GameMastery Item Cards: Relics of War Booster (based on
12
reviews)
Paizo Publishing, LLC
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$41.88$12.00
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Relics of War contains 110 all-new playing-card–sized cards featuring artifacts, weapons, armor, and items touched by the struggle of good against evil. Each card features a beautiful full-color illustration of an item on one side, with a text description and room for notes on the opposite side. A GM can hand these out when their PCs get treasure and watch as players learn to love managing their booty. A code on each card helps GMs track which card corresponds to which treasure.
Each Relics of War pack contains:
1 armor (cards 01–14)
2 weapons (15–38)
2 potions (39–56)
1 scroll (62–71)
1 wand (78–87)
2 wondrous items (88–110)
1 ring (57–61) or 1 rod or staff (72–77)
1 foil card, which may be any card from the set.
Display boxes contain 12 booster packs.
Useable by experienced GMs and novices alike, this product fits perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal.
I'd recommend a few of these for all GM's out there, exactly what you need, both basic and special stuff. The foils are a nice touch, for those very special items... although I feel that some foils are more common than others... bought two displays (24 boosters) and have several foils double or even triple :-(
I just bought 2 display boxes of these and 2 display boxes of Hero's Horde. I bought these mainly for the consumables (Potions, Scrolls, and Wands). My son and I opened up 1 box apiece. Opening packs 1 at a time starting front to last in each box, we soon found out that the first 6 cards were random, down to the foil, but after that each of the corresponding packs (i.e. first one in each box) had the same final five cards. These were the 2 potions, 2 weapons, and armor. I think that this is the only reason why I didn't get a complete set of items (not a big deal), as the six cards I'm missing are all armor and weapons. The artwork is great. Not quite so barbaric as in the decks specific to the APs. If I could I'd give it 3.5 stars and, if not for problems with randomization, a 4.5 star rating.
I love these cards, all I could ask for is a wider variety of the weapons that are commonly used (outside of the *most* common weapons), and less of things like potions and scrolls....
Great idea
Dennis Baker
(RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, Contributor)
—
I picked these up on a killer deal during the Black Friday sale and I love them. Being able to pass out the cards is a hoot. My only concern with these is the value... Fortunately I have enough it's unlikely I will need to buy for for some time.
I got a free booster of these with another order. They are handsome and it's an interesting concept. I bet it'll make finding treasure really exciting for the PCs. One major flaw: Why random packs? unless you want the entire set, you have to roll the dice on a pack. I don't give out random treasure, so I don't want random cards. Also: they're kind of stupid for consumables (potions) and unless you use pencil or something, once you fill in the details on the back, that card can never be a different item again.
I'd much prefer smaller, predetermined packs focused around item groups (a pack of just armors, just weapons, etc) Since they're random, I probably won't buy any.
I have been picking up a pack here and there along with Hero's Hoard and the randomness is still annoying. Dragon's Trove is an excellant 110 card set and I would love to just have one of every card that I can show to players instead of many of some and none of others. But that said the artwork in both is well worth the price.
Initially, I was skeptical that these cards were worth the expense versus anticipated use, then I received an 11-card pack. The GameMastery Item Cards aren't a game, rather they're a game aid---I'm not talking about the Three-Dragon Ante type of game aid, (an actual, playable game that stands alone or can be used as a part of an adventure)--no, these cards are physical, graphic representations of actual items acquired throughout an adventure. Take the 'Ring' card, for example: one side shows the artist’s representation of a simple ring, the opposite side gives a very brief description of the ring, and best of all, includes a small blank space for DM or Player notes regarding the item! I use this space to annotate my group's code system. In the case of the ring card, I've placed a small piece of transparent tape over the blank space and written in alcohol pen 'R14b', which allows my group to cross-reference our campaign journal for a more thorough description of that particular find. These cards allow the DM to give the player distinctive representations of special items gained. There’s no wheedling months down the road when the sorcerer declares he has a ring of giant strength +2—he either has his item card or he doesn’t. Additionally, it’s a great way to manage loss of items-- just take up the item card when the scroll is used up or the sword is swallowed by the purple worm. Suggestions: 1) Use a pencil on the blank spaces or a thumb of transparent tape, then write in with an alcohol pen; it’s a small space, so codes work better than paragraphs. 2) You may not want to use a card until you have duplicates—duplicates are a good way of sight-management, as whatever you give a player, you have a like-copy in your books, which helps when the player loses the card or claims to have something you didn’t give him…
I was tired of yelling at my players that what they got is what they got, now, I can prove myself with these cards. Many DMs should consider this their undeniable proof of what the player has. The images are well drawn with a general description of the item. If you buy these cards, you wont regret it.
I have to say that the distribution was greatly improved over Item Pack #2: Hero's Hoard. I only bought one display box, and was only 12 cards away from completing a set. (Compared to over 20 for HH). After one single trade with someone on the forums, I'm now only needing 2 cards to have a complete set.
The cards themselves are excellent. The only issue might be that some of the items are pretty out there. So you have have less of the "standard" items found in RPGs, and have things like the Shrunken Head and Withered Hand.
My group used to use printed out index cards, and I must say that these are a big step up from that.
I love these things and can't get enough of them. My only problem is I have so many potions. Also, maybe two rapiers instead of three longswords might be a good idea. I love the cards, the art, the whole idea. Juat maybe add more variety of items in the packs and less scrolls and potions.