Acquisitions Inc. switching to Daggerheart

[Aldarc]

They are purely optional but also highly utilitarian. They help players who are bad at reading sheets and/or keeping options available in their heads. They are an accessibility tool, not a system requirement, if that makes sense.

Agreed. I have really come around to the use of cards in TTRPGs, particularly since Dragonbane. Skeptic to believer. Cards have a tactile element that really helps some players, particularly when playing TTRPGs where so much of the game is "abstracted."

 

[EthanSental]

Is/was Draw Steel a fad since we’ve been talking about fads in this thread. Has it been getting any more discussion in the larger rpg realms than ENworld that I don’t actively participate in? Just curious. As for Daggerheart, I may watch some actual plays and see what I think before I buy it and it’s sits on my shelf cause our group doesn’t feel like trying it.

Edit - more of a dagger heart related thread, not a draw steel, sorry for the off subject question.

 

[Parmandur]

Is that a problem with Daggerheart? That there are a lot of players who can't read?

Sorry, you walked into that one. Happy Tuesday.

That's a problem with all TTRPGs, are you kidding.

 

[zakael19]

Agreed. I have really come around to the use of cards in TTRPGs, particularly since Dragonbane. Skeptic to believer. Cards have a tactile element that really helps some players, particularly when playing TTRPGs where so much of the game is "abstracted."

Yup, considering how unbelievably huge all the deck-builder games are I'm always a little surprised that more RPGs haven't done a good job integrating that sort of thing. 4e tried, 5e has had spell cards for a while (but there's just so many of them). I think they work especially with with DH's intentional design of limited "load out" + Vault as a mechanic of play. It's not just an "accessibility" thing, it helps track everything in a clean fashion as you level up and want to shuffle abilities around.

Not required, but nice to be included in a very reasonably priced core set (instead of how much Wizard was charging for each spell card box).

Edit: in fact, shades of Gloomhaven's design there.

 

[Parmandur]

They are purely optional but also highly utilitarian. They help players who are bad at reading sheets and/or keeping options available in their heads. They are an accessibility tool, not a system requirement, if that makes sense.

Yeah, still not really appealing to me, personally, compared to a character sheet.

 

[Reynard]

Yup, considering how unbelievably huge all the deck-builder games are I'm always a little surprised that more RPGs haven't done a good job integrating that sort of thing. 4e tried, 5e has had spell cards for a while (but there's just so many of them). I think they work especially with with DH's intentional design of limited "load out" + Vault as a mechanic of play. It's not just an "accessibility" thing, it helps track everything in a clean fashion as you level up and want to shuffle abilities around.

Not required, but nice to be included in a very reasonably priced core set (instead of how much Wizard was charging for each spell card box).

Edit: in fact, shades of Gloomhaven's design there.

Having cards for reference is not deckbuilding.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, still not really appealing to me, personally, compared to a character sheet.

They don't have to appeal to you. It isn't like they cost extra. My point is people that use "ew cards" as a point against DH are wrong.

 

[zakael19]

Having cards for reference is not deckbuilding.

No, but people like cards. And DH has a little bit of a deck building mechanic built in, so it’s even more natural to have physical objects.

 

[Parmandur]

They don't have to appeal to you. It isn't like they cost extra. My point is people that use "ew cards" as a point against DH are wrong.

My point was that it was interesting to hear from somebody who had a similar distaste to me who has reluctantly enjoyed it in practice.

It does seem to me that are more elegant solutions further upstream in the design process: never heard of anyone making "Skill cards" for games such as 5E, Call of Cthulu, Traveller, etc. Might be a better design basis than Gygaxian Spells/Powers.

 

[kermit4karate]

They don't have to appeal to you. It isn't like they cost extra. My point is people that use "ew cards" as a point against DH are wrong.

I don't really like cards with my TTRPGs either. I get the slight aversion. They don't make me say, "ew," but they've never appealed to me as a side resource, neither the class cards, magic item or monster sets.

Cards for deckbuilding games are one thing, but I've never purchased a card-based resource pack for a TTRPG ever.

I recognize that it doesn't make sense. I just don't like mixing my RPG book games with cards.