Thursday, April 13, 2023

Starfinder: "Rules Reference Cards" [RPG]

 I understand the pitch for the Starfinder Rules Reference Cards.  As the back of the 110-card box says, "Stop flipping back and forth through rulebooks--grab the cards you need and keep your game moving!"  However, although I've tried to use these in a few Starfinder Society games (as both player and GM), I honestly find them far too cumbersome to be of much value.  The problem is that there's no easy way to find the rule you need apart from literally going through the deck until you spot what you want, and the cards are double-sided so that adds to the time-factor.  Books have had centuries to develop quick-finding aids: tables of contents, indexes, chapter titles, page runners and borders, etc.  I know from experience it's a *lot* faster for me to find what I need in the Core Rulebook than to sort through these cards.  The only real value I can see from the reference card is if a GM or player knows, before the session starts, that a special rule is going to come up and they want a reminder they can paperclip to a GM screen or their character sheet.  For example, the GM knows that a monster's primary tactic is to grapple, they could pull out the grapple rules card ahead of time.  Or if a new player needs a reminder of what can be done with a move action, you set out the relevant card at the beginning of the game.  For the most part though, this set is unlikely to see a lot of use. There's a reason libraries are full of books on the shelves, not decks of reference cards.

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