Cards are also a useful way to limit the equipment the players can buy. That might sound like a weird thing to do, but bear with me...
As kids, playing the EU game, we always assumed that you could only buy one of each item--because there was only one card for it. For instance, only one player could have the Crossbow at any time. It seems a bit silly and unrealistic now... I guess the shops are pretty poorly stocked out in the badlands! But it did make for plenty of competition.
Players would try to save up as fast as they could to buy their favourite weapon before anybody else could get their grubby mitts on it. Or they'd wheel and deal like in Monopoly to buy equipment off each other. Which meant they would try to beat everyone else to treasure. Which meant they'd rush out alone and take risks. Which made 1BP monsters actually scary. Not to mention greedy fellow players hitting you with a treacherous Ball of Flame from behind.
We ought to have run out of things to spend gold on really soon, but it didn't seem to happen much. Because taking risks and exploring alone made players more likely to die, at least one Hero would get killed off every couple of Quests and have to start with a new character. That meant they didn't run out of things to spend gold on too soon, even though only one of each card was available for purchase.
Unfortunately it kind of broke down when we reached Kellar's Keep, because the Quests got tougher and the players had to work together more often. Not that it stops me being a dastardly backstabbing traitor when I play the Wizard, though. It just means I die a lot.
I've thought about doing a compromise, where you print out multiple equipment cards, but still not enough for all players (e.g. you might have four shield cards, but only two crossbows). You could change the deck after each Quest to represent what the local shop has in stock, with better items being rarer.
)
