Using MTG cards as campaign aids

[VariSami]

I just wanted to share something I did today. Since my piles of bad and unusable and somewhat decent but unneeded Magic the Gathering cards had grown too big, I went through them and picked each card I found inspiring or suitable for D&D fantasy. I'd estimate I chose about a thousand cards. I then cut out the artwork box of each of them to use for various purposes when roleplaying.

Though there is fluctuation in style and atmosphere, the art on Magic cards is very good (at least nowadays it is). I found myself pondering what kinds of encounters would each card be good for - and I did come up with many. They also helped develop the details in some worlds and campaigns I've been thinking about.

I really enjoy Innistrad for this purpose as well as Alara. Zendikar is decent (as are old Dominaria-based cards) and Mirrodin is a tad too exotic for the most part.

Has anyone else done similar things? What inspired me was the fact that the GM in a Vampire the Requiem -game used cards from the Vampire card game as portraits of NPCs. It worked fine, though MTG offers a lot more for D&D - for example, land cards make for great scenery shots.

 

[Lwaxy]

We do that for a long time now. I think the earliest group we used MTG cards with was back in the early 90s when Arab8ian Nights came out.

We've made whole campaign worlds from lands and similar cards. Always fun.

Right now, we have a whole monster collection for me to throw in, made up of 5ths we don't collect

 

[Thalain]

Magic has actually been intended for the use by roleplayers before the game was invented. In the early 1990s, Richard Adkinson of Wizards of the Coast was specifically looking for a game that one could play in the inevitable "someone else needs 15 minutes of solo with the GM" or "We just split the party and it's the other guys' turn" breaks in D&D games. It was supposed to be a game that has little or no setup time, very few materials, a duration of 10-15 minutes and has a fantasy theme.

Then Richard Garfield came along and proposed Magic. The rest is history.

 

[Li Shenron]

Well, other than the fact that as far as I know those card must be pretty small... overall sounds like a very creative idea!

Do you put up a bunch of cards together to represent an encounter, and then maybe flip them over one by one as the PCs eliminate each monster?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Look at another RPG for inspiration: WotC's own RPG Everway (long OoP), used cards to help in PC design, encounters, and other elements.

I occasionally use them as inspiration for PC designs myself- I ran a 2Ed Minotaur Ftr/MU based on the art for the Hurloon Minotaur, for instance. And as I mentioned a while back, I'm actually doing a M:tG campaign for HERO...

 

[Lwaxy]

Cards are normal playing card size, maybe a bit smaller.

I usually have monster types for different terrains (somewhat based on the MTG colors) and then use them when needed. Roll a dice, pick as many cards at random and be surprised. And yeah flip them over when defeated.

Unless it's a low level party. I usually pick the monsters then.

 

[VariSami]

Yeah, the cut-out artwork cards aren't huge, really. They can be handed out for demonstration. I thought about using them in the grid but they're a tad bit for medium beings. If they represent a large being, however, they're fine tokens.

Also, since there is such good artwork for terrain, you could maybe use them to mark locations on a map. Just pin the picture on a location and you're good. Or maybe one could even construct an overview of the world map with them.

Do note that the double-faced cards from Innistrad retain the artwork of both sides when it's cut out. So even if they can't be placed on the battlefield as surprises, there'll be the possibility to use them as werebeings and such (Cloistered Youth is a fine example). At least most of my players don't play MTG so there ought to be a surprise factor.

 

[Wraith101]

A few of my friends use Legend of 5 Rings CCG cards as aids to the RPG. It's really useful as you get location, npcs and plot elements, and you can use the card text as well.

 

[questing gm]

I had a misplaced stash of cut out MtG cards, but had always preferred looking for a resource site that have a larger resolution of those artworks for gaming purposes.

Closest I've found was in Pinterest.