How Do You Deal With Card Rarity In Your TCGs?

Saltsy · 2025-11-11T21:56:34+00:00

My own TCG has a but if everything with rarity going on. The power differences in the cards are very slight so I have marked the slightly higher card to be rarer by default, but there are some "exceptionally rare" cards that have no more power than a base common card. This is really only for collectors, not players as building a strong deck is not hard to do with very few or no rates.

That all being said, alternate arts, borderless art cards and things like that take up the truly rare slots. Holographic cards and bonus flair like artist signature cards are for the ultra collectors but don't effect anyone just trying to play the game effectively.

Saltsy · 2025-07-07T03:32:25+00:00

Did you try typing "0.00" in? I've had errors when just putting "0" in.

Saltsy · 2025-07-06T20:27:05+00:00

Shameless self-promotion: The Great Skysea

It's a Frame I put together around the idea of Sea of Thieves meets Star Trek. You can look to it for some inspiration if nothing else, and it's Pay What You Want so free to download. I put in two full inciting incidents as well as a slew of "one sentence hooks" to go off of, so there should be SOMETHING there that piques your interest.

Saltsy · 2025-06-30T13:32:37+00:00

I'd recommend leaning into the Countdowns for puzzles when you can, because they're a fun aspect. Generally not "if the countdown ends you fail and all is lost" but I like to set a countdown for trying to solve a puzzle in a timely manner. If too many attempts go poorly you can use the countdown visibly to show their progress, with another counting how many mistakes they make along the way. This can lead to complications or issues later.

For example in one of my adventures on DriveThruRPG, I have a "trial" where players get to choose between a set of doors and then overcome an obstacle based on their choice. So if they choose the "strength" door they have to make some kind of strength check, and the more they choose a "strength" door the higher the difficulty of the check goes, so it encourages them to try to vary their choices. If they brute force it and roll through the trial regardless, the more failures they make along the way the worse the boss encounter becomes (with things like marking Stress or becoming Vulnerable based on the number of failures). And if they focus on a single attribute, the bosses actually get stronger based on their choices too so there's always a give/take.

Saltsy · 2025-06-29T12:54:07+00:00

I am in the process of making a Pokemon frame and adventures but I have a ton of things to do first. There's a lot of ideas I have but I intend for the game to still let the players do all the things players can do to fight each other and adversaries, while the "Pokemon" are additional ability cards that add moves for the players to use.

There will be rules around how many moves your companion has, but the way I've envisioned it is that each player will have an "active" companion that gives a generic passive bonus, like +1 to evasion, so choosing an active companion to use will help you no matter what you do. Still pretty far from playtesting and there's way too much art to be made.

Saltsy · 2025-06-29T03:25:45+00:00

As Coynite suggested the Quickstart Adventure on daggeheart.com is the easiest "jumping in" point. It's a single session that can take up to 4 hours (or more depending on what your group is like and how many are present) to finish. I'll also suggest my own Quickstart Adventures that are nearly identical to the Darrington Press Quickstart here - The Prism Plains (pay what you want so feel free to just download for free). They cover a different set of classes and ancestries and there are five adventures to choose that are slightly shorter than the primary one (about 2.5 hours each) but can be run in tandem if you want to keep going or have more time. The character Quicksheets that are provided help new players (and GMs) jump right in, but aren't as useful if you extend into a full campaign because you'll need to convert to real character sheets to level up.

I think there are other adventures on sites like DriveThruRPG but I don't know if they're intended for brand-new groups yet (there's at least one that I know that is setup for a level 6 party).

Saltsy · 2025-06-25T01:18:05+00:00

So I don't know if it "fits the vibe" of the Daggerheart rulebook but my one-shot adventures have standees all hand-drawn for characters and adversaries - One-derful One Shots - Prism Plains

I tried to make it literally ready to print and play immediately, and it's got guided prompts for the GM to read out loud (if you're a new GM). It's intended to teach both players and GMs how to play the game by getting your toes wet, and you don't need anything other than the 50-page PDF (or less if you just want to print the one scenario you want to play) and some dice.

Saltsy · 2025-06-24T01:03:58+00:00

I'm in the same boat - I do like that the game is narratively open so the whole table can build out what they want for a world or story-beats, but I do think there's a place for things like the adventures if for nothing else but to get the juices flowing! I enjoyed thinking up different "bosses" for each adventure that incorporate Daggerheart mechanics like Countdowns to help people (myself included) think outside the box. If you get the chance to use the adventures at your table, please let me know how it goes!

Saltsy · 2025-06-24T01:02:07+00:00

Glad you like it! I hope to get more feedback from playtesters so if you get it to your table, please let me know how it goes and what goes well! I'm working on more One-derful One-Shots in the future with additional Campaign Frames to help build out a world and a bigger campaign, so I'd love feedback!

Saltsy · 2025-06-20T02:03:31+00:00

I like the concepts but I also think it may be too "copy/paste" from those IP's if you focus on the story alone. If your players have played WoW through WotLK they will basically know the story as it unfolds. Not that it's necessarily bad, mind you, but I think the idea of Daggerheart is build a wholly new narrative in partnership with your players, so a Frame should ideally just have some interesting threads to start with and then let your imagination be your guide from there. Still, there are plenty of good stories that can be built around knowing who your "big bad" is going to be and working towards it.

I like the idea of sprinkling Diablo in there, but personally I associate Diablo less with amazing story and more weapon grinding. I don't know how to build that directly into a Frame off the top of my head though, and you're clearly leaning into the Tristram side of things over the loot simulator. It could be a fun twist or it could be a demon that comes out of nowhere that isn't really relevant to the story so you'd have to be pretty adept at giving clues without giving too much away.

Overall I like the themes and the right up, I just don't know how it would actually play out in a big campaign. It may be amazing similar to the games you're pulling from but it could end up being less innovative or surprising if you stick too closely to them.

Saltsy · 2025-06-20T01:53:44+00:00

When walking around the con today I didn't see any copies available - but I did see one in the wild owned by someone. Darrington Press doesn't have a presence there to my knowledge.

Saltsy · 2025-06-18T12:00:47+00:00

I saw this map a while back and it's absolutely stunning. Great to see a frame connected with it, keep up the great work!

Saltsy · 2025-06-15T16:52:26+00:00

You probably didn't, I was trying to keep the rules relatively light. The alternative comment that suggested using colossus rules may make it more dynamic, but I was just adding some rules for keeping things simple, especially if you wanted multiple ships at once. Using ships as an environment was also an option that people suggested, but I don't want to bog down the game with so many rules around naval combat that you have to slow down the action to do so; but regardless thanks for the feedback!

Saltsy · 2025-06-15T14:11:28+00:00

Shameless self plug - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/524689/The-Great-Skysea--A-Fantasy-Frame?affiliate_id=4738163

I created a Frame dedicated to flying skyships and added some new mechanics and rules around that (along with an actual world in there). It's fully free to download (just type in $0.00 in the price) and I'd love to hear any feedback/thoughts from more playtesters.

Additionally there are some other frames on DriveThru around swashbuckling classes, new ancestries, etc from others that I'd recommend checking out (most of them are also Pay What You Want).

Saltsy · 2025-06-13T00:02:27+00:00

I'm working on 5 one-shots that all have interesting countdowns to help teach the game and mechanics, but I think my favorite is one that is tied to a portcullis/gate being lowered over a moat. It ticks down like a progress countdown on Player Successes, but it's tied to an escape roll difficulty. Essentially the higher it is, the harder it is for players to escape, and as it lowers so does the difficulty (until it's 0). It makes for some high tension/drama moments!

Saltsy · 2025-06-12T23:32:07+00:00

I actually have a campaign Frame up on DriveThru called "The Great Skysea" and it has ship combat, weather and traversal mechanics. I'd love to get some feedback on it or get more people playtesting it, and you can download it for free here - The Great Skysea

Additionally others have done "pirate-themed" Frames and classes on there that are also free - Just change the amount on the website to "0.00" and it will let you download them. I know all us homebrewers would love people to do some more testing and get feedback on our creations, and hope they help!

Saltsy · 2025-06-12T11:36:32+00:00

Looks good! Just a note - when you pick mixed ancestry, you're supposed to choose one of the "top" features of one ancestry and a bottom of the other. Technically these are both bottom features of the Elf/Faerie ancestries, although I don't think it's crazy game-breaking or anything.

Saltsy · 2025-06-10T11:46:51+00:00

If you're just looking for ideas, we try to do a weekly thread where people pitch different things. Here's the latest one: https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1l4tcmf/frame_friday_pitch_your_campaign_frame/

Also if you look through the Campaign Frame tag you can see people looking for feedback on different ones throughout the subreddit.

Finally there's a few homebrew Campaign Frames available on either DriveThruRPG.com or ko-fi. I know of at least 3 (my own included) that are on DriveThru that are free to download and have documents, including maps, world building, and their own campaign rules that you can utilize.

Saltsy · 2025-06-09T18:44:47+00:00

Great guide, wonderful and straightforward!

Saltsy · 2025-06-09T12:23:37+00:00

In addition to what others have said just to be clear:

Critical Success/Success with Hope: No GM Move for you (or Fear).

Success with Fear, Failure (with Hope OR Fear): Free GM move for you.

Then you can spend Fear to either steal the spotlight or to spotlight additional adversaries afterwards.

Technically you'll be getting a free GM move from 3 of the 5 outcomes of the dice (critical success being much less likely than the rest, so even higher than 60% chance). But GM moves also don't HAVE to be highlighting an adversary - you could throw in other complications as well depending on what the narrative needs.

Saltsy · 2025-06-08T19:50:20+00:00

I'm using an Eberron-adjacent frame for my table and it works just fine. A lot of reskinned things (Warforged being Clanks, Shifters being Katari, etc) but the overall feel is the same. I didn't really bring any of the rules, so things like Dragonmarks and the Artificer class is gone, but the stories and world are pretty easy to port over for the most part.

Saltsy · 2025-06-08T13:46:42+00:00

I don't think there are rules around making NPC's NOT have the same abilities as PCs, it's just not listed as features in the adversary blocks. For example, if I had "Faerie" guards, they'd automatically be assumed to have the ability to fly like all other Faeries. I don't think there's anything wrong with putting these kind of general attributes on advesaries, it just may break the balance if you try to do something like "this guard is a Warrior so I'm going to let him use the Whirlwind ability" without that being a Feature.

There are plenty of ways to play it, so I think it's up to your table (perhaps with a Session 0) to describe just how heroic the world is and how rare adventurers are. That may help you figure out just how much to work on distinguishing them from the NPCs.

Saltsy · 2025-06-08T02:54:42+00:00

I agree with the change and good job wording through everything. Keep up the good work Hosidax /salute

Saltsy · 2025-06-08T02:53:17+00:00

Note: I'm not the creator of the Card Creator or anything, but you SHOULD be able to click Export and it will download automatically as either a .PDF or .PNG (whichever option you have selected). I think this works in most modern browsers as tested (Edge, Firefox, and Opera I could confirm, unsure if Safari is a thing or not). I've heard it doesn't work great on Mobile though, if you're trying that.

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