Putting the index cards in Index Card RPG

craft
#1

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum. Hope y’all are having a good day. I’ve been thinking of ways to really put the index cards in Index Card RPG. So I bought a ton of index cards, grabbed some pens and sharpies, and got to work.

Cards
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From left to right we have: a character sheet, an item, and a quest!

Character sheets contain an image (if the player wants it to), the name, race, and class, along with health, defense, stats, and efforts. For this example I made Steve Harrington from Stranger Things as a character.

A player character’s abilities, spells, and items will all have their own cards.

And for the quest cards, I came up with 12 different one shot / short adventures for players to choose from, and drew a card for each. I would also like to make monster cards to go along with these quests.

Honestly once I actually get a game up and running, I’ll probably leave the art to the players, because this is a lot of work for one person to be doing. I mean I’m having fun drawing all this stuff, but I don’t want to wipe myself out either. I could give a player an item card with a blank space for them to draw the item in and I think that could be fun, make the players feel like they really own that magical item.

Anyway, has anyone else here done something like this before? I’d love to see some of y’all’s homemade cards.

GM Notes for My First Adventure, The Gardens of Glass
#2

Your index cards look awesome, what great way to put them to use!

#3

Aw thanks dude! :slight_smile:

#4

I love the idea of making quest cards! If I ever stop being lazy I’ll steal that idea for myself!

#5

Go right ahead! In the meantime would you like to see the rest of my quest cards? I got a picture of all 12 of them somewhere on my computer…

Quest%20Cards
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Found it! Had a lot of fun drawing these and coloring them :slight_smile:

PS: Quest #4 seems like a boring night, but I’m probably going to make it a game where the players have to collaboratively come up with a historical timeline for made up historical events, by the end of the game players will have done some worldbuilding for the world we’re playing in, allowing us all to have a clearer picture of the setting, and to garner a connection between PCs & the world they helped create / make up.

#6

Awesome quests cards

#7

Hey man! lovely work!

For sure, many players love drawing, so for loot, a cool name or description is enough to spark some creativity. If they don’t feel like it I’m sure another player can help them with a quick doodle.

#8

Yeah! So far all I’ve got are cool names, but maybe a short sentence of an item’s visual description / flavor text would help too. Like you said, spark some creativity for the players to literally draw from :smile:

#9

I love all these quests, they are so fun and imaginative! I really enjoy the simple, lighthearted themes that can work out in so many different ways. I think these would all be really fun to play! I simply love Quest 7: Deliver donuts to townsfolk in 30 minutes or less…that is so good! The use of colored pencil is awesome too, it’s a nice addition to the line drawings.

#10

Aw shucks :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

The quests I came up with were inspired by a cartoon called Bee & Puppycat (it’s on Netflix). The premise of the show is that Bee, a twenty-something year old woman who can’t hold down a job, meets Puppycat by sheer happenstance, she’s determined to take care of the maybe a dog maybe a cat. But she still needs to make rent, Puppycat then jingles the bell on his collar and an envelope appears. Signing the letter with a paw print takes the two of them on a short temp job out in space. These temp jobs are usually simple, just help out the client with whatever it is they need help with, go home, get paid. Sometimes things go awry, Puppycat is being hunted down by the king’s army of warlocks after all!

Anyway, the premise of this game I have in my head is that the PCs are working these quests in a similar capacity as Bee & Puppycat’s temp jobs, simple adventures that people need help with. The Questing Agency operates using a long interdimensional maze of corridors peppered with doors that lead to otherwise normal doors in the normal world. Which is why Quest 8 exists.

Yeah my idea is that this bakery run by Gerblins is trying one of those delivery services that promises to make an order free if they aren’t delivered in 30 minutes or less.

I’m happy that you guys like my cards! :smiley:

#11

mario
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It’s a me, Mario!

#12

Just want to jump on board with everyone else and say these are awesome cards; love the style and color! Great way to embrace the true ICRPG game! Keep it up dude.

#13

The style and tone for all of this is just <chef’s kiss>! Keep it up!

#14

Y’all are great! Thank you so much :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

If anyone’s got any card requests I’ll draw something up real quick (item, ability, spell, or monster).

However, I would also like to see some of y’all’s cards (if you already have some great, if not, give it a try, what’s the worst that could happen?). Don’t worry about trying to be the next Van Gogh, just sketch something to the best of your ability. Have fun!

#15

I haven’t yet visualised characters, items or even quests on index cards in the way you did. But I think I will start doing that. Thanks so much for all the cool stuff and the inpsiration.

#16

I’ve been having a fun time drawing up these cards! I hope you have fun doing it too! :smiley:

As for what I’m doing next… I’m going to try to adapt my ideas and cards to a science fantasy sort of setting (like Star Wars), because my friend is interested in playing in a world with space wizards & star ships. So future cards I make will be more in that genre.

#17

For such a setting, I cannot recommend enough the book Solar Blades and Cosmic Spells as a resource. It’s so good!

#18

I completely forgot that waaaay waaaay back when my long-suffering RPG was intended to be a card game, I used index cards for prototypes. Funny how things come back around. Anyway, it really is a nice way for anyone to get a quick idea down that’s perfectly easy to make and use. I love your quest cards in particular.
Here’s one of the ones I made back in the day:

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#19

Oh thank you! Funnily enough I already own that book on itch.io, it was part of one of those massive ttrpg bundles for a charity. I’ll download the PDF now and look through it. Thank you for the suggestion!

#20

Gotta agree with you there, the fact that they’re index cards makes it very accessible. Messing up and tossing a card in the trash isn’t a big deal because they’re not expensive. Pretty much 100 cards for a dollar.

Thank you for sharing a card of your own! I love it! Kinda want to use it myself, but maybe instead I’d call it a Doppeldummy (like doppelganger). Really cool! Thank you :slight_smile: