I have read somewhere that Nightmare cards have a different quality than the normal mode cards as the first are print on demand. Is this so?

I am thinking to start investing in Nightmare mode. As I never sleeve the encounter decks, will this make the top encounter card identifiable due to the different printing method?

Would someone that has some nightmare cards please upload a pic with a normal one next to a nightmare one just to check?

In addition, is there a standard number of cards in each nightmare pack or does it depend on the adventure?

Yes, you can distinguish them pretty easily by looking at the card backs or simply touching them. If you want a full Nightmare experience - you'll need to sleeve.

Nightmare decks are print on demand, which is why they're able to come out much more rapidly than regular adventure packs. The drawback to this is the different quality of card that you're talking about. It's completely normal. As mentioned, sleeving them works good, but it sounds like you're like me and loathe to do that, so I tend to just deal from the bottom of the deck. My brother played a scenario with me and had another idea where you just place a playing card or something on top of the deck and make a point of not trying to look at what the next card is, and don't deal shadow cards until the part where you're resolving them. It's sort of a hassle, but you have to do some goofy stuff if you're not able or willing to sleeve the encounter deck. And yes, I believe the number of cards varies from quest to quest. It's usually around twenty, and if I'm not mistaken they're all numbered as xx/xx. I was missing a card from a Nightmare pack and all I had to do was look and see that it skipped from 1/20 to 3/20.

I believe the standard decks are 20 card decks, though the saga and deluxe are somewhat more.

I agree, sleeving is needed.

Myself, I dont think the quality is exactly less, just different. Has a slightly different feel to me (almost plastic-y) with a slight satin-finish to them and the colours are slightly different, maybe a little more vivid.

Once sleeved, all is good.

Im not sure the difference would be evident on a photo though as some people play un-sleeved and just dont look closely at the encounter deck while playing (though shadow cards are hard not to look at when face down). So the difference is slight but noticable if you look straight at the deck.

Nightmare decks are print on demand, which is why they're able to come out much more rapidly than regular adventure packs. The drawback to this is the different quality of card that you're talking about. It's completely normal. As mentioned, sleeving them works good, but it sounds like you're like me and loathe to do that, so I tend to just deal from the bottom of the deck. My brother played a scenario with me and had another idea where you just place a playing card or something on top of the deck and make a point of not trying to look at what the next card is, and don't deal shadow cards until the part where you're resolving them. It's sort of a hassle, but you have to do some goofy stuff if you're not able or willing to sleeve the encounter deck. And yes, I believe the number of cards varies from quest to quest. It's usually around twenty, and if I'm not mistaken they're all numbered as xx/xx. I was missing a card from a Nightmare pack and all I had to do was look and see that it skipped from 1/20 to 3/20.

May I slightly thread hijack and ask what card you had missing please? Were you the missing-kamal person or a different one please? I need to know if to count all my new NM and POD decks cards.

Or you can have a couple of pints and play in low light.

I bought 2 packs of these for my Nightmare cards:

http://www.amazon.com/Card-Sleeves-Standard-Red-Pack/dp/1589948955/ref=pd_bxgy_21_text_y

Nightmare decks are print on demand, which is why they're able to come out much more rapidly than regular adventure packs. The drawback to this is the different quality of card that you're talking about. It's completely normal. As mentioned, sleeving them works good, but it sounds like you're like me and loathe to do that, so I tend to just deal from the bottom of the deck. My brother played a scenario with me and had another idea where you just place a playing card or something on top of the deck and make a point of not trying to look at what the next card is, and don't deal shadow cards until the part where you're resolving them. It's sort of a hassle, but you have to do some goofy stuff if you're not able or willing to sleeve the encounter deck. And yes, I believe the number of cards varies from quest to quest. It's usually around twenty, and if I'm not mistaken they're all numbered as xx/xx. I was missing a card from a Nightmare pack and all I had to do was look and see that it skipped from 1/20 to 3/20.

May I slightly thread hijack and ask what card you had missing please? Were you the missing-kamal person or a different one please? I need to know if to count all my new NM and POD decks cards.

i am not entirely sure that you need to sleeve. i dont sleeve since i love shuffling cards like a pro. anyhow, i play unsleeved and it hasnt affected me. try it and if you don't make a decision based on the card back then you are good. besides if your deck doesn't interact with the top of the encounter deck then it really doesn't matter

also i really can't tell the difference from the backs, altought i am playing in a low-light enviroment (like my lotr romantic

The only issue with that is if you play exactly by rulebook and have studied the encounter deck to figure out shadow effects to expect, threat averages, that kind of thing, and you notice that one of the shadow cards dealt to an enemy is a Nightmare card, you might be less apt to say, take an attack undefended, whereas if the cards were all equal you would've. I'm guilty of that line of thinking, so I can sympathize, but if it doesn't affect you then it's all good too.

The only issue with that is if you play exactly by rulebook and have studied the encounter deck to figure out shadow effects to expect, threat averages, that kind of thing, and you notice that one of the shadow cards dealt to an enemy is a Nightmare card, you might be less apt to say, take an attack undefended, whereas if the cards were all equal you would've. I'm guilty of that line of thinking, so I can sympathize, but if it doesn't affect you then it's all good too.

hehe this, like i said, if you make a decision based on the back, or if it even occurs to you then you should probably sleeve.

Thank you all for your insight. As some of you have pointed out, if your deck does not affect the top encounter card then there is no reason to study the top encounter card. Me and my brother only sleeve our player cards. It's considerably easier and cheaper to do. Plus the majority of the encounter cards won't be seeing much action as new stories come out.

I have some print of demand cards for the game of thrones the board game. They have a considerable difference from the main game cards, but in board games FFG uses a different printing method for the cards that come with the box. They feel laminated whereas the normal lcg cards are more like the Magic cards. I don't believe that they are going to feel completely different.

As mentioned, sleeving them works good, but it sounds like you're like me and loathe to do that, so I tend to just deal from the bottom of the deck. My brother played a scenario with me and had another idea where you just place a playing card or something on top of the deck and make a point of not trying to look at what the next card is, and don't deal shadow cards until the part where you're resolving them. It's sort of a hassle, but you have to do some goofy stuff if you're not able or willing to sleeve the encounter deck.

Cool ideas! That gave me the idea to look for one of those card dealers they use for poker. Some of them conceal the top card but leave you with enough room to grab it. I do indeed hate sleeving cards... The game already requires you to spend some time setting it up. Sleeving each different encounter deck would become too frustrating for my taste. And I would not even consider sleeving all of them as that would be too expensive to do... I prefer using that money for actual cards..