Using Fortune Cards
At first, I wasn’t completely sold on Fortune Cards. How would they work? Would I use them? Sure, I had a few ideas—but until I was able to get them into my hot little hands, I just didn’t know what my feelings towards them would be. Now that they’ve been out for a little over four months, I have to say—I love them—but not for the reason they’re meant for.
To be honest, I’m not even sure how to use them properly because as soon as I saw them, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them: I was going to replace my Bonus Action Points house rule with them.
Here’s how I worked them into the game:
I keep a large deck of them on my side of the table and hand them out whenever I feel that a player has roleplayed his character exceptionally well, exhibited impressive leadership or problem-solving abilities, entertained the group, or otherwise improved the gaming experience in some way. I then let the players use them whenever and however they want.
Also, should one player feel that another player deserves a Fortune Card for something that I do not award, he may feel free to nominate that player and explain the reasoning. Players should recognize that I am the final arbiter of who gains Fortune Cards and why.
So far, the following uses for Fortune Cards have been allowed:
- Players may use them for the boon written on the card.
- Players may trade cards amongst themselves.
- A player may turn in two cards to gain another minor action.
- A player may turn in three cards to gain another move action.
- A player may turn in four cards to gain another standard action.
- A player may turn in two cards to recharge an encounter power.
- A player may turn in three cards to recharge a daily power.
- A player may turn in five cards to gain an action point.
- Players may slightly tweak the wording on a card if it’s to be used in an amazing and cinematic way.
As time passes, I’m sure other uses will crop up; as they do, I’ll revisit this entry and update the list.
At its heart, A Journey of Sorts is a place to talk about my life and how it relates to gaming—a forum for me to ramble on about all the geeky things that I love. 
Whoa… never knew about these. Totally picking these up!
I wanted to the cards in pretty much exactly the same way. Although I encountered a hang up, namely, how does the player get use the card if it doesn’t help them in anyway. IE a card that allows the player to shift up to two spaces given to a PC that can already shift 3.. You seem to have fixed that by allowing them to trade them amongst themselves and for a daily recharge… That sir is awesome!