Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template
by ShuffleKit
Free NPC cards, spell cards and item cards for a fantasy role-playing game, as one template to edit and print at poker size. The NPC card has a tall portrait, the character's job and where to find them, notes for the game master and a line they say, so every innkeeper arrives with a voice. The spell card template has a round picture, the spell's level on a badge, its range, duration and casting time on one band, and what it does. The item card has a square picture, rarity and kind, the effect and a price. Each card's type colours its header, moss green, violet or rust, and picks its front. Comes with twelve sample cards: five NPCs, four spells and three magic items, none of them human and none from a published game.
- Designs
- 4
- Sample cards
- 12
- Card size
- Poker — 2.5 × 3.5 in
- 63.5 × 88.9 mm · 750 × 1050 px at 300 DPI
- Card fields
- Name
- Card Type
- Artwork
- Subtitle
- Description
- Flavor Text
- Details
- Level
- Value
Adding a template copies its designs, fields, and sample cards into your own project. Your copy is yours, and later changes by the author never touch it.
What’s in Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template
Four designs: NPC Card, Spell Card, Item Card and Card Back.
Your cards live in a sheet, one row each, with a column for every field the designs read: Name, Card Type, Artwork, Subtitle, Description, Flavor Text, Details, Level and Value. Twelve of those rows arrive filled in, so there is something on the design before you type a word.
Read the twelve sample cards
| Name | Card Type | Subtitle | Description | Flavor Text | Details | Level | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wick | NPC | Ferryman of the Mistwater | Takes anyone across for a story they have never told. Knows every drowned village under the river, and which ones are still lit at night. | "The far bank is closer than you think. Coming back is the long way." | |||
| Old Bramblegut | NPC | Innkeeper, the Sunken Kettle | Loud, generous and owed money by half the town. Rents the cellar to smugglers and pretends not to hear them. | "Soup's free. Questions cost extra." | |||
| Capwen | NPC | Herbalist, Gloamhollow | Sells cures, and sometimes the illness to go with them. Will trade anything for a fresh moonpetal. | "Chew it slowly. Or don't, and see what happens." | |||
| Scribe Nine | NPC | Archivist, the Tall Library | Has copied every book in the library but one, which it is not allowed to open. Answers questions with the exact page number. | "That is recorded. Volume twelve, page four hundred and one." | |||
| Emberhand | NPC | Smith, the Ashgate forge | Makes the best blades in the valley and refuses to say who taught it. Wants a shard of the fallen star in the north. | ||||
| Ember Lance | Spell | Second circle · Fire | A spear of fire strikes one target you can see. Roll 3d6 fire damage; it sets unattended cloth and paper alight. | Range 60 ft · Instant · 1 action | 2 | ||
| Frost Ward | Spell | First circle · Ice | Runes of ice ring your camp. Anything that crosses them while you rest wakes you, and its first step freezes in place. | Self, 10 ft circle · 8 hours · 10 minutes | 1 | ||
| Whisper on the Wind | Spell | Second circle · Air | Speak up to twenty-five words. The wind carries them to someone you know, who can answer the same way. | 1 mile · Until delivered · 1 minute | 2 | ||
| Mending Light | Spell | Third circle · Light | One broken object you touch is whole again, magic and all, as long as every piece of it is within reach. | Touch · Instant · 1 action | 3 | ||
| Starwick Lantern | Item | Uncommon · Wondrous | Sheds light like a torch that no wind can put out. Open its shutter fully and invisible things in the light are seen. | 120 coins | |||
| Mistweave Cloak | Item | Rare · Cloak | While you stand still in mist, fog or smoke, you cannot be seen. Once a day, breathe out a cloud of fog 20 ft wide. | 400 coins | |||
| Wayfinder's Compass | Item | Uncommon · Trinket | Name a place you have been. The needle points the shortest safe way there, and shivers when danger lies on the road. | 90 coins |
How to make NPC cards, spell cards and item cards
- Add the template to a project. It brings the NPC, Spell and Item fronts, the back, a column for every field and the twelve sample cards.
- Type your characters, spells and items into the sheet, one row each, or import them from a spreadsheet, and set each row's Card Type to NPC, Spell or Item.
- Put a portrait or a picture in Artwork. An NPC's portrait is tall, a spell's picture is cut to a circle and an item's to a square, so one picture shape tells the three kinds apart across the table.
- Fill in what your game uses: Flavor Text for a line the NPC says, Level and Details for a spell, Value for an item. The NPC's line hides when it is empty.
- Print the cards to hand out at the table, or keep the NPCs behind the screen and lay them down as the party meets them.
Printing at poker size
Poker: 2.5 × 3.5 in, 63.5 × 88.9 mm, 750 × 1050 pixels at 300 DPI.
On the Hobby plan, export a print-ready PDF with bleed and cut lines. PNG and SVG come out at the same size, which is what Tabletop Simulator wants. On Indie, send it to a print-on-demand partner through Print & Ship.
A printer asks for an eighth of an inch of bleed on every edge on top of those numbers, so this card goes out as 825 × 1125. The export adds it. Let the artwork run into the bleed and keep the text inside the cut line, and nothing arrives trimmed.
Questions about Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template
Everything you need to know before getting started.
Still have questions? Contact us
What should an NPC card have on it?
Enough to play the character on the spot: a portrait, a name, what they do and where to find them, two or three notes on what they want or know, and one line in their own voice. Lanternfall's NPC card has a box for each of those, and the line they say hides when it is empty.
Does the spell card template work with my game system?
Yes. It isn't an official card for any game. Level is a number on a badge, and Details is one line of plain text for the range, duration and casting time in whatever words your system uses, so the same card suits a fifth edition spell, an old-school one or a spell from a game of your own.
Can I make item cards with it too?
Yes. The Item front has a square picture, a line for rarity and kind, a box for what the item does and a plate for its price. For items with a colour per rarity and monster stat blocks, Ironbound, the RPG item and monster card template, goes with it. Ironbound item and monster cards.
What happens when I add Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template to a project?
The four designs, the nine fields and the twelve sample cards are copied into a project of yours, with the fields already pointed at the design. Nothing stays linked to this page afterwards, so the author's later edits never reach your copy.
What size does Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template print at?
Poker size: 2.5 × 3.5 in, 63.5 × 88.9 mm, 750 × 1050 pixels at 300 DPI. Those are the numbers to hand a print shop, and the ones to check a sleeve against.
Is Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template free?
Yes. Adding it, editing it, filling it with your own cards and playtesting it online are all free. Exporting print files starts on the Hobby plan, and Print & Ship through The Game Crafter is on Indie. No template sits behind a paid plan.
Can I change the designs?
Yes. They land in your project as ordinary layouts, so you can drag an element somewhere else, put your own art behind the frame, restyle the type or rename a field. Edit a design once and every card on it follows.
Can I use my own cards instead of the samples?
Yes — the samples are rows in a sheet, and they are there to be overwritten. Type over them, add rows of your own, or bring a CSV and match its headers to the fields.
Can I sell a game made with Lanternfall NPC, Spell and Item Card Template?
Yes. This one is ours, and you keep commercial rights to what you build from it, crowdfunding and retail included.
Ready to build your card game?
This template is free, and so is the editor it opens in.