Purple Index Cards: On-the-Fly Setting and Plot Collaboration

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Update from my group:

Last week I discovered that the deck had grown to unwieldy proportions, and I had been realizing that my players had been asking often to trade in the more skill based and story cards when we were in dungeon sessions.

My solution, split the cards into roleplaying and combat decks, and add a few more combat cards to even the number of cards out in each deck. Each session, I will be telling my players to draw two cards from one deck, and one from the other, depending on whether I expect the session to go more roleplaying or combat oriented. When players draw new cards during the session (I have special rules for when they draw cards, and some cards can be traded for more cards - at a price) they can choose to draw from either deck. As I know my group is on average more combat focussed I was sure to put some of the more powerful cards in the roleplaying deck.

As my deck has grown a lot (just over individual cards [EDIT: 200] now) since the last time I put up the download file, I'll be updating it for this thread soon.

 

[SabreCat]

As my deck has grown a lot (just over individual cards now) since the last time I put up the download file, I'll be updating it for this thread soon.

Just over how many? Looks like the number was accidentally omitted there.

My own's at an even 150, though there are a number of suggestions from the thread I have yet to tweak and integrate.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Woops, that's supposed to be just over 200, looks like I didn't update my post after I started counting.

Edit:
Here's my current Deck of Cards, split into Combat and Story decks. The two decks are separated by the images for card backs I just put together; using the D&D dragon ampersand logo for combat, and the classic drama masks for the story deck. There are cards that are repeated in both decks but you'll find several new cards not in text in this thread, but possibly too many to copy into the thread.

View attachment Roleplaying Cards.doc

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Bumped, because I realized my updating of my last post wouldn't show up as a change to any of the people already reading this thread and using the cards at their table.

 

[Jack99]

This is pretty cool. I definitely need to try it out at the table.

 

[koesherbacon]

Woops, that's supposed to be just over 200, looks like I didn't update my post after I started counting.

Edit:
Here's my current Deck of Cards, split into Combat and Story decks. The two decks are separated by the images for card backs I just put together; using the D&D dragon ampersand logo for combat, and the classic drama masks for the story deck. There are cards that are repeated in both decks but you'll find several new cards not in text in this thread, but possibly too many to copy into the thread.

View attachment 49501

How do you recommend printing these? They're awesome!

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

They're sized so they should print 2 to a 3x5" index card. The borders are a little tight, so make sure its within your printer's range.
My printer can only do 3x5 from the manual feed slot, so printing the entire deck can be time consuming to print one at a time. Once you've got your card text side printed out, flip the cards over then print them using the images provided for the card backs. Depending on how easy it is to feed 3x5s into your printer, you may find that the text on some cards come out a tiny bit crooked. Try printing a few practice cards to get the hang of how to best print them in your machine.

After that, fold each card in half and cut with scissors or on a cutting board with an Exacto-Knife. I also recommend cutting a little bit off each corner, it makes shuffling the deck easier and results in fewer paper cuts to your fingers.

 

[SabreCat]

Objection!

Play this card and present a new piece of information that contradicts or undercuts a statement just spoken or narrated. Your rendition becomes the more accurate description of events.

Gain Minion XP,
or Monster XP for a particularly startling or clever turnabout.​

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Update from my game last night: the players like the split combat/drama decks, and I had a little flash of inspiration. I already knew that these cards were a substitute for the mechanics of fate points in the FATE based rpgs, they reward players (with xp or combat bonuses) for extra description and roleplaying, or for putting their characters in more trouble, all under their control for the majority. What I was missing from FATE were compels.

In FATE, characters have Aspects; words or phrases that describe their character and the sort of story they want their PC to be involved in. The GM may offer a bribe of a Fate point to the player to get the PC in deeper trouble. When they trigger off a PC's aspects, the bribes are called Compels.

So last night during my game one of my players said "Wouldn't it be funny if I ..." and I immediately said, "Well if you do that, I'll give you a free draw from both decks." I think in the future I'll be offering more bribes like this, to players that I know would like more cards, but aren't as likely to play the cards they have that would cause more complications or damage them in some way.

These cards altogether are very similar to FATE mechanics, but more structured than Fate points, and couched in more gamist terms. The combination of them with D&D I have found is more satisfying to me than just playing FATE (mostly Dresden Files for my groups of players), as my players weren't all that narrativist, and I was usually very frustrated with the conflicts in FATE.

 

[SabreCat]

My campaign, after our now-customary inter-tier hiatus, is about to begin the third part of its trilogy. Given how powerful the purple cards have been in establishing the game's tone, I thought I'd craft some cards specifically for the epic tier, to help give the story a mythic feel not always supported by the mechanics as written. Here are the first twenty I've come up with.

Notes:
1) Drawing on the suggestions of several folks in this thread, I've started splitting cards out into combat/noncombat decks. Not sure yet how the draw system will work, but probably draw two from each at the start of the session, keep one of each.

2) I'm thinking I'll weave these in to the already established card set, while weeding out some of the cards with too humdrum of effects for the tier. I've condensed the skill check-related cards down to generic ones; not sure if I'll stick with that as is, or maybe break them out to physical/mental/social, or seed more than one copy of each of these into the deck. The old ones were way too situational.

3) The XP awards aren't explicit on these. I'm thinking of using a generic system where you always get minion XP for playing a card, which can upgrade to Monster XP if you use entertaining description or cause more trouble for yourself/the party, or Elite XP if you do both. Saves space, and that was typically what I was doing anyway (if maybe a little more generous, but that's OK by me).

Thoughts? Ideas for more epic-level card effects?