I think this misses the intention of the cards. Since at least the days of D&D4e, power cards have been a popular play aid for RPGs, and the deck in this case serves a similar role.
As pointed out, they are optional to use and a character sheet without them exists. At no point are you required to use them. That said, they are available for players that do want to use them
That brings me to the specific use case that makes them actually useful. Several powers involve gaining a pool of tokens or a die that tracks the condition of a buff or power. The cards provide a simple way of indicating what the tokens or die represents to all players at the table without having to remember "player A's blue die is X power, their tokens are for power Y, they have a second pool of tokens for power Z, etc". They can quickly look at the die, see it's sitting on top of card X, and know that it tracks power X.
Additionally, and this is kind of a minor thing, but the deck and having a limited number of copies of cards in the set encourages players to diversify their chosen powers. A big point is made to try to avoid overlapping choices, and that's easier when there's only one copy of a card during creation. Granted, that's a silly excuse for using a card mechanic, but it *is* a thing
Ultimately, it boils down to them being an accessory and not a necessity for playing the game, just as games with included dice are including an accessory despite you being able to roll dice with a phone app. I don't think that's a bad thing
The challenge - IMO - with the cards is their use is restricted to a very specific way of fantasy gaming. In reality, many GMs (such as myself) will look at the mechanics and say: with this system I can play *this* type of game.
In reality, I look at the mechanics, I love some parts - but the domain rules and abilities plays to a type of gaming that I don't really enjoy: the everyone has magic genre.
If I was looking to modify it to be... grittier or more grounded, it would essentially mean discarding the entire card system. I could re-write domain powers but the cards are locked in.
I *do* like that there is a template to create your own cards.
I come from a Savage Worlds GMing standpoint. The kitbashing we've done with Daggerheart with two different groups has let to very similar conclusions:
1. Hope/Fear mechanic is spot on.
2. The damage & armour system: big hit.
3. The stress system: cool.
4. The experience system: nifty & flexible.
5. The domain powers/card system: Too limited. Too specific. And creates one-trick ponies.
I think the system is definitely 1.0. 2.0 (or 1.5) will sand out some of the challenges and add some flexibility.
I like both the cards and their character sheet that accommodates for no card use. So many character sheets seem to be made by people who have never played their game, with not near enough real estate to even give yourself even a quick reference for spells and abilities. Both the cards and their character sheet solve this. And i dont feel like most people will have all of their cards displayed at once, so table space may be a little less of an issue (though i agree something to consider.)
I think this misses the intention of the cards. Since at least the days of D&D4e, power cards have been a popular play aid for RPGs, and the deck in this case serves a similar role.
As pointed out, they are optional to use and a character sheet without them exists. At no point are you required to use them. That said, they are available for players that do want to use them
That brings me to the specific use case that makes them actually useful. Several powers involve gaining a pool of tokens or a die that tracks the condition of a buff or power. The cards provide a simple way of indicating what the tokens or die represents to all players at the table without having to remember "player A's blue die is X power, their tokens are for power Y, they have a second pool of tokens for power Z, etc". They can quickly look at the die, see it's sitting on top of card X, and know that it tracks power X.
Additionally, and this is kind of a minor thing, but the deck and having a limited number of copies of cards in the set encourages players to diversify their chosen powers. A big point is made to try to avoid overlapping choices, and that's easier when there's only one copy of a card during creation. Granted, that's a silly excuse for using a card mechanic, but it *is* a thing
Ultimately, it boils down to them being an accessory and not a necessity for playing the game, just as games with included dice are including an accessory despite you being able to roll dice with a phone app. I don't think that's a bad thing
The challenge - IMO - with the cards is their use is restricted to a very specific way of fantasy gaming. In reality, many GMs (such as myself) will look at the mechanics and say: with this system I can play *this* type of game.
In reality, I look at the mechanics, I love some parts - but the domain rules and abilities plays to a type of gaming that I don't really enjoy: the everyone has magic genre.
If I was looking to modify it to be... grittier or more grounded, it would essentially mean discarding the entire card system. I could re-write domain powers but the cards are locked in.
I *do* like that there is a template to create your own cards.
I come from a Savage Worlds GMing standpoint. The kitbashing we've done with Daggerheart with two different groups has let to very similar conclusions:
1. Hope/Fear mechanic is spot on.
2. The damage & armour system: big hit.
3. The stress system: cool.
4. The experience system: nifty & flexible.
5. The domain powers/card system: Too limited. Too specific. And creates one-trick ponies.
I think the system is definitely 1.0. 2.0 (or 1.5) will sand out some of the challenges and add some flexibility.
I like both the cards and their character sheet that accommodates for no card use. So many character sheets seem to be made by people who have never played their game, with not near enough real estate to even give yourself even a quick reference for spells and abilities. Both the cards and their character sheet solve this. And i dont feel like most people will have all of their cards displayed at once, so table space may be a little less of an issue (though i agree something to consider.)