they don't work on foxes.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: The players start with two tails (six for Naoko) and gain or lose more, with the objective being to have nine.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Neither Saski nor Kenji wear pants (like father like son?). While Cori wears pants that are the same color as her fur, might be able to see the cuffs if you look closely.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Sareiko and Saski, initially hesitant to the idea some friends conspired to introduce them to each other, and only revealed that they were each other's intended fiances after they felt attracted to each other.
- Pie in the Face: The Humiliation consequence depicts Kenji on the receiving end of one.
- Polyamory: Probably the best label to apply to Saski, Sareiko, and Hayako's relationship. Saski-kun is married to Sareiko but they have competitions to seduce more lovers, and they both won Hayako.
- Scry vs. Scry: The Scrying Pool allows the user to look at another fox's hand, but they can spend a foxfire to look back.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Fools are categorized based on their sins.
- Sex Shifter: Hayaku, as a Byakko (white fox), represents fertility by containing male and female selves in one form. In game terms that means he/she can change gender every dawn phase, or later in the turn by spending one foxfire. Their kits Ai and Midori can choose which gender they collectively count as any time it matters at no cost since they're a single character.
- Sibling Rivalry / Single-Minded Twins: Ai & Midori count as a single fox card, but their rivalry causes them to spend an extra foxfire or trick when they play a trick.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Anger Destroys allows a fox to snare a second fool into a scheme, and if they're a Wrath fool only the lower of the two Foolishness scores counts on the roll instead of being added together. The card art shows a Murderer stalking a Hatemonger, and one of the t-shirt designs shows one bully picking on April and a tanuki, while Ako directs a bigger bully at him.
- Totem Pole Trench: Ai & Midori's card art◊ shows them both in the same disguise, one standing on the other's shoulders.
- The Trickster: Your character.
- Twin Switch: Ai and Midori are impossible to tell apart, even for the Kitsune elders, when one succeeds on a scheme the Elders just give them both tails.
- Vampiric Draining: The Mystic Hunger consequence causes a fox to try and steal the foxfire from another, at the risk of losing all of their own foxfire and drawing another consequence.
- Was Once a Teenage Girl: Naoko was originally a Japanese-American teenager named Samantha whose parents tried to keep her from learning anything about her heritage. Naturally, she rebelled by researching Japanese culture and started dating a transfer student from Japan. Then she found a prayer to Inari for children wishing for independence from their parents, and was turned into a kitsune as a result of a pact her family made with Inari.
- While Kip was once an escaped domestic fox who stumbled onto Ako teaching her students and picked up some tricks.
- Youkai: Aside from the player characters many of the Ally cards, Friendly Tanuki, Gullible Kappa, Wise Inugami, Shy Kumo-youkai...
