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Loremaster - Cards Without Fortune

    • Cards Without Fortune

      by
      Squach
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      Published on 02-09-2011 05:00 AM  Number of Views: 1844  
      1 Comment Comments
      Okay, so the new big push from Wizards of the Coast is Fortune Cards. Collectible, randomized cards that can be used in play to give your character a bit of a boost. Sometimes they are largely ignorable, sometimes they tip the scales of balance in the encounter. Tracy Hurley had some thoughts that pretty well match my take on them on her site. Go check it out.



      But here’s the thing, I can find a lot of inspiration for my game wherever I look and I can tell you now that I have some ideas of how Fortune Cards can totally make an appearance in my game.

      So here’s where I’m inspired by Fortune Cards.

      In a campaign where the characters have some sort of patron, a mentor, or someone that they follow who is of great power Fortune Cards make a great reward.

      Say your characters are on a series of quests for a god, or primordial, or sorcerer-king, or chosen, or powerful undead, or demon prince, or Fate, or who knows what else. If it has sufficient power to grant a boon Fortune Cards can be that boon.

      Here’s how I would recommend using them.

      As a DM I would simply buy a bunch of packs of cards or perhaps have each of my players buy a few packs each to donate to the party deck. But I would then, as a DM build a mini-deck for each player. Just 5 to 10 cards that are specifically useful, relevant, or cool for that character. Something that can enhance who they are, highlight their awesome, or makes sense given the story and their patron.

      Then, when the party reaches an event where they have accomplished something for that patron they are granted a boon. Maybe it’s mysterious, maybe it’s handed out intentionally. But when it’s done they draw a card. There’s still an element of the random involved but there’s no doubt it will be useful and could be a game changer in any given encounter.

      The PC who got the card (and I would give one to every PC involved in achieving the task being rewarded) can play it in any encounter they want and can, in fact, play more than one to really cash in their rewards.

      In my current campaign I am running a Forgotten Realms game that has been going since 4th edition D&D came out where the ultimate goal of the PCs is to bring back the goddess of magic, Mystra.

      So in this case I would use Fortune Cards to represent the mysterious boon from the cosmos for working towards this goal and encouraging them to do it (after all, having a goddess of magic is the natural order of things in the Realms). So every time the PCs gather up a new piece of the torn Weave, they would get a card. Every time they get a part of the ritual that will eventually help them they get a card. Shoot, every time they work to bring more magic into the world (much as Mystra would have done) they get a card.

      So yeah, there’s my inspiration from Fortune Cards. I simply can’t ever see myself using them as intended, but that’s true of so many D&D books that I own and this isn’t that different.

      I don’t know about you, but I can find inspiration in just about anything. So how do you plan to use Fortune Cards? Do you? Why? Even if you don’t plan to use them can you think of a cool way they could be used? Share your thoughts in the comments and go roll some dice!

      Jeff Greiner owns and operates one of the most successful Dungeons & Dragons podcasts: The Tome Show. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @Squach.
      Comments 1 Comment
      1. Sarah Darkmagic's Avatar
        Sarah Darkmagic - 02-09-2011, 04:50 PM
        Great article and thanks for the link to my post.

        Another interesting use is to tie them to the environment. If they players decide to interact with the environment, they might receive some of these. For instance, Lucky Fall (half damage on a fall) could be given out when they look around an environment and notice that the plants growing along the ravine can be used to slow a fall or something similar. Rather than giving them each the card, you could give them a couple to use as the group attempts to fight their way up.