Anybody else use these cards? link
I've just filled them out for all of the monsters in There Is No Honor. It was a hefty task, but I think it will help make the combat much easier.
Anybody else use these cards? link
I've just filled them out for all of the monsters in There Is No Honor. It was a hefty task, but I think it will help make the combat much easier.
Interesting idea, especially for those times in a game that the players are encountering vanilla monsters from the SRD - or summoning same.
Of course, most players who are dedicated summoners grab Augmented Summoning right quick, not to mention minion-buffing spells available to druids for thier SPFR's, so the vanilla critter cards are not of much use when buffs come into play it would seem.
Contributor
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I use these sometimes as mini character sheets, but not to track turn order. I have seperate deck of old business cards for that, with just name and init modifier on them.
Using the stat cards for initiative becomes unweildy when you have to find the card for the npc who is being attacked and it's in the middle of the initiative stack.
But I love the format.
I used them for the first 2-3 sessions I ran of Savage Tide, but they just got too unwieldy. They're great for having a short list of NPC abilities, but it becomes a real hassle for tracking initiative.
Now, for an initiative tracker well worth the money, invest in the GameMastery Combat Pad. Trust me: it'll be the best $17 you've ever spent on roleplaying.
Then hit the Savage Tide Encounters PDF thread and ask Mando to include you in the mailings. Having the full stat block on one handy sheet just makes life so much easier.
I have heard good things about the mastery pad - but I really cant do without the 3 x 5 init card at my table.
I have each player write their PC's names on a card and write their init in on it ( they either erase the old init # or cross it out) the players then arrange the cards in init order and hand the stack to me. I insert NPC and monster cards and we are ready to roll.
Tt really speeds things up if you write the name, attack routine, speed, and spells of the NPC or monster on the face then when their turn comes up you are automatically looking in the right spot! It makes it easy to track durationd of effects also, just write the total duration, then make a hash mark each time the card comes up.
This method is no good for tracking HP's, because, as mentioned, you have to dig back through the cards to mark any changes.
Also just looking for AC or a save becomes a chore with this method.
You just have to track HP's saves and such on a clipboard or something.
So far, the Game Mastery Combat Pad has worked like a charm for running the combats. It makes it much less likely for me to accidentally skip a player, especially with 9 of them at the table.
I do not want to slam the product the OP is using, it seems redundant with the combat pad on hand is all.
how do they work?
From the descriptions above, the init cards basically provide the initiative order by stacking all the cards from highest to lowest. Take top card (highest init), have said char or critter act, flip onto face, rinse lather repeat.
Me I'm card man. I've been using cards to track initiative for a couple of years. I do my own stats for the cards, it's a lot of work, but worth it. By doing my own stats on the initiative cards is a way for me study NPCs. Is there an online sample of what the game mastery cards look like.
We used to use the cards in our group but we recently changed to the Game Mastery Combat Pad (I bought it before we started STAP). I much prefer the combat pad over the initiative cards myself. I do have to add that I do not keep track of the initiative order, a player has that assignment. Combats have seemed to move along smoother since we have started using it though. I highly recommend it!
I used these same cards and another set the RPGA used to have posted as a link from their website. I thought they were really great, and still do.
The plus side is that you have all the relevant info about the PCs on the card there in front of you. Plus, I used to have my players make a bunch d20 rolls and record them on their cards so I could use them for skill checks and sometimes a few other things that I didn't want the PCs rolling and spoiling the "surprise". The down side was having to shuffle through a bunch of cards. (Laminating them is the way to go, btw. Record everything with erasable ink.)
When I went to Gen Con this year and ran a bunch of sessions of the Paizo Delve, we used the Combat Pad and after a single session I became a convert to it. It keeps things moving very quickly. Your can track the combat rounds, as well as track when a spell will expire and stuff like that, with the two "Round" arrows that point to the round counter, the magnets have 3 different colors you can use to keep track of different types of opponents (for instance, my players use the blue framed magnets, monsters use the black ones, blah, blah, blah). The down side is that if you drop the Combat Pad (which I have done a couple times), there's a good chance that most of the magnets will get knocked off; very annoying.
A couple other pluses are the columns off to the right of the action box which allows you to slide PC/opponent magnets over to indicate "readying" or "delaying".
All in all, while I miss having the info about the PCs I had before with the cards I'll take the Combat Pad any day.
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I built my own combat pad back when 3.5 debuted. It is simply a dry erase/magnet board, the magnets I built from sheet styrene and magnets, and it looks very similar to the actual combat pad (though when I built it I had not yet seen the commercial pad). It cost about $12 - $15 all told, so the combat pad is indeed a good deal.
When a character delays or readies, it is really quick to scoot their magnet over. Everyone can see the board, so everyone knows when their turn is and how soon it is coming up. It makes combat quicker and initiative is a breeze. One of the players runs the board, so that is one less thing for the me (the DM) to keep track of.
I'm a fan...
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I've been using the Game Mechanics' Initiative Cards religiously since JD & co. made them available; they revolutionized my game and made combats play out twice as fast as they did before.
Preparing for my Age of Worms campaign sessions consists of A) reading the adventure, and B) recording the monster stats on cards. That usually takes a couple of hours per adventure, and then I'm set (no need to prepare before each session) until the next chapter. I could probably take a Saturday and record an entire Adventure Path's worth of monsters on cards at the outset, but I like them to be fresher in my mind whiile running the game.
The great thing is, you can keep the cards in a box and have them available the next time the PCs face a particular monster. If I were to start a new campaign tomorrow, I'd have goblins, skeletons, orcs, dragons of various ages, elementals of various types and sizes, etc, in abundance, all indexed by monster type for easy reference. If I wanted to improvise an encounter, I could just go through the cards and pick out some appropriate critters of the right CRs to build a combat encounter appropriate to the PCs. The more you use the cards, the more valuable they become.
Another advantage of the cards: they stay in my hand, so if there are enemies acting in the initiative order that my players aren't aware of, I can keep it a secret. With the combat pad, if you use it to track monster initiatives as well, it seems like it would be more obvious to the players when an unseen assailant is taking actions.
One downside of the cards: really high-level spellcasters and creatures with a lot of special abilities don't fit very well on the cards. I'm reaching a point in my campaign where I may need to staple in an extra card for the more complex opponents.
The great thing is, you can keep the cards in a box and have them available the next time the PCs face a particular monster. If I were to start a new campaign tomorrow, I'd have goblins, skeletons, orcs, dragons of various ages, elementals of various types and sizes, etc, in abundance, all indexed by monster type for easy reference. If I wanted to improvise an encounter, I could just go through the cards and pick out some appropriate critters of the right CRs to build a combat encounter appropriate to the PCs. The more you use the cards, the more valuable they become.
Chris, check out The Game Mechanics Initiative Card page. They've got sets for all the OGL monsters. Plus, the page also has the 10 dragon species ready for use.
Anybody else use these cards? link
I've just filled them out for all of the monsters in There Is No Honor. It was a hefty task, but I think it will help make the combat much easier.
I use index cards, I have the characters write their ACs, (all three) + anything like Dodge, Skirmish or any other buffs under the character name and initiative in the top right. It works best to have everyone write things in the same order and in the same place, so you are not spending time looking for what you want. If a chacter holds on his turn, I turn the card side-ways to access it when he/she decides to go.
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My experience is very much similar to Carlson's post above. I use the Combat Pad to great effect. We have a party of 7 PCs (was 8) and several NPC's and cohorts and such. This saves my bacon. I give one of my players 100xp for being the "initiative monkey" for the night, and they are in charge of tracking the sheet, saying who's next and who's on deck, so I can concentrate on what my evil minions are doing and giving good descriptions of the action and so on.
And Mando's statblock mailings are GREAT for tracking the monsters in the encounters. They've helped a ton as well.
And Mando's statblock mailings are GREAT for tracking the monsters in the encounters. They've helped a ton as well.
I was hoping to get those, but it appears that Mando has stopped sending those out...
Any chance I could get you to send them, if you've still got them? TracerBullet42@gmail.com
I use these cards too. I see the benefit of the combat pad, but what I'm worried about is when too many PC+NPCs+monsters are invovled in a battle. I've had a few where I'd probably run off the bottom of the pad.
I personally prefer the cards because of the information contained. (That and the fact there is no limit to the size of the combat.) I inform my players that it is up to them to ensure that the info on their cards is current. That way, I can make Spellcraft, or Spot rolls, or even saves for a character behind the screen if there is something going on that I don't want them to realise unless they make the roll (or fail in the case of a save). And buying the SRD monster cards has saved a lot of work for me. Just print them out on card stock paper and that's it (with a little cutting). I am a little disappointed that they didn't even try to have the backside information (when its there) oriented in such a way that you can just print it on the opposite side of the original sheet of paper. What you end up having to do is print out both sides on separate pieces of paper and tape/glue them together.
Tracking combat is probably a similar experience with the combat pad than with the cards, so its probably just a preference. I've gotten used to having a stack of cards in my hand during combat, so that's what I prefer.
Greg