Paizo’s GameMastery “Friends or Foes” Cards

NPC’s have always been important in my D&D campaigns (as they are in most), but I really like to try and make them stand out a bit more. I try and make them each very different and unique. I even find images online to represent them and then put them up on my screen behind me as the players talk to them.

Paizo makes a product I thought might help with this – their GameMastery “Friends of Foes” Cards.

I had run into these a while back online and was pretty sure I could put them to good use, but I was hoping to see more than 3-4 examples of them. Despite looking online, I couldn’t see any more than the one’s they already showed. One of my primary concerns was that the examples they showed were of young human characters. I wanted to see what the range was, but could find no other examples. Did they have elderly characters? What about ugly ones, or even monsters such as orcs? I could not be sure.

Thought I would share an example of a few more
Thought I would share an example of a few more
But, recently I decided to just buy them anyway – and I am glad I did.

There is a nice variety to them. There are some elderly in there, and even some children. There are monstrous creatures and their are friendly-looking characters. Some are smiling, and some seem indifferent. One appears to be scared while others seem indifferent.

The best thing for me however was that however they appear, and regardless of their expression (even those who look mad), I can imagine almost all of them being a regular NPC – for better or worse in my players eyes.

These cards are excellent quality – not flimsy at all, very durable. The backside is blank as well so you can write out any details you might want to – or you could let your players do that.

Also, you don’t need to be playing Pathfinder – these can be used for any game (I’m using them for D&D).

I’m not much of an accessories guy (well, beside those I can make myself) but I can definitely recommend these cards. You can get ’em here.

[ONE QUICK NOTE – These cards do not come with stands, or miniatures like those I have in the photo – I simply used those for display]

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5 comments

  1. Our DM, @d20philia, uses these in our 4E game fairly often with great success. We stand them up in front of the DM screen or pass around to introduce a new NPC. I’ll agree that the quality is great and the detail is just awesome. They really help bring the descriptions to life.

    For a few more pics of the card faces and our NPCs, check out the pics from our game at d20 (dot) heardworld (dot) com.

  2. Very interested in this product and after reading this review I will be buying them immediately. More important then the cards were the plastic stands that were shown in the review picture. Where do you find these, and what would you call them? I would love to have some standing card figures.

    – Eric

    1. Oh yea, I actually pulled those from the game Descent – they are normally used to hold up Doors when you play on the board etc.

      Thanks for stopping in and I’m glad I could help with the review 😉

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