Scratch Ticket Stats Revisited

[Frostmarrow]

It could be free, promotional or added to other products. They could feature illustrations (faces from Wizards extended art catalogue) and they could even come with unique traits. I get that some people simply hate this idea but I don't care - I like to see what good could come from it. Maybe young players would like it and be intrigued by the hobby. God knows I've bought some pretty lame gaming stuff over the years - most of which at least have been fun in some way.

In the latest article on monsters it was mentioned that an 18 Strength didn't sound formidable. I thought "man, stat inflation has really spun out of control when the maximum result no longer sounds impressive."

(In game terms, we’re looking at an 18 Strength score. It might not seem like much, but giants only range from 19 for hill giants to 25 for storm giants, just like in 1st Edition AD&D.)

-So 18 sounds weak? My idea would put things into perspective. And what's so wrong with Wizards making a buck?

 

[GX.Sigma]

So 18 sounds weak?

Compared to humans (3-18) and other giants (19-25),


How would y'all feel about about randomized packs of NPCs/monsters (in card form)?

 

[Argyle King]

I like this idea, because I understand where it's coming from.

These allow for players to create characters away from the GM. With dice there's no record of them being actual rolls without the GM witnessing it. If these could be dirt cheap no more than 25 cents a piece, or able to buy 100 for $10.

But its possible then you'd have a player who just keep buying tickets until he got a good stat array. You can look at it as yay more money for producer, or you can put serial numbers on them and GMs could hand them out (and record serial numbers). I'm not that paranoid, but someone might be...

Or the other option of scratch tickets with 36 numbers on them.. Numbers generated using 4d6 drop lowest (for probability curve). Then the player just scratches off 6 boxes and presto stats. Again someone could buy more cards, but it would be less promising, since they could still mess up the scratch.

Interesting idea for a tool, that would be especially useful for official play. Then official play could use scratch cards to create characters instead of having to use arrays.

Maybe I am wrong, but I believe that is one of the benefits of standard arrays and point buy methods. ...everybody gets the same set of numbers or amount of points.

 

[ComradeGnull]

Maybe I am wrong, but I believe that is one of the benefits of standard arrays and point buy methods. ...everybody gets the same set of numbers or amount of points.

There's also the fact that there are lots of existing methods to establish that roles are 'fair'- you can always roll stats through Invisible Castle or RPOL or something if fair, verifiable rolls outside of the DM's presence are an issue.

Most games I see anymore either use point buy, or are old-school games where getting a random gimp with all 8's and then leveling him to level 18 through cowardice and innovative tactics are part of the fun. Don't understand who would use something like this.

It boils down to 'WotC should sell D&D cards'. We have Magic, we had D&D collectible cards in the 90's. I would think that if a D&D card product had the potential to really make revenue, WotC would be all over it like stink on a Thracian stench marmot- making money through the unholy union of fantasy gaming and tiny bits of cardboard is already their bread and butter.

 

[GX.Sigma]

It boils down to 'WotC should sell D&D cards'. We have Magic, we had D&D collectible cards in the 90's. I would think that if a D&D card product had the potential to really make revenue, WotC would be all over it like stink on a Thracian stench marmot- making money through the unholy union of fantasy gaming and tiny bits of cardboard is already their bread and butter.

There are D&D Fortune Cards. No idea who's buying them, but presumably they're making some money, or else they'd stop.

 

[ComradeGnull]

There are D&D Fortune Cards. No idea who's buying them, but presumably they're making some money, or else they'd stop.

Totally forgotten about the existence of these things (if I ever, in fact, knew about them). They seem like a much better match to a 'sell cards for D&D' proposition than the scratcher idea. I wonder what their sales have been like- they seem to have done multiple generations of them.

 

[Argyle King]

There are D&D Fortune Cards. No idea who's buying them, but presumably they're making some money, or else they'd stop.

I'm of the impression that they have more-or-less stopped. While there have been a few generations of them, I've mostly only seen them as an extra given away at conventions and similar events.

My experience is purely anecdotal, but they've performed very poorly here at the local gaming store.

How would y'all feel about about randomized packs of NPCs/monsters (in card form)?

So it would be like the random packs of minis, but without minis?


For me personally, I hate the idea and don't see any reason why I would buy it. I'm sure somebody out there would buy it though. Plenty of people bought the "official" pack of blue D&D dice which were sold at a higher price than if I were to just go to the local 5 and Below and buy some blue dice, and of comparable price, but poorer quality than the other packs of dice offered by the local gaming store here.

Honestly, I imagine there are people who would probably buy it. On a personal level, I don't see any reason why I would spend money on it. However, I also didn't see the point of buying the "official" power cards when I could simply buy index cards and write on them. All I can do is shrug and realize that I am not part of the target audience.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I'm of the impression that they have more-or-less stopped. While there have been a few generations of them, I've mostly only seen them as an extra given away at conventions and similar events.

They just released a new drow-themed set. :/

 

[Kinak]

This seems needlessly complicated. If you don't trust players to roll dice, have everyone use one of the other methods (arrays or point-buy).

And it, probably, doesn't solve the main problem I have with rolling: I DM long campaigns and my players don't like having their characters on different powerlevels due to rolling luck.

I've begun letting everyone roll up their six statistics and then have each player choose which array (theirs or another's) they want to use. So, if someone gets a crazy good array, everyone that wants it can use it.

Thanks to your idea, though, I'm considering rolling them up in advance and writing them on index cards so people have physical props they can look at.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Argyle King]

They just released a new drow-themed set. :/

Maybe their lack of appeal is a local issue?

The stores here haven't bothered to order any beyond the first two sets. I think the first set came packaged with Encounters material.