New Kiwi Games

Welcome to a round-up of the latest roleplaying games created by New Zealanders.  Previous instalments in this series include Roleplaying Aotearoa Style (April, 2015), the rise of New Zealand Roleplaying products, (Aug 2013) and  New Zealand Roleplaying Products (Feb 2011).  Now, on to the 2016 edition:

We start with The Sprawl, a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse RPG of mission-based action in a gritty neon-and-chrome cyberpunk future. On the back of a successful Kickstarter, Hamish Cameron has created a game where you are the extended assets of vast multinational corporations, operating in the criminal underground, and performing the tasks that those multinationals can’t do... or can’t be seen to do. You are deniable, professional and disposable.

Another Kiwi to successfully harness Kickstarter is Ciâran Spencer Searle, who raised funding for Transylvania, a hidden role party game of vampires and villagers played in a darkened room for six or more people.

Next up, Steve Hickey released Soth, a diceless game of cultists vs investigators where you play cultists in a small-town, trying to summon a dark god.  If you complete three more rituals, Soth will rise. But can you conceal your murderous crimes from family and friends?

Also of note, Left Coast, Steve's role-playing game about a science fiction writer in California, who struggles as the weirdness from her novels spills into real life, was a runner-up for the 2016 Indie RPG Award for Most Innovative Game!

Catherine Pegg has also been busy.  The Face of Oblivion, is a science-fiction chamber LARP for 6-8 players, designed around a hard choice.  Disaster is coming: will you save a large group of people that you are responsible for, or a smaller group of everyone you ever loved and everything you ever cared about?

Catherine also released My Bloody Valentine, a LARP scenario for 6-8 players, where instead of spending Valentine's Day with your loved one, you're stuck having biscuits and a cuppa with your landlady.  And it's worse than that - she's making you talk to her other tenants. Trouble is, Miss Elisabeth is so nice, she'll let anyone in. They're nuts!  How long before you're climbing the walls?

Anna Klein released two live action roleplaying scenarios during 2015.  Argonautica is an intense vignette inside the lives of eight characters who have found themselves in desperate enough circumstances to take part in an unpleasant shock reality TV show, wherein they sequestered from the world at large for four months, and subjected to the general ridiculousness of reality TV challenges. Partway through the game, a horror element is introduced, and the tone of the game becomes one of personal horror.

Boats Against the Current (also by Anna)  is an introspective live action roleplaying scenario for 9 players, set New York, in the throes of the roaring twenties.  Recently, an eccentric but much talked about millionaire socialite died under questionable circumstances. Speculation abounds in the streets, and splashed across the papers - who was this man, really? Where did he come from? Who killed him? And why?

At the end of 2015 I released Death of Legends, a GM-less dark-fantasy roleplaying game that tells the story of epic deeds against great odds in aid of UNICEF New Zealand, and followed this up with a high-fantasy expansion First Kingdoms.  Death of Legends was recently awarded an Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Rules and was second runner up for the Indie RPG Award for Best Free Game of 2015. 

I also released another Christmas Special scenario for the EPOCH survival horror roleplaying game Polaris Six and Candidate, a micro-game of political ambition.

New Zealand game designers have also been well represented in international competitions.  Rose Docherty was a finalist for the renown Game Chef 2016 competition.  Rose's game, Making History is a game about history, hard decisions and public memory.  Hamish Cameron entered a game called Mirror Ball, a game about the many faces of technology and I entered Fragment (see below).  Rose also created School of Magic, a card-based RPG where you play teenagers in a mage school as part of the Fantasy RPG Design Challenge.

This is the biggest list to date, and I think it reflects the growing strength and diversity of New Zealand game design.

If you know of a product I've missed, comment below.

Also of Note

Mike Sands has been hard at work on Heavy Metal Æons, a roleplaying game of heavy metal inspired science-fantasy adventures.  A playtest document is currently available. 

My 2016 Game Chef entry Fragment, a game of machines and memory is currently available to playtest.

Holding On, Morgan Davie's entry into the 200 word RPG challenge recently went micro-viral.

Addendum
A couple I missed; Jenni Sands has been busy writing Monster of the Week mysteries, including Murders at the Music Festival, and The Shadow Man, and she's working on a new game called Purification: a facilitator-less story game with cards, violence and lots of death.

Grant Robinson has been  writing for Shadowrun.  In Amber Waves of Grain The runners are going to have some unusual jobs, including spreading some poisons and making sure innocent lives are spared (if they’re so inclined). They’ll have to be on their toes to steer clear of the authorities, get all the pieces of this particular scheme in place, and in particular answer the pressing question: Just what is Mr. Johnson up to?

Grant also contributed to Court of Shadows, an alternate setting for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, emphasizing the magic and intrigue of the Seelie Court.

Hot off the press, Malcolm Harbrow has created The Devil's Brood, a LARP for nine players and an organiser, inspired by history and The Lion in Winter.

Arkham, Awards and New Adventures

First I wanted to point you to the nominees for ENnie Awards this year; these awards celebrate excellence in roleplaying products.  Voting is now open and it doesn’t take long to go through and vote and I encourage you to take a look and exercise your ability to participate, if you see some things you like.  I don’t have a product nominated this year, although my whodunit RPG Wicked Lies & Alibis picked up a judges spotlight award (thanks to the excellent taste of Judge Stacy Muth). 

I’ve posted before about the beautiful agony of the ENnie Awards, where micro-publishers like myself can (if we’re lucky) be nominated, but ultimately are extremely unlikely to win an actual award based on the size of our customer base (when compared with much larger publishers).  The Judges Spotlight Award, on the other hand,  is a perfect recognition for a micro-publisher like me.   In related news, friend and one-time EPOCH scenario author Mike Sands has been nominated in the category of Best Rules for the Evil Hat edition of his bestselling game Monster of the Week, so congratulations to Mike!

We’ve just wrapped up the 13th and final session of Arkham Chronicles, and cleared our way to play the (recently ENnie Award Nominated) Horror on the Orient Express, now that it has finally arrived in magnificent physical form.  You may recall that we had already played the Orient Express Gaslight prequel scenario – The Blood Red Fez.  I plan to run the Orient Express campaign with all the trimmings, including the Invictus, Dark Ages, Modern and Dreamlands additions, as well as music, miniatures, and all manner of handouts as appropriate. 

As I read through the campaign I am reminded just how old some parts of it are.  The implicit assumptions about character actions and motivations are not something you’d expect to see in a modern scenario, as they are simply too brittle to survive contact with resourceful, creative and engaged players – highlighting a tension that can (appropriately in this case) be termed as railroading.  Rather than simply try and shoehorn the characters into difficult and dangerous situations, or frustrate their players by stymieing any but the approved investigative avenue, I’ve had some open conversations with my group about this aspect of the game. 

As I told them, I’ll do my best to meet them half-way with these kind of plot elements, but I’ve pushed the players to look to their own characters motivations, and to view the game as a television series, where the setup is usually the same at the beginning of the episode, sometimes ignoring just how crazy and dangerous things were in the previous episode.  I’m also using some of the optional elements from Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and introducing a house rule; a ‘Mark of Destiny’ which will work as a one shot option to allow a character to avert certain death, take a reduced SAN loss or boost their Luck (this being a critical resource in 7th edition using the optional rules, to both levy consequences and enhance investigative progress).

I’ve really enjoyed running the Arkham Chronicles, and it’s been a great way to develop characters which have strong player buy-in before the campaign and learn the seventh edition rules a little as we go.  As is traditional, I post the key stats from this mini-campaign below:

SCENARIOS

• Dark Rivals (Dead Reckonings)
• Darkness Illuminated (Island of Ignorance)
• Dead Light
• Missed Dues
• The Condemned  (H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham)

CAMPAIGN STATS

Players  = 7

Characters created = 8
Characters killed = 0
Characters institutionalised = 1
Outer Gods encountered = 1
Great Old Ones encountered = 1

ENnie Awards - The Beautiful Agony

Being nominated for an ENnie Award is a big deal for a little publisher.  For those not familiar with the process, publishers of roleplaying game, podcasts, websites and the like can submit their products from the previous year for consideration by a panel of elected judges.  The Judges then read each publication, and debate amongst themselves which 5 of these products are sufficiently awesome to be nominated for an award (and in which category).  For a really interesting insight into the process of being an ENnie Judge, you might like to read this account on the Iron Tavern.

Once the nominees are announced the public have 10 days to vote for their favourites, with the top two products in each category being awarded a prize at the ENnie Awards Ceremony held at Gen Con.

Both of these mechanisms  are a little controversial - the selection of nominees is obviously a subjective assessment, albeit moderated somewhat by a group of people.  The voting process meanwhile is often seen as a popularity contest, with the big publishers being able to mobilise overwhelming support.

Last year EPOCH products were nominated in 4 categories (Best Rules, Best Electronic Book, Best Free Product & Product of the Year) and these nominations were both very gratifying and proved a big boost to interest in the game.

This year I was extremely pleased that War Stories, a collection of 5 scenarios set during wartime (a 155 page book or PDF with an RRP of $7.99, currently half price)  was nominated in the category of Best Adventure.  I was particularly proud when I reviewed the other 4 nominated titles:

• Eternal Lies; an epic campaign for Trail of Cthulhu  (a 400-page hardback book or a 396-page PDF with an RRP of $49.95)
• The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man, A Dreamlands Campaign for Call of Cthulhu (a 294-page book or PDF with an RRP of $49.99)
• Rise of the Drow, a mega-module for Pathfinder (a book of nearly 500 pages, with an RRP of $41.99 or $99 in print)
• Razor Coast - Heart of the Razor, a collection of four adventures for Pathfinder (a 160 page book currently available for $29.99)

Some serious competition to say the least! All of these look like great products (so much so that I already own the first two).  So how does War Stories stack up? 

• The first scenario in the book is FROM ABOVE AND BELOW, by Marcus Bone.  A thrilling plunge into the darkness and the horror that lurks beneath the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War.  I had a great time playtesting this scenario, and would love to try running it in the dark with each player wearing a head-lamp that is extinguished when their character is eliminated.
• Next up is THE COLDEST WINTER by Mike Sands which thrusts the characters into the hostile climate and freezing forest in a brutal struggle for survival during the Russian invasion of Finland.  When I ran this game it had the feel of a true Russian epic which spanned the entire war experience for the surviving characters, and culminated in a suitably bleak ending.
• Then it's HOME FRONT, Andrew Millar's homage to Dad's Army where the well-meaning Home Guard of the British village of Blakely are sent to secure the wreckage of a German bomber.  Although this scenario is truly creepy, I most remember the Inglorious Basterds style shootout, which was the epic climax to the tensions between the characters. 
• Next is my scenario MASS DESTRUCTION which blends modern catastrophe with ancient evil, and which I've recently ran at Kapcon to good effect.
• Finally, Liam Jones presents BEHIND THE MASK OF EVIL which draws on his own experiences of Peace operations in the Congo and adds a supernatural twist.  I loved playing this so much I used our playtests as an example of how to structure flashbacks.

So, although these scenarios were contributed by friends,  I think they've delivered an excellent package which will provide you with hours of quality gaming.  Can we win?  No. Like many small games EPOCH simply doesn't have a fan-base which can compete in a popular vote.  But I think it's clear that just being nominated is a victory in its own right.   

Voting for the 2014 ENnie Awards is open for the next 10 days, so no matter who you vote for, spend a few minutes to participate in the Beautiful Agony that is the ENnie Awards.

The Stars Are (Coming) Right

Following my post about new Horror Games I thought it might be appropriate to post about the Call of Cthulhu renaissance that seems to be underway.  I’ve previously posted about both how I enjoy Call of Cthulhu, but also about how it has many old-school elements, which if played as written, are likely to create a less than optimal experience for many players. 

What is clear is that there is an enduring fan-base who enjoy playing the game and will support it despite some of these drawbacks.  I have personally been surprised at the consistent number of downloads of my free Call of Cthulhu scenario Sundown set in the Old West (it has been downloaded around 600 times via DriveThruRPG over the last 2 years – not bad considering Sundown is also available for free on the Chaosium website).

2013 has seen a number of interesting developments.  Firstly, the licensed Call of Cthulhu products have continued in leaps and bounds – with products like “Tales of the Sleepless City” from Miskatonic River Press, “Island of Ignorance” from Golden Goblin press and the previously mentioned World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour and Achtung! Cthulhu having maintained a high standard of quality.

In addition, Chaosium have been pretty active, with a number of new Call of Cthulhu releases including scenario collection “House of R’yleh”, stand-alone scenario “Canis Mysterium”  and new setting and scenario collection “Atomic Age Cthulhu”.

The excellent analysis via Yog-Sothoth provided by Dean (from Adelaide) shows that the number of scenarios for Call of Cthulhu published in books has jumped markedly in 2013, reaching a point near the high-water mark of the 1990’s. 

When you then consider the picture for 2014, with the release of the very successful Call of Cthulhu 7^th Edition Kickstarter, and the refresh of the epic Horror on the Orient Express campaign, as well as the new Cthulhu Britannica: London (which is currently funded and on track to deliver and old-style premium box set), it seems that the stars may finally be right for Call of Cthulhu to enjoy an upsurge in popularity. 

More kickstarters have been hinted at, refreshing other old campaigns, Pulp Cthulhu might allow a more heroic style of play, drawing in those turned-off by the purist character path (a downward spiral into insanity), and the new edition should make the game more accessible to players.

It will be interesting to see if these new products actually result in a spread of Call of Cthulhu, introducing new players to the game, or if they actually reflect publishers finding more effective methods of tapping into the existing fan-base, and leveraging an aging gaming community who now have more disposable income which they are willing to spend on direct sales. 

When I look at my local gaming community, there is not a single Call of Cthulhu scenario currently offered in the major local gaming convention in January, nor was there a Call of Cthulhu offering at the Horror Convention in October.   Perhaps this will change over time, and perhaps more gamers will be inspired to pull a Call of Cthulhu scenario off the shelf in 2014, and give it a try… or perhaps contemporary gamers expect more than a mere makeover of such a traditional game to fire their imagination and Call of Cthulhu is still dreaming in the dark?

The Rise of New Zealand RPG Products

In February 2011, I posted about  some of the great New Zealand roleplaying products that had recently been released.  Two and a half years later it seems appropriate to post an update, and celebrate more of the fantastic products authored by Kiwis since then.

First up, Monster of the Week by Michael Sands - Monster of the Week is an action-horror roleplaying game.  Most people don't believe in them, but they're real. Mostly, when someone finds out that monsters are real, that's just before they die.  But some people are mean enough, smart enough, crazy enough, or hurt enough, that they live. And some of those people go and hunt down more.  That's who you are – someone who decided to go on a crusade against the evil critters that are scurrying around out there.  You can get it direct from Mike, from Lulu or DriveThruRPG. 

Next, On Mighty Thews by Simon Carryer - On Mighty Thews is a pulp fantasy roleplaying game that’s fast and easy to play.   Mighty warrior-heroes face mortal peril in a land of sword-fighting, strange cultures, monsters and magic.  On Mighty Thews lets you and your friends tell bizzarre and bloody tales of swords and sorcery in a world of your own creation. Perfect for a casual and quick game, you can be playing within minutes of opening the book. Pick it up from the indie rpgs un-store.

Also by Simon Carryer, is the recently released adventure The Cosmic Trader - The Cosmic Trader is a short one-shot adventure module suitable for classic level-based fantasy gaming. A strange shop in a small border-town is the gateway to a bizarre and terrifying adventure in distant space. Characters will explore "The Cosmic Trader", a magical interplanetary trading ship, meet its strange and sinister captain, grapple with his collection of oddities and amusements, and maybe even uncover dark secrets and find rich rewards. Check it out at DriveThruRPG.

Then its on to The Bell by Stephanie and Catherine Pegg - The Bell is a science fiction suspense live roleplaying game that is intended to be an emotionally intense game that pushes moral dilemmas.  (It isn’t recommended for novice roleplayers.)  It can be run for 12 to 20 players with a play duration of two hours. You wake up with your memories fracturing around you. You're going somewhere, and there's something wrong, and you know these people here with you, or maybe you only think you do. All you really know for sure is that you can hear this Bell. Buy it from DriveThruRPG.

Stephanie and Catherine Pegg have also published two other live action games, including Super Sparkle Action Princess GX! which is a modern day chaotic live roleplaying game for 13-16 people. Players take on the parts of the cast and crew filming an episode at short notice in difficult conditions, using a live camera and  But Nobody Loses An Eye! which is a modern day live roleplaying game about the magic, chaos and terror of childhood, for 8-12 people.

Back in the world of tabletop roleplaying, Morgan Davie has continued his work on the ICONS superhero game with his contribution to the recently released ICONS Team-Up a Game Master's toolkit for the critically-acclaimed superpowered role-playing game.

Steve Hickey has also been busy with several offerings in the works including Left Coast, A roleplaying game about science fiction writers living in California - inspired by the life of Philip K. Dick. 

Finally, my game of character-driven survival horror, EPOCH, has had ample coverage on this blog, but I also wanted to note that so far 6 other New Zealand authors have so far contributed original scenarios for the game, including the sci-fi collection Frontier of Fear, The Cold Shore and the forthcoming War Stories.

So, all in all, a pretty impressive collection of products. I look forward to seeing what's next for New Zealand roleplaying writers and publishers.

If you know of a product I've missed, comment below or drop me a line and I'll add it.

Horror For The People - An ENnie Awards Platform

The EPOCH roleplaying game was thrilled and honoured to be nominated for several ENnie awards this year (Best Rules, Best Electronic Book, Best Free Product & Product of the Year).  However, looking at the competition in each category it became clear that we were by-far the smallest dog in this fight.  However, like all small dogs, we know the value of making a big noise, and we thought we might have a little fun during the voting process. 

Without further ado, I present EPOCH chairman and cover-model, the Doomed Diver to present our platform to voters, who might never have heard of our game:

“For too long roleplaying games have demystified horror, and sought to tame the nameless terror that lurks in the darkness.  Players have felt confident and comfortable at the gaming table, their characters ensconced in levels, professions and classes, empowered to dispatch the horror they encounter.  Dice pools, attributes and tokens have become the currency of heroism, perpetrating a terrible inflation on infamy which no monstrosity can afford.  Worse than this, the greatest heroes of horror have been diminished by this golden age of character empowerment. 

The repulsive, terrifying and powerful vampires who were once masters of the night have become glorified bureaucrats, ensconced in conspiracy and intrigue.  The noble zombie, once a frightful and relentless mockery of life has been studied, classified and embraced as an iconic role-model to be emulated.   Ghosts and spectres who once preyed on the sanity and life-force of the living are now valued for their historical insights and emotional mysteries.  Emotionless iron automatons now serve those they once would have crushed beneath their heavy metal treads.

Enough I say!  It is time for horror to return to its proper place in role-playing games.  Bring EPOCH to your gaming tables and restore the rightful balance.  EPOCH will unleash true horror once more, dispelling any notion that terror can be classified and catalogued, appearing with a charming picture and vital statistics at the back of a game book.  EPOCH will summon that which has long remained chained and banished, and unlock the terror deep inside you.  A vote for EPOCH is a vote to make this a better, more frightening, world!  Horror for the People!”

Voting is now open, and runs until 31 July.  There are many great products, and even if you don't vote for EPOCH, please do go and vote!

The Right Stuff

I thought I’d post a short update on the progress of the latest EPOCH scenario collection.  EPOCH: War Stories will see a diverse range of scenarios which feature war – either taking place in wartime, or with war as a backdrop.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a playtest of the scenario by Mike Sands (of Monster of the Week fame) called Coldest Winter set during the Winter War (Finland and the USSR, 1939-1940).  We enjoyed the epic scale of this scenario, and had some great characters.  With a little polish I think it’ll make a really strong offering.

Last week we played through Marcus Bone’s scenario From Above and Below which took us to the horror of trench warfare during the Great War.  You can read Marcus’ thoughts on the scenario here, and how he found the process of creating an EPOCH scenario.  As a player, I had a great time, and found a really evocative setting, paired with a solid premise, and some really atmospheric scenes, made for a really strong scenario.   Marcus has a little more polish to do, but I found his first EPOCH offering very impressive.

My own scenario is progressing more slowly than I’d like.  Mass Destruction is set during it in the first hours of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as a collection of journalists are transported to witness the discovery a cache of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.  The first few scenes are fairly clear to me, as I have a strong idea about the source of the horror, but the final scenes are yet to unfold.  Hopefully I’ll have a finished working draft ready to playtest in a few weeks.

There are some other intriguing sounding scenarios being crafted – Igor will soon test a fantasy war scenario, Andy M. is working on a Home Front scenario with, what I hope will be, a creepy twist on Dad’s Army while Liam will draw on some working knowledge of African Peace Operations.

It’s an exciting time seeing these great ideas resolved into great EPOCH scenarios.

EPOCH in Spaaace

Yesterday I released Frontier of Fear, a collection of 4 science fiction scenarios for the survival horror roleplaying game EPOCH.   It is the first of what I hope will be several scenario collections, and it’s been an interesting, and thoroughly rewarding experience.

For me, science fiction and horror movies have a natural synergy.  The central theme of many of these films is an exploration of the unknown, leading to the discovery of an otherness which may prove hostile, or simply ambivalent to the plight of those who encounter it.  Yet in both cases it is the very human nature of the protagonists which ultimately condemns and, upon occasion saves, the characters.  In these films the characters, their strengths and weaknesses, and their relationship with one another, adds the all-important context for an encounter with the unknown.

For me, the elegance of Frontier of Fear is that while, as a player, you will likely recognise very familiar and classic science fiction tropes present in these scenarios – the act of creating a character and developing and exploring relationships with the other characters, while also trying to ensure your character’s survival with an interesting back-story, will keep the experience fresh and enjoyable.  At least, that was my experience in the scenarios I playtested for this collection.

I’m very grateful to everyone who contributed to Frontier.  Igor Divjak, Liam Jones and Andrew Millar have crafted some fantastic EPOCH scenarios, applying their very considerable creative talents to create an experience which I think will deliver some very satisfying gaming.  Andrew Smith did some remarkable, and invaluable work editing on a tight timeframe, while Doug Royson breathed some real life into the collection, providing a series of fantastic and evocative pieces of art.

I’m also grateful to all the playtesters, who spent some time and energy helping us take the rough edges off these scenarios.  The final product, I think, speaks for itself.

If you'd like a copy to review, please drop me a line.

Laying Your Cards on the Table

Given there has been some interest in the comments about the Print-on-Demand card deck for EPOCH, I thought I’d take a moment to discuss my experience of the process to this point. 

Why cards?  
Well, as you may have read in my post on the design philosophy for EPOCH (republished recently in the RPG review) I wanted EPOCH to be a highly focussed game and felt that using dice, and even the lightest mechanical touch to support them, risked diverting player interest from the character narrative at key moments in the game.  In terms of a resolution system, in a survival horror game, from a players view it seems reasonably to try and skew the odds in the favour of your character wherever possible – after all, the overall odds are likely to be tilted against your character, and in my experience of using systems, even comparatively simple and abstract systems like Gumshoe, or story based systems like Fiasco, some players will often want to optimise any odds or outcomes as a general principle, if presented the opportunity to do so.  This invariably results in players seeking out-of-character clarification across the table, or negotiating to try and ensure they have the best chances of success.  I’m certainly not against using dice, but for my game, where detailed characterisation over a single session is essential, I wanted a mechanic that better supported this approach.

EPOCH also uses cards to provide attributes and motivations to help with character creation, reveal plot elements as part of the Horror Track, tack the triggering of flashbacks and provide inspiration for players during the game if required.  In each case a randomly rolled table, supported by dice could have delivered these elements, but I felt that making each element available to the player (and GM) in the form of a card was a more elegant solution. 

Design 
Because EPOCH is a game which stresses player focus on characters I wanted the cards to be very simple, and allow the player to use their own creative abilities to fill in the detail.  For this reason, most of the original EPOCH cards were simple white rectangles with a black border, featuring a single word.  For the Outcome cards, which depict the injuries the characters suffer, I wanted to add a little extra element, blood spatter in quantities appropriate to the outcome seemed like a neat visual way of overlaying the degree of severity of each card. 

The basic cards I made for the early version of EPOCH were serviceable, if somewhat no frills.  However, I found that when my fellow EPOCH GM’s were printing them in preparation for Kapcon they frequently complained because the cards weren’t aligned to print double sided and assuming you want all possible card options for six players, you needed to cut out around 98 cards, which is almost 200 squares to cut when you do the card backs separately!

So I commissioned EPOCH artist Doug Royson to come up with some new art for the cards.  I knew that I wanted to try the print-on-demand card service offered via drivethrurpg, and therefore decided to make the new cards in the same format for both electronic and print versions.  To help the process I gave Doug the information sheet from Drivethrurpg which specified the size of the cards, and the need to create a bleed around the card (an area which the printer couldn’t guarantee 100% where the cut would be so should have no important text or images.

Doug delivered some amazing looking prototype cards.  We went back and forth a few times until we got a final product we were both happy with.  These were delivered as photoshop files of around 60-80 MB that I then used photoshop to create the entire deck.  Next I created the files for the digital product by laying these out using identical templates so they can be printed double sided (although I’ve found many printers have a tray feeder variance of anything from 2-10mm, and the bigger and fancier the printer you use, the more likely you are to find a low double side feeder variance). 

Printing 
I had thought doing the digital files was fairly laborious, as each card had to be resized and copied to a layout page and lined up with guidelines, but that was nothing compared with what was to come.  

•  Tip One: Create multiple versions of all your cards so that you always have master files for each step of the process you can revisit.  

 The first thing I realised was that while Doug’s cards were great he had made the bleed, the same as the border.  So, if I wanted a black border around the cards (and I did) I needed to create a new template, and paste the card in, effectively giving it a double border, half of which would be cut off during printing.

•  Tip Two: make sure you mark the bleed lines into your print documents and factor them in.

Next was the colour format of the cards.  Printers use CMYK (as opposed to RGB) because they are actually printing each colour separately, and in addition I needed to make sure the cards are not ‘over-inked’ meaning they had less than 238% total amongst the C,M, Y and K (the suggested mix is C 60%, M 40%, Y 40%, K 100%) .  A simple adjustment to make, but something to do early in the process to save hours of tedious clicking (apparently Acrobat can sometimes fix this easily - mine did not).

• Tip Three: check your colour settings.

Next I needed to resize the card as the deck would otherwise have been more than 2 GB and been unmanageable to upload to the printer.

• Tip Four: start with large, high res card files and convert them later, creating new print master files.

Finally it was time to collate the deck for printing.  The printer wants a single PDF, so I need to create a PDF which contains all of the cards, starting with the back of the first card in the deck.  This was pretty laborious, as the deck has 130 cards, so that’s 260 individual card files to add to one document.  This is particularly tricky when creating multiple versions of the same card, as it’s easy to lose track. One mistake and the card deck would be incorrect, and that’s on you – not the printer.

• Tip Five: Create the final file carefully, and double check everything.

You will also need to made sure the file is saved as the right kind of PDF (a PDF/X-1a:2001) in newer versions of Acrobat, or Acrobat that's fairly straightfoward (look under print management) but it can be trickier to find in older versions.  That’ll do for now.  Any questions?