Hot on the heels of Gamma World‘s randomized card mechanic is another randomized card mechanic, this time for Dungeons & Dragons: Fortune Cards. Based on the little information that there is, Fortune Cards seem to function a lot like Alpha Mutation and Omega Tech cards: you draw one at the start of an encounter, and each provides you with a temporary bonus such as a bonus to defenses or damage resistance, or a conditional effect, such as granting a reroll. Oh, and you can also build personalized decks with them, and while there’s no word on the restrictions, I’m going to assume that a deck will require a minimum card count and allow only a certain number of a given card.
Despite being an optional accessory, people are of course complaining about it. Some liken it to the irrefutable fact that D&D has become a card game, while others think that it “breaks the game” by allowing players with more money to build decks in order to give themselves as many advantages as possible (which ties in with WotC being nothing but money-grubbing capitalists). I’m not sure whose games these people play, but in my experience a DM can simply disallow their usage, and I like to hope that most groups actually, you know, communicate with each other. I know that I wouldn’t let just one player use them, and in all likelihood I’d just have one community deck to draw from (as in my Gamma World games).
The only real issue I have with Fortune Cards is that they seem to grant only benefits. I’d rather have some disadvantages in there and give players a choice to draw from the deck when an encounter starts, keeping the ratio at half fortunes and half “misfortunes” (perhaps having to keep the same rarity-ratio, as well), and making it more of a gamble. Players feeling lucky might opt to draw, while others who like what they have can just go without. Maybe you could have two decks and require players to alternate: if they draw from the fortune deck in one encounter, they have to draw from the other at the start of the next.
Personally I plan on getting a few packs to see how it plays out, and if I don’t like them, I won’t use them. Some events in the Wizards Play Network will demand a purchase, while D&D Encounters will not.
Awful Good Games 