Monday, May 24, 2010

Pazio's Gamemaster Cards and Classic Treasures Revisited

This week I have vacation so to start it off I went to the FNGS. They sent me a coupon earlier in the week for 25% off of any one gaming item. I wasn't going to let it expire or even get dusty. I always search the used section first hoping to find a gem in there. If I played Rifts there would be plenty to pick through and a bunch of 3.5 adventure modules, but I wasn't interested in them even at 50% off. So I checked out the new section. Of course 4th edition D&D dominated and a nice selection of Pathfinder. Even though I am not a 3.5 player I've really like the Kingmaker Adventure Path and the quality of the Pathfinder books in general. (The 3rd in the Kingmaker path should be here this week and I am really looking forward to it.)

In Classic Treasures Revisited explores 10 'iconic' treasures; 1. Bag of Holding 2. Cube of Force 3. Deck of Many Things 4. Figurines of Wonderous Power 5. Helm of Brillance 6. Horn of Vahalla 7. Sphere of Annahilation 8. Staff of the Magi 9. Vorpal Sword 10. Well of Many Worlds.

I haven't had time to read too much so far, but it looks very good and the artwork through out is stunning.

The second part of my gaming day sent me to another FNGS and there I bought two decks of Pazio's Gamemastery. Ine was called Dragon's Trove and the other was a deck made for the Kingmaker adventure path so I had to buy that one. There are a 110 cards in the Dragon's Trove and 54 cards in the Kingmaker deck. Again, since I've been grooving with the Pathfinder books lately I thought I would see what these were all about. They are cool regulation sized cards with a picture of an item on the front a sentence or two description on the back with a space for a GM to put in his own details about the item. There is also a line to write an item code. I guess to help keep track of items.

These cards are beatifully done and that's the problem. I don't want to write on them. No way. I understand the concept of these cards, but they shouldn't have made them so nice then I wouldn't feel guilty for writing on them. I would like to see a PDF of these cards to use for internet based games. Then I could write details on the back without worry and reuse them for a different purpose later. When I am playing on FG2 with my group these cards would be a nice addition.

Tomorrow we start exploring the 3rd circle of mages. I have a feeling our luck with these things is going to run out soon. That's why you keep the meat shield in front of you and always know where the closest exit is.

4 comments:

  1. I'm with you on this one. They feel far too collectible to write on. I suppose you could scan them onto card stock and cut them out...

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  2. Tomorrow we start exploring the 3rd circle of mages. I have a feeling our luck with these things is going to run out soon. Not that our luck has been great to begin with. We seemed to be plagued with long runs of low rolls.

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  3. I'm a huge fan of Paizo's stuff (well, except for the Pathfinder RPG itself), especially the card decks. I own several sets of the cards connected to the adventure paths, along with the Wondrous Treasures and Friends & Foes decks and all are very cool and very handy for any kind of fantasy RPG.

    You've missed the simplest and most elegant solution to the "too pretty to write on" problem - slip each card in to a clear card sleeve (a pack of 50 costs about $1) and then give players slips of paper cut to the same size to write their notes on and then slip in the back side. This is what I've done with my cards and my players love it. In fact I used several of the Friends & Foes card last night for major NPCs.

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  4. @MJ > Thanks very much for the tip. In fact I have a bunch of those plastic sleeves already.

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