The 'Star Wars Tarot': A Beginner's Guide to Sabacc Oracles

Everything you need to read Sabacc Oracles like Lando in the Mindharp of Sharu

The Beginner's Guide to Sabacc Oracles collects the complete run of designs for a Sabacc Oracle or fortune-telling deck as published on the Multiversal Exports design blog, a fan production based on the lore as presented in the Lando Calrissian Adventures and other EU/New Canon sources.

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ABOUT

The first official appearance of Sabacc in this EU book series (outside of a brief reference in a Marvel comic issue) presented the game as a poker/blackjack-like game which used a 78-card deck structure derived from a Rider-Waite Tarot deck. In the novel, Lando explains that the Sabacc deck can also be used to tell fortunes, and performs a reading following the procedural model for a Celtic cross Tarot spread. The novel also introduces a handful of cards whose names and meanings are variations on their Tarot counterparts.

Later iterations on the game and deck in official canon tended not to develop the tarot connection, to the extent that when a playable deck was invented for Sabacc, it was structured around the limited number of cards mentioned in the novel, with occasional references to other cards dropped piecemeal in other EU material.

The Beginner's Guide to Sabacc Oracles presents a full adaption of the original Rider-Waite deck for the Star Wars Universe. Within the lore, the 78 card deck has been labelled the 'Centran Sabacc' deck to distinguish it from the 76-card deck which became common in the rest of the EU. Since we envision the provenance of the fortune-telling version of Sabacc to be much wider than the Centran locale, with many different possible versions and localisations, werefer to the 78-card deck as a 'Sabacc Oracle Deck'.

While fans have presented their own interpretations of this deck before, they have focused almost solely on translating the cards of the Major Arcana to the Star Wars setting. This Guide, as far as we're aware, is the first to present a full translation of the four suits (the Minor Arcana) to the Star Wars setting, including card identities, meanings and designs.

The Guide includes sections on the history of the Sabacc deck and it's use as an Oracle, it's place in philosophical beliefs about the Force, and basic procedures and practices for its use in line with this lore. It includes the concept of card alignments and using 'Oracle Dice' to determine whether the cards are favourable or negative to replace the happenstance of dealing reversed or upside down cards.

Use the Beginner's Guide to Sabacc Oracles to integrate this piece of Star Wars lore fully into your next RPG session, fan fiction or cosplay/bounding experience!

LANDO'S SABACC READING

For an example of how a Sabacc Oracle reading works, and the relationship between the Sabacc Oracle and the real-world Tarot, read our analysis of Lando's Sabacc fortune reading in The Mindharp of Sharu.

OUR SABACC ORACLE DECK

Our Lothal Sabacc Oracle is available now as a print-to-order deck through Make Playing Cards. Be sure to check out the No-Box and Box Editions to get the best deck suited to your budget!

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Future updates planned for this project include: New Oracle deck versions, and expanded and updated guides that expand on how to read the cards, their meanings, and ways to incoporate them directly into RPG sessions.