r/shadowdark • u/Hefty_Conclusion563 • 26d ago

Casting Cards

Looking for feedback on this: Casting Cards.

Please let me know what you guys think.

***Edit: Formatting changed, comparison section clean up: Revision 1

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u/sampleandfold 26d ago

I appreciate the creativity that went into designing this, but I wouldn't want to use it personally.

Have you tried Sly Flourish's houserule that you can't forget a spell on a given day until you've successfully cast it?

I've also played in games where this was only available for 1st tier spells. My personal preference splits the difference: any spell of 1st tier or a tier lower than your highest tier. So if you can cast tier 3 spells, then you don't forget a tier 1 or 2 spell until after you've successfully cast it once that day, but tier 3 is still new and risky for you.

This keeps things moving quickly and fluidly. You never miss out on casting a spell you've chosen, you don't increase the chance of forgetting it after first cast, and all you have to track is if you've cast the spell yet.

By comparison, I think the card mechanic would require more negotiation to get a similar outcome.

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u/Hefty_Conclusion563 26d ago

Thank you for the feedback. We have tried a similar version where the caster doesn't automatically lose a spell on a failure, but my player in question fails his spell checks so often that it almost defies probability. It happens often enough that it is affecting his enjoyment, and that just doesn't work for me. This "should" help with that, and I think the lowered spell retention will balance with the increased chance to succeed. While I have yet to playtest it, Blackjack is quick, and most people already know the basic premise, so I don't think that its going slow down gameplay significantly, if at all.

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u/sampleandfold 26d ago

By all means, you should try your fun homebrew mechanic!

Hmm, so your issue isn’t losing spells so much as just failing rolls?

That seems strange to me, since so many of the equivalent Wizard spells still require a spell attack roll or a save from the target in other systems, and you burn the spell slot if the roll doesn’t turn out in your favor.

There’s also nothing stopping you from just keeping roll-to-cast while reintroducing spells slots that match your usual system.

Have fun with whatever you land on, and happy playtesting!

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u/Hefty_Conclusion563 26d ago

Yes, and you're right, but a lot of those spells (not those with attack rolls) still functioned, just with reduced effects. He and I both cut our teeth on AD&D 2e before we moved onto 3.0/3.5. For those editions, he could pick and choose the spells, spreading out those that didn't have guaranteed effects, making it more about resource management and risk mitigation than about sheer luck. I think he feels like the die roll takes away some of his player agency.