Player Reward Cards, Part Deux

Yesterday, I described the demise of the Player Reward Card from sanctioned LFR events. A few readers pointed out my omission of Quest cards and Access cards; I'll detail those, below.

Quest cards list a number of tasks a character must accomplish to become eligible to complete particular adventures. Currently, there are two quest cards and two corresponding adventures; Zhentarim Infiltration provides access to "QUES1-1 Black Cloaks and Bitter Rivalries", and In Slumber Remains provides access to "QUES1-2 Stir not the World's Doom".

Quest cards remain in effect, although anyone can obtain access simply by printing out the cards from the WotC website. When running an LFR adventure containing a quest seed, I recommend dropping the scene in regardless of whether characters have a card in front of them. This way, you can make these events more seamless in the realms and possibly educate new players as well. I've started carrying spare copies of both cards in my DM kit to hand out for new players.

Access cards allow players to incorporate options that are not generally available for PCs; Bladelings, access to Alchemy (some time ago), access to Open Grave, etc. These cards are no longer necessary as any option detailed on a card is now a standard option for any and all PCs; that's right, you no longer need to expend a resource to be all nifty and different.

From a DMing perspective, this suggests we become more familiar with these options so that PCs don't surprise us with abilities we don't recognize. However, I admit I've found it more daunting to keep up with every option from every source; there have been a few instances where I find myself saying "You do WHAT?" Instead of advocating for DMs to possess encyclopedic knowledge of player options, I feel that, at some level, we have to trust our players to be honest and let them do their thing. I reserve the right to check someone's math, but if things seem more or less within the realm of possibility, I'm likely to run with it.

So there you have it. The only cards which have any relevance to organized play are the Quest cards, and those pose no real challenge while running LFR adventures. And that's a good thing.