D&D (2024) Take A Deeper Look At The New D&D Starter Set's Card-Based Characters

EzekielRaiden · Sunday at 5:07 AM

Naturally, 5e doing a card-based character structure is the best thing ever.

The Edition That Must Not Be Named having a card-based character structure was, of course, the worst thing ever.

aiouh · Sunday at 12:46 PM

To be fair, since The Edition That Must Not Be Named, Magic the Gathering has grown a lot among the casual playerbase and the now premier format (100 card singleton elder dragon highlander/commander released in 2011 and has never stopped growing) regularly ends up with board states like this:

Argyle King · Sunday at 7:33 PM

Stormonu said:
I doubt randomized cards, but they did sell cards in 4E for powers, and we've had 5E spells and some class/racial ability cards put out.

I could see it being done, but beyond spell cards - they're not for me.

Not for me either, but if a company were to condition an audience to expect those things as part of the experience...

Whizbang Dustyboots · Sunday at 7:50 PM

Argyle King said:
Not for me either, but if a company were to condition an audience to expect those things as part of the experience...

They could do a Borderlands expansion set with more caves, more wilderness, more everything and include, as part of that box, more cards unlocking more ancestries, classes, backgrounds, etc. That wouldn't be a random selection -- and thus open to the abuses mentioned before -- but just be a way to expand the experience along that track.

If Heroes of the Borderlands goes great, I think something like Adventurers of the Borderlands or Veterans of the Borderlands would be a great idea.

There could also be DM-facing expansions using a similar system, like Secrets of the Borderlands that added new magic items, etc.

The physical cards aren't necessarily an issue. It's all about implementation.

beaumontsebos · Sunday at 8:03 PM

MonsterEnvy said:
Current character creation is easier than it was back in 2014.

I disagree. There are more choices and moving parts to consider when creating characters now.

Parmandur · Sunday at 8:09 PM

beaumontsebos said:
I disagree. There are more choices and moving parts to consider when creating characters now.

How so...? They quite literally streamlined the process.

BruceWright · Sunday at 8:49 PM

Yeah collectable randomized blind box cards are antithetical to D&D. There’s no tournament play where your +2 sword would have to be on an official card to be play-legal.

The game just doesn’t work that way. It NEVER will work that way.

Millions of DMs will, of course, hand out the Immovable Rod or the Quall’s Feather Token or the Bag of Holding when they damn well please. And they won’t wait until they opened 20 packets of cards and at last found one.

The game simply doesn’t work that way.

These cards are a learning and playing tool. Not a nefarious scheme to “sneak” a collectable card mechanic into the game.

They wouldn’t need to sneak anything, by the way.

It just wouldn’t work.

Argyle King · Sunday at 10:47 PM

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
They could do a Borderlands expansion set with more caves, more wilderness, more everything and include, as part of that box, more cards unlocking more ancestries, classes, backgrounds, etc. That wouldn't be a random selection -- and thus open to the abuses mentioned before -- but just be a way to expand the experience along that track.

If Heroes of the Borderlands goes great, I think something like Adventurers of the Borderlands or Veterans of the Borderlands would be a great idea.

There could also be DM-facing expansions using a similar system, like Secrets of the Borderlands that added new magic items, etc.

The physical cards aren't necessarily an issue. It's all about implementation.

I don't necessarily think the cards are a bad idea.

It works for Munchkin. I could see a similar idea working for a ttrpg.

My earlier comments were mostly bringing up that such a thing could be an avenue for a business to make money during a time when selling books may be tougher.

Speculation about random packs and whatnot was based partially on previous threads, partially on how WoTC has handled other games, and partially on what has already been shown with Cocks.

BruceWright · Sunday at 11:18 PM

For magic items, even a box with each item in the DMG wouldn’t work for me, as i sometimes would need to hand multiple out. I wouldn’t mind, however, the ability to print my own nice cards from Dndbeyond from sourcebooks i’ve paid for or items i homebrewed.

I wouldn’t mind a set of spellcards as a player either. It would help my game immensely if i could just print each learned spell on a nice card i could assemble in a folio.

(I know i could do this manually).

MonsterEnvy · Monday at 3:31 AM

BruceWright said:
For magic items, even a box with each item in the DMG wouldn’t work for me, as i sometimes would need to hand multiple out. I wouldn’t mind, however, the ability to print my own nice cards from Dndbeyond from sourcebooks i’ve paid for or items i homebrewed.

I wouldn’t mind a set of spellcards as a player either. It would help my game immensely if i could just print each learned spell on a nice card i could assemble in a folio.

(I know i could do this manually).

Both of these things already exist.

D&D (2024) Take A Deeper Look At The New D&D Starter Set's Card-Based Characters

EzekielRaiden

Follower of the Way

aiouh

Explorer

Argyle King

Legend

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero

beaumontsebos

Adventurer

Parmandur

Book-Friend, he/him

BruceWright

Explorer

Argyle King

Legend

BruceWright

Explorer

MonsterEnvy

Legend

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