Hasbro has announced the Feb 8 release of their new D&D Fortune Card booster packs. For pictures and details CLICK HERE. It seems that players will soon be able to bring to the table their own self-constructed card decks that they may draw from during encounters. As with Magic: The Gathering and other CCGs you buy random booster packs containing certain numbers of common, uncommon, and rare cards.
Interestingly, the official announcement says:
"For some Wizards Play Network programs aimed at experienced players, Fortune Card purchase will be a requirement to participate,"
Luckily, however, it also says:
"Some players may show up to a game without any Fortune Cards, and that’s OK – they can still play D&D alongside those players that have them in action."
I can't imagine any player not investing in a deck, however. Could you picture yourself playing in a game, sitting next to other players who keep drawing awesome powerful rare fortune cards, while you don't even have your own deck?
As others have pointed out in this thread at RPGnet this means that you can now make your D&D characters more powerful simply by spending US $.
It's very interesting to watch "Dungeons & Dragons" rapidly morphing into... something... else...?
Maybe it's the carnitas burrito I had for dinner talking, but that last line just gave me the willies.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the carnitas burrito I had for dinner talking, but that last line just gave me the willies.
ReplyDeleteIf you've ever dealt with CCG addiction like I have (I'm a recovered Magic player), you SHOULD get the willies!
"...something...else...?"
ReplyDeleteExactly. As I've written elsewhere, I want WotC to do well. I want the brand to do well and to continue to keep bringing people to the table. I feel conflicted, however, because I just don't feel the connection to D&D that I used to. I was loyal to every single version of the rules and played them all, but there's just something about the current iteration. It's...something....else.
I hope you and the family are well.
Peace,
Christian
This is just horrible. My lack of enthusiasm for 4E just made a quantum lead towards antipathy. So now they're turning it into an I-outspend-you-so-I-win kind of game.
ReplyDeleteSo, can we finally stop calling 4E D&D now that it's officially become something else?
ReplyDeleteAll I can think, is that if I worked for WotC, I'd be ashamed of what I was doing. I know it's just a game, but they're taking a thing that had value and turning it to crap, just a little bit more, with each and every passing day. It's more than just a brand that's being mismanaged, it's the erosion of a cultural legacy.
ReplyDeleteGamers, overreacting. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI am overwhelmed with a big "WHO CARES?" If WotC wants to add this to the game, then great more power to them I hope they make an metric ton of money.
As a player I *might* buy some and as a DM I *might* allow them in play. Or I might not.
I don't understand what the issue is really.
Bah, fortune cards have been used in D&D for decades. This looks like a particularly bad way to implement them, but it's not like this is a new offense.
ReplyDeleteHasbro sees MtG (and thus, WotC) as a golden goose. The strategy seems to be to keep feeding the bird and continue to collect on the output. The problem that many in Hasbro's Development team fails to realize is that just because something works for one brand model (MtG & collectibility) does not mean that it will translate to another platform.
ReplyDeleteThe guys that work for WotC for the most part have almost nothing to do with the quality or creativity of the games coming out (anymore). Most of that is controlled at a higher level by Hasbro... the minds may be physically HOUSED in WoTC, but they are controlled by highers up.
Now, to a bit contrarian here, it's only requiered for the some of the Wizards official play. However, I can imagine many that only play D&D via the venue would be annoyed.
ReplyDeleteBut for any other game, it's only a option. For my current D&D home game, we won't use them.
The fortune card system seems very similiar the the mutation/tech cards that the new Gamma World uses. Which I've played and it works well and is fun.
I can understand how this can be viewed as sacreligious to most here.
The only time I ever used cards during an RPG game was in Street Fighter the Storytelling Game, and even so, they where just cheap print-outs, you could full-out yourself!
ReplyDeleteI known for a while, that they have been trying to mesh the game with MtG, as the 4e rules was designed to be bast played with cards, and now it has come to fruition! Its getting harder and harder for fans to justify 4e be a true incarnation of the D&D legacy when WofC bleeds all the role-playing aspects out of the game, leaving only a dry, rigged boardgame in its place! 9_9
As a player I *might* buy some and as a DM I *might* allow them in play. Or I might not.
ReplyDeleteFor my current D&D home game, we won't use them.
These are very interesting comments: 4e DMs contemplating major houseruling against the publisher.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a rift develop between 4e gamers using fortune cards and those not using fortune cards. As I said in the post, it's hard to imagine a session of serious players where some have the advantage of expensive decks and some don't - it's just not fair.
I predict many DMs will feel forced to make their games either open or closed to fortune cards, which will inevitably leave some players grumbling - mostly the ones that paid out for their cards.
Generally agree with Tim. But I also think those Coastal Wizards are growing ever more lame-tastic as time passes. I don't feel that the hobby is threatened by them at all. Only really creative people could do that.
ReplyDelete"As a dog returns to its vomit,
ReplyDeleteso fools repeat their folly."
Proverbs 26
Yea, its pretty low. I agree that I might have a deck of them as the DM, but there is no way that I would ever let my players build there own. That just sounds totally stupid. What a horrible, horrible thing to "REQUIRE". I don't care if you want to make CCG boosters that you could Optionally integrate into your game, hell, I used 3 Dragon Ante back when it was new, but making them a necessary part of the game is rediculous.
ReplyDeleteUnlike some other comments, I don't give a rats butt if WOTC does well. I do not buy their products, nor do I especially need our niche hobby to grow (my players tend to stay at my table, so I aint hurting for players).
ReplyDeleteIt's not D&D. Screw them and thier trying to capture a fad from a decade ago.
Just as there is a swell of collectors within the OSR who will chance their cash on ever more new retroclones so there are many 4e players who will keep on collecting the cards/miniatures/tiles/ for their game, and some who don't see the WFTness of pay-to-play.
ReplyDeleteIn their attempt to ape what computer games do better WOTC have created a uneasy hybrid and I'll be interested to see how 4e fans take to this over time.
Especially with 5e looming in the background ;)
So far the only good thing WotC/Hasbro made out are the crappy, cheapy, pre-painted plastic miniatures. Aside the fact they too makes no sense (come on, randomly assorted boosters?!), they are perfect for gaming purposes – just better than paper minis but not so fragile as classic minis.
ReplyDeleteBut deck of cards? Ok, let's recapitulate. To play 4e as it is you now need:
- 3 PHB
- 1 to 3 MM
- 1 to 3 DMG
- Dungeon Tiles
- Miniatures
- WotC site subscription
- Decks of wathever
So now think about 1e AD&D.
Papers & Paychecks? Certainly you can't play current D&D without those
ReplyDeleteAnd people wonder why I won't give these guys any of my money. Long live classic D&D.
ReplyDelete(Word verification: "regak." Defined as the sound this story caused me to make in the back of my throat.)
These are nothing but weak splatbooks or 1E Dragon articles on cards. All of those altered the playing landscape; to think otherwise is folly.
ReplyDelete"Hey look DM, this Dragon article says elven archers can get a +1 to hit if they are from the Blackwood Forest. Since my character was (I just haven't put that on my sheet yet) I get the bonus!"
There have been countless tables and charts that give characters little perks. This is just an organized manner for doing what has been going on for years. Just because it is in a new format does not invalidate it. I hear a lot of complaining about how the material is being presented. Would it have eased people's minds if the stats on the cards were consolidated into a long list and published as a Dragon article instead? With a 1d100 random chart to go with it?
Move along and stop reaching for straws. Nothing to see here.
"These are very interesting comments: 4e DMs contemplating major houseruling against the publisher. "
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd classify this as major house ruling, really... the cards are hardly "core" to the game,from what I've seen. Yeah, there is the whole "sanctioned play" aspect I suppose, but sanctioned play has had it's set of rules that didn't interact with my own game as far back as the RPGA has existed.
Personally, no I won' bee buying the cards because i don't have the money to blow on something so extraneous, but if my players wanted to bring a deck of them I'd not care if they got used by the group.
"But deck of cards? Ok, let's recapitulate. To play 4e as it is you now need: *stuff that is wrong*"
No. What you need is
-A PHB (PHB 1 or Heroes of the Fallen lands preferably)
-A DMG (or DM Kit, or Rules Companion)
-A MM (or the Monster Vault)
-Battlematt and something to represent the monsters and PCs (Minis/pogs/scraps of paper) (I'll concede this, though I don't entirely agree that it's REQUIRED... I've seen it done more free form)
-Dice
Things you do not need, but might make your life easier (i.e. supplements)... a WotC sub, books other than the first core books, "official" minis or tokens, decks of whatever
I think when I was playing 1e we kind of needed a PHB, a DMG, a MM, and some dice. Oh, and we used minis because it was nifty... which is pretty much exactly what I need to play 4e.
4e has yet to match 2e with its product line, but its coming close.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, I'm happy for WotC and I wish them all of the best. However, my edition of D&D works just great without online subscriptions or collectible anything ;).
ReplyDeleteI really don't think you give 4E GMs enough credit. No one NEEDS any of this stuff, just like no one needed 3E splats or the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Compendium. Yet somehow it's 'ruling against the publisher' when 4E folks do it rather than people just running their damned games.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, haters gonna hate, forever and anon.
@Callin just said the same thing that first came to my mind. The cards are nothing different than the 1e UA or 2e splatbooks or 3e splatbooks. A DM can use the cards, or they can choose not to.
ReplyDeleteWotC/Hasbro has taken the D&D brand so far afield from where I'm at, and what I play, that aside from just shrugging my shoulders and saying "That D&D ain't my D&D", I feel very little.
Next stop, MMO-only D&D. :)
I can play a game of 4E D&D and NOT buy these cards and still have fun. I think the game as it is now has enough Feats and Powers that provide bonuses from round to round. Just another product from "Bilkers of the Coast" I don't need. And it's something I wouldn't allow at my table.
ReplyDeleteWho didn't see the integration of CCG's when Wizards, and then hasbro, gained control of the game? What I really don't get is why they feel the need to mutate and mutilate a classic into this new beast that has as much in common with it, as it does the works of Shakespeare?
ReplyDeleteWhats never made sense is that the exact opposite of this, namely building a D&D influenced RPG around Magic the Gathering and selling it under that brand, probably wouldn't annoy anything. MtG aging (well not terribly aging, but 25+) fans would have a full RPG to move on to (or not) and old school D&D fans wouldn't feel the pains of brand rot.
That said.. I no longer consider myself a D&D player, although I may play by the old rules, I don't ever use the old books anymore, from now on I just call my games Labyrinth Lord, Osric, WB, or whatever I tell the gamers to get.
I've posted similar sentiments elsewhere... but this produces in me just apathy. Some of the apathy may come from it being January (Christmas behind us, weeks of winter ahead of us) but I don't care about the hobby. I am not offended or titillated. Just dulled.
ReplyDelete