Xander Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 (edited) Like many others, I was drawn to Malifaux because of its use of the standard playing card deck. There is something cool about using playing cards that conjures up a certain gambling/poker/western mystique -- very fitting for Malifaux. I guess that's why I was a little surprised to learn that this mystique doesn't really cash out in the game. The Malifaux control decks, while lovely in their own right, don't capture the same mysterious essence as a standard playing card deck. I wanted something like what ZENCARDZ sells. A vintage looking deck of cards with a kind of weathered brown-paper effect. I may yet buy a deck of these, as they are pretty cool (check out their other decks too, there are some really cool ones), but they fail to have any direct correlation to Malifaux. In looking at the different suits, I began to sketch up some ideas about how I could take the Malifaux faction suits and re-craft them to look like their corresponding playing card suit. In so doing, I could begin to create a Control deck that easily double as a playing card deck. So having a bit of graphic design knowledge (but limited Adobe Illustrator knowledge), I whipped up some rough suit designs in a vector format in Illustrator. Here's what I came up with: I am curious if anyone out there uses a standard deck of playing cards regularly. If so, which deck (Bicycle, etc) and why? I'd of course welcome any feedback on my initial designs. They will no doubt be iterated before I am completely happy with them, but I think I achieved what I set out to do so far. That is, blend the faction suit with the playing card suit so that both are recognizable in a single graphic. Next up is designing the card faces themselves. I will likely include a Weak, Moderate, Severe marker of some kind, but I have not thought that far ahead yet, I mainly wanted to get the suits mocked up first. Comments welcome! EDIT: Update - sample card: EDIT: Here was the end result of this thread: I am still waiting to get my first sample deck, but once I have it, I will let you know how it turned out! Edited October 7, 2011 by Xander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geckilian Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Lovely work there! I think the upper weathered style, without the clear white shapes, evokes the feel of Malifaux more, but I can see how it'd make it easier. Of course, you'd need to design the backs too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Yeah, I added the white club/heart/diamond/spade in as an afterthought, mostly for comparison purposes. I think I might change the ram/horns to make them more coiled, and then make the snout more skull like as per the Ram symbol. Thanks for the comment... *continues tweaking* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ispep Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Great work. The spade/crow is a little more phoenix looking than crow, but it still gets the idea across. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Yeah, I might try to make it a bit more detailed using the actual shape of a feather. Mostly, I wanted the wing tips to cross so that it looked like the crow symbol. Thanks for the comment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xGIxJOKERx Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I like them a lot. Maybe the one, two or three bullet hole method for w/m/s like on the puppet deck? Or maybe a pile of one, two or three skulls? What are the face cards going to be? I’m assuming Ace- 10 will be per a normal deck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Bullet holes or skullz might work, yeah. Hrm... I am not really sure on A-10. I may just do the typical playing card layout, yeah. I also might try to do some kind of hybrid J/11, Q/12 and K/13... not sure yet though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aka_hazard Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 I like these - very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bdt501 Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 If you do a normal deck are you going to use the faction leaders to represent kings and queens etc? If you do instead of holding weapons they could be holding the numbers the represent. E.g. Ramos as King for the arcanists holging the number 13 instead of the usual swords or clubs etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuesday Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 Oh, this is awesome. As something of a playing card enthusiast, I've always wished Wyrd would play with that aesthetic a little. And those suits look like a great start to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naahz Posted August 8, 2011 Report Share Posted August 8, 2011 FANtastic... would love to see another deck option for malifaux. really didn't care for the hard to see puppet deck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 I like these - very coolThanks! If you do a normal deck are you going to use the faction leaders to represent kings and queens etc? If you do instead of holding weapons they could be holding the numbers the represent. E.g. Ramos as King for the arcanists holging the number 13 instead of the usual swords or clubs etcThat's a pretty cool idea. Who would be the King, Queen, Jack for each faction, I wonder? Any thoughts? Oh, this is awesome. As something of a playing card enthusiast, I've always wished Wyrd would play with that aesthetic a little. And those suits look like a great start to it.Glad you agree! Hopefully, I will end up with something serviceable. FANtastic... would love to see another deck option for malifaux. really didn't care for the hard to see puppet deckThanks. Yeah, I wish there were more options, hence why I am crafting my own! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candiedwhiskey Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 How feasible is it to get a hard copy of these once they're done? Or impossible right off the bat since you're using Malifaux IP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 I am not sure how I intend to print a copy. If I do them at a printer on a card stock of some kind, then I doubt I will have any to sell. I do plan to release all the working files though, so people can go have them printed for themselves if they wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherSpencer Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Really love these. The suit designs are fantastic. Wonder if there is a playing card manufacturer that would make them like how chessex makes custom dice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonelyPath Posted August 9, 2011 Report Share Posted August 9, 2011 Those suits look great, I'd love to get my hands on a deck myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great Unclean One Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 If you're thinking of using masters as the icons for the King, Queen and Jack, maybe use the original three masters from the first books? Guild - Justice, Sonnia, Perdita Arcanist - Marcus, Rasputina, Ramos Resurrectionist - Seamus, McMourning, Nicoderm Neverborn - Pandora, Zorida, Lilith That'd keep with the old timey theme I'd imagine, considering they are the original masters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Those might work, despite not being the right genders! Might have to think on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snord Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Really cool! I've done custom decks of cards with ArtsCow before (http://www.artscow.com/). You can try that... decent quality, not too expensive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 (edited) Really cool! I've done custom decks of cards with ArtsCow before (http://www.artscow.com/). You can try that... decent quality, not too expensive... If you could provide details of exactly what you bought and how many and how much they costed you, that would be most helpful to everyone, I think! Thanks for the link! This seems to be what we are after: http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/playing-cards/playing-cards-54-designs-313 *makes an account, to see if they have prices once logged in* Edited August 10, 2011 by Xander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drazulfel Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 It appears that, for that item, they take your image and put it as the backdrop for a playing card with the number value and suit overlaid. Might want to communicate with the artscow.com folks before ordering anything to see if they can customize your order by leaving any of their own art completely off the card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 It appears that, for that item, they take your image and put it as the backdrop for a playing card with the number value and suit overlaid. Might want to communicate with the artscow.com folks before ordering anything to see if they can customize your order by leaving any of their own art completely off the card. You can click on each card and disable the "Poker Text" they call it. Then you get a blank canvas to work with! Very neat tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 I was considering this site.... http://www.printerstudio.com/personalized/custom-playing-cards-gifts.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander Posted August 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Arts Cow seems to charge only 10 bucks! That's pretty remarkable! Printer Studio seems to be 8 bucks. Pretty cool. They also have a neat little piece of software to use. The bonus here seems to be that the more you order, the cheaper they are! I will play around with both of these, I think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tuesday Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Ooh! Are you going to design the backs too? This is just such a fun idea, I can't stop watching. Looking at those sites, it makes me want to try making a deck of my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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