Well, Paizo's crack R&D team decided to do something about it. Enter
CEO
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In most roleplaying campaigns, a character's equipment and other items are relegated to a scribble on some piece of paper, or perhaps—if you're lucky—on a 3x5 index card. In short, they're about as exciting as a tree branch in a forest. Yawn.
Well, Paizo's crack R&D team decided to do something about it. Enter Item Packs, the latest weapon in the GameMastery arsenal. Item Packs contain poker-sized cards with beautiful artwork on the front and a space on the back for players' notes. Now when intrepid adventurers collect new booty, the GM can present the players with cards that match the items found.
The first set, Item Pack One, is a 54-card deck that includes wands, swords, potions, rings, scrolls, and even boots. And since there are no game stats, they're well-suited for use with any game system.
So check out the card list and some sample artwork! Players will never need to yawn over their items again!
I think I'm intrigued and confused by these. On the one hand, I love the idea of handing out cards to players when they get treasure. I've done it sporadically before, and it's been a kind of mixed blessing. (For the stuff the players keep, it's great. For the stuff they sell right away, it wasn't worth the effort.)
So I'm intrigued.
But then I noticed that the expansion packs have randomized cards. Randomized? But this isn't a trading card game, it's a GM tool! What GM wants random stuff? It makes no sense! A GM wants stuff he knows he can use. One card is "foil"? Big deal! It makes me think that perhaps this product is not so well thought out after all... Or that its goals don't match the GM community after all, but are targeted at card collectors.
--scole
Please Paizo. No randomized cards! This is damned useful and I love the idea, but randomized cards would immediately put a kibosh on me buying anything beyond the core pack.
It is just randomized artwork - there's like 18 different illustrations for the "generic potion" card. Every pack has X Potion cards, Y Armor cards, etc. Looks like a really useful tool for some of us. None of the cards are rare, so there's no "poke-syndrome" of "gotta have them ALL!" unless you are 1- anal-compleatist (ahem) or 2- use lots of magic items.
I'm seeing an aftermarket niche of folks buying scads of sets and packs for their own uses and then "ebaying-off" themed packs they put together out of their left-overs. (ahem)
Either way, I'm already planning to work them into *my* gaming budget.
Me, as well - thus the (ahem)!
LOL
Gang, I gotta tell ya - the more I play with these, the cooler they are. I mean, seriously, they just rock on toast. Sure, the boosters will have some randomness to them - but like someone here said recently, as a DM, I don't want to give my characters the exact same item next week (or next campaign) that I gave them out of this deck. As a PC in two campaigns, I have to agree - me want new and different shiny, not same old shiny hand-me-down from some other character.
Plus, I've just seen the art from the new cards, and again...rock, toast, repeat!
Seriously, seriously cool stuff here.
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Gang, I gotta tell ya - the more I play with these, the cooler they are. I mean, seriously, they just rock on toast. Sure, the boosters will have some randomness to them - but like someone here said recently, as a DM, I don't want to give my characters the exact same item next week (or next campaign) that I gave them out of this deck. As a PC in two campaigns, I have to agree - me want new and different shiny, not same old shiny hand-me-down from some other character.
Plus, I've just seen the art from the new cards, and again...rock, toast, repeat!
Seriously, seriously cool stuff here.
Post some pics! I own 2 packs and gave a review on the cards, Vic will tell you, I was dead set against the random packs. I have totally changed my view and I love the cards and the randomized concept.
Post some pics of the new artwork! Pretty pleaze!!FH