Suit Cards

[Haltherrion]

Here's my thinking on the suit cards:

We have "crunchy" stuff that drafts typically assign and we have RP stuff. In general, I tried to set up the suit cards so that for the most part, the number of cards you have determines "crunchy" things and the cards themselves are more RP things.

Reasoning: crunchy stuff affects game balance and it is easier to control that through of cards a player has since if you have a lot of one suit you cannot have a lot of any other suit. And the RP stuff takes some text description which fits nicely on a card.

Currently the Hammer & Swords cards violate that principle which is one of the problems. I'm going to rework them tonight so that the cards will specify awards, orders, etc. and not crunchy things as they do now (feats and skills).

Crunchy things:
Hero points, stats, gold, skills, feats, heirlooms, dragon touched, firstborn, cohort ECL, income, magic items.

RP stuff:
renown, birth, family, titles, alignment, friends, foes, orders, awards, cohorts, familiars, special mounts.

Thoughts? Both as a general principle and the specifics of the suit cards themselves?

Marc

 

[Haltherrion]

I'm going to change the Hammer & Sword cards:

• Number of cards determines starting amount of money and how powerful a prime magic item can be.
• Cards themselves will provide portfolio benefits, such as having 3 allies and one foe insteaed of 2 and 2, or changing the alignment of one portfolio character, or reduced XP penalty for playing both your prime and backup PC, etc.

Also, all suit cards will have a bonus that applies if the player takes the figure associated with that card. These bonuses will range from minor ("endurance feat") to major ("-1 to ECL if ECL>0) to other (like "any alignment").

Marc

 

[sivousplay]

I'm going to change the Hammer & Sword cards:

• Number of cards determines starting amount of money and how powerful a prime magic item can be.
• Cards themselves will provide portfolio benefits, such as having 3 allies and one foe insteaed of 2 and 2, or changing the alignment of one portfolio character, or reduced XP penalty for playing both your prime and backup PC, etc.

Also, all suit cards will have a bonus that applies if the player takes the figure associated with that card. These bonuses will range from minor ("endurance feat") to major ("-1 to ECL if ECL>0) to other (like "any alignment").

Marc

I really like the new idea on H&S ... 3 allies / 1 foe kinda stuff is very cool ... as I think about it, how would something like that actually work in the game? Clearly, we'll all have more foes/allies than those from the portfolio. So, what benefits/negatives are there to having more less foes in our portfolio?

Sorry to say I like something and then nag you about it.
jim

 

[Haltherrion]

I really like the new idea on H&S ... 3 allies / 1 foe kinda stuff is very cool ... as I think about it, how would something like that actually work in the game? Clearly, we'll all have more foes/allies than those from the portfolio. So, what benefits/negatives are there to having more less foes in our portfolio?

Sorry to say I like something and then nag you about it.
jim

Time will tell how well the friends and foes work out. It is my intent to draw heavily on the foes in the scenarios but these sorts of things have a way of being forgotten.

On the friends, it is more the player's responsibility to draw these in. Therefore, it would help if you made your friends both useful and accessible.

 

[sivousplay]

that's cool ... i have no problem w/ it being up to the player to derive any real benefit from it, because as you said, these types of things do tend to be forgotten.

jim

 

[Haltherrion]

Gems Suit

I worked up the gems suit tonight. Ultimately, all the suit cards will be in one pdf (500KB with just gems). Right now, that's the only one done.

I've made these changes to the suit cards:

• Changed the Laurel Wreath suits to "Swords"
• Changed the Sword & Hammer suit to "Gems"
• Changed gems so that it modifies your portfolio.
• Reorganized the suit card pages a bit to simplify.
• Changed the way gem cards determine how you can spend your money on magic items.

 

[Haltherrion]

Stars and Swords Suits

I worked up the Stars and Swords suits tonight.

Suits cards page.

Also added a page with notes for each of the suit cards which provides more information on how to use the cards.

PDf here.

(I did notice the much/must typo on the Stars card & and/any on the Swords card above but send me any other typos you find.)

 

[sivousplay]

I like the mix and balance of the cards ...

The Gems are the coolest individual cards for altering the "game play" aspects of your character, but have the least interesting "bulk effect" since they are associated w/ starting money.

The Swords & Stars have a lot more RP card effects, but have much more interesting "bulk effects" because they alter Hero Points and Character Stats.

All in all a very good job ... making it harder for me to decide which cards to collect.

jim

 

[Haltherrion]

I like the mix and balance of the cards ...

The Gems are the coolest individual cards for altering the "game play" aspects of your character, but have the least interesting "bulk effect" since they are associated w/ starting money.

The Swords & Stars have a lot more RP card effects, but have much more interesting "bulk effects" because they alter Hero Points and Character Stats.

All in all a very good job ... making it harder for me to decide which cards to collect.

jim

I'm trying hard to make all the suits interesting. Time will tell

I did make the Swords & Stars suits lighter on their face effects since their count (aka 'bulk') effects are pretty potent. (And vice versa for the gems cards).

I should have the Dragon suit posted tonight. It won't look too different from the previous incarnation in style (some dragon items, some dragon friend/foes, a possible dragon companion, etc.)

 

[Haltherrion]

Dragon Suit

The Dragon suit is done now.

I also tweaked the Stars and Dragon's effects (re: number of cards) to try to make the suit a bit more attractive. I upped the stats in the Stars suit and added a star-sign thing (which is in itself pretty minor).

The pdf a few posts up should have all four suits now.