Starfinder Rules Reference Cards Deck

3.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)
Starfinder Rules Reference Cards Deck
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Put the rules of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game at your fingertips! Whether you're a Game Master who needs a convenient reference for starship combat, a player who wants summaries of how to use your favorite skills, or a newcomer trying to learn the rules, this 110-card deck features concise guides to essential concepts from the Starfinder Core Rulebook on handy double-sided cards. Stop flipping back and forth through rulebooks—grab the cards you need and keep your game moving!

ISBN: 978-1-64078-138-2

Note: This product is part of the Starfinder Accessories Subscription.

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3.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)

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Too Cumbersome to be of Much Value

2/5

I understand the pitch for the Starfinder Rules Reference Cards. As the back of the 110-card box says, "Stop flipping back and forth through rulebooks--grab the cards you need and keep your game moving!" However, although I've tried to use these in a few Starfinder Society games (as both player and GM), I honestly find them far too cumbersome to be of much value. The problem is that there's no easy way to find the rule you need apart from literally going through the deck until you spot what you want, and the cards are double-sided so that adds to the time-factor. Books have had centuries to develop quick-finding aids: tables of contents, indexes, chapter titles, page runners and borders, etc. I know from experience it's a *lot* faster for me to find what I need in the Core Rulebook than to sort through these cards. The only real value I can see from the reference card is if a GM or player knows, before the session starts, that a special rule is going to come up and they want a reminder they can paperclip to a GM screen or their character sheet. For example, the GM knows that a monster's primary tactic is to grapple, they could pull out the grapple rules card ahead of time. Or if a new player needs a reminder of what can be done with a move action, you set out the relevant card at the beginning of the game. For the most part though, this set is unlikely to see a lot of use. There's a reason libraries are full of books on the shelves, not decks of reference cards.


Scarab Sages Webstore Coordinator

Announced for June! Product image and description are not final and are subject to change.

Dark Archive

This product makes no sense to me personally, as flipping through 110 cards is way more complicated than flipping through the CRB.

I'd rather have a pocket edition of the Starfinder Core Rulebook.

Also, neither a new hardcover nor the Beginner Box have been announced for the first half of 2019...


Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I think it could be good depending on how it's done. I'd like to be able to hand someone a card that summarizes what they can do if they're the Captain in starship combat, or a card that has the effects of the Constitution progression track on it if they're poisoned. Etc.


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:
This product makes no sense to me personally, as flipping through 110 cards is way more complicated than flipping through the CRB.

I'd rather take a page of notes than a textbook into an exam. In other words, it's sometimes useful to get a summary to remind you of stuff you know but have forgotten rather than look up a repository of the full rules.

This also allows customisation - if I'm a computer hacker and act as the ship science office I can pull out the "computer hacking" card and the "science officer actions" card and construct a mini-deck specific to my character.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I own these for Pathfinder and they are really nice to have the appropriate cards ready and set aside, especially for combat, spell casting and skill rules checks.

I can't tell you how many times we have stalled on a question and found an answer in the deck faster than online.

Scarab Sages Starfinder Design Lead

6 people marked this as a favorite.

I personally find things like this most useful as a GM who knows something is going to come up because it's in the adventure, or as a player who knows I have selected specific options that interact with a less-common subset of the rules.
As a GM, I find things like cards with rules for underwater combat, or 0-G combat, useful to pull about before a game where I know such things will come up. Especially if I am comfortable with the rules, but know some players aren't, it's great to be able to hand out a card with a summary.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Will these have page references for the rule on them?

Sovereign Court Creative Director, Starfinder

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Fumarole wrote:
Will these have page references for the rule on them?

Yes they do!


Will these be chock/full of:
1. Diagrams i.e. Area of Effect?
2. Poison/Disease Tracks?
3. Tables i.e. Confusion?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

I love the idea of this. I second Owen K. C. Stephens' insight that this would be a userful tool for GM's to prepare specific rule set card in advance of specific encounters, as well as Jhaeman's great idea to use as a tool to hand out to players taking on unfamiliar roles and who need to get up to speed quickly during play.

I have a question with regards to the usability of these cards as a set. How will each subsection of rules descirbed on the cards be classified and categorized? Will there be different color coding for cards dealing with a specific subset of rules, or special icons on each card for easy classification and identification? Will the cards with rules and roles for spaceship combat be distinguished somehow from the cards dealing with class specific traits, or from spell cards?

As Marco Massoudi points out, it can potentially get time consuming flipping through cards. If there is a good classification of the cards and the type of rule they reference, this can facilitate their ease of use. Even if the cards are numbered, many times a deck in my posession will quickly get mixed out of order as I customize their order to suit a specific character or situation.

I am sure that Paizo already had a meeting or two about this and I would love to hear a little more on how this set will be organized and how each card subject will be distinguished from others and classified.

Sovereign Court Creative Director, Starfinder

1 person marked this as a favorite.
jakemtl wrote:
I have a question with regards to the usability of these cards as a set. How will each subsection of rules descirbed on the cards be classified and categorized? Will there be different color coding for cards dealing with a specific subset of rules, or special icons on each card for easy classification and identification? Will the cards with rules and roles for spaceship combat be distinguished somehow from the cards dealing with class specific traits, or from spell cards?

Each card has an icon (or icons) that delineates what "rules category" it falls under, then a heading with the specific rule topic on the card. So all of the cards about skills have the "Skill" icon, for example, and the Athletics card is clearly distinguished from the Stealth card from those words (Athletics and Stealth) at the top of those cards.

They are very similar in format to the Rules Reference Cards for Pathfinder 1st edition, for those who are familiar with those cards.


This looks very handy to have, nice!!

Tom

Acquisitives

Would these also include any changes/errata that have been applied to the Core Rulebook rules?

Dark Archive

Gabbers "Gab" McTalkington wrote:
Would these also include any changes/errata that have been applied to the Core Rulebook rules?

They should have the changed DCs of starship combat at least.

Otherwise there would be no point in doing these two years after release of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, when the errata came out a few months after release.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:

They should have the changed DCs of starship combat at least.

Otherwise there would be no point in doing these two years after release of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, when the errata came out a few months after release.

I sure hope so.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Unless I am missing them, It seem Pazio missed the perfect opportunity to make cards for the roles space combat.

I don't see them in the set I am looking at.

That was my main hope out of these cards.

Dark Archive

1. Are these 110 cards all different ones or are there multiple copies of the same?

2. Are there cards for starship combat actions and if yes: Have the DCs been updated?

Thx


1 person marked this as a favorite.

They are all individual with no repeats.

There are reference rules for starship combat, but I don’t think it includes the various manoeuvres (I haven’t searched through them exhaustively yet). It’s more turn order and other such basics. There’s half a dozen or so “starship cards” and they have things like critical effects, basic movement rules, travel times within a system, and so forth. They don’t cover the special stunts in the various crew member roles.

I like them from the brief skim through I gave them, but I’m not sure they’re for you, Marco. I suspect you’ll find them too elementary.

For the starship DCs, have you tried this scenario?

Into the Unknown

It’s got one page handouts for each of the roles and although you have to print them out, it is free as a PDF.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Steve Geddes wrote:

They are all individual with no repeats.

There are reference rules for starship combat, but I don’t think it includes the various manoeuvres (I haven’t searched through them exhaustively yet). It’s more turn order and other such basics. There’s half a dozen or so “starship cards” and they have things like critical effects, basic movement rules, travel times within a system, and so forth. They don’t cover the special stunts in the various crew member roles.

I like them from the brief skim through I gave them, but I’m not sure they’re for you, Marco. I suspect you’ll find them too elementary.

For the starship DCs, have you tried this scenario?

Into the Unknown

It’s got one page handouts for each of the roles and although you have to print them out, it is free as a PDF.

And I noticed that this PDF was updated 8 months after its initial release and that all DCs add 1-1/2 times the tier of a ship. In other words -- it includes the errata for the starship combat DCs.


Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I got this deck, and I really can't figure out a rhyme or reason to why the cards are in a particular order. I do get the icon thing (even if it's not always intuitive), but I feel like the cards need an index! I'll give them a try, but it might be easier for me to find stuff by flipping through the rulebook.


Does anybody have the size of the cards, or what FFG size of sleeves they need?

Dark Archive

Amayakatana wrote:
Does anybody have the size of the cards, or what FFG size of sleeves they need?

Same size as Magic the Gathering.

Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

Download now available!


Anyone knows the sleeve size for these cards?


Would it be asking too much to have the download version have a sensible naming convention? I understand that card 54 is "Healing", but instead of naming it card 54 could we just name it healing? IMHO, the only reason the digital version adds value to the subscription is if a rules card can be quickly referenced.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, LO Special Edition, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Are these up to date with the current errata? Anyone know?

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