So, I did a search of these forums and of the internet, but I could not find a master action card list that also showed the effects/drawbacks of the cards. Does such a list exist? Or does FFG view this as some sort of copyright violation?

thanks,

-smythe

One of the ideas of the zillion cards, that you can't read about in the rulebooks, is that it limits the amount of torrents people just download instead of actually buying FFG products.

RPG's suffer from this, because they're usually a book, and that can be made into a PDF, and suddenly it's "free". That's one reason (amongst) others, that GW is a succes, their main product can't be coppied (well not easially anyway).

Oh, I know that it makes people buy the actual set so that they have the actual cards in front of them. But, for instance, last night, before we could play, everyone had to go through all the cards so that they could take their advancements ... Be easier if they knew what cards that they wanted before we started to play - save about an hour of precious game time.

Sounds like the Player's Guide hardback is what you want. It will contain all the information on actions, talents, careers, and career abilities from all products release up through Signs of Faith.

When You want such a list then just buy the game! It looks like The Players Guide will have it just like Mac40k said!

@ffgfan: Seriously, dude? How about you 'just buy the game'. I own two boxes of the core sets, plus both toolkits, the magic and campaign supplements. Nowhere in the 'game' is a comprehensive listing of all the action cards along with what they do. If you were trying to be helpful, I apologize, but you really do come off sounding like a smartass.

@mac40k: Thanks. That's exactly the kind of information that I needed. Once the Guide is released in the Fall, I may look into purchasing it. I was just hoping to have something for my players before then.

I actually think FFG should rethink their stance on this issue. Well, to be honest I'm not sure I know their stance.

For other FFG RPGs, there is loads of user-contributed material, like summaries, excel sheets and so on containing references for the rules. For 3e that seems not to be allowed at all. A simple excel sheet with all cards along with a very brief description (leaving out the actual game mechanic) is something that would be very useful for many. And I honestly don't see how that will cause FFG to lose customers due to piracy. If anything, not having this kind of user contributions might drive away people from the game.

But maybe this would be ok with FFG (they are perfectly fine with it for DH/RT, they even provide links to them from the support page), just that no user have actually done anything like that yet. I guess a lot of people interested in contributing got burnt in the Strange Eons-debacle.

Maybe this will change with the release of the hardback books. They should follow their own example with DH/RT and allow user made summaries (also of cards).

Spivo said:
One of the ideas of the zillion cards, that you can't read about in the rulebooks, is that it limits the amount of torrents people just download instead of actually buying FFG products.

RPG's suffer from this, because they're usually a book, and that can be made into a PDF, and suddenly it's "free". That's one reason (amongst) others, that GW is a succes, their main product can't be coppied (well not easially anyway).

WHFRP 3e is not in any way safe from piracy due to using cards. It might be a little bit harder for pirates to scan and create pdfs out of the cards, but it's certainly not impossible. And once it is done, noone ever needs to do it again. I'm certain you can find the core set illegally copied floating around if you want to. It's a silly idea to think that using this design model will limit pirating.

If you know what careers they are gonna be playing you can browse through the cards and pick out a subset of them as "recommended" actions and talents for that particular career. Obviously this will not take into account how your players want to play and customize their character, but you can have all your players look at their respective cards simultaneously instead of taking turns looking through all the cards. Since you own 2 sets this might not be an issue but it could still speed up the process. This does however add to your prep time.

gruntl said:

I agree... but I was just saying that this might be one of the reasons to do it this way. When you make a game that costs 70+ €, then you want someway to make it hard to copy.

Maybe they just hoped some fan with lots of time on his hands, would make the refference list. I for one would love to have one

I would though prefer one that didn't give away rules, but just gave a description of the effect, because I want my players to chose actions based on cinematics and not based on which "kicks more a.." than the other.

gruntl said:

I have exactly that document, that i created for my players. It includes all talents and actions (not spells or blessnig though just because currently they are easy enough to look through the cards), up to EoN (haven't got SoF yet.

I intend to keep it up to date going forward too, but wouldn't be sure if or how I could sensibly get that out to the wider community. As you say there is a level of concern (on my part) following the SE situation.

I put all the cards in the 9-up UltraPro card pages and put them in a binder. The small cards fit in the slots sideways without falling down to the bottom of the pockets. Players can then flip through the book. Not quite the same as a condensed list, but easier than sifting through stacks of cards, and other than slotting in new cards as I get them, not as much overhead as creating and maintaining a list.

mac40k said:

So can we all come to your house and look at your binders?!?