I present to you the Duskwall Heist Deck.
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/duskwall-heist-deck
This deck is designed to help the GM make up heists on the fly. There are two kinds of cards inside.
One type involves obstacles. Each card has a Duskwall flavored obstacle that defends a heist site, complete with questions to get you thinking about customizing it. The back side has suggestions to make the obstacle more or less difficult. There are 50 cards in this section.
The other type has an important person on one side, and a potential treasure on the other. You can use the person side to draw potential employers and targets. You can use the treasure side to see what the scoundrels might be after! There are 40 cards in this section.
To round it all off, there is a free .pdf with suggestions for how to use the deck to set up a heist, or for other improvisational purposes. Take a look!
Special thanks to John Harper, who was supportive of this idea! I hope it will be really helpful to GMs who want to show off the haunted city of Duskwall in all its sordid glory.
These cards are so good! They add a wealth of great NPCs, treasures, and obstacles, each perfectly suited to Duskwall. I can’t wait to use them in my own games.
I used that site for my own games when it first opened. I hope shipping costs have improved…
Nope, $23.66 shipping. I’ll stick to Artscow and DriveThruCards
Is it PDF or printed deck for sale?
Aleksandr Ermakov It’s a print deck.
Love the idea, but not as a print deck. Especially from Game Crafter. That’s just too expensive an approach in relation to initial investment on Kickstarter. Why not consider PDF on DriveThru?
Greg Krywusha My initial approach was making a book with a table. I chose to go with a deck because of the nature of how the deck could be used in a way a book could not.
You can generate results and have them right there in front of you as you play, turning them over or arranging them as you like. With a .pdf, you have two main choices: copy and paste (or write down) the results you generate, or print out a deck and cut it up and use it like cards.
Neither of those methods have the same speed and flexibility of drawing cards and arranging them, quickly scanning them, and keeping an eye on them as the heist unfolds.
For the purpose of speed and utility, I chose card format.
I’m a fan of cards. Just not gamecrafter as a print on demand service.
I know I’m aiming for the tiniest niche within a tiny niche here.
This is only going to be of use to those who run the game, especially those who run the game at conventions or open table and want to generate heists out of thin air for quick play. I know it’s not for everyone, that’s cool.
Lucky for me, I’ve got one now. =)
Andrew Shields I understand your reasoning for making it a deck. However, I don’t see why it couldn’t be a PnP deck sent via PDF. As a playtester for well over 25+ years, this has been a delivery system well used by many a company. I’m just saying your are narrowing your audience with “selling” it this way.
Darn, I would have jumped on this so fast if it was a pdf. Since all my gaming is done online these days, I have little use for any print anymore except as showpieces.
Simon .Grey That’s cool. I plan to use it even though my gaming is primarily online, because it’s just for me. I can lay it out on my table and refer to it during the session. That will be easier for me than one more open window. =) I don’t have to show the players any of it.
I’m looking forward to my physical copy getting here so I can take a good long look at it!
If it was a PDF, I likely wouldn’t pay much attention. It would need to be cards or a website to really catch my eye.
PnP is great, but not as universal as you might think.
Any plans to put it up on DriveThruCards?
I’m talking over possibilities with my layout and design guy, so, nothing sure yet.
Cool. I’d be interested if you put it there. I’ve had better experiences with their print on demand than Game Crafter.
I will definitely take a look at DriveThruCards. I’m new to printing card decks, this is my first outing. Thanks.
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DriveThruCards has stricter printing requirements on ink usage BTW
I would love to use it too ! But shipping from this site to outside of US is not an option. 30 o 40$, compared to the 17 of the cards…
If you change your mind and go for a pdf version, I’ll buy it the moment you publish it ^^
Andrew Shields any chance for PDF sales? Deck looks great and idea of it is gorgeous. But delivery to Russia is awkward in price, time and chance of failure.
Same here, I could actually buy the deck but to get it to Europe is almost 3 times the price of the deck itself. Damn I wish there were more options for printing professional looking cards on this side of the world as well.
(bookmarked for future investment)
These look really cool. Ordered!
Vasco Brown Thanks! I hope you like them. =)
Can someone point me to where DriveThruCards explains their better international shipping capacity? I’m not finding it on the site. If they have partners in other parts of the world, where do I get a look at how that works?
I am considering getting the cards reformatted to meet their requirements, but I want to be sure the solution addresses the problem before triggering such a major overhaul.
FINALLY got around to getting mine. This is a fantastic resource! Thanks for this, Andrew. Five cards, ten minutes thought, and Robert’s your parental sibling….