The Complete Psionic Power Cards

Game: The Complete Psionic Power Cards
Publisher: The Other Game Company
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 18th, November 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 6/10   [ On the ball ]
Total Score: 9
Average Score: 4.50

Psionics are probably the most popular “minority” in D&D after the Drow. For D&D d20 we had the The Psionics Handbook early on in the life of the series. The SRD was updated to include the Expanded Psionics Handbook. There are also numerous third party Psionics products from the likes of Malhavoc and Mongoose.

There are a lot of individual psionic powers and it can be a real pain keeping track of them all. Complete Psionic Power Cards solves this problem with respect to the Wizards of the Cost psionic powers.

Psionic Cards are PDF creations which must be printed off, cut up and then – the tricky bit – aligned and stuck together in order to get the double-sided effect. You don’t cut down the middle; you cut out the single card and then fold them down the centre. And what’s on them? On the psionic cards you’ll find summaries of the psionic powers in question. This means a player need only keep a small collection of cards near by and she’ll have access to her psionic list. She’ll have the rules from them too.

The Other Games Company is generous. You’re allowed to buy one copy of the Complete Psionic Power Cards per gaming group and a gaming group can be up to eight players. I think that’ll cover every sensible situation – even if you’re running an exclusively psionic game.

The layout of the cards is good. There’s a lot of information squeezed on to them and yet they’re not too hard to read. There are guidelines to assist you cut the cards out. That may sound silly but it’s frightfully helpful.

In fact there are many PDFs within the Complete Psionics Power Card bundle – an introduction and then one for each group of Psionic powers. It’s another time saving assist. It also makes printing the right Psionic power cards out and only the right Psionic power cards out, a lot easier.

These sort of cards will not suit everyone. In some ways they’re an extra layer of faff and in other ways they dumb down the game (I’ve always enjoyed either knowing the rule or reaching to a good looking book to leaf through loved pages to find the rule). On the other hand they help keep the roleplaying focus on the roleplaying and off the crunchy bits. It might have been hard to decide whether the power cards suit your style of play (or rather your group’s style of play) but there’s a generous demo from The Other Games Company.

As was the case with Complete Spell Cards there is a sample of blank cards in the PDF bundle. It’s through these blank cards that you get your extra mile. If you want to fill in blank cards with your own psionic powers or, if you’re up for the task, scribble in personal notes for third party powers then you can.

I quite like these cards. Okay, the idea isn’t quite as novel as it was back for the spell cards and therefore not quite so interesting but it gains by being consistent. That The Other Game Company has kept faith in the product line helps to reassure me.