Resource Cards: The Holy Grail

One of my ongoing projects is to develop a set of resource cards, for use as props in D&D games. The idea behind those is to pass out the resource cards to the players, when they purchase equipment, find treasure, obtain rumors and clues, and so on. They therefore will have some tangible representation of the item or information, rather than simply writing the item or information down on their character sheet. That project was inspired by several things: the Paizo Gamemastery cards, the resource cards from the Civilization boardgame, and of course my much-beloved Magic Realm treasure cards.

While the Paizo Gamemastery cards are beautifully illustrated, I find them a little too large for what I am attempting: the Paizo cards are the size of a traditional playing-card (roughly 2.5” x 3.5”) while I am looking for cards that have a smaller footprint, say 1” x 1.5”.

Lately, I have let my resource cards project languish, but it is not forgotten. Here’s an example of a treasure card from Magic Realm, side-by-side with one of my prototype D&D resource card props. As an exercize in developing some resource cards, I am trying to re-create the Magic Realm cards, but with the addition of some simple artwork. Clearly a work in progress, but you get the idea.

Don’t let the card selection of the Sacred Grail fool you: as I have said previously, I neither like the Paladin class in D&D, nor do I have any interest in playing one. In my estimation, the specialist classes like the Paladin, and the introduction of 4d6 character stat generation, took D&D down the wrong path.

The Sacred Grail treasure, in Magic Realm, is a real boon to that game’s White Knight, as it supplies him with WHITE magic, and thereby gives him the ability to cast spells, away from the sanctuary of the Chapel. Of course, it is tempting for the other players (like me when I am playing the Black Knight) to cheese off the White Knight and simply sell the Sacred Grail to the Order, and thereby gain the 12 gold, but more importantly, the 50 fame points.