I LOVE these cards! This is the best deck of cards I've got from Paizo.

Initially I was put off by the fact that the vast majority (if not all) the art work was recycled from various Paizo modules and source books. Now that I have them in hand, I realize that if/when I run those modules, I have an easy way to show off those NPCs. And the variety of faces can be used for any NPCs I create.

This is a wonderful set, full of DM inspiration, and usefull for any past, present or future fantasy RPG.

I did a mini review of these today, over here...

http://www.theweem.com/2010/08/27/paizos-gamemastery-friends-or-foes-cards/

...long story short (as the stars and title indicate) I really like these ;)

I've written a complete review on RPG Geek.

I recently bought them to use them in the most RP-heavy encounters in Red Hand of Doom and they worked wonders. In the town council where the PCs have to deal with 5-6 NPCs and convince each of them to take their position, these cards were just great. I guess you can make specific character voice traits, speeches or accents but this doesn't always work in the long run. With these, just show in your hand the picture of the character talking and the PCs will get a clearer idea of what's going on. I recommended them wholeheartedly.

I am using these in a non-Pathfinder campaign I am running, and I love them. It is VERY helpful to players to have faces to put with all of the NPC names they hear. I will definitely get the next set when it comes out.

Years ago, when running a long-running D&D campaign, I spent a couple of long and boring days scouring the internet for suitable NPC images, re-sizing them so that they were more or less uniform, printing them up and then gluing them to backboard that I then laminated. At the time, I thought to myself that any thoughtful game company could make things much easier on GMs like myself by putting out a series of portrait cards.

Well, it's been nearly ten years since I had that thought, and the cards are finally here. These portrait cards meet the high art standards that I've come to expect from Paizo (which should be no surprise; all of the art was taken from existing Paizo products). I can't wait to get my hands on the next set.

Congratulations to the Paizo staff; they have a product here in which they can take pride.

I picked these up at my FLGS today and am really happy with the deck. The cards are the same high quality as the GameMastery item cards. The art is all repeated from Pathfinder and GameMastery adventures and sourcebooks, but is universal enough to be useful to GMs of any system or setting. In general, the quality of the art is great, and there is a huge variety of races, ages, genders, and classes presented, though many portraits could be used for a number of roles, from PC portraits, to wanted posters or other handouts, to illustrations of key NPCs. I can't wait for the next set!