D&D 5E What info should be on a D&D Card?

[WBruce]

Hi,

I am creating some cards for my D&D campaign. Since we play over Fantasy Grounds there is no need to print the cards. Nonetheless, I wish to give my players both a gift to remember, and try to make things more real. I do believe that when you can see your sword, and "take it in your hands" you create a relation with it. I remember on my old Magic and Vampire card games to really care about them. That is what I am going for.

The problem: I am having some issues to find out what are the most important information that must be on the cards. I think less is more, but I would like that my monsters, items, and characters cards could be used by the players to look at them and actually get information from it. So instead of give just a picture, should I show de AC, Hit Points and damage? But monsters rarely have only one attack type. Should I put their attributes? Should I put Race, Size, and features like Darkvision, or should I let the picture show it's an elf, and so every elf feature is implied?

The real issue is that there is too much information, and that won't fit into a card. So I came for help, to hear from you, what would you like to have on a card. Remember this is a gift - I am actually printing and sending the cards through mail to my players. The idea is that they will hold dear to them as something both to show and to remember, but also as reference during game session. We've being playing together for more than 25 years, but nowadays each one lives in a different city.

What do you think?

 

[Krachek]

You can use old DnD minis card as inspiration.

 

[Li Shenron]

Great idea.

What size are the printed cards? I would be tempted to write everything on the card but at least for monsters it would be difficult to fit.

So having to choose what goes on the card, would you rather let your players know the stats of a monster? Some DMs absolutely don't want to share such info, but you might want to actually use it as a reward. In that case, I would print the whole stat block.

Otherwise if you don't want to share stats or want the card to be edition-neutral, you can write numberless details like "High strength, good perception, fights with spears, multiple attacks...". Or you can instead print the narrative description.

 

[jayoungr]

I get the purpose of the item cards, but what is the purpose of the monster cards? Are they trophies of defeated foes? If so, then I like Li Shenron's suggestion about providing details without numbers. It seems like the most immersive approach, describing the monster in ways the PC would likely talk about them within the game world. It also means that you have space on the card for both a picture and a short description.

 

[WBruce]

You can use old DnD minis card as inspiration.

You mean like these ones?

D&D mini cards - Google Search

If so, great idea. I never really got into minis, so I totally forgot about those. I will try to find some of my old ones to take a in hand look. Thanks.

 

[WBruce]

Great idea.

What size are the printed cards? I would be tempted to write everything on the card but at least for monsters it would be difficult to fit.

So having to choose what goes on the card, would you rather let your players know the stats of a monster? Some DMs absolutely don't want to share such info, but you might want to actually use it as a reward. In that case, I would print the whole stat block.

Otherwise if you don't want to share stats or want the card to be edition-neutral, you can write numberless details like "High strength, good perception, fights with spears, multiple attacks...". Or you can instead print the narrative description.

That's part of the problem. I haven't decided on a size yet. I started with Magic size (2.5x3.5 inchs or 63.5x 89.9mm) but I quickly dismissed that idea and went for a tarot (3.15x472 - 80x120mm), which is current what I am using. I am tempted to go a full Cosmic Encounter Creature Size (cosmic encounter alien card - Google Search) card (4.3x5.9 - 110x150mm), but I am not sure it's too big. I will probably make those extra big size cards for the PCs and will go with tarot sized for everything else.

Besides homebrewed content, there is no monster that is not known to us, so there is little point in hiding monster stats. Personally, what I do is to not tell my players AC, to hit, nothing, but I also let them figure those things out if possible. If they face a kind of monster in many situations I let them gain knowledge on it. I also let my players roll for the terrain, or general knowledge around a particular creature. Finally, every now and than I want them to know they are facing something very dangerous, so yeah, I open up the stats.

I like the idea of put some narrative description, but looking at how I am struggling with what to cut out, I am inclined to go with stats only.

 

[WBruce]

I get the purpose of the item cards, but what is the purpose of the monster cards? Are they trophies of defeated foes? If so, then I like Li Shenron's suggestion about providing details without numbers. It seems like the most immersive approach, describing the monster in ways the PC would likely talk about them within the game world. It also means that you have space on the card for both a picture and a short description.

Most of the card will be a picture. It is the most important part of it.

There are two purposes about monster cards. Since I use Fantasy Grounds (FG) I create my monsters in a way where they have one or two features, and sometimes I let players roll on a table to give monsters another one or two features, so every monster is unique. Let's say they are facing a Sahuagin with the counterattack feature, they roll on the table and "pick a card" with the reckless feature, and now the Sahuagin is also reckless. I most use this for bosses and sub-bosses, but you get the idea. Well, if they will have a deck with monster features in it, they should probably have monster too!

The second and most important reason is that instead of giving them only 10-20 cards I would be giving them 100-200 cards. That is a gift. It's a full deck, a memorabilia from our long history as a group of players together. What kind of card game doesn't have monsters? So you see I am kind of going for a card game in a way. It will never become one, but the idea is that if we were playing in a table together at the same location, everyone would be able to use the cards in the game. They would be able to show their armors and magic items, but also play with the cards in the game. It will never be a card game, only a support material.

I really like your idea of trophies though. I will make sure they will only get to see a card or get the real one if they "conquer" it. So, they wouldn't have only the option of defeat, but maybe also if they successfully negotiated an agreement with the creature, or if they completed a task for it.

 

[Li Shenron]

Have you also considered printing on both sides?

 

[WBruce]

I did, but I think it would be more elegant if the back of the card is a standard cover image so they all look the same instead of a color spray without identity. As a gift it should be pretty.

 

[Nytmare]

Fantasy Grounds allows you to resize cards, doesn't it? I ran a 4E game partially online ages ago, and the cards I designed for the online player had the pertinent information written on the top part of the card at an easily readable size, but then absolutely everything else they could possibly need in the teeniest tiniest readable font on the bottom half of the card. I don't know if you have that kind of control over card resolution though.