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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Random Findings: Drama Cards

If I had not already bought and introduced the Plot Twist Cards from Paizo to our game I would have used the Drama Cards from 1d4 chan (free for download!). And I am still ponder upon replacing the Plot Twist cards. Why?

Do not get me wrong, I like the cards from Paizo and they would be my first choice if we would play D&D 3.5E. But we play 4E and my players have not really bought into the concept on taking over the narrative with the use of the cards and hesitate using them. I was hoping that the non-narrative effects proposed on the cards would encourage their usage. But the proposals are for the 3.5E rules even if easily adapted to 4E.

The Drama Cards are 4E specific and basically fall into two types. One type is giving advantages or effects in combat quit like the Fortune Cards from Wizards of the Coast. And the other type opens narrative opportunities. Even if those cards always state that the effect falls into the DM's discretion I would always ask for a proposal of the person playing the card. My favorite card that falls into the second category is 'Parley' which changes a combat into a social encounter. Another thing I like is that the Drama Cards are divided by 'strength' into four groups. The non-narrative effects of the Plot Twist Cards do not defer to much by power level.

If you do not like giving your players any narrative control you still could use those that have in combat effects. Which basically would turn them into a free set of Fortune Card.

I did not yet had any Fortune Card in my hand but from what I have seen in the internet I am not so fond of the concept and I find the cards rather expansive (3.99$ for 8 cards). And they do not give any real narrative control to the players.

The opportunity to either use cards to hand over narrative control to the players or if they do not like to do so to give them a advantage in combat was the reason I introduced the Plot Twist cards to our game in the first place.

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