Would cards really be that bad?

[Imperialus]

like I said during the first thread, as a DM this would quite possibly cause my head to explode. It's bad enough when a player tells me "Oh, you must have forgotten that I have "X ability" which renders me immune to "Y nasty attack" thereby making your BBEG about as challanging as a one armed goblin with parkensons".

I can only imagine what would happen if I put together some encounter only to have a player grin and slap some rediculously rare card that be bought on E-Bay down on the table and causing a metor shower that wipes the battlefield clean.

At least when I forget an ability it's my own damn fault but putting an aspect of randomness into the game would make a DM's job a million times harder, quite franky the DM's job is hard enough without having to hope to gawd that the player doesn't draw the "act of god" card and scours the planet. It would be like having a brand new shiny Deck of Many Things in the hands of each player without any bad cards.

 

[ForceUser]

Would cards really be that bad?

Yes.

 

[Woas]

I could see something like those "Campaign Cards" that I got for D&D day becoming collectable. Feats and special abilities may not come in packs of cards, but maybe "special actions" and stuff that would appear on one of these cards might.

 

[FireLance]

I could see something like those "Campaign Cards" that I got for D&D day becoming collectable. Feats and special abilities may not come in packs of cards, but maybe "special actions" and stuff that would appear on one of these cards might.

I believe RPGA Eberron uses campaign cards to simulate action points. IIRC, you can spend a card to get +1d6 to a d20 roll, and specific cards allow certain special actions, e.g. prevent an opponent from turning his threat into a critical hit, automatically avoid one AOO, etc.

I can see cards like that as an add-on enhancement to an action point system, or some other system that allows the players more control ober the game (fate point, hero point, drama deck cards, etc). I don't think they would go down well if they were necessary (unless they were free and readily available), but they could add an additional dimension of fun to the game (kind of like miniatures ).

I'm all for cards that make running the game easier, like Summon Monster reference cards, initiative cards, and equipment cards.

 

[Li Shenron]

As a replacement for the D&D RPG, a collectible card-based game is simply impossible.

As a spin-off it could work. The basis is already there with the miniature game. Build a single monster with collectable abilities instead of an army with collectable creatures, and you're there.

 

[Yair]

There are very few things that WotC can do that will make me not purchase D&D 4e, when it eventually comes out, for sure. Basing it on cards either as a core mechanic or in a collectible manner is one of them. I just don't want to play with cards for my RPGing, thank you.

Using cards for monster statitics, cheat sheets, or whatnot as a supplument is cool. Using it as a core mechanic is not.

(And like everyone else, I agree a spinoff product CCG could exist. But not an RPG.)

 

[Numion]

I just don't see the cards as anything useful. Instead of flipping through books for a spell, you'll be flipping through cards for the spell. As an ex-MtG addict I know how hard finding a card can be, unless you've properly stored them in a binder. And in a binder the cards form a sort of a book, uh .. which means back to square one.

That's just an extra complication to the game. You still can't play without the books, and thus the addition of cards just adds an extra step. Conversely, if it was an good idea, the 2e spell card thingies would've been a moderate success, at least.

The main factor though is that with 3E WotC demonstrated that they actually took steps to survey how to fit the game better to regular folks gaming habits. Like 6 months campaign length average, focusin on the strengths that make D&D so strong, etc*. They know what they're doing. They're not going to mess it up by forced combination of D&D with waning CCG business.

* This of course was not well met by some groups, but WotC, as a market leader, has to cater to widest possible audience, not the 1e grognards. As a matter of fact they catered to those audiences too, in a roundabout fashion. C&C wouldn't be possible without OGL.

 

[Noldor Elf]

I think that only model where Wizards could introduce randomized power up cards (feats, spells, classes) into the game would be tying it effectively with some kind of tournament mode. As many have pointed out previously, in your home game you don't have to have the real card, knowing the information is well enough (sometimes used already with feats from rare sources).

But having D&D Tournaments... "Are you capable to survive the Tomb of Horrors?". You would need some way to judge how well the team or single player had succeeded. Competition as teams is not a new thing, just think about First Person Shooters and their clans.

In order for a team to enter to the tournament, you need to have earned the characters through gameplay in lesser tournaments, starting from the first level. Major events would be huge selling points, as everyone would want the get best possible card to be added to his character after advancement in the tournaments (= adventure) held on that event.

Of course you could still continue to play just like normal. Not all MtG is played in tournaments either, but major naturally those teams would do best that had trained to support each other and compensate work each others weekneses.

You could easily advertise this kind of D&D as direct competitor of the on-line RPG:s... "You might have mastered the maschine, but are up to the real challenge? Test you skills in Temple of Maddness, March 12th. Run by (add any suitable name here) himself."

 

[Bagpuss]

If you need to go out and buy "booster packs" to get feat cards or whatever to play the type of charcter you want in an RPG, then you don't get all the rules in the core books, its no longer an RPG.

Ah but what if the books gave enough to play, but the cards provided additional content. Sort of like instead of buying the whole of the Complete Adventurer, Divine, etc. You just bought a booster and it had say a number of spells or and feats, etc.

 

[jaerdaph]

Dungeons & Dragons 5e: Available now for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 II...