D&D 4E 4e - Power Cards (Full color, Heroic Tier, pdf)

[Archon of Light]

I made a small announcement about these already, but they're buried behind n-teen pages of another thread. But a few have managed to find them and the feedback has been considerably good, so I'm re-announcing it where others can find it.

The complete set of heroic tier power card can be found on this thread at Dragon Avenue. You can also find a set of wizard's illusion power cards from the recent Dragon article, Class Acts.

The design is a departure from many other commonly seen themes and trends done by others. There are no symbols, it is not a standard card size, and it is not considerate of your printer's ink. That said, the cards are very colorful and use both sides for game information. After struggling with getting both sides to line up perfectly, I finally decided to print both on the same page so they can be folded easily into a card.

The cards are not designed to appeal to everyone, so if you don't like them, don't worry about it. But for those of you who might be looking for something different, then these might be what you're looking for. Criticism and feedback are welcome. I would particularly like to hear everyone's experiences with actually printing and playing with them. I'm always looking for ways to improve. Enjoy.

UPDATE: I've added racial and feat (Channel Divinity) power cards on a seperate thread on DA. Any future related items will be posted there as long as space permits.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

seems shifty, using art from the phb. but on another note, i think the ranger cards are a tad too green.

They could use some work here and with alittle more polish they could be really awesome.

Sorry i don't want this to seem like a downer post...

 

[Archon of Light]

seems shifty, using art from the phb. but on another note, i think the ranger cards are a tad too green.

They could use some work here and with a little more polish they could be really awesome.

Sorry i don't want this to seem like a downer post...

Why is that shifty? Wait. Let me rephrase that... Why is that shifty when anyone else that used the art for, say character sheets (Shado's comes to mind), or anything else, it isn't? If anything, I wish I could have gotten a better quality scan (or more artisitic ability to reproduce them) for a clearer image, but these weren't too bad.

The ranger cards are the same green as all the other cards, so if you think they're "too green" then they all are. But the files are formatted for print optimization, not screen. Print one out and then tell me what you think because, trust me, they look a lot better when they're printed. Either way, that's still one person's opinion.

I don't mind the critique, but you're not really telling me anything. What exactly do you think could be done to improve them? At least tell me what you don't like about them. That might give me some clue about what could use improvement (unless it's just a matter of personal taste, which everyone is going to differ). And until you actually print a card to see what it looks like and use them at the game table (you can't use them while they're on your monitor), how can you really measure their quality, much less their value? If you have anything to add, I'll be more than happy to hear you out.

 

[bardolph]

I made a small announcement about these already, but they're buried behind n-teen pages of another thread. But a few have managed to find them and the feedback has been considerably good, so I'm re-announcing it where others can find it.

The complete set of heroic tier power card can be found on this thread at Dragon Avenue. You can also find a set of wizard's illusion power cards from the recent Dragon article, Class Acts.

The design is a departure from many other commonly seen themes and trends done by others. There are no symbols, it is not a standard card size, and it is not considerate of your printer's ink. That said, the cards are very colorful and use both sides for game information. After struggling with getting both sides to line up perfectly, I finally decided to print both on the same page so they can be folded easily into a card.

The cards are not designed to appeal to everyone, so if you don't like them, don't worry about it. But for those of you who might be looking for something different, then these might be what you're looking for. Criticism and feedback are welcome. I would particularly like to hear everyone's experiences with actually printing and playing with them. I'm always looking for ways to improve. Enjoy.

Absolutely ridiculous, but they look great, and I'm going to print up level 1 for all my PCs.

Here are some notes:

• The flavor text and keywords come up a little light on my Printer (Canon PIXMA MP450). A higher-contrast font would be better.
• On the front-side, the Level text is too close to the edge of the background. Should be a pixel or two higher.
• Same goes for the Power name, when it takes up two lines (example: Flames of Phlegethos).
• I noticed that the Warlord was missing class abilities, such as "Inspiring Word."

Time to buy some glue sticks!

 

[Archon of Light]

Absolutely ridiculous, but they look great, and I'm going to print up level 1 for all my PCs.

Here are some notes:

• The flavor text and keywords come up a little light on my Printer (Canon PIXMA MP450). A higher-contrast font would be better.
• On the front-side, the Level text is too close to the edge of the background. Should be a pixel or two higher.
• Same goes for the Power name, when it takes up two lines (example: Flames of Phlegethos).
• I noticed that the Warlord was missing class abilities, such as "Inspiring Word."

Time to buy some glue sticks!

Glad you like 'em and thanks for the feedback. I printed mine on an HP Deskjet 1400 series at 600dpi, so I figured not everyone might get the same results. Quality will depend on the printer model, among other things. I should see how 300dpi looks; probably not very suitable for these.

The green had the worst contrast in terms of color, which is why I changed the text to yellow. I'm assuming those came out easier to read than the red and grey. If that's the case, what colors would you suggest for those? I'm sure yellow would come out very strong against the red. Maybe white for the grey. Any other suggestions for green if yellow isn't looking too well?

I used an older version of Word to create the documents before converting them to pdf files. Unfortunately, due to either program constraints or my own limited expertise, I'm not able to position the text boxes perfectly to line everything up where I'd like them to be. (Trust me, it kills me not being able to do so. I'm a perfectionist and it took me quite a few tries to get them to where they are now and be happy with them.) If I can figure out some way to do so, I'll get right on it.

"Inspiring Word" is actually on the last page of the Warlord set. By the time I remembered to add it, it would've been a real pain to try and place it up at the front and move everything down a notch. But it's there.

I also recommend laminating them. It's cheaper than having to re-print them if they get bent, marked, stained, ripped, etc. Plus, you can use an erasable wet marker or something similar to make notes on them.

 

[bardolph]

Glad you like 'em and thanks for the feedback. I printed mine on an HP Deskjet 1400 series at 600dpi, so I figured not everyone might get the same results. Quality will depend on the printer model, among other things. I should see how 300dpi looks; probably not very suitable for these.

I took em to work and printed them out on our expensive color laser (using the waxy stuff) and they look super-gorgeous. Contrast is awesome all around.

The green had the worst contrast in terms of color, which is why I changed the text to yellow. I'm assuming those came out easier to read than the red and grey. If that's the case, what colors would you suggest for those? I'm sure yellow would come out very strong against the red. Maybe white for the grey. Any other suggestions for green if yellow isn't looking too well?

Yellow on green looks great, but the dark-green-on-green (Text: "At-Will Power"), dark-red-on-red, and dark-gray-on-gray all look faded and hard to read.

Granted, I did buy the cheaper color ink for my printer, so I guess that's the price I pay.

I used an older version of Word to create the documents before converting them to pdf files. Unfortunately, due to either program constraints or my own limited expertise, I'm not able to position the text boxes perfectly to line everything up where I'd like them to be. (Trust me, it kills me not being able to do so. I'm a perfectionist and it took me quite a few tries to get them to where they are now and be happy with them.) If I can figure out some way to do so, I'll get right on it.

Any chance I can get a copy of the Word doc? I'd love to print up some cards for various Channel Divinity feats and Racials. My email is arthur[at]arthurmilliken.com.

"Inspiring Word" is actually on the last page of the Warlord set. By the time I remembered to add it, it would've been a real pain to try and place it up at the front and move everything down a notch. But it's there.

Found it. Thanks.

I also recommend laminating them. It's cheaper than having to re-print them if they get bent, marked, stained, ripped, etc. Plus, you can use an erasable wet marker or something similar to make notes on them.

Heh, maybe if I get around to it. Right now, I'm only printing on an "as-needed" basis, so only level 1s for PCs in my gaming group. I'm sure I'll regret it as soon as I start seeing pizza sauce stains on the Paladin cards, but such is life...

 

[Nifft]

I only looked at one of the PDFs.

Your layout has only two cards per page? Isn't that a bit wasteful? I'm sure you could fit four per page with very minor adjustments.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Archon of Light]

I took em to work and printed them out on our expensive color laser (using the waxy stuff) and they look super-gorgeous. Contrast is awesome all around.

Great! I should probably 'market' these as high-quality prints so that everyone knows what to expect. I'll have to consider making lower-res versions for people who don't have access to higher quality printers and inks, or just aren't interested in the monetary investment. Like I said, these aren't for everyone.

Any chance I can get a copy of the Word doc? I'd love to print up some cards for various Channel Divinity feats and Racials.

I'm already working to get a batch of these uploaded this week using the same format. Paragon Tier will be done by the end of next month. (I doubt anyone's game is going to be at that level already, so no rush on it.) I may put up the Word docs somewhere once I've worked out all the bugs I wanted to work out of them, but I'm not ready to put them out for public consumption just yet.

Good luck with those, and let me know how they work at the game table. Take pictures, if you're able.

 

[Archon of Light]

Your layout has only two cards per page? Isn't that a bit wasteful? I'm sure you could fit four per page with very minor adjustments.

I'm a very efficient person. I don't like to waste space or effort needlessly. So despite what you're sure of, I cannot fit any more than two double-sided cards per page unless I alter the size of the cards themselves. Trust me, they're as compact as I'd like them to be without getting the text too small to read, or just redesigning the whole thing.

My suggestion is to recycle what doesn't get used.

 

[bardolph]

Good luck with those, and let me know how they work at the game table. Take pictures, if you're able.

I'm not really intending them for table use. More as a companion to character sheets. Each character gets an envelope with cards for whichever powers they know. They're all relative noobs without their own copy of the PHB, and most of them are playing pre-mades, so I figure the cards are a good way to remind them of their abilities, without requiring them to do lots of looking-up during the game.