D&D Resources – Condition and Spell Cards

I’m involved in two high level D&D campaigns. In the one where I’m a player it’s not unusual to be in the middle of an major battle and have all of the party (5 Players and 3 NPC’s) affected by our Bard’s Inspire Courage, Haste, Bless, Prayer, etc. If someone fails a save and is dazzled/shaken/sickened, etc – how do you keep track of all the bonuses and penalties that apply to a character? What bonuses stack with each other?

I looked around at “Condition” cards available and wasn’t satisfied with what was available. I found that, regardless of price or quality, it seemed that either not all the conditions or buffs that most players would want were part of the set, or you only got one of each card. In the end I made my own – then I did a second set that covered the main spells that were being cast in our campaigns.

 

My cards are 55 x 85mm, just a little smaller than standard card size. I print them out on an A4 sheet, laminate them and cut them out. I’ve also used different colour paper to distinguish the two sets.
I generally have two of each of the conditions and about four each of anything that could affect all the party. Not everyone needs to have their own card – but each player should be able to see them. [Note: The cards in the image above are from an early set and bonuses to “Attack” now read “Attack rolls” to be clearer.]

I’m making them available to anyone else who wants to use them, in two formats. The PDF’s are great to print as is; the Word files are good if you want to print extra copies of individual cards, or want to use mine as a template to create your own cards. These work with both 3.5 and Pathfinder – if there is a difference in rules, then there’s a separate card for each system.

The “Condition” set contains one each of: Ability Damaged, Ability Drained, Baleful Polymorph, Blinded, Confused, Cowering, Dazed, Dazzled, Deafened, Disabled, Dying, Energy Drained, Enlarged, Entangled, Exhausted, Fascinated, Fatigued, Frightened, Grappled, Helpless, Incorporeal, Invisible, Nauseated, Panicked, Paralysed, Prone, Reduced, Shaken, Sickened, Slowed, Staggered, & Stunned.
The “Spell” set contains one each of: Aid, Bless, Detect Evil, Detect Magic, Divine Favour, Divine Protection, Fireshield, Good Hope, Hasted, Mage Armor, Mirror Image, Prayer, Righteous Wrath, Shield, & Shield of Faith (+2 to +4). It also includes Bard performances: Inspire Courage (+1 to +4), Inspire Greatness, Countersong, Dirge of Doom, Fascinate, Frightening Tune, & Soothing Performance. Not all of these spells have “bonuses” to a character, but they are handy reminders that you have that spell active and what it does.

Download them from my RPG Resources page!

MERP Campaign & Resources

My MERP Campaign work is pretty much finished. I’ve customised the 2nd edition MERP rules to suit the way I’d like the game to run, and completed my tables for character creation and campaign play. I’m now in the process of converting ICE’s LOR (Lord of the Rings Adventure Game) adventures into MERP adventures. My aim would be to use the first two LOR modules as the start of my MERP Campaign.

Here’s my campaign adventure plan so far – leading from Bree to Rivendell, then around most of Rhudaur:

LR-0 Dawn Comes Early, LR-1 Darker Than Darkness, <Rivendell>, The Loons of Long Fell (1^st level), Hillmen of the Trollshaws – The Trolls Watch-Tower (Low level), Trolls of the Misty Mountains – The Dwarves of Duildin Hill (1^st – 2^nd), Trolls of the Misty Mountains – The Village of Garkash Hill (2^nd – 3^rd), Phantom of the Northern Marshes – The Phantom of the Woods (1^st – 2^nd), Phantom of the Northern Marshes – The Riddle of Ridorthu (2^nd – 3^rd), Dark Mage of Rhudaur – Before the Snow Falls & Beseiged, Hillmen of the Trollshaws – The Tale of Mong-Finn & Miffli (Mdm level), Hillmen of the Trollshaws – The Rescue of Alquawen (Mdm level).

The LOR system is like a simpler version of MERP – it uses a smaller set of skills than MERP (LOR skills are like the MERP skill categories), a simpler set of races/classes and rolls are all using 2d6. Most MERP products come with a guide for converting LOR Characters to MERP, but it’s mostly along the lines of “work out what level your character would be and assign DP’s for each level to the skill categories determined by the LOR bonuses”. What I really like about the LOR modules is the way they are written – lots of detail about what the characters see, or can learn/interact with through skill rolls. The first adventure is designed for players who haven’t played LOR (or many RPGs) before and is great for the GM to lead them through the basics of skill use, combat and general role-playing.

Most of my conversion requires converting the LOR skill roll results to MERP Static Maneuver results. When it comes to creatures/NPCs, I’m just making my own NPC’s using MERP rules, or adding the relevant MERP creature stats. The adventures also have a lot of maps and visual aids and I’ve been able to use a lot of them to make floor-plans or game play maps. (I recently learned that one of my graphics programs can overlay a grid on an image, and I found another program that takes large images and break them up into A4 sheets for printing!) I made up four new characters using my rules and I’m play-testing my conversions – going nicely so far!

I also decided that with all these things that I’ve developed, it would be worth adding a new page to my blog that lists internet resources that I’ve found helpful and also made some of my RPG files available to others who may find them useful. So far it’s mostly MERP materials – character sheets, tables, etc – but I’ll add Greyhawk material (D&D and Hero Lab) as I find it or finish it.