Neverwinter Fortune Cards

I got in a booster box of Neverwinter Fortune Cards, which equates to a grand total of ninety-six cards. I picked up a hefty chunk of Fortune Cards back when the first set was released, and though I tried to get my group into them they often forgot they had them. This time around the cards do a bit more (especially rares), so I’ll give them another shot–ironically during my Dark Sun campaign–and see if they get any better traction. If nothing else I’ll be taking them with me to Lair Assault games and just throw them at people until I exhaust my massive stack of doubles.

This will still be one of those “love or hate” products, and depending on why you might not have liked the first set of Fortune Cards–power creep, turning the game into a card game, etc–you probably are not going to like these. Me? I like the idea of handing them out as rewards during a game for doing cool shit or for good social role-playing moments.

The cards that were not copies.

The stack of doubles I had left over.

Four of the rares.

Four other rares.

Fortune Card Impressions

At a glance the cards seem like a way for characters to largely gain buffs of varying degrees of power, at no cost to the character(the player gets to foot the bill). Many bonuses are highly situational, while others require a die roll to see if they work in your favor. I want to make it clear that I haven’t gotten a chance to Fortune Cards much: I was given some free packs from my local store in order to see what my group thought of them, and got to see them in action when I ran the first session of March of the Phantom Brigade (last night).

The greatest issue during our Monday night game was that we kept forgetting to use them, or discard them if we didn’t like what we had. Only one player burned through them with any frequency, while the other players managed to use one or two. In the end we quit using them halfway through the session: while Liz and Beth seemed to get a kick out of them, Randy didn’t care for them at all. It wasn’t that they overpowered the characters, or even really provided a noticeable increase in power, but hat they added another layer of complexity that they weren’t used to.

Personally, the hardest part was getting a card that was relevant. One card let me knock someone prone if I fell prone, another let me shift my Speed, and another would reduce falling damage. The only problem? Not a lot of monsters seem to have powers with prone kickers, it’s rare that players seem to be climbing about high enough that fall damage is a concern, and as a defender I really never wanted to shift insanely far (especially when I could fall down if I rolled a 9 or less).

During Encounters, everyone except one player used them, and that’s because he still had Rewards Cards from past Encounter seasons. During a skirmish against a quartet of blood-thirsty stirges, only two players really used them, but then two out of three ain’t bad (and the player that didn’t just kept forgetting to cycle hers out). Again, I didn’t notice an increase in power. The encounter was rebalanced for a party of four, and at the session’s end most of them were down 2-4 healing surges and an Action Point or two. Given that they can’t take an extended rest whenever they want, this isn’t a good start.

One player suggested doling out one per encounter as opposed to one per round. I think that this would be better for constructed decks, as otherwise the benefits can be quite forgettable. Another thing is that I like the Renown Point system in Encounters, and could see giving out cards to players that do sufficiently badass things. Kind of like Achievements, but with a tangible award. Finally, they could be an incentive award in lieu of handing out bonus XP. If you’re going to do one of the latter, I’d recommend giving out a card that is actually useful, as I’d hate to do a lot of cool shit only to be award with the ability to reduce falling damage.

If you liked Rewards Cards, have a smaller group that usual, like the mutations from Gamma World, and/or want to add randomness to combat, then you’ll like these (with or without controlling their distribution). If your table has one or more competitive assholes with lots of disposable income, or don’t like having players gaining randomized benefits at no penalty, then you won’t like these. My recommendation is to attend a few Encounters sessions and use someone else’s deck and see for yourself. I don’t think these were as bad as a I feared, but they’re definitely not for every group.

January and Beyond

There’s really nothing coming out in January besides more Dungeon Tiles, and despite having a four-product lineup next month we only get previews for two—Legion of Gold and those fortune cards that everyone’s bitching about–and Heroes of Shadow (which sucks because I was hoping to see what the new DM screen looked like on the inside).


Legion of Gold
Legion of Gold is another Gamma World expansion that adds the usual content mix–new origins, monsters with their respective tokens, some information on new regions, and an adventure–but like Famine at Far-go also adds some new rules by way of vocations.

Vocations are kind of like a poor man’s theme from Dark Sun, telling you what your character does for a living. Unlike themes they grant you minor benefits starting at level 4, which are kind of like underpowered D&D feats. Bounty hunter is one example, giving you the ability to knock a target prone that you have combat advantage against at level 4, gain a +2 damage hunter’s quarry feature at level 7, and roll initiative twice at level 10. If you want, at level 7 you can opt to pick up a new vocation’s feat instead of gaining the second one from your current vocation, and at level 10 you can either gain the first feat from a third vocation, or gain the second from one you already have.

Also previewed are two of the origins: photonic and vampiric.

Photonics are Intelligence (Dark), gain a bonus to Science, AC, and Reflex, have resist 10 laser, and when they crit grant temp hp to allies. Their novice attack is a ranged attack that deals force damage, pushses the target, and grants a defense bonus to an ally. Their utility grants temp hp to themselves or an ally, and boosts hit points on a second wind if its used before your next turn ends. Finally, their expert attack conjures a wall that damages adjacent enemies, lets allies through, and protects your allies if they are attacked.

Vampirics are Charisma (Psi), gain a bonus to Interaction and all defenses. When they crit, they deal extra damage and gain combat advantage against the target. Their novice attack is an area burst that deals psychic damage, slows, and imposes a Will penalty. If you kill or bloody a target? You gain temp hps. The utility grants you temp hp, a bonus to Speed and Reflex, and causes you to daze targets you hit for a turn. Finally, the expert attack lets you dominate a target and deal ongoing psychic damage once they save.

Fortune Cards: Shadow Over Nentir Vale
Fortune Cards get further exposition, and might seem to reek of a bit more power creep that I’d previously thought because you are limited to using one per round as opposed to encounter. See, I’d been basing them off of Alpha mutation cards, which are harder to grind through. With these, you draw one when combat starts, swap it or keep it when the round starts if you haven’t already used one, or draw a new one if you’ve played one already. The previewed common lets you omit a target from an AoE attack, while the uncommon lakes you take one for the team, and the rare grants you a free reroll.

In light of the fact that players can now throw down randomized situational benefits constantly, I’m going to have to give these more consideration…or draw one for myself. Though I wished Fortune Cards weren’t just about giving players bonuses without any drawbacks (except monetary), this might be a good compromise: I get to draw a card and apply it to any one of my own monsters.

Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow
On an ironically brighter note, Heroes of Shadow looks to have a lot to offer: assassins, paladins, warlocks, new options for clerics, warlocks, and wizards, a vampire class, and the revenant, shade, and vryloka races. Its unfortunate that we’re getting the assassin and not executioner, as I greatly prefer the latter. At any rate from the sounds of things this book will offer a mixed bag of content, as some of it will use the Essentials progression, but some won’t. In a reasonable world, this would help put to rest whether Essentials is the “new” D&D (or compatible, or better supported, or whatever).

Not much is said about vryloka, except that they’re an “ancient human race” that have been infected by vampirism. Hopefully they get better support than the dhampyr. I do find it interesting that WotC is making a vampire class. While I’m not a fan of how monsters-as-PCs was handled in 3rd Edition, I’m confident that it’ll turn out a lot better.

Now, shades are featured. They’re humans who trade part of their souls for slivers of Shadowfell-stuff, kind of like how the assassin class works, only they don’t get to form shadows into nooses or conjure fog. Instead, in exchange for a healing surge and their natural origin they get a bonus to Charisma and either Dexterity or Intelligence, darkvision, a bonus to Arcana and Stealth (plus free Stealth training), can opt to swap out utilities from their class for more shadow-powers, and the one with shadow racial power (an at-will that grants concealment and lets them use Stealth even from behind allies). Not a bad deal, I’d say.

A trio of their exchangeable racial utilities are also previewed: fleeting shade is a level 2 encounter that turns you invisible, but only until the end of your turn. On the plus side, you get a +5 bonus to Stealth until the end of your next turn. Twilight torch is a level 6 at-will that lets you create dim light around you, but it only lasts for one turn. Finally, shadow monsters is a level 10 daily that lets you summon a quartet of, well, shadow monsters that impose attack penalties to adjacent enemies, and also deal necrotic damage if they end their turn next to one or move through them.

Fortune Cards

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.