Various Game Cards

Introduction

By now I expect that most of my audience know that I make my own cards to support the games I host at the Helensburgh wargaming club.

I had planned to use this article to describe the design processes behind my ATZ random event deck. However now that I look at the pictures I've made available, none of these really support such a discussion.  They are all Data Cards rather than Deck Cards.  Since I'm out of time/can't quite make up my mind, I'll postpone the in-depth description of the methodology for another time.  Instead, here's a quick showing of some of the cards I've made in the past:

Data Cards

 

A data card is a quick reference card for a character, object or enemy (example: my ATZ character cards).  Mine are printed at index-card size (A6 or roughly 5"x4") onto thin cardboard and are then laminated.  They are not designed to be shuffled and dealt, so they don't have (patterned) backs and they don't need to be absolutely identical in size and shape.

Deck Cards

These are intended to be shuffled and drawn randomly.  They may be for events (as in ATZ or Doctor Who Miniatures Game) or for determining turn sequence (The Rules with No Name).  Whatever the game, they typically have a small amount of transient data on them, but there's a much greater need for the cards to be homogeneous in size and shape.  Ideally, each deck will have a distinctive back on it as well.  These requirements make such cards more of a challenge to produce at home.  Fortunately there are now services on the internet where you can upload designs and have them create the cards on high-end printers.  I've used www.artscow.com before (as I'm sure you know by now, if you've read any of my past blog entries) and am a very satisfied customer.