Whatever Happened to Power Cards?

I've taken to hand-writing power cards (on the blanks the the old CB will create). I leave spaces to fill in the numerical information that will change, such as attack and damage. So my card will look something like...

Tide of Iron
+___ vs. AC,
1d10+___ damage
& push __ squares

... and I'll fill in the relevant numbers based on level, equipment, feats, etc.

Eventually the card gets beat to heck and I make a new one, but at least this way I'm not burning printer ink every time I level up or find a new magic item.

This too is a good idea, if you want the format of the cards.

Honestly, rather than printing cards with the power on them already, I don't know why wizards didn't sell packs of blanks (4 at will, 4 encounter, 4 daily, 4 utility) that you just filled in yourself from the start.
 

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As a concept, hated 'em. Reminded me too much of Magic the Gathering or Pokemon or similar game. I like a lot of 4E's elements, but the powers I have always had on one sheet with simple descriptives, just like I used to keep spells in 3E. I just checked them off whenever I used them, and then erased the check marks when they refreshed.
 

Dungeoneer said:
Good thinking! I bought the Gamma World box set and was then forced, AT GUNPOINT, to purchase more cards for it at ruinous prices!

Or no, come to think of it, that's pretty much the opposite of what happened. Turns out you can play the game as is and not buy more cards. But the other thing would have been CRAZY.

Just like you can play Magic: The Gathering with just the starter deck. But if want any other powers you have to deal with random booster packs. With little rarity symbols on each card. No. Won't touch a rpg game like that.
 

As a concept, hated 'em. Reminded me too much of Magic the Gathering or Pokemon or similar game. I like a lot of 4E's elements, but the powers I have always had on one sheet with simple descriptives, just like I used to keep spells in 3E. I just checked them off whenever I used them, and then erased the check marks when they refreshed.

I do like power cards better than not having power cards, but sometimes I wish I could see the table beneath the racks of stuff my players have cards for now.
 

Just like you can play Magic: The Gathering with just the starter deck. But if want any other powers you have to deal with random booster packs. With little rarity symbols on each card. No. Won't touch a rpg game like that.

I've run a couple Gamma World one-shots, and everyone had an absolute blast, and never remotely felt the need for more cards.

Would the need be felt more in an ongoing campaign? Maybe. On the other hand, I seem to recall full lists of the card sets have been posted online on the WotC forums, letting you easily use those as random lists for generating mutations if you prefer to roll on tables instead of drawing from card decks.

I mean, feel free to not buy the Gamma World booster packs or Fortune Cards. I certainly don't plan to. But avoiding the Gamma World game itself because of it is, honestly, simply missing out on a great game. The cards are an optional accessory, just like Arcane Power or Complete Warrior or the like. You can easily play the base game without them.
 

As for the actual topic of Power Cards (the product), I think they just sold poorly because of how easy it was to make your own cards - often ones customized for your character.

For myself, I've played with both extremes. I had one character where I even condensed his character sheet info down onto 2-3 cards. Thus, I didn't need a character sheet at all, just my stack of cards which gave character info, my powers, and various buffs to hand out to my allies. (I was a level 16 Warlord.) It worked great and was extremely portable.

But I also am really sad the character builder doesn't even include the option of printing powers out as a list, rather than in card format. I often just create my own character sheets with powers fit onto one or two pages, making it much easier to quickly glance through what options I have.

I think pretty much all the various approaches work fine. Which also is what works against WotC in terms of having them as a product - with so many different methods, it is hard for them to sell one accessory that caters to everyone's needs.

Or, well... I suppose that is what DDI is, in the end. (Or should be, at least.) We'll see if it reaches that point of customization, but I am confident the answer will be a digital one, and not a printed product.
 

I've taken to hand-writing power cards (on the blanks the the old CB will create). I leave spaces to fill in the numerical information that will change, such as attack and damage. So my card will look something like...

Tide of Iron
+___ vs. AC,
1d10+___ damage
& push __ squares

... and I'll fill in the relevant numbers based on level, equipment, feats, etc.

Eventually the card gets beat to heck and I make a new one, but at least this way I'm not burning printer ink every time I level up or find a new magic item.
I do the same thing with the power cards shared on many groups.

When you live in a Third World country where ink costs an arm and a leg, you'll want to get the most use out of the power cards you print, no matter how cheap the paper you use to print them on.
 

Ink is expensive even in First World countries.

(It's actually a brilliant marketing scheme -- selling the printers for cheap and get people hooked on the ink. Similar idea worked for Gillette razors, too.)

As a side benefit, writing out your own power cards forces you to learn your powers better. Also, by adding up your bonuses by hand, you better understand where they're all coming from. And finally, your personal power cards can eliminate a lot of the needless repitition on the CB cards and just get straight to what you need to play.
 


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