I've uploaded the bonus card pdf here. It's a large set (4MB) unfortunately, because of the way I did the little graphics in the corners (sorry).
Remember that during the draft, we will deal out all cards in triple sets of a figure card, a bonus card and a suit card. The bonus card applies only to the figure card it is associated with. There is no way to move the bonus card to a different figure, once dealt.
The purpose of the bonus card is to add a little variation to the mix and specifically to make some figures more attractive than they might otherwise be.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
5. Turn the 3 card stack over without revealing the suit or bonus cards.
Not revealing the figure card would be silly (given the figure is right next to the pile). I know this was just a typo on the post here ... the rules on the web page describe it as I have.
jim
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
The bonus cards are very cool ... I especially like all of the "feat sequences." You've definitely put together some cool stuff there and will allow folks to have some feats that otherwise get ignored.
jim
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
5. Turn the 3 card stack over without revealing the suit or bonus cards.
Not revealing the figure card would be silly (given the figure is right next to the pile). I know this was just a typo on the post here ... the rules on the web page describe it as I have.
jim
What are you talking about? That's what it says!
(I corrected the original post- you are correct; it was originally wrong. Figure card is revealed, suit and bonus cards are hidden).
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
The bonus cards are very cool ... I especially like all of the "feat sequences." You've definitely put together some cool stuff there and will allow folks to have some feats that otherwise get ignored.
jim
Thanks! I didn't want the feat sequences to be too specific (for instance, I considered a dual weapon fighting sequence or a missile weapon sequence but those would only assist a very limited range of PCs).
If you can think of other sequences, I'll add them in and probably remove some of the skill and/or alignment cards. I kind of ran out of steam last night.
I'm hoping to do one suit in the suit deck each night this week although that might be unrealistic...
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
This may be hard for you to assess without trying out the draft, but here goes.
After doing a dry-run last night, I found the bonus card experience not quite satsifying. Basically, most figures ended up with uninteresting bonus cards. Alignment cards for figures that didn't need them, sanctify on non-evil figures, minor skill or feat cards on the figures I really liked.
On the one hand, that's the intent of the bonus cards: to make a few figures more interesting than they otherwise would be. On the other hand, it has the related effect of making other figures less interesting than they should be.
It is a bit of a zero sum game but without effecting the basic purpose, I could still go through the bonus cards and perk them up a bit. Make the skill and feat bonuses larger perhaps, and make the alignment things more interesting (like make the sanctify effect a sanctify for evil creatures or a saint-hood for good creatures so that it was useful for any figure).
Thoughts?
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
I just re-read the bonus cards and I like them as they are. Maybe after a mock draft I'd think otherwise, but they seem good to me ... a few great things ... lots of good things. Although, making the cards such that they can be used by any character would seem to be a good thing ... having a 0 value bonus card would suck.
jim
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
Last edited by sivousplay; 4th June 2004 at 05:08 AM..
I just re-read the bonus cards and I like them as they are. Maybe after a mock draft I'd think otherwise, but they seem good to me ... a few great things ... lots of good things. Although, making the cards such that they can be used by any character would seem to be a good thing ... having a 0 value bonus card would suck.
jim
After further thought, I'm inclined to keep them the same. Let's at least do another trial run and see.
There are many combinations where they are basically zero effect though. But before I tweak things, let's just try things out.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Did a dry-run of the draft with Jm this weekend and also go Chris and Renee's opinions on the fgireu cards. Specifically on bonus cards, there are these changes:
All but the most powerful bonus cards were beefed up some.
The number of 'really interesting' bonus cards was increased by adding these cards:
Two wild cards (let you use them for any suit card)
Merged the sanctified and saint cards so that they are always useful regardless of the figure they are paired with
Two heirloom cards: give figure a 75000 GP item
also made made these changes to the rules:
Backup PCs cannot be firstborn
However, backup PCs can use their bonus card (this is a pretty big deal)
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Since we will be doing the bonus and suit cards face up now, I added a color-coded undertext to the bonus cards to make it easy to spot the "good" ones. The codes are green for realy good, yellow for okay and red for not so good. It's my personal bias but I think most will agree.
I did up the number of green cards so that there are 12, theoretically enough for two per player, assuming you can live with the figure. I increased the number of -1 ECL cards, the number of heirlooms and upped the XP bonus from 5% to 10%.
The links and image at the top of this thread should now point to the updated versions.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Atfer further thought and discussion, I think I will remove the 2 +10% XP cards. These cards are, for all practical purposes, the same as the -1 ECL cards at current level and we have plenty of those already.
I'm considering replacing these cards with some combination of the following. Let me know if you have any suggestions for card effects or preferences. I'll work this up Friday when I get back from holidays.
-2 ECL. On a non-saint human or elf, it is just -1
a super heirloom (value 150,000 to 250,000, haven't decided but at least double the other heirloom cards)
Foresight: +2 to hit, +2 to saves, +2 generic bonus to AC. Occasional visions as well.
A secret bonus, otherwise known as "the bonus to be named later". Seriously, this is something special to be worked out with the player. Think of your favorite movie where the hero/heroine has something special in their past and we'll work that (Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.)
I'm kind of inclined to the first two at the moment. Other suggestions/comments welcome.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
Atfer further thought and discussion, I think I will remove the 2 +10% XP cards. These cards are, for all practical purposes, the same as the -1 ECL cards at current level and we have plenty of those already.
I'm considering replacing these cards with some combination of the following. Let me know if you have any suggestions for card effects or preferences. I'll work this up Friday when I get back from holidays.
-2 ECL. On a non-saint human or elf, it is just -1
a super heirloom (value 150,000 to 250,000, haven't decided but at least double the other heirloom cards)
Foresight: +2 to hit, +2 to saves, +2 generic bonus to AC. Occasional visions as well.
A secret bonus, otherwise known as "the bonus to be named later". Seriously, this is something special to be worked out with the player. Think of your favorite movie where the hero/heroine has something special in their past and we'll work that (Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.)
I'm kind of inclined to the first two at the moment. Other suggestions/comments welcome.
The tweaks are interesing Marc. i think that there will aslways be some o sum effects. i like the first two options above.
__________________ Luck often will save a man,
If his courage holds.
Also, I'm thinking of turning some of the red cards (the weakest ones) into yellow cards (middling) as follows:
Add 2 super feat cards that grant a lot of feats
Add 2 super skills cards that grant a lot of skills
Add one free class card that lets you take a single level in a class (and no further, ever) at no XP or multiclass penalty
One DR 2/- card
Archon-blood: child of an archon. Counts as one extra stars card for purposes of determining abilities only.
The new cards look cool. I think its going to be hard to pick a bad portfolio.
Like i said earlier, the bonus carsd are just going to be something that is attacked to the cards. I'm not goign to worry about them until i see what on the table for the draft. it is possible that the right bonus card on teh right figrure could cause me to abondon my plans but if that happens i'm going for first born so watch out.
__________________ Luck often will save a man,
If his courage holds.
I like the new cards ... unless it's on a horrible figure ECL -2 would be my first pick ... although that 150K+ heirloom is going to be hard to ignore.
jim
__________________ "Get her? ... That was your plan? ... Get her?"
I like the new cards ... unless it's on a horrible figure ECL -2 would be my first pick ... although that 150K+ heirloom is going to be hard to ignore.
jim
I added these last night (but didn't update the pdf; sorry had to play Kotor )
There is one -2 ECL card. There are about 8 figures I wouldn't play even with that card. Otherwise, I'd probably take it given the chance.
The heirloom card is 250,000 GP. It's called 'heirloom artifact'. There is one of those but still several of the 75K heirlooms as well. That card, for me, would not be as attractive as a -1 ECL card although on one of my top 3-5 figures, it might be hard to pass up.
The other cards I added I consider "yellow", i.e., good but not as good as the heirlooms, -1 ECLs, etc. Personally, I'm only likely to be taking those if I'm picking in late in the second round and the green cards have fallen heavily on figures I don't care for. But others may have a different opinion. The green/yellow/red designation is my own personal thoughts on the value of the card, nothing more.
I'm guessing that few, if any, PCs will have red bonus cards but I guess you never know. Depends how much someone really likes a figure I suppose.
__________________ Marc
___
Certain death, small chance of success. What are we waiting for?
I know this was just a typo on the post here ... the rules on the web page describe it as I have.
(I corrected the original post- you are correct; it was originally wrong. Figure card is revealed, suit and bonus cards are hidden).
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