2017-04-17

OED Deck of Spells

For about 8 years now I've been using my custom Book of Spells in my own OD&D games. It's an Open Gaming Licensed version of magic-user spells that are in OD&D -- based on text from the d20 SRD, but massively cut-down and refined so they're short (usually just a few lines of text each) and more like the original game (subject to some small changes based on my own play experience). Now in its 2nd Edition, I really like being able to hand every wizard player at the table their own slim volume for looking up their spell effects (see sidebar; available at Lulu.com).

But now my good friend Paul S. has done one better and turned it into a custom deck of cards! This way you can pull out your memorized spells at the start of the day, have all their effects directly in front of you, and simply discard the spells when you use them. We're finding that many players actually prefer it in this form, because once chosen it entirely skips any book look-ups during the game. All the spells in the OED Book of Spells are included, and the text is identical to the 2nd Edition of the book.

I myself played a wizard in a game of Paul's (who's started running OED-style games himself -- which was a little Being John Malkovich-y for me) and I really liked being able to slap down a card on the table during my turn as a representation of what I was doing. Also: If it's an effect that boosts or protects another PC, I could simply hand the card over to them and they could use that as a reminder of what the effect was on their character. It's ridiculously nifty! Only $14.99 at TheGameCrafter.com (which is pretty close to the manufacturing price, so we'll see how long we can keep it at that level). Thanks to Paul for creating that resource!



11 comments:

  1. Has it been eight years? You also missed your 10 year anniversary in March! Well done, I hope we have another 10 years to look forward to.

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    1. OMG, it's been 10 years? You're right, I didn't notice it, thanks for pointing that out!

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    2. Time flies when you're having fun!

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  2. Very Nice.

    BTW
    "that our in OD&D "
    should be that are in OD&D

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    1. Thanks! And appreciate the correction, I needed that.

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  3. That is really cool! I wrote my own "Cleric's Prayer Book" for my OD&D campaign, which I based heavily on your Book of Spells, but cards are a really nice way way of handling it.

    I suspect it's no coincidence that 4e made power cards to keep track of all the players' abilities.

    Maybe cards don't quite hit the "swords & sorcery" feel of a leather bound grimoire, but having played Amber Diceless with its Trump cards (admittedly a heavily rewritten version), I think I could write into the setting that spells came on cards.

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    1. I do like paying attention to how that connects/emulates the in-game world!

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    2. Maybe they should come as tablets, scrolls, or rune-stones. :-)

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    3. Eh, I think I'll let the players chisel their own copies!

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  4. I received my deck in the mail today. What an excellent tool! Thank you!

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