Choose Your Fate

It's almost New Years, and with it, something a bit different!

Wyrd is hosting a contest for a new Fate deck, and with that meaning restrictions are lifted, it's time to resurrect my deck design! Aside from some cleaning up, it's mostly the same deck you've seen before, but I've made sure to revise the face cards to suit the Malifaux world a bit more.

The explanation of the deck is this:

Many of the Fate decks already in existence are what I'd call "out of world" decks - The Puppet Wars deck, the very snazzy decks including artwork from concept sketches of various characters, etc.

There's only one "In-world" deck I know of, and that's Xander's Retro deck. It's a beautifully designed deck, and it very much 'fits' the word. The only problem I have is that it's old, beaten up, and made to look (I think) like they found it when they reopened the breach, sitting on a table somewhere, and thought no ill of picking it up and starting to use it. What I'm going for is different. I want to make the "Modern Malifaux" deck. I want one where any random trader, card shark, or bored kid could go into a shop in Malifaux (or Earthside - currently the city of origin is listed as my own, Toronto!) and pick up a deck much like this and play with it.

Many of the designs are held over from the previous two posts (linked above) so in this entry I'll mostly focus on the differences.

First, the jokers are mostly the same, but they're the least "busy", so they'll show off the background well. Whereas the old one was whatever I could find from the internet to convey the feeling, it was too yellow, and too 'not mine'. I have since revised it with a texture pulled from paper I purchased, photographed, and edited.

More importantly you'll notice a refined and cleaned up back. These are far closer to the fancy designs so often found and admired on poker decks, and the prominent, not-too-fancy M in the middle is a strong reminder of what game it is!

And now the big change: face cards! You can see the damage indicators still in the corner, the large symbols for each suit on the aces, and most importantly, customized designs! The Aces are all going to have large symbols in the middle, to keep Crows from being too fancy, and the biggest modification to this set of royals is the Queen; While I did try to limit the number of in-world characters, I figure someone like Lady Justice is both well-liked and well-known enough to gain card immortalization. The cards feature very bright red cloth, as red is considered the faction colour of the Guild.

Next up are the Tomes. Tomes represent Arcanists, and while they may make a sneaky deck with hidden clues to them, this is not that deck. They were chosen of the face cards because they have large discs, coloured in this to represent soulstones. They have less gold than their Guild counterparts (except the king) but they are coloured varying shades of blue. From the bright cyan in their eyes and the soulstones, to the more muted cyan and royal blue of their cloth, they hold to the Arcanist blue.

The Masks (or Masques) represent the Neverborn. Their colour scheme is made to echo that of the Guild, with a colder, more sinister set of purples (Neverborn's colour) trying to keep somewhat the feel of the Guild reds. The masks on each are made to look both like the suit icon, and also the one worn by the Guild's Secretary, who many suspect to be a Neverborn!

If I do win the contest, and am asked to, I considered snaking some subtle colour inflection through their robes to look like tentacles, but the darts on the King's sleeves kind of work that effect, and keeps the overall look subtle.

Finally, the Crows. This was a difficult one. Traditionally, Spades are the 'highest' suit, but in the world of Malifaux, it represents the Resurrectionists, who are perhaps the most hated faction in the game. As a result, I had to juggle the primacy of one with the hatred of the other, and so decided to go subtle. The ace, as mentioned, keeps the 'tariff has been payed' look, and each of the royals is made to be subtly creepy and undead. All three have sunken cheeks. The Jack has blank eyes, the Queen empty pits, and the King small eerie dots as though the irises have blanched. Their clothes are primarily green (the Resurrectionist colour) and brown (for the earth), with a minimum of gold effects.

It was nice to go through and clean up the royals, since it let me really think on the designs overall. I hope you like them!

Designs and Drawings

Well, I'm back from a laptop panic. My macbook is from 2007 and is being quite temperamental. I had to play around in Unix to make it behave again, so I've not finished as much since then as I'd like to have.

First up, the deck! I have decided to custom-create the designs for the royals, which may take me a while. I am going to have to consider what each of the suits would mean in a Malifaux context, but also in such a way as won't too directly reference the 'evil' side of Crows and Masks. If I can't find a design that works, I may stick to the defaults. I'm also likely to replace "Jacks" with "Mages", at least visually. Malifaux is a world populated enough by magic that I figure any deck of playing cards would reference them (the icon will remain the same of course.)

That said, here's the full deck laid out (still the old royals) with likely the background pattern I'll end up using:

But wait, there's more! I've been working on fancying up Pandora's dress, and I am frustrated by the skirt join. I have done everything I can think of to obscure the join line, and it still shows. I may have to do something scandalous and put epoxy putty on even though it's already been basecoated!

Here she is. I've tried to capture a better shot of her face that shows off the makeup. You can see my translucent skin effect on the legs, and the swirled designs on her skirt. They'll be further highlighted as I go along.

With computer problems sorted out for the most part, I should have more time now for painting, and can hopefully figure out what to do about that annoying fabric join...

Malifaux Deck Update

At long last I have managed to play a round or two of Malifaux! Believe it or not before this I had just read the rules and been painting figures. My fiancee and I sat down and did some very basic "learn the mechanics" skirmishes, and I was immediately struck by how important the "weak/moderate/severe" indicators on the deck can be! Rather than flipping in or trying to memorize, just having a little pip right there to show is fantastic. (She was using the snazzy rustic fate deck, while I was playing with my silver cards.)

I also decided on a back-of-card design, which I've done a quick mock up of as well. While the ripple pattern halftone was an interesting start, I wanted to go a different direction with it. What I've attempted should look clearer and creepier the further away you get, but I'll have to make sure it's just the right amount of distinct and subtle, probably with a few test prints.

Enough talk, here's the cards!

Weak damage, as exemplified by this ace card, will have but a single subtle slash in the top-right corner. I've also compiled the look of the ace of spades, and added a test-sample version of the parchment feel I will be using for the cards eventually. Sure by this time they were capable of crafting pure white paper, but where's the fun in that?

Moderate damage, here modelled by this fabulous eight of masks, is denoted by two pips. I was tempted to go fancier, like the arabesques, but I realized I'd rather keep them easily distinguishable, and not at all something that could be confused for the rest of the design. Originally, I was going to feature a look like this as Weak, with two lines denoting a kind of box, but I realized as soon as I put in the Moderate damage (with three lines) that it just ended up looking more confusing.

Last, as an utterly shocking change in design, the king here models severe damage. Three pips! What a departure from the previous two! I've debated back and forth modifying the default look of the face cards. On the one hand, the more unique they are the better, but on the other, I want them to look like 'normal' cards, and too much modification means I have to play a very tough game of design. I may in the future (if this does well) make a special edition with fancier suits, but that'll be far, far off if it does happen! (Also, ignore the inner gray box: those are the template lines from the card company.)

Finally, the back of the cards. Doing it in sepia like this has made me realize I will have to strengthen the lines on the N and S skulls, as well as the wing details and width of some other details across the board.

On to the important bit though! Rather than the ripple pattern of the last iteration, here I've used one of the free vector skulls already on the pattern to make a subtle skull in the midst of an otherwise relatively plain field. I may have to tone back the skull still further to make it more subtle; what I want is the pattern to be more apparent the further away you are. Up really close, an interference dot pattern. Further away, a very creepy skull gradually resolves. This way anyone walking past the table, or seeing the deck from a distance will be suitably creeped out by the sight of it.

Thoughts on this are especially welcome. I'm not entirely settled yet on some of these designs, so input is welcome always. Enjoy!

Also, I think I have, through editing, ended up with a deck that has no copywright-related images, objects, etc. in it, so I may even be able to print these for others! I was careful to only take vectors from free offer sites, and everything else is original work. I'll try to find a way to make these available once I get the first run done.

I am also hoping to do a unique card case for them. The website sends them out in plastic cases, but we all know they should be in paper sleeves. Once I work out a nice simple design for those, I'll post them as well.

A 'New' Malifaux Deck

With my Panthers put away, and my Hired Swords and final Ten Thunders models up on the painting desk and being steadily layered, I've also been turning my attention to another project.

I am, by training, a graphic designer. I am also a card player, mostly euchre but so many more besides. One of the big draws to Malifaux for me was always the curious card system rather than dice. When I saw the default fate deck, I was unimpressed. I immediately thought about making a deck attempting to integrate the symbols; I've had thoughts of messing around with the distinctive look and feel of cards before, and here was a reason! Then, as I circled ever closer to purchasing and playing Malifaux, I discovered a thread regarding the forum-spawned old school deck, and knew I had to get one.

When I got it, for all the awesome it has, there was an issue: The cards are plastic. Not plastic-coated paper, like most you'll see, but fully plastic. If you are a card player, you know that they are just not up to snuff for most games. They slide wrong, they're thicker, they don't quite shuffle right, etc.

Other than that, beautiful deck. Wonderfully integrated symbols, a nice old-school touch, and very much a feel of a deck that returning colonists discovered in the parlours of Malifaux from the first excursion: Still playable, but warped, aged, and a little off.

So I got to thinking: I'd wanted to design a deck, and here was a reason. I wanted a different feel though: The old-deck (If someone can remember who made it, I'd love to know) looks just that: Very vintage. That kind of ink crazing happens after a long time, and the cards are well beaten up. I wanted to do a deck which is designed in the style you could theoretically walk into a store Earth-side or in Malifaux 'today' and buy.

First, knowing the era Malifaux takes place in, I wanted to add the arabesques that were so popular of the time, so I worked out a simple little swirl pattern. The faces currently are default from the internet, and while I may mildly change them, for the most part I don't want to theme them after the four main factions; this is meant to be a deck produced by a contemporary print shop, and I can not imagine them intentionally crafting cards themed after the vile Resurrectionists!

Considering the effects of the jokers, I made the black joker a grim reaper, (much like Xander's Retro deck: See the original here.) but wanted to make it feel even more like a 'real' deck, and so kept the art pattern simple, and then copied the pose for the red joker: A true jester, but still morbid: Skull wand, creepy expression, etc.

The four symbols, while heavily inspired by the old-deck, were done without any direct reference. I wanted them to be unique, and to answer the challenges my own way. I insisted that the shapes be as analogous as possible, which forced some odd bends to the crows, and necessitated the tassels for the masks. Since the 'heart' suit is now "Rams", each symbol is two ram skulls aligned as though butting against one another.

Similarly, the numbers were inspired by typefaces popular at the time, with the J(11), Q(12) and K(13) coming first, and then informing the Ace(1) and other numbers thematically.

I struggled for a while with the back design. Card design over the centuries has seen simple patterns, photographs, or often just blank backsides, but I wanted to go more the bicycle route. Initially I tried integrating the steampunk feel but it just felt too forced. Eventually I settled on what I figure any visitor to Malifaux would want on their handy, ever-accessible deck of cards: A map of Malifaux's regions.

This, then, serves as a way to advertise the capabilities of the printing house's detail, makes for a useful tool for people who own the deck, and feels very card-like. After attempting various ways of fooling with digital arabesques, I finally just gave up, hand-drew all but the skulls, and then scanned and vectorized them.

Finally came the challenge of the spade ace. I knew I wanted to make the deck as like a real one as possible, and here the rivet-counting ways flared in. Through research, I discovered that the reason Aces of, specifically, Spades have such fancy designs has to do with tariffs once applied to things like decks of cards. Rather than having a slip of paper with every deck sold to prove its print house had paid its dues, card makers made the first visible card in the deck have it on it. This also served as part advertisement, and gradually evolved into the very fanciful ace we have today.

Well, with that knowledge, I couldn't have each suit with a fanciful Ace, as there'd be no historical bearing for it. Clubs (Tomes), Hearts (Rams), and Diamonds (Masks) were relegated to normal status,  but I had to do something fancy for Spades (Crows).

This is where I am at so far. (The grey is just template for the card border.) I've been pulling in various Ace design shapes, and pulling inspiration from the best elements of each. My ace works as "advertisement" for the print shop, and fancy design as it ought. The crow itself is reworked in its design, but is essentially still the same crow. I can't yet decide if I want to do more patterning through the center, and I am debating putting arabesques around the crow itself. (Input would be greatly appreciated.)

For final thoughts: I welcome any critiques, especially on the face cards, back of deck, and Ace of Spades. I'm mostly on the final cleanup now, and will likely also be getting a cream-coloured paper to photograph, and add as texture to the cards before sending them off to print. There's a company that offers to make decks and I am hoping the prints will work out. I'll test-run it first on a laser-printer, to make sure the detail is not too fine. If folks want a more detailed look at the various suit cards, I can add them in my next update when I can finish off the ace.

It's been a fun process; my Illustrator file is sprawling with layers to keep everything aligned properly!