GameMastery Item Cards: Rise of the Runelords Deck (based on
9
reviews)
Paizo Publishing, LLC
Our
Price:
$9.99
Pathfinder Item Cards: Rise of the Runelords is an all-new 54-card deck
featuring items tied to the first Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rise of the
Runelords. 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 Game Master 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 Game Masters track which card corresponds to which treasure.
Useable by experienced GMs and novices alike, this product fits perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal.
Ok, first of all, I don't play Pathfinder AP's, I play in my own home-made campaign in the world of Greyhawk. That being said, these cards are awesome! I like the artwork, the descriptions, the style. Again excellent stuff with some weird items and must-haves and a lot which raise an eyebrow but give a lot of creative options. Really great to hand out! Love them :-)
This set has some really weird stuff in the beautiful and interesting kind of way. The Dog Slicer and Horse Chopper are totally sweet, and what the heck is up with that crazy one eyed mask? I love it!
The WTF factor on a couple of items is a bit high, but I apparently like that sort of thing. Reinforced scarf though? What is that all about? I guess it makes a heck of a lot more sense than a bladed scarf.
A great accessory even if you don't play through the AP
This are good quality cards with very accurate pictures. I give it 4 out of 5.
The only issue is that there is not enough copies of the RotRL introduced items such as Khar, Barbarian chew and Earthbreaker. I would have preferred more RotRL items then mostly generic items that were supplied. Don't get me wrong, the unique items are there but not enough of the common items.
I love these cards. They are very useful in game to help remind characters what they have available to use. Rather than something that gets written down on the back of a character sheet and forgotten, a player just has to skim through the cards laying on the table to see what they have.
The only down side, is that I need at least one copy for each player of certain items. I mean, one dogslicer? Every goblin has one, how do I choose which character gets the card and the rest have to remember they wrote it down on the back of their character sheet.
I will follow the advice of other posters and scan the more common items and make duplicates.
The various Item Cards always add spice to the gaming experience, but having the cards for Rise of the Runelords showing the major items and weapons encountered is invaluable.
The idea behind these cards is to provide something tangible to hand out to players when their characters acquire an item. Physically, they are very nice: made the same size as the average trading card game card (handy as plenty of storage systems are available for them) with a full-colour illustration of the item on one side and a brief description with ample space for notes to be written in on the other.
This particular deck consists in the main of items found in the Pathfinder campaign world, many being introduced in the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide. However, if the DM is supposed to buy the deck to distribute as necessary, having but a single card for some of the more common weapons - just about every goblin's got a dogslicer for example - might make for hard choices. More useful are things like scrolls, potion bottles and wands, where there are several examples with different appearances, the DM can assign different spells and powers, either writing them in the notes space or leaving the characters to find out for themselves, while tracking them using the unique number on each card.
Overall it is quite a nice idea, if a bit fiddly. Useful if your players are not good note-takers, you can empower them to track at least major items in their possession without having to spend time preparing personalised lists for them. Some of the cards will even spawn ideas for an item which could play a major part or even be the focus of an adventure... and there's a pretty gold ring with the 7-pointed star symbol which I'm tempted to take round to a jeweller to get him to make me one!