Complete Psionic Power Cards

[Crothian]

Complete Psionic Cards

Psionics have always been an odd addition to the fantasy world. They have always seemed like an odd fit especially in the days of first edition. Now there has been more attention on how to fit them into ones game. They are still an odd fit for some people but it does seem that they are a bit more popular now. The use of the psionic cards will hopefully make using them easier for the groups that do.

The Complete Psionic Cards are another card based accessory from The Other Game Company. They have had monster cards and spell cards, both of which can really aid one in finding things quickly. The Psionic Cards is a PDF. It comes in the standard zip format in a file that is a little over two megs in size. Inside one finds eight pdfs and a small text file.

One of the things that separates the Psionic Cards from other PDFs is that it is designed to be printed out and not used on the screen. There is no art, there are no book marks. It is a serious of cards designed to be printed on both sides of a page and cut out for easy reference.

The product is pretty simple but really handy. Most of the pages will have nine different powers on them. Each PDF has a different class or way to organize the powers. The first PDF is the introduction and it has the printing instructions on it as well as the credits. It has a really nice color cover to it as well. The second PDF covers the powers of the Psion and the Wilder. Powers are listed by level first and then alphabetized. I found the cards really easy to print out and line up so that when cut the cards would have the same ability on the front and the back.

This is a good reference PDF for anyone that is going to be making use of the Psionic system. It will definitely cut down on the need to look through books to hunt down the definition of any of these abilities.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The powers are sorted by class - for instance, if you need just the level 1 psychic warrior powers, you just need to print out the first pages of the relevant document (03psywar.pdf in this case). All the power's parameters give only the relevant information for that class, and every cross-reverence was expanded - no power tells you to search other powers or spells for information anymore!

Seven PDFs in one ZIP (2.24 MB total):
- Introduction (12 pages, 9 oversized powers)
- Psion/Wilder (38 pages, 161 powers)
- Psion Disciplines (28 pages, 97 powers)
- Psychic Warrior (24 pages, 94 powers)
- Psionic Fist (22 pages, 89 powers)
- War Mind (22 pages, 89 powers)
- Psionic Spells (4 pages, 9 spells)

If possible, print out the Demo before purchase. If you don’t like the result of those pages, you won’t like the Complete Psionic Power Cards. For help and advice visit this product's message board

Gaming Groups License: you (the customer) may make free use of the Complete Psionic Power Cards in your gaming group (up to 8 people per purchase) - you may share the included documents anyway you want under those people, but not any further: outside of your gaming group the normal copyright laws apply.
For the average gaming group (5 people) that’s less than $1.10 per person for the Complete Psionic Power Cards.

All updates to the Complete Psionic Power Cards will be free for everybody who purchased them.

 

[GameWyrd]

Psionics are probably the most popular "minority" in D&D after the Drow. For D&D d20 we had the The Psionics Handbook early on in the life of the series. The SRD was updated to include the Expanded Psionics Handbook. There are also numerous third party Psionics products from the likes of Malhavoc and Mongoose.

There are a lot of individual psionic powers and it can be a real pain keeping track of them all. Complete Psionic Power Cards solves this problem with respect to the Wizards of the Cost psionic powers.

Psionic Cards are PDF creations which must be printed off, cut up and then - the tricky bit - aligned and stuck together in order to get the double-sided effect. You don't cut down the middle; you cut out the single card and then fold them down the centre. And what's on them? On the psionic cards you'll find summaries of the psionic powers in question. This means a player need only keep a small collection of cards near by and she'll have access to her psionic list. She'll have the rules from them too.

The Other Games Company is generous. You're allowed to buy one copy of the Complete Psionic Power Cards per gaming group and a gaming group can be up to eight players. I think that'll cover every sensible situation - even if you're running an exclusively psionic game.

The layout of the cards is good. There's a lot of information squeezed on to them and yet they're not too hard to read. There are guidelines to assist you cut the cards out. That may sound silly but it's frightfully helpful.

In fact there are many PDFs within the Complete Psionics Power Card bundle - an introduction and then one for each group of Psionic powers. It's another time saving assist. It also makes printing the right Psionic power cards out and only the right Psionic power cards out, a lot easier.

These sort of cards will not suit everyone. In some ways they're an extra layer of faff and in other ways they dumb down the game (I've always enjoyed either knowing the rule or reaching to a good looking book to leaf through loved pages to find the rule). On the other hand they help keep the roleplaying focus on the roleplaying and off the crunchy bits. It might have been hard to decide whether the power cards suit your style of play (or rather your group's style of play) but there's a generous demo from The Other Games Company.

As was the case with Complete Spell Cards there is a sample of blank cards in the PDF bundle. It's through these blank cards that you get your extra mile. If you want to fill in blank cards with your own psionic powers or, if you're up for the task, scribble in personal notes for third party powers then you can.

I quite like these cards. Okay, the idea isn't quite as novel as it was back for the spell cards and therefore not quite so interesting but it gains by being consistent. That The Other Game Company has kept faith in the product line helps to reassure me.

* This The Complete Psionic Power Cards review was first published at GameWyrd.