Last night while drifting off to sleep I had an idea for RPG mechanics based on a card-matching game. Lay out 16 cards (4 long by four deep), or any number and row/column layout appropriate. Cards are all face down. At the beginning of each session, each player is allowed to flip up one card. When all players have revealed one card each to the group, flip them back face-down and the game begins.

As the game flows and characters do stuff, the mechanic requires them to match cards. The player chooses and flips a card, and then chooses and flips a second. If they're the same suit, partial success, and if they're matched, even better. If any level of success, one of the cards flipped is put in discard, replaced with another face-down.

Characters would have two main resources of empowerment, one a set of Possibles that can be used to flip-and-reveal additional cards, and the other a set of Definites that can be used to keep any of those additional cards in your match.

Of course, additional matches can yield greater results, and additional actual ranked matches even more.