Infinity Deck Locations, review

This was originally written for The British Fantasy Society.

Role-playing games always have locations; stories need settings. Sometimes situations arise that mean a little extra help is needed if a game heads in a direction that maybe wasn’t planned for. To that end, Modiphius has published a deck of locations to help ease the anxiety that comes from prep work. 

Probably the most important thing is that these cards are easy to read. The deck itself is a list of convenient locations that can be slipped into just about any Infinity game with no issue. All of the information is succinct and substantive. The art is well done and conveys the scenes that particular locations might represent.

There is a lack of information for the deck though. It’s basically just locations, but without instruction. Presumably, the person buying the cards will have access to the core rules, but it would have been nice to have seen some kind of instructions. 

Additionally, and while this maybe isn’t a problem, some of the things in the deck aren’t really locations. Rather, they’re suggestions of where to place what is described on the card and that feels a bit abstract For example, on a card titled “Foot…Meet Mouth!” The specific sites listed on the card are things like “PanOceanian Political Rally”, “Bakunin Modules”, and “Caledonian Clan Meet”. These are certainly plausible events, but to use them in-game could feel a little awkward. Making use of an event like “Caledonian Clan Meet” can actually create more prep work because players will want to know what is happening, why the event is taking place, and ironically for this deck, where the event is located. This is still a location, but it could be problematic.

No matter what might happen in a session, the setting truly is important. If you find yourself suddenly needing a place for a game’s story to unfold this kind of deck is for you. There’s a bit of information, but nothing anyone could realistically describe as “railroading”, as well as possible examples for each location. The cards represent a way to offer locations to fill out a game. They probably weren’t destined to be core sites for an adventure, but who knows? If the group needs a bit of improv, then this deck provides. You can’t plan for every situation, but the cards here are one small way that you won’t be caught off-guard either.