There's a lot of duplicates and no sturdy box in this release. This saves on shipping. It'd be great if a box existed with channels for each size. I ordered a artist box and wooden reinforcement swim lanes for the pawns. Overall, the numbers match the battle cards so these work hand in hand.
Invaluable GM Reference; Improvise Chase Obstacles Fit to Your Setting
The cards are unique enough to be fun but generic enough across themed areas like City, Wilderness, Ruins, Underground encounters. Makes improvising a chase or even a search scene that much more vivid for people. Would recommend!
What follows is another repeat of my Bestiary 1 Battle Cards review. I have all three bestiary card sets and they're of the same high quality and make running even adventure paths easier! Great production with baffling reference choices:
Useful in isolation and the highest production values. These are much better than the equivalents in the other roleplaying game. However, there are some serious flaws for use as a Referee (who grabs and stores these cards often):
1) The box. The cards lay flat in two columns. There's no possibility to add dividers for the 300-400 cards. The box is hella sturdy, so they could've been stacked on their edge: sideways or vertically -- like magic. This would allow you to add dividers for storage and referencing the numbering, which leads me to...
2) The numbering. This should be great. However, these numbers aren't in the Bestiary. They're arbitrary to this card deck and, thankfully, matched in the cardboard minis. Which makes it great to store if it weren't for #1. I wish the monsters had canonical numbering in the bestiary so everything was clearly organized and laid out but...
3) The layout. Some monsters are split across three cards. Due to layout. They couldn't easily used a landscape orientation, two-column layout for the statblocks, a trick the books use to eliminate empty space. They have two magic cards worth of space but use one at best. Most GMs will flash this to the players then use them as reference, letting the matching cardboard or plastic miniatures take over representation. There's no indication of which bestiary it's from, so if you spill multiple sets, it'll be hard to organize them again. There's a 1-400 in each set.
Production values are great. Totally support the amazing workers. Just needed a little more practical experience and use by Referee to understand what would be useful as a reference.
What follows is a repeat of my Bestiary 1 Battle Cards review. I have all three bestiaries:
Useful in isolation and the highest production values. These are much better than the equivalents in the other roleplaying game. However, there are some serious flaws for use as a Referee (who grabs and stores these cards often):
1) The box. The cards lay flat in two columns. There's no possibility to add dividers for the 300-400 cards. The box is hella sturdy, so they could've been stacked on their edge: sideways or vertically -- like magic. This would allow you to add dividers for storage and referencing the numbering, which leads me to...
2) The numbering. This should be great. However, these numbers aren't in the Bestiary. They're arbitrary to this card deck and, thankfully, matched in the cardboard minis. Which makes it great to store if it weren't for #1. I wish the monsters had canonical numbering in the bestiary so everything was clearly organized and laid out but...
3) The layout. Some monsters are split across three cards. Due to layout. They couldn't easily used a landscape orientation, two-column layout for the statblocks, a trick the books use to eliminate empty space. They have two magic cards worth of space but use one at best. Most GMs will flash this to the players then use them as reference, letting the matching cardboard or plastic miniatures take over representation. There's no indication of which bestiary it's from, so if you spill multiple sets, it'll be hard to organize them again. There's a 1-400 in each set.
Production values are great. Totally support the amazing workers. Just needed a little more practical experience and use by Referee to understand what would be useful as a reference.
Useful in isolation and the highest production values. These are much better than the equivalents for 5e. However, there are some serious flaws for use as a Referee (who grabs and stores these cards often):
1) The box. The cards lay flat in two columns. There's no possibility to add dividers for the 300-400 cards. The box is hella sturdy, so they could've been stacked on their edge: sideways or vertically -- like magic. This would allow you to add dividers for storage and referencing the numbering, which leads me to...
2) The numbering. This should be great. However, these numbers aren't in the Bestiary. They're arbitrary to this card deck and, thankfully, matched in the cardboard minis. Which makes it great to store if it weren't for #1. I wish the monsters had canonical numbering in the bestiary so everything was clearly organized and laid out but...
3) The layout. Some monsters are split across three cards. Due to layout. They couldn't easily used a landscape orientation, two-column layout for the statblocks, a trick the books use to eliminate empty space. They have two magic cards worth of space but use one at best. Most GMs will flash this to the players then use them as reference, letting the matching cardboard or plastic miniatures take over representation. There's no indication of which bestiary it's from, so if you spill multiple sets, it'll be hard to organize them again. There's a 1-400 in each set.
Production values are great. Totally support the amazing workers. Just needed a little more practical experience and use by Referee to understand what would be useful as a reference.
