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Dec 12, 2009 -- 2:42PM, Alphastream1 wrote:

In that case they cease to be rewards and become just "cards". If everyone has them, they aren't rewards. They become some weird LFR artifact, where we are saying that LFR needs these cards to entice players to play.

Which is pretty much what we have.

I now regularly see not only DMs letting players use cards they don't actually have (the card being written down on an index card or power card), but using cards that don't actually exist (at-will reroll for psionic classes).

The mass mailing of the 2008 Rewards cards created the idea that the only reward was that some people would get earlier access to the cards.  The announcement that there would be semiannual mailings of the cards in 2009 and subsequent failure to follow up (either with a mailing or any communication whatsoever) then led to quite a number of players deciding that, hey, they'd help WOTC out by reproducing the cards themselves.

As a theoretical exercise, we can certainly discuss the idea of a campaign where the 2008 cards are limited in some way according to whether or not you actually received the Rewards mailing, but that's not the campaign we have, and I would not expect that trying to turn back the clock on this campaign would work that well.

Yes, you're right.  I don't understand the entire point of the Rewards card system.  I don't know what it's trying to accomplish, but whatever it is, I'm quite skeptical of it doing so.

The cards are no longer rewards, but now largely seen as entitlements.

Dec 12, 2009 -- 3:03PM, bgibbons wrote:

Dec 12, 2009 -- 2:42PM, Alphastream1 wrote:

In that case they cease to be rewards and become just "cards". If everyone has them, they aren't rewards. They become some weird LFR artifact, where we are saying that LFR needs these cards to entice players to play.

Which is pretty much what we have.

Exactly.  For a limited "rewards" system, it's hard to do better than the previous setup, where players were mailed cards based on their campaign participation.  The number in circulation was high enough that people had neat swag for cool tricks, but low enough that things weren't ridiculous.  Most of all, there were no printouts or photocopies being used as cards.

Then WotC apparently decided that was too much work (even though Magic Player Rewards are humming along just fine, with the exact same model and a much larger player base, but I digress) so they were replaced with the "budget cut" version.

Whoever conceived of the PDF obviously intended to limit its circulation, but the fact that it's a printout really opened the floodgates.  ("Really?  All I have to do is print this file and I can have any card I want?  I'll take five!")  That, coupled with virtually non-existent guidelines on the subject and a rather weak mechanism (a single password, mailed to most everybody?  really?) to limit distribution has rendered the limitations practically nonexistant.

I think that curtailing the ubiquity of rewards cards is a fine idea.  I just don't believe it's possible with the current system.

Dec 12, 2009 -- 10:28PM, Keithric wrote:

Give people more treasure for not using cards. That'll solve that problem quick.

That worked very well for the ADCP1-1 Jungle Hunt mod. Players were cringing at using cards.