Power cards: Why?

[Guyanthalas]

Do you guys allow laptops / computers at your game table?

-- Hirahito

I've read a lot of mixed reviews on this, but in our gaming experience it really hinders the game play. We have a few guys who are ADD (The attention kind, not 2nd Edition), and if they have something in front of them that can distract them when its not there turn, it can be a real pain to get them focused again on there turn. This is probably mitigated if turns are happening in quick succession, but even if it takes a player 3 minutes to perform all there actions, in a group of six thats 15 minutes before your turn rolls around again, and that doesn't even count the monsters!
I do agree that electronics add a lot to the game, but I use them exclusivly behind the scenes and bring the final product to the table in paper form. But hell, I guess i'm just a traditionalist.

To get back on topic: We try to avoid playing characters that are absent that evening, but I do think the earlier poster has a point. If you need that player in the combat, it would be nice that anyone can pick up his/her power cards and start throwing dice.

 

[Paul Strack]

I've been using custom character sheets with power lists and boxes to mark off powers as they are used (circles for encounter powers, squares for dailies). The powers lists have all the attack numbers and damage pre-computed, with summaries of special effects. It's all done with spreadsheets which are easy to update as people level up. That works great for my group, including the players that are not very mathematically inclined. I admit that I've never tried the cards, but they seem like a lot of clutter to me.

 

[Kanos44444]

I don't see how they are clutter. It's not like a Collectable Card Game where you have to lay them out. Keep them in a pile and toss them into a "used" pile on the table. When an encounter finishes take them back.

 

[Nytmare]

My last session was the first one I ran with power cards. Two of my players used our existing homemade sheets, the other two were playing with the first draft of our power cards.

Overall, the players using the cards preferred them, and, as they explained it, it was like having a character sheet without the "useless" bits of information cluttering the sheet. They were able to either lay out, or keep the cards that they needed in their hand, and ignore the cards that were either not pertinent to the task at hand or that had already been used.

 

[cmbarona]

I don't see how they are clutter. It's not like a Collectable Card Game where you have to lay them out. Keep them in a pile and toss them into a "used" pile on the table. When an encounter finishes take them back.

I have to agree with this. It took me a while to figure out exactly how best to use them, but I eventually started keeping all of my cards in a single pile, very close at hand so others don't mess with them. I also made an index card-sized "character sheet" to keep at the top of my pile, so it all works very well.

 

[Thanee]

Do you guys allow laptops / computers at your game table?

Probably, but I wouldn't want it there.

Maybe when I get me one of those tiny 10" laptops eventually, but a typical 15.4" one is simply too big.

As DM I could see a use in there, especially with PDF rulebooks (I prefer books, though; and I'm certainly a highly computer-savvy person), but as a player... I don't think so. It would just be a source of irritation.

Of course, in 20 years we will probably laugh at statements like this and wonder how people ever managed to enjoy their games without all the electronic helpers.

Bye
Thanee

 

[C_M2008]

A really useful thing with Power cards is to make sort of a "scrabble tile rack".

Take a sheet of card stock and fold to make a triangle but make one of the "edge" sides too long. Flip the extra length up over the face and staple the edges of the "flap" to complete. A cheap, space saving way to have your cards at the table in an easy to sort way.

I second the magic cards and sleeves method, I use the ander cards on paper and just use magic lands as backing, works great.

 

[Thanee]

Make sure to check out my Power Card Set!

I was looking at your site earlier, and there was a mentioning of a PDF with the cards, but I didn't find any suitable links (only the MSE ones and the site navigation)... have you removed them or am I just blind?

Bye
Thanee

P.S. "A4" is the standard paper size in germany.

 

[WhatGravitas]

P.S. "A4" is the standard paper size in germany.

In Britain too. AFAIK in a lot of places that are not USA, even Canada!

Cheers, LT.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

So I got a chance to use power cards tonight, and they were absolutely awesome this time around. It really did come down to the space available. In my last session I had virtually no room to move around my stuff in (I could barely cram my closed folder into the playing area), meaning laying out power cards wasn't really an option. However, when I had a chance to spread them out a little and just flip over used encounter/daily ones it went MUCH more smoothly. It probably also helped that I was more familiar with my powers this time around. Printing them on index cards rather than using "normal" paper also made a noticeable difference, as did changing up the power card style. Thanks for the suggestions guys! It really greatly increased my enjoyment of the session.

In Britain too. AFAIK in a lot of places that are not USA, even Canada!

Cheers, LT.

((EDIT: OK, not quite correct. see post below me.) Pretty much everywhere that isn't the US has A4 as a standard paper size. It's also related to them using the metric system, given that A1 is a 1m x 1m sheet of paper and getting smaller proportionally from there (look up paper sizes on wikipedia).