vs Monster Reward Deck

[Crothian]

Philip Reed's vs. Monsters is a fast-playing horror roleplaying game that provides everything you need for fun, frightening adventures in a single product. For those of you that like to expand your games the Rewards Deck will significantly vary the outcome of your combats and game sessions.

This 6-page PDF, designed by Philip Reed, is a printable "rewards deck" -- 36 cards that players may gain access to at the end of each game session. The cards in the deck provide bonuses to combat, give players the opportunity to affect the game's storyline, and put the power of creative roleplaying directly in the hands of the players.

To use this supplement you will need to print four of the six pages of the PDF on cardstock. A card back design is included though not necessary. The rules to use this deck in play takes less than a page and are easy enough to remember that the rules don't even need to be printe

 

[Crothian]

Verse monster reward deck

Some games work well with a little extra player abilities and random rewards. These games are usually a little less serious and more about enjoying the game and not getting wrapped up in little details. Many people refer to them more as beer and pretzel games. This product is designed for this type of game. It gives the players some small single use abilities that can trump in a small way what the DM may be doing. These could also be fun in a less serious convention or one shot game though one might want to increase the rate player s get cards.

Verse Monster Reward Decks is a new PDF by Ronin Arts. Ronin Arts is the leader in PDFs having hundred of titles out there and more coming out each month. It is mind boggling just how many PDFs this one company has put out. This PDF is very small coming in at only six pages. It has no book marks because it is not meant to be used on a computer screen. It is meant to be printed out on card stock and cut up into individual cards for players to random pick. The PDF is black and white and does not take a lot of ink when printed. Only four of the six pages really need printed. The last page has the back of the cards, but it also has lots of black on it that can take a lot of ink. It might have been better to not have so much black since it is not needed in the use of the product.

The cards are simple to use. The players draw one at the end of each session at the time other awards are handed out by the DM. The cards are then kept until played. Once they are played they go back into the deck to be shuffled and drawn at a later date. There are thirty six cards presented here though not all are unique. There is no blank card to create one’s own versions but it would be simple to create and add on to the deck.

The cards are for a more modern and horror type game. Some of the cards deal with firearms and investigating potentially haunted or cursed places. Some are designed to be used in combat and others are designed to be used out of combat. I will write out brief descriptions of some of the cards:

Buried to the hilt: When a player hits a non important bad guy with a bladed weapon, the bad guy is reduced to one health no matter how much damage was actually done. There is also a version of this with firearms.

There’s Something Familiar: This is played when an NPC is encountered. That NPC is now responsible for something catastrophic that happened in the player’s life.

We Can Hide Here: When being chased the players automatically find a place they can hide. From here they can wait and listen or try to spring a surprise attack.

Already Wounded: When a bad guy is encounter the players can have him start the combat/ encounter already wounded.

Brutal Assault: The player gets a bonus to attack that increases with the more foes he kills.

Brutal Discovery: At night and entering a new location the player can describe the scene in front of them. It can be as ghastly and frightening as the player can make it. If the DM feels it is good enough he may be rewarded with a bonus card.

There are other cards that also give out bonus cards. Some do so automatically others if the players succeed at something. The cards are not going to be useful to everyone and some DMs might not like giving the players a bit of control over the game that these cards can give. What I like is that they can offer surprise to the DM as the players can use cards to do things the DM will not normally be expecting. It brings a sense of surprise and hope to a game that might not have much. I think these cards can offer a fun addition to some games out there.

 

[philreed]

Specifically, the cards are for vs. Monsters. This is not a d20 product but, instead, a rules-light RPG. There's even a free version of the game available.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2899&SRC=EnWorld

The original version of vs. Monsters was completely designed and released in PDF within 24-hours. These days several people have created 24-hour RPGs.


http://www.24hourrpg.com