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<blockquote data-quote="camilaacolide" data-source="post: 6637564" data-attributes="member: 6777516"><p>Well, I just got home from my game. I've been DMing for years now, and after some time you naturally get this feeling of the things that are going to work with your group, and the things that aren't. I was expecting this card system to be a success. What I never expected was for it to be the mind-boggling overwhelming success that it was!</p><p></p><p>The players loved the cards. They never asked to be allowed to shuffle and draw the cards, they just assumed so and did this in my place during combat. I never once had to say "Your turn Thalon", they just celebrated when their card showed up and went straight to the description of the attack. They explicitly commented on the thrill of not knowing beforehand who was going to attack next, and the tension that build up until their card was drawn (again, during some of the draws, the group as a whole indeed celebrated when their card showed up). And they literally didn't allow me to take the cards back home when the game ended.</p><p></p><p>Technically speaking, there were two things that impressed me about the system (besides my players excitement):</p><p></p><p><strong>1.</strong> When I used the normal dice system, I rolled initiative for groups of monsters instead of individually, in order to reduce the overhead. With this card system, I can basically just pack one card for each monster in the fight with zero overhead (no rolling, no order tracking). There was a continuous back and forth between sides really made the combat a lot more dynamic. I didn't expect this to happen beforehand.</p><p></p><p><strong>2.</strong> The random combat order every round was great, and also with almost zero overhead (only the reshuffling). Combat became unexpected and surprising, and this naturally made everybody stay more alert than usual, making combat flow faster. Even more so when the very players were drawing cards and doing the reshuffling, and taking enemy cards out of the deck as combat went on. Which I loved because I had one less burden to manage.</p><p></p><p>To add fire to the discussion:</p><p></p><p>After trying the system firsthand, I can say that one of the things that really make it great is the speed and tension that it causes. During one combat, a player killed an enemy in the beginning of the round. When this enemy card showed up later in the round, the player tossed it across the table screaming "DEAD"!</p><p></p><p>This is something that wouldn't happen if the enemy card (or even the player's card) kept showing up multiple times. Each draw of the deck had value, no card was there uselessly. And in my humble opinion, I'd value this sensation much more than trying to be faithful to the rules by adding multiple cards. But, to each its own.</p><p></p><p>Fabio, thanks a lot for making my game much better!</p><p></p><p>-----</p><p></p><p>I printed a batch of 30 cards using the template I posted here. There were 5 PC heroes, 5 placeholder monsters, 5 faction information, and 15 NPCs/monsters for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen game. Some of them are below, together with some burned documents that the players found in the Dragon Hatchery.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]68800[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]68801[/ATTACH]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="camilaacolide, post: 6637564, member: 6777516"] Well, I just got home from my game. I've been DMing for years now, and after some time you naturally get this feeling of the things that are going to work with your group, and the things that aren't. I was expecting this card system to be a success. What I never expected was for it to be the mind-boggling overwhelming success that it was! The players loved the cards. They never asked to be allowed to shuffle and draw the cards, they just assumed so and did this in my place during combat. I never once had to say "Your turn Thalon", they just celebrated when their card showed up and went straight to the description of the attack. They explicitly commented on the thrill of not knowing beforehand who was going to attack next, and the tension that build up until their card was drawn (again, during some of the draws, the group as a whole indeed celebrated when their card showed up). And they literally didn't allow me to take the cards back home when the game ended. Technically speaking, there were two things that impressed me about the system (besides my players excitement): [B]1.[/B] When I used the normal dice system, I rolled initiative for groups of monsters instead of individually, in order to reduce the overhead. With this card system, I can basically just pack one card for each monster in the fight with zero overhead (no rolling, no order tracking). There was a continuous back and forth between sides really made the combat a lot more dynamic. I didn't expect this to happen beforehand. [B]2.[/B] The random combat order every round was great, and also with almost zero overhead (only the reshuffling). Combat became unexpected and surprising, and this naturally made everybody stay more alert than usual, making combat flow faster. Even more so when the very players were drawing cards and doing the reshuffling, and taking enemy cards out of the deck as combat went on. Which I loved because I had one less burden to manage. To add fire to the discussion: After trying the system firsthand, I can say that one of the things that really make it great is the speed and tension that it causes. During one combat, a player killed an enemy in the beginning of the round. When this enemy card showed up later in the round, the player tossed it across the table screaming "DEAD"! This is something that wouldn't happen if the enemy card (or even the player's card) kept showing up multiple times. Each draw of the deck had value, no card was there uselessly. And in my humble opinion, I'd value this sensation much more than trying to be faithful to the rules by adding multiple cards. But, to each its own. Fabio, thanks a lot for making my game much better! ----- I printed a batch of 30 cards using the template I posted here. There were 5 PC heroes, 5 placeholder monsters, 5 faction information, and 15 NPCs/monsters for the Hoard of the Dragon Queen game. Some of them are below, together with some burned documents that the players found in the Dragon Hatchery. [ATTACH=CONFIG]68800._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]68801._xfImport[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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