Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > The Fantasy Trip

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-09-2018, 03:30 PM   #21
JLV
 
JLV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

I'm going to resurrect this one briefly to note that things like the "rumors" being published as part of the Kickstarter would be perfect subjects for cards. That, and things like plot twists, or random events, to me, would be excellent choices for cards that could be drawn by the GM when s/he's short of inspiration or time, or simply needs something to fill in the blank spot.

Basically, anything non-material; motivations, reactions, mysteries (and clues to them), and, as already mentioned, rumors and plot twists and things like that would be an excellent use of cards. Much better, to my mind, than swords, or equipment, or treasures. The non-material things don't even have to be fleshed out with a lot of text; simple two or three word statements (like "Exploding Chickens") would suffice to give the GM something to run with in the way of a rumor or plot twist or whatever. In fact, you could list six such statements on a single card (numbered 1-6, of course) and roll a die to see which one comes up... Lots of variety possible that way, with the minimum number of cards. (One hundred cards gives you 600 ideas -- 1200 if you use both sides of the card! You could color code one side red for "bad" things and one side blue for "good" things, as just one example off the top of my head.)

Last edited by JLV; 08-09-2018 at 03:34 PM.
JLV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2018, 05:10 PM   #22
afschell
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Southeastern PA
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Honestly, I would much rather just have the pre-gens put on a web site. Let it be community driven. To paraphrase "The Band" ... "just take what you need and leave the rest ...".

I'm planning printing the Wizard (and maybe the Melee) character pad PDFs on 4x6 index cards, putting "valuable" ones that are vinyl sleeves and using them that way.

No cool artwork, I know, but I'll personally sacrifice that for ideas from this highly diverse community.
afschell is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-09-2018, 10:53 PM   #23
David Bofinger
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

I posted this in the alternatives to GM screen forum and then realised this was
more appropriate.

If you're going to be using those pregenerated character cards then there'd be some benefit to having a card rack along the lines of this. If so, it would be a reason to go for portrait cards rather than landscape, and for having a little blank space or art at the bottom. If there are two or more racks then contrasting colours would be handy. Of course the rack itself is easy to source third party, but having the cards be portrait would have to be done now if it isn't too late already.
David Bofinger is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-10-2018, 01:48 AM   #24
zot
 
Join Date: May 2018
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
I'm going to resurrect this one briefly to note that things like the "rumors" being published as part of the Kickstarter would be perfect subjects for cards. That, and things like plot twists, or random events, to me, would be excellent choices for cards that could be drawn by the GM when s/he's short of inspiration or time, or simply needs something to fill in the blank spot.

Basically, anything non-material; motivations, reactions, mysteries (and clues to them), and, as already mentioned, rumors and plot twists and things like that would be an excellent use of cards. Much better, to my mind, than swords, or equipment, or treasures. The non-material things don't even have to be fleshed out with a lot of text; simple two or three word statements (like "Exploding Chickens") would suffice to give the GM something to run with in the way of a rumor or plot twist or whatever. In fact, you could list six such statements on a single card (numbered 1-6, of course) and roll a die to see which one comes up... Lots of variety possible that way, with the minimum number of cards. (One hundred cards gives you 600 ideas -- 1200 if you use both sides of the card! You could color code one side red for "bad" things and one side blue for "good" things, as just one example off the top of my head.)
A couple weeks ago, I did add an "Exploding birds" ceremony to the Theurgy Toolkit. Just sayin'...

I like this idea, a brainstorming deck -- these cards could have a bunch of those types of things on them all at once. Each card might have:
  • 3 dice at the top (if there are 216 cards in the deck) which you can use for 1-, 2-, or 3-dice rolls, or 2 dice if they come in 12-card booster packs.
  • Current weather conditions (redraw if not appropriate for season)
  • Either of these
    • 6 goodies
      • a motivation
      • a mystery
      • a plot twist
      • a potential ally
      • an adversary
      • an employment opportunity
      • a wrong doer
      • a foolish rich person
      • a hideout
      • a meeting place for a secret organization
      • ...
    • Reaction results (intrigue to disgust, friendliness to contempt, camaraderie to disdain, fellowship to racial hatred, etc.)
      • six reactions of a particular type that you can use for a reaction roll (redraw they don't make sense)
zot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-10-2018, 12:13 PM   #25
JLV
 
JLV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

That sounds like a really useful deck concept to me -- much more so than a deck of swords and shields.

Plus, it occurs to me that you might have the beginnings of a solitaire campaign system if such a deck were designed carefully...
JLV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-10-2018, 02:05 PM   #26
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirk View Post
OK, still don't understand why the pad sheets for Fighters aren't just like the Wizard ones with Talents/Spells on the right side, but whatever.

Wait, what, no! Why have the fighter sheets without a place to put Talents? If the backside is used, OK, then why have the space for just Wizard characters on the front? Why not just have one type of pad for whatever type of character you want to create, Wizard, Hero, or Blend?
I assume that these sheets are designed to be used with the microgames and not the RPG.

Though it's a great opportunity to show a key TFT strength - "here's a full TFT character sheet on a notecard (or whatever)".

Quote:
I've obviously built decks of my own index card variety that look and feel cheap, but what GM wouldn't want some nice decks of pre-generated characters to facilitate a game session? Wny aren't these at least a stretch goal?

The Melee and Wizard golf pencil (no eraser, so get your character design correct the first time, newb!) can be debated later...
I use Avery 3x5 laser printable index cards and crank out characters, monsters and encounters using a Word template. 150 cards for $9 on Amazon. They look fine.

If you have an inkjet printer, you may be able to feed normal index cards through.

And of course, printable business cards can be found at any office supply store. They're 3.5 x 2 inches, so they'd work fine for tiny character cards. Avery provides decent Word, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat templates.
tbeard1999 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-10-2018, 05:23 PM   #27
ak_aramis
 
ak_aramis's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbeard1999 View Post
I use Avery 3x5 laser printable index cards and crank out characters, monsters and encounters using a Word template. 150 cards for $9 on Amazon. They look fine.

If you have an inkjet printer, you may be able to feed normal index cards through.
My Brother laser printers (the current live one, the older one back in alaska, and the one that died a decade ago {prompting the purchase of the second}) all feed 3×5 cards just fine, single sided, through the manual feed. 4×6 and 5×8 can be duplexed. And I use the cheapest damned cards I can find... The edge limit is 18 points.

Many laser printers can handle light card just fine, up to about 150 lb., provided it uses the straight through path (most have a deflector to put the paper up on top, which can be opened for card or transparency printing), noting that most tray-loaders straight path is also the manual feed in.
ak_aramis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2018, 05:12 AM   #28
philreed
I do stuff and things.
 
philreed's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
I'm going to resurrect this one briefly to note that things like the "rumors" being published as part of the Kickstarter would be perfect subjects for cards.
I had been working on a little personal project that was _almost_ rumors printed on cards. I wrapped things up late yesterday and ordered a test deck from the printer.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-many-tabletop

It's not exactly what you're describing, though.
philreed is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2018, 08:30 AM   #29
tomc
 
tomc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Carrboro, NC
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by philreed View Post
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-many-tabletop

It's not exactly what you're describing, though.
Looks cool! Backed.
__________________
OgreMap2

Freedom of Speech is not Freedom of Podium
tomc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2018, 11:52 AM   #30
philreed
I do stuff and things.
 
philreed's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Pre-Gen cards and Character sheet pads

Quote:
Originally Posted by tomc View Post
Looks cool! Backed.
Thank you!
philreed is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:39 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.