Swashbuckling Cards RETURN!

[Pbartender]

Not many, I shouldn't think, but I'm not very familiar with either of those systems. I'd be interested to hear what changes are necessary.

Well, to start off, in Spycraft there's no such thing as a standard action... All references to standard actions in the card wold change to "half action". Names of many skills and skill checks would have to be adjusted for Spycraft, since the skill list is much different than standard D&D. Other than that, benefits that refer to a feat name might need to be changed, since many of the Spycraft feats are different either in effect or name. All in all, the changes would be small, and most effect would work as-is.

For Iron Heroes, two main specific changes...

Hi There! Bye Now!
Play: Your turn
Effect: Gain the benefits of the spring attack feat this round.

"Spring attack" would need to be changed... It's a small part of a Feat Mastery Chain in Iron Heroes.

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and
hear the lamentations of their women.
Play: Your turn
Effect: You enter a barbarian rage, receiving all
benefits and penalties. You will be winded after the
rage ends.

There's no real barbarian rage... It's part of the berserker's "fury pool", and would need to be changed to reflect that.

I think most of the rest of them canbe used as-is for IH. Though... The usefulness of many of them shifts one way or another, due IH's reduced magic. Anything of them that help with poison, disease or ability score damage, for example, become far more valuable than they would be in D&D.

 

[barsoomcore]

The usefulness of many of them shifts one way or another, due IH's reduced magic. Anything of them that help with poison, disease or ability score damage, for example, become far more valuable than they would be in D&D.

Yeah, I figured that the usefulness would change -- but I find that balance issues aren't, uh, issues, for the most part. As some cards become more useful, others become less, and anyone, it isn't a big deal -- when one card returns a character to FULL health after any amount of damage, you gotta believe that balance doesn't really enter into it.

 

[Pbartender]

Yeah, I figured that the usefulness would change -- but I find that balance issues aren't, uh, issues, for the most part. As some cards become more useful, others become less, and anyone, it isn't a big deal -- when one card returns a character to FULL health after any amount of damage, you gotta believe that balance doesn't really enter into it.

Oh, I agree... I was just noting that the value of certain cards would change.

 

[Cheiromancer]

An excellent resource... which got me interested in your hot pursuit rules (the bundle), so it netted you a sale as well!

 

[barsoomcore]

An excellent resource... which got me interested in your hot pursuit rules (the bundle), so it netted you a sale as well!

Gee, that wasn't planned AT ALL. No sir.

 

[Captain Howdy]

These look awesome, I will try them in my game this week. Thanks!

(Bump for great justice)

 

[Agent Oracle]

(bump for utility)

 

[Ion]

I started using them in last week's game and to quote a player:

Oh man. The swashbuckling cards were freaking great. They totally added to the experience.

 

[James Heard]

I think I was first introduced to an idea like this in a Champions or Mekton game a friend of mine was running back in 97 or so. They're really fun, especially when you're encouraged to use the cards and cycle through them often during the game. I think he was heavily influenced by Masterbook, but he made his cards while loafing at work.

I think my favorite card was the "Cue Theme Music" card, which basically meant you loaded up the CD player with a song you associated with your character and got enormous bonuses because of the implied video montage of your vivid butt-kicking. You could also use it cue other player's music though, or even off-stage (and sometimes deceased) NPC themes that we'd gotten familiar with and "summon" them into the scene in the vein of all great cheesy episodic anime television and comic books.

"Wait, isn't that the music for..."
And then someone would show up, or else you'd bust out ninja-style with weapon in hand, etc. It was brilliant.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

barsoomcore, I used these for the first time last session. Unfortunately it also coincided with a session that we almost didn't have a combat. The party basically finished a dungeon crawl and were trying up all of the loose ends in relation to it, none of which resulted in a combat. I added a combat in at the end of the session because the players were kind of itching for it.

I felt kinda bad, I gave them these cool cards to try out and then proceeded to not give a chance to use them. I think 2 cards total got used for the session due to the lack of any combat. The players were very intruiged by them and tried very hard to bring them into play though.

I took out a lot of the really unbalanced cards (such as completely heal all damage taken as well as most of the last 3 pages) so that the cards don't totally dominate the game. I also put in the proviso that in order to use the card they have to roleplay out how what the card achieves happened.

So far they look like they will add some fun to the game though. Good work barsoomcore!

Olaf the Stout