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After purchasing the Buff Deck from Game Mastery I realized that there are SO many other spells out there that could really use a card. That and they should include more info for more experienced gamers. So I've given both your cards and those from Perram's a look-see.
I think if you limit the info too much, once beginners learn the basics, the cards will be retired...
-I like the graphics of your cards much better (more in line with Game Mastery's cards visually). Easier to read, etc. But some info is misleading or completely lacking. Example: Magic Missile says 1d4+1 points of force damage. There is no indication that the amount of damage (or number of missiles) ever increases (per level).
-I like the amount of info on Perram's cards, but much of it is unnecessary. If you guys could include more (pertinent) info on your card (there is a ton of white space on most), while still using the graphic elements (components, page # area, etc), I think you will have a good, beginner friendly and veteran usable card.
I like the Buff Deck from Game Mastery, but their cards lack in regards to increasing damage etc per level also...
If your goal is to entice beginners and veterans to use the cards, you may want to balance the crunch with the flavor/simplicity.
Maybe even just present all the mechanics and just include text that helps explain level by level variables and how they change as the character progresses (duration, damage, etc.)
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Your cards look nice, however;
My first test for each of these products is Detect Magic. It's where Perram breaks down because he can't fit it on one card. But in your case the table with aura strengths is missing, and that's precisely the information you have to look up every time...
Detect Magic is my bane... That card always gives me problems! Its just SO LONG! And you need the majority of the info. It only got worse since it now doubles as magic item identification.
Is there any reason for Wizards and Sorcerers have separate spell lists?
Anyway, I think they could use a little more information.
e.g.: Bless water, your description of the spell is "creates holy water", but it fails to mention three important pieces of information:
1- The quantity of holy water created. Sure, it says "a flask of water", but there is a volume limitation too (1 pint). Using the card, a player might assume he could turn a whole lake into holy water as long as he had a large enough flask. IMO, The description should be something like "Turns a flask (1 pint) of water into holy water".
2- The cost of material component. This is not mentioned in any card, actually. I feel this is a very important part of spells' description, and should be a standard feature in all cards.
3- Magic School of the Spell. This is probably not as important as the other two, but it may be very useful for Wizards who have banned schools and any character who takes feats like "Spell Focus". Since school name is a single word, you might consider making it a standard feature as well.
All that said, your cards are incredibly well-designed, and with just a minor tweak here and there, they'd be perfect for table use. I particularly love how you added the image of the AoE along with its description. That'll surely making using area spells much easier.
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Without looking at anybody else's cards, I offer the following comments.
I set out to do the same thing with 3.5
Some of the spells were mercifully short, some took multiple 8.5x11 pages of fine print and tables and diagrams.
So I settled for the basic header info for the spell,
Caster/Level: Bard 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Pal 1, Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S, M/DF (miniature cloak, holy symbol,
holly & mistletoe)
Casting Time: Standard action
Range: Touch Duration: 1 minute
Target(s): Creature touched.
Saving Throw: Will negates. Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Effect: Target gets +1 on all Saving Throws
Can be made Permanent with Permanency spell.
There is a Reference number that tells you what page of the Players Handbook that the spell is found on.
I did the same thing with Character Races and Classes.
HUMAN
ABILITY ADJ. - None
FAVORED CLASS – Any ALIGNMENT - Any
BONUS LANGUAGES – None
SIZE/AGE – Medium /5’-6’/125-250 lbs./15-100 yrs.
SPEED. – 30 ft. VISION - Normal
SPECIAL – 1 extra Feat @ 1st Level
4 extra Skill points @ 1st Level
1 extra Skill point per additional Level
ROGUE
PRIME ABILITY - DEX 2ND ABILITY – INT
ALIGNMENT – Any HIT DICE – d6
BONUS LANGUAGES: None
CLASS SKILLS – Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft,
Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise,
Esc. Artist, Forgery, Gather Info., Hide, Intimidate, Jump,
Knowl. Local, Listen, Move Silent, Open Lock, Perf.,
Prof., Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Swim,
Tumble, Use Mag. Device, Use Rope
SKILL POINTS – 1st LVL = 4x(8 + INT) , Per LVL = 8 + INT
WEAPONS – All Simple Weapons, hand crossbow, rapier,
shortsword, shortbow
ARMOR – Light armor. No shields.
The Rogue Class actually took a "hand" of 7 cards to make everything fit on 2.75"x3.75" cards with legible font. Lots of room for graphics on the back, not so much on the text side, although I did manage to put pics of equipment, weapons, and armor on the tests sides of those cards.
Equipment, including armor and weapons, had its own deck.
Backpacks, belt pounches, and bags were going to be card sleeves designed to hold a certain number of cards to help gauge "encumbrance" factors.
Spell cards were universal, so there wasn't a separate deck for each caster.
The idea was to do away with Character Sheets and replace them with a "hand" of cards that the player would have in front of him for ready reference. Your "deck" would define your character race, abilities, feats, skills, possesions, and spells.
Depending on your class and level, a 1st level character would have a deck of between 20 and 50 cards, including Race Traits, other Traits, Feats, Skills, Spells, Class Abilities, Attributes (Ability Scores and modifiers, Physical Description, Saving Throws, Carrying Capacity, Alignment, Initiative)
I see the game companies trying to do this on a small scale, but the effort required to make it marketable would be about the same as doing the books, and the books would still be needed. It would also double the amount of product that you would have to buy to play the game.
It would also be almost impossible to set it up so that you could just buy the cards you wanted, and you might not be able to find some cards due to popularity or rarity. Just ask the Magic players how that works.
Maybe a dedicated website with all of the card templates saved, and you get to build your own personal deck on-line, and save it as a printable file. Then you would take the file down to your local copy shop to have it printed on cardstock and cut to size, or DIY, if you got the equipment and the cardstock.