The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Do you know what I find most amusing and scary about medical experimentation? Propecia. Not really Propecia, but the commercials for Propecia. "Propecia has been known to cause a certain kind of fatal head-explosion in women. Women should not touch Propecia. Looking at Propecia may lead to brain leakage." That's some freaky stuff.

So, what's that have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, it's sort of the same with these Cantrip Cards.

Wait. Cantrip Cards. That's for Changeling. First edition. More than a year obsolete. Much more than that, since no one wanted to buy these things anyway. So why did I buy them? Well, my friend Steve would tell me I'm an idiot, but I bought them for novelty. I also bought thirty packs for five bucks. I'm pretty sure Steve paid that much for two. (And I found the five bucks on the sidewalk outside of the store. Call me Mister Lucky.)

Anyway, back to the whole experimentation thing. There was an editorial in an issue of Pyramid magazine a while back where someone wrote (and I'm paraphrasing here) "a year ago the RPG industry was booming because everyone had their own collectable card game". This is true. White Wolf had Jyhad and, later, Rage. (I still think they should have done a Mage game. Sort of like M:tG, but with all Prodigal Sorcerers.) They also had Changeling Cantrip Cards. Even more than just a collectable card game, it was a Role Playing Game which required that you buy a collectable card game. It was ludicrous. It was an experiment done by White Wolf to see just to see whether or not the consumers were nearly as huge on the sucker-factor as people seemed to think they were.

They weren't.

I bought the Cantrip Cards as a novelty, yes, but also as a landmark in White Wolf history. I firmly believe that it was the Cantrip Cards which sealed Changeling's eventual doom. I wonder how many people bought the book, saw that they needed to buy cards, and never bothered again. Sure, later they did release alternate cardless/bunkless rules (I think that there were even cardless rules in the main book, but they were awful) but those were released in another book nearly a year later. If someone had pitched or sold their main book by then, why buy the PG? That was a dedicated White Wolf player lost forever.

So when Changeling 2nd edition came out, despite the fact that it fixed many of Changeling 1st's glaring problems, it didn't have the audience that it needed. Why? Because of the cards. It had a dedicated core audience, yeah. I swear, hardcore Vampire fans are -nothing- compared to the sheer love that diehard Changeling fans have for their game. Still, that's what we call a niche. And a niche of a niche of a niche is a pretty dang small group of people, and not something that a large press company like White Wolf could thrive on.

So ... Cantrip Cards are, as I said, a novelty item.

The cards themselves? You mean I should review them?

Well, they're bigger than most cards, but smaller than good tarot cards, which means it's hard to find anything to put them in. They're laminated nicely, which is a plus, but they have sharp edges, which is an enormous minus. The art isn't nearly as good as it could be. Considering the gorgeous art they had in C1st, I'm seriously disappointed. Only a few are of really good quality, though there are enough that stand out for me that I'm willing to give 'style' an 'average' score.

So, what we have are some fairly ugly, worthless cards. Well. Not worthless. They're worth five bucks.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

Changeling Cantrip Cards
Author: N/A Category: Cards Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studios Cost: $2.50 Page count: N/A ISBN: 1565047907 Capsule Review by Adam Schroeder on 11/13/98. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day	Do you know what I find most amusing and scary about medical experimentation? Propecia. Not really Propecia, but the commercials for Propecia. "Propecia has been known to cause a certain kind of fatal head-explosion in women. Women should not touch Propecia. Looking at Propecia may lead to brain leakage." That's some freaky stuff. So, what's that have to do with the price of tea in China? Well, it's sort of the same with these Cantrip Cards. Wait. Cantrip Cards. That's for Changeling. First edition. More than a year obsolete. Much more than that, since no one wanted to buy these things anyway. So why did I buy them? Well, my friend Steve would tell me I'm an idiot, but I bought them for novelty. I also bought thirty packs for five bucks. I'm pretty sure Steve paid that much for two. (And I found the five bucks on the sidewalk outside of the store. Call me Mister Lucky.) Anyway, back to the whole experimentation thing. There was an editorial in an issue of Pyramid magazine a while back where someone wrote (and I'm paraphrasing here) "a year ago the RPG industry was booming because everyone had their own collectable card game". This is true. White Wolf had Jyhad and, later, Rage. (I still think they should have done a Mage game. Sort of like M:tG, but with all Prodigal Sorcerers.) They also had Changeling Cantrip Cards. Even more than just a collectable card game, it was a Role Playing Game which required that you buy a collectable card game. It was ludicrous. It was an experiment done by White Wolf to see just to see whether or not the consumers were nearly as huge on the sucker-factor as people seemed to think they were. They weren't. I bought the Cantrip Cards as a novelty, yes, but also as a landmark in White Wolf history. I firmly believe that it was the Cantrip Cards which sealed Changeling's eventual doom. I wonder how many people bought the book, saw that they needed to buy cards, and never bothered again. Sure, later they did release alternate cardless/bunkless rules (I think that there were even cardless rules in the main book, but they were awful) but those were released in another book nearly a year later. If someone had pitched or sold their main book by then, why buy the PG? That was a dedicated White Wolf player lost forever. So when Changeling 2nd edition came out, despite the fact that it fixed many of Changeling 1st's glaring problems, it didn't have the audience that it needed. Why? Because of the cards. It had a dedicated core audience, yeah. I swear, hardcore Vampire fans are -nothing- compared to the sheer love that diehard Changeling fans have for their game. Still, that's what we call a niche. And a niche of a niche of a niche is a pretty dang small group of people, and not something that a large press company like White Wolf could thrive on. So ... Cantrip Cards are, as I said, a novelty item. The cards themselves? You mean I should review them? Well, they're bigger than most cards, but smaller than good tarot cards, which means it's hard to find anything to put them in. They're laminated nicely, which is a plus, but they have sharp edges, which is an enormous minus. The art isn't nearly as good as it could be. Considering the gorgeous art they had in C1st, I'm seriously disappointed. Only a few are of really good quality, though there are enough that stand out for me that I'm willing to give 'style' an 'average' score. So, what we have are some fairly ugly, worthless cards. Well. Not worthless. They're worth five bucks. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)