Using Index Cards for PC gear

[elbandit]

Hmmmm

In my D&D game I give the players magic item cards for every potion, magical item or unusual they find. On the card it lists a discription and gives the abilities and saves of the item. I do not do that for scrolls, but we do have a scroll tracking sheet for identidfied scrolls.

I find that the prepwork is worth it since the player with the card knows what the abilities are and they can easily trade items back and forth.

In addition it allows me to give special rewards in the form of Heroic Bonuses; essentially an additional bonus to any D20 die roll. My players love it.

 

[DM_Jeff]

I currently use it in the game we are playing now. Not a requirement by the DM for everything.. but most potions and other expendables come to us on cards with the descriptions.

*blink* Oh, yeah, that would be me. As Tensen said, I don't require it but began using cards, expecially for potions and oils to keep track of who really has what. When a PC uses it, they turn it in. And what Monte said, it does make the players more aware of their potions and use them rather than have them buried on a list of lother stuff unused.

And going to the SRD and copy and pasting the text into formatted boxes for printing is a snap.

-DM Jeff

 

[Janx]

I highly recommend getting a $1 recipe card box from wal-mart and buying some of those squeezy clips (the fancy kind office people use, where they got the two steel swingy arms and they leverage the clamp open, or fold down flat against the documents).

We ran our game 1st to 15th level this way. Worked fine. Yes the stacks get thicker, but you use the squeezy-clips to organize things. (One stack for the pack, one for the commonly used gear (armor, swords)).

This sounds like a product for the Other Game Company to pursue (or some other enterprising soul). A deck of gear, common and magic, with some templates for making new gear (to cover DM's special equipment).

Heck, if those PC tracking sites had a print function to do this, I'd be on board.

Janx

 

[random user]

I'm using index cards for anything magical or unique, and it's working great so far.

The cards also pretty much mean that, unless the PCs use a detect magic right away, I'm going to have to make a card for everything they take that might be magical

I dealt with this by giving the party a lens of detect magic fairly early. I've never liked the fact that player's had to haul around stuff that they were going to cast detect magic on eventually anyways, it just ended up slowing the game dealing with it all at once. So now when they find items, they look through it on the lens and instantly know whether it is index-card-worthy.

Also I had a bunch of um I don't know what they are officially called. It's a transparent "pocket" that is 8.5x11 with 3 holes punched on the side. It's meant to put a sheet of paper into it and you can look at it and make marks on it. I'm sorry I can't describe it better. Regardless, my characters put their character sheets and index cards into that between sessions.

 

[Pielorinho]

I like the idea, and mean to try it again.

For my longest-played character, a druid played to 14th level, I used spell cards religiously (heh). I used a different color card for exach spell level, wrote out all spell descriptions, and used different-color paperclips to represent my spell slots.

Writing the cards out really helped me learn the intricacies of my spells. Using different colored cards helped me easily figure out which spells i might want to prepare, and using different colored paperclips helped me easily figure out how many spell slots of each level I had.

I tried doing the same thing with magic items, but I got lazy with it and wasn't consistent, and so it didn't work. I'd like to try it again, and use different-colored cards with the various items to help keep them easily sorted.

Ultimately, of course, it'd be great to have a wireless PDA network with a paper-doll figure for each PC. The GM would make a ring available over the network, and a player could place it in her bag, on her finger, in her belt pouch, etc. But that may be a little ways away still .

Daniel

 

[Pbartender]

So I had the same thought to use 'props' for the valuable equipment in my next campiagn.

I found buckets of play money at Toys R Us. Little plastic coins and paper bills that emulate American currency. 1 cent will represent 1 gold piece of treasure (I don't usually about anything the costs less than that).

I've got a package of little plastic gems that have sticky sticker backs. You peel off the paper and stick the flat side of the gem to something.

I've got some plastic toy dress-up jewelry.

I'm even going to get some tiny 5 mL vials from American Science and surplus (they're 6 cents a piece) for potions.

Rolled up bits of paper for scrolls.

Any other item that I can't get a reasonably-sized (and reasonably-priced) prop for will simply be represented by an index card. And all the other props will be tagged.

The tags and cards will be folded in half and taped closed. The outside of the card will have the item's physical description. The inside will have the item's value and game mechanics, should it be appraised or identfied.

It'll make for a lot more preparatory work, but it'll make things go more quickly in-game, I think... Especialy with regards to handing out treasure, selling or buying gear, and determining who has what. After all, if you've got the prop, you've got the item.


Now, I'll go see what Monte's suggesting.

 

[Pielorinho]

Your players are gonna love you, Pbartender!

When we were playing through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, our DM would occasionally present us with props representing treasure, and it was always a blast; the sense of reward (read: "unadulterated greed") you feel when you actually hold the item in your hand is far greater than what you get from a description. It's tons of fun.

The most I've ever done, propwise, is othe hoary old note trick. I did, however, use leftover pressed-flower paper from our wedding invitations for a series of notes; the quality of the paper acted as a clue in the mystery .

Daniel

 

[Whimsical]

Here are some examples of the typical magic item card that I hand out to players when they find and identify treasure. It was designed with brand new players in mind, but I contunue to use this format.

Potion of Cure Light Wounds..............................................50 gp

This ceramic potion vial is wrapped with an illustrated label which clearly indicates that it is a healing potion for curing light wounds, and that it was masterfully crafted by the Greyhawk City clerics of Pelor.

Cures 1d8+1 hit points of damage.

Detects as: faint conjuration

Caster level: 1

...........................................................Player's Handbook pg. 190


Wand of Animate Dead (illegal)...............................275 gp/charge

This black wand with a silver skull head has the markings of Nerull all over it. Two tiny black onyx gems are set in the eye sockets of the silver skull and they are nearly burnt out.

Detects as: faint necromancy

Command word: "Necros Avarde"

Three charges: [ ] [ ] [ ]

...........................................................Player's Handbook pg. 174


Ring of Protection +1....................................................2,000 gp

This is a platinum ring with Yondalla's cornocopia etched on the outside.

This ring offers continual magical protection in the form of a +1 deflection bonus to the wearer's Armor Class.

Detects as: faint abjuration

Caster level: 12

...................................................Dungeon Master's Guide pg. 194

 

[marketingman]

Back in 1989 we had a gentleman join the group by the name of Mark Skidmore, we scooff at Mark for p[utting his charater and gear on3x5 cards until the night we had lost most of the charater sheets. Mark saved the day for he had converted all of the PC's to 3x5 cards.

Last Sunday Mark was still making cards for the game.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Obviously I dig index cards

I designed treasure card a long time ago, but somehow I was never satisfied with it - too many different treasures... (maybe later, once it works for me, I'll make a blank card sheet... maybe.)

Nevertheless, I make cards for every important treasure my party comes across. And it doesn't hurt to make some cards ahead, just in case.