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Hopefully FLGS's everywhere will have open copies to show to folks as I think one run through of this deck might change some minds. I just flipped through it for the first time and all of my personal concerns about the project melted. Kyle's really outdone himself -- every card is filled with fantasy imagery and secrets that, like a Tarot deck, can be used to tell amazing stories when divining someone's future. I like it. I know not everyone will, but hopefully you'll thumb through the cards and give the product a chance. :-)
We got the first honest-to-goodness Harrow deck into the shop today. Vic told my fortune. Not surprisingly, he predicted doom.
Mike
Actually, Harrowings involve your past, present, *and* future. In the past, Mike met a person of tremendous import and great intelligence. This person requires that, for the present, he needs to keep working hard and smart, or events in the future may not work out well for all involved.
Makes sense to me...
Actually, Harrowings involve your past, present, *and* future. In the past, Mike met a person of tremendous import and great intelligence. This person requires that, for the present, he needs to keep working hard and smart, or events in the future may not work out well for all involved. Makes sense to me...
Oh, that's right, Jeff Alvarez was in that meeting! I'd forgotten. Thanks, Vic!
Mike
logic_poet
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
The cards aren't supposed to be photo-realistic images�to me, they look like images of stained glass windows or of the cool illuminations you might see in the glosses of books transcribed by artistic monks; both very much in-game and in-theme artwork types to the genre. And at the same time, the cards DO feel modern, which makes them fun and memorable.
Although I usually don't like his art, Kyle was a good choice for this because he does manage to get exactly that look. In particular, he does a great job of conveying D&D monsters with only a few colors in each. There's no way WAR's art would work, for instance. The cards are too small for the detail he does, and no one would believe something that detailed could appear on an in-game set of cards.
I see the new Mr. Fire and Mrs. Water Elemental. Why is their baby an Ulok in a diving suit?
The union of fire and water creates something that is neither fire nor water. It wears the asbestos diving suit to protect itself from caustic purity of its parent elements. The whole is different from the sum of its parts.
logic_poet
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
Damn, I was hoping this would be out in time to use in RotRL. My group is about to take the river barge to Turtleback Ferry from Magnimar and I was going to have a Maverick-esque card tourney =p
Could use Three Dragon Ante for a tourney - its a blast.
This looks great - love the coherence of it! I bought the Tarokka deck a while back, and while the imagery is impressive I couldn't get into it as something to use.
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?
Right now, you can only ship subscription items together. So if you subscribe to the Chronicles line, you'd be able to save on shipping. We're working on allowing you to add non-subscription items to your subscription shipments, but it's not quite ready.
Is there anyway to add this to my pathfinder subscription to save on shipping?That would be really nice, and also if schipping could wait for the Guide to Korvosa if it is still on for an early March release?
Harrow and the Guide to Korvosa are both arriving in our warehouse next week, along with Pathfinder 7 and the Crimson Throne Player's Guide. And Northwest of Earth (Planet Stories) arrived yesterday. So all of those will go out together where applicable.
I have added a Pathfinder Chronicles subscription to my account.
My question is will this be something that falls under that subscription, or do I need place a separate order for this? It looks really cool and I don't want to miss it.
Looks like this question has already been added - missed this thread's length from the product page - apologies for repeating! :o
Archade
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion Subscriber)
Quick question -- I just added Pathfinder Chronicles subscription to my account, a day after I received a notice that PF #7 is going out ... how will that affect when/if I get the Harrow deck?
If you chose to start with the Guide to Korvosa, you'll also get the Harrow deck. (Even though we released both at the same time, we have to consider one of them "first," and in this case, it's the Guide to Korvosa.)
SageSTL
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
You should see some of the art. My god this thing is beautiful.I'd wager that depends on whether one likes Kyle Hunter's art... which I have to say I generally don't. A shame really, sounded like a cool thing to get.
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.
If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.
A square deck would have been cool, in retrospect, given the arrangement of the Harrow grid.
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.
A square deck would have been cool, in retrospect, given the arrangement of the Harrow grid.
We thought about that, but square cards just felt...odd. Not good odd, just weird odd. So we went with the more traditional shape.
Mike
SageSTL
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules Subscriber)
For what it's worth- I'm interested in the mechanics, and the rules, but am not a fan of Kyle Hunter's art, either. I'm getting the deck despite the artwork, however. I don't know that I'll actually use the cards themselves in play because of the artwork.If the artwork bothers you, there are some pretty strong analogues to a standard Tarot deck, and there's an article in PF #7 that subs playing cards for the Harrow Deck.
I wouldn't say that it bothers me, per se, or that I have any unreasonable reaction to the artwork. It's just a personal preference- and I know that there are others that really like his work.
I'm interested in the rules included with the deck at the very least- and want to support this kind of product from Paizo regardless (since I love this type of thing).
Will this be avilable on PDF for for on-line usage? The cards could be zipped up into a file of watermarked PNGs, so they could be used in Fantasy Grounds or similar?
I think people would enjoy using them on-line.
Last time we asked, the answer was no.
It's really too bad. I'd love to have PDFs of those.
Someone should write a solitaire mod with those cards. Would rock.
Mike Selinker,
I have no wish for brownie points, but i thought you might like to know sir...
I like the art.
I've seen enough of the samples so far now to be sure.
Yeah, I think it looks just fine. great even.
Good job.
And here I just baked these fine brownie points for you because you were so nice. I guess you don't want them, then? OK, I'll leave them in the Paizo kitchen. I'm sure Jason will eat them.
Mike
I thought I'd ask about the design decision to put the fortune teller on the back of the cards instead of a more traditional card back.
To quote "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," people just liked it better that way. We considered a plain card back to be more like the ones that (presumably) the Golarian fortune tellers would use, but it just wasn't exciting anyone.
Mike
I thought I'd ask about the design decision to put the fortune teller on the back of the cards instead of a more traditional card back.To quote "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," people just liked it better that way. We considered a plain card back to be more like the ones that (presumably) the Golarian fortune tellers would use, but it just wasn't exciting anyone.
Mike
Fair enough. And look what you've done! I have to go listen to Flood now.
My Harrow Deck (and all the other goodies) came last night. I wasn't expecting to be too impressed with it, honestly - the idea just hadn't grabbed me up til now, and I've never comprehended Downer, so I was afraid the artwork wouldn't be my thing.
So now let me say - I LOVE THIS DECK!
I pulled it out and played with it last night. I did a quick reading for three PCs in the Rise of the Runelords game we STILL haven't started, and they came out beautifully, with hints of things to come and some ideas to better understand the motivations of those PCs. One of my concerns was that the product might be designed too much with the Crimson Throne path in mind, and readings might not work as well for other things. That worry is laid to rest. The results are quite flexible; I'm even going to try them out this weekend with some super-hero characters (weekly HERO game).
The artwork really works for this product. The cards look like something that was made by hand by the Varisians. The images are clear and representational of what they're supposed to be, and I've found some pretty cool nuances in certain images. I love the placement of the Suit graphic on the card to indicate its alignment - brilliant!
It would have been nice to get a PDF of the Divination Book. I'm typing in all the descriptions myself, to get more familiar with them and to let me do some other things. I'm in the beginnings of an idea for using these cards in character generation, NOT to create stats but to generate ideas for character backgrounds through three stages of life (early childhood, late childhood, and recent events, rather than past/present/future). You know - "In your childhood, ahh, the Unicorn is diametrically misaligned. I see that you were betrayed by a trusted childhood friend..."
There is only one thing I find less-than-ideal; when doing a reading, I'm supposed to separate out the single suit of cards that best applies to the question, have each person take one of those cards, I interpret them, then I shuffle them back into the full deck and do the reading. I realize that if these cards are treasured family heirlooms, it makes sense that there would be 1 deck, but I still think it's going to be easier if I change that so the tradition is a double deck with different backings (I'll put one in sleeves with some appropriate image on the backs, the other in clear sleeves). That way, one set can always stay sorted by suit, and people can have their individual cards in front of them throughout the reading, while the other deck can stay shuffled together to be used for the spread itself.
In other words, the one "down-side" has made me decide I need to buy an extra deck. Probably not a problem, from a designer's standpoint!
So here I've gone from being fairly uninterested to being, well, a bit obsessed with these cards. I'll play with them this weekend at the FLGS during our supers game, and see how many of the guys end up ordering their own decks, too. (grin)
