Using cards in your game?
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
I hand out cards for magic items. For these, I use the nifty illustrated cards put out by Paizo (Item Pack 1). I bought the deck at my FLGS for $10. However, my players have had trouble using them effectively because they don't know where to put them. So they are sometimes forgotten at home. :\ I think I need to get some clear plastic card holders with multiple sleeves (the kind that can be put into a 3-ring notebook) for each character. That way they have someplace central where all the cards can go.
I also use character and monster cards for initiative order and basic stats. For these, I use the free printable cards provided by The Game Mechanics. I have found these to be *very* useful in keeping track of the initiative order and keeping the action flowing.
I think using Monopoly money to represent gp is an excellent idea! Accounting errors are easy to make in D&D. This idea would really reduce that a lot. Thanks Morrus!
The next thing I'd like to do is maybe print out spell cards for casters who need to memorize. That way, when they memorize spells, they would take the cards corresponding to the spells they have memorized. Then, when they cast the spell, they would hand back a card. This would help to reduce errors when an encounter goes over to another session. ("Did I cast 2 or 3 Magic Missiles last week. I can't remember.")
At Origins, I saw a vendor selling poker chips for the most common summoned creatures that included stats and could be used in lieu of an appropriate miniature. I was out of money, so I didn't buy them, but I think they could be useful, too.
I also use character and monster cards for initiative order and basic stats. For these, I use the free printable cards provided by The Game Mechanics. I have found these to be *very* useful in keeping track of the initiative order and keeping the action flowing.
I think using Monopoly money to represent gp is an excellent idea! Accounting errors are easy to make in D&D. This idea would really reduce that a lot. Thanks Morrus!
The next thing I'd like to do is maybe print out spell cards for casters who need to memorize. That way, when they memorize spells, they would take the cards corresponding to the spells they have memorized. Then, when they cast the spell, they would hand back a card. This would help to reduce errors when an encounter goes over to another session. ("Did I cast 2 or 3 Magic Missiles last week. I can't remember.")
At Origins, I saw a vendor selling poker chips for the most common summoned creatures that included stats and could be used in lieu of an appropriate miniature. I was out of money, so I didn't buy them, but I think they could be useful, too.
Aeric
Explorer
I played in a group a few years back whose DM kept index cards with all of the PCs' stats on them. He also had cards for monsters and NPCs. When we got into combat, we would roll initiative and he would shuffle the deck of cards which included our PCs and our opponents. As each person took their turn, he would take their card out and put it at the bottom of the deck. It saved us a few seconds at the beginning of each combat, but that was about it.
In the last campaign with my current group, the players created cards with all of the bonuses from certain buff spells, bardic music, etc., that saw common use in the game. In theory, it's a great idea, but I'm not sure if it helped all that much. Then again, I was the DM and terribly organized myself, so I'm probably the worst person to ask.
In the last campaign with my current group, the players created cards with all of the bonuses from certain buff spells, bardic music, etc., that saw common use in the game. In theory, it's a great idea, but I'm not sure if it helped all that much. Then again, I was the DM and terribly organized myself, so I'm probably the worst person to ask.
Jason Bulmahn
Adventurer
Menexenus said:
That is exactly what we do with them here in the office, and we put our character sheets in the bit one pocket holders and put them in the same binder.
Jason Bulmahn
Item Card Guru
GwydapLlew
First Post
IuztheEvil said:
I saw how you did that at Origins and it sold me on the concept. I'm doing it for my BBEG at the very least these days (since as mentioned above, my players don't seem to take to the idea) and it's speeding things up considerably.
Festivus
First Post
I swear by the spell cards fro TOGC, wonderful product. The new status cards are on my to buy list as well. Great idea for the monster cards.
Now, for money I bought these cheap plastic coins for kids to learn how to count money, but I think I am going to go with your monopoly money idea as well as it really clears things up. Question, what denominations do you assign to the money? GP? If so how do you handle change?
For items, I bought the Game Mastery Item Pack from Paizo, they are really nice looking and fit nicely in a 9 card CCG sheet for storage in a binder... however I found it was better to just create slips or paper or 3x5 cards that have all the stats on the card. I use the Game Mastery cards for unidentified items only, and then once IDed I have a special PDF template I setup for magic items that I hand out. If you lose the paper, you lost the item.
The last thing is I always prepare a initiative card for all encounters as well as the players for use during the game. Having the most vital stats available on the card in order of init is wonderful, makes combat go much faster. I use the cards from the Game Mechanics and fill them in myself. I'll have to look at TOGC's monster cards, might save a bit of prep time that way.
Also, any of my cards that are intended to be written on get the scotch tape trick applied. This way they last a lot longer between reprinting.
Now, for money I bought these cheap plastic coins for kids to learn how to count money, but I think I am going to go with your monopoly money idea as well as it really clears things up. Question, what denominations do you assign to the money? GP? If so how do you handle change?
For items, I bought the Game Mastery Item Pack from Paizo, they are really nice looking and fit nicely in a 9 card CCG sheet for storage in a binder... however I found it was better to just create slips or paper or 3x5 cards that have all the stats on the card. I use the Game Mastery cards for unidentified items only, and then once IDed I have a special PDF template I setup for magic items that I hand out. If you lose the paper, you lost the item.
The last thing is I always prepare a initiative card for all encounters as well as the players for use during the game. Having the most vital stats available on the card in order of init is wonderful, makes combat go much faster. I use the cards from the Game Mechanics and fill them in myself. I'll have to look at TOGC's monster cards, might save a bit of prep time that way.
Also, any of my cards that are intended to be written on get the scotch tape trick applied. This way they last a lot longer between reprinting.
Festivus said:
I've decided to publish some D&D currency sometime soon (card-based).
What I do now it use Monopoly money as GPs. I also have another set of "Easy Learning Centre" money which I uses as thousands of GPs.
I have a bunch of toy plastic coins which are SPs. And I ruled anything less than an SP out of my game as being far too anal and tedious to be worth worrying about!
megamania
Hero
second ed had spell cards which I used to use and the psionic cards. I still use the 1990-1993 trading cards that TSR used to show NPC's appearances and sometimes creatures. Recently I used these for a "Deck of Events" minor artifact I created.
I introduced my two kids to 3rd ed recently and I am using cards with drawings of weapons and items on these. I thought about money but thought it would be childish but maybe not.....
Visual aids are handy and if done right can make everyone's game and gaming experience better.
el-remmon the cards look VERY good. Two thumbs up.
I introduced my two kids to 3rd ed recently and I am using cards with drawings of weapons and items on these. I thought about money but thought it would be childish but maybe not.....
Visual aids are handy and if done right can make everyone's game and gaming experience better.
el-remmon the cards look VERY good. Two thumbs up.
Merkuri
Explorer
I just had this image of a character being represented not by a character sheet, but by a deck of cards, having a card for each of his feats/abilities, for each of his items, each of his spells, any effects or buffs, and one to go on top that has name, race, ability scores, classes, etc. The cards would be color-coded based on what they were (effect, item, special abilities, etc.) and would have the name written on the top so you could fan the cards to quickly see what you have available. Item cards could be swapped when the actual items were traded or sold. Spell cards could be turned over or discarded when they were used. And all cards could be examined closely to read the rules regarding that item/ability/spell/whatever. And at the end of the day the player could slip the cards into a box or wrap a rubber band around them for safe keeping.
It sounds cool to me, but I could imagine there would be some problems with it. I can't imagine how many cards this would end up being for the average character, but it would probably get bigger as the characters go up in level. And some cards might need to be changed as the game went on, things like hit points and temporary ability scores. To keep from making new cards each week you'd need a way to write on the cards that wasn't permanent but wouldn't get smudged or erased if the cards were heavily handled.
Of course, I usually play online so cards won't do me much good. I wish there was a better way to trade items online than just telling the other player, "Here, take my +1 Longbow," and trusting him to write it on his sheet. I keep track of treasure and such in my group, and I just recently realized that we lost a +1 Longbow that we'd been keeping as a spare. We just went through a massive gear-exchange (we're playing through the WLD, and we've gotten to our first and possibly last chance to actually buy items!) and while I know the +1 Longbow wasn't sold I don't think anyone has it on their sheet. It's gone into limbo. That wouldn't happen if there were physical (or even digital) items that could be passed around in lieu of real items.
It sounds cool to me, but I could imagine there would be some problems with it. I can't imagine how many cards this would end up being for the average character, but it would probably get bigger as the characters go up in level. And some cards might need to be changed as the game went on, things like hit points and temporary ability scores. To keep from making new cards each week you'd need a way to write on the cards that wasn't permanent but wouldn't get smudged or erased if the cards were heavily handled.
Of course, I usually play online so cards won't do me much good. I wish there was a better way to trade items online than just telling the other player, "Here, take my +1 Longbow," and trusting him to write it on his sheet. I keep track of treasure and such in my group, and I just recently realized that we lost a +1 Longbow that we'd been keeping as a spare. We just went through a massive gear-exchange (we're playing through the WLD, and we've gotten to our first and possibly last chance to actually buy items!) and while I know the +1 Longbow wasn't sold I don't think anyone has it on their sheet. It's gone into limbo. That wouldn't happen if there were physical (or even digital) items that could be passed around in lieu of real items.
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