My Collection of Homebrew Cards + Printing Results (w/ Pictures) + Alternate Endings

[Pheonom 40]

I've been working on an assortment of Adventure cards over the last 6 months or so, and have finally finished everything that I planned on printing. There is no particular theme to my homebrew cards, just things that appealed to me. Often I'd find really nice artwork and come up with the card type and detail afterwards.

Below is a Dropbox link, so please feel free to take a look and let me know what you do and don't like.

I would like to point out that out of the 194 card deck, there are around 3 or 4 cards that are from other people's homebrew expansions. I'm not trying to pass their work off as my own, I just really liked their ideas and wanted to include them amongst my own cards.

Dropbox Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/llbn7qk9h56bq3o/AACQubI1Wh4P9eWFQ0v9cxSka?dl=0

Critique is very much welcome!

Edited November 5, 2018 by Pheonom

[Reedstilt 170]

Glad to see you liked some of my old Hidden Valley cards. I only had time to skim through the whole set right now, but I see a few that I might have to steal from you too. Fair's fair, right? 

[Pheonom 40]

Steal away! I put them on Dropbox so people could download and print if they liked. I’m happy to provide any specific cards if anyone is interested. 

[Earl Wynn 49]

Excellent! I've glanced through them and see a lot of them I like that I'll be printing for my set. Thank you!

And heck, we all borrow from each other. It's the interchange that leads to better and better card mechanics.

 

[Reedstilt 170]

Speaking of stealing mechanics, I used your version of the Fossil Dragon for the revised Hidden Valley deck, .Pheonom. It's more brutal, and I'm sure I'll hate myself for doing that if I ever have to face it. But every deck has to have a handful of nightmare cards, right? 

I love all the Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones references in here, btw. I've been meaning to add some nods to that into my deck eventually. This will certainly speed things up there.

[Pheonom 40]

I wanted to add a few pop culture references, but without it being too far outside the realms of Talisman.

My favourites are the Link follower and the Ring of Power. I have an Alternate Ending (work in progress) that revolves around taking the ring to the centre and destroying it. I’ll post my Alternate Endings on here when I’ve finished them.

I love the odd nightmare card too, which is why I put a few burn cards in there. It doesn’t matter if you have the Firelands expansion or not, as you could always treat burn effects as regular discarding. The Greater Demon of Flame could be a real board clearer, which you could use to your advantage if there cards that everyone wants to discard from the board.

I have zero issues with people using anything for their own games or inspiration. I’ve actually got all 224 cards on a printing order. I’ll post images on here once received. 

[Earl Wynn 49]

6 hours ago, Pheonom said:

I love the odd nightmare card too, which is why I put a few burn cards in there. It doesn’t matter if you have the Firelands expansion or not, as you could always treat burn effects as regular discarding. The Greater Demon of Flame could be a real board clearer, which you could use to your advantage if there cards that everyone wants to discard from the board.

There are some fantastically fiendish ones in there for sure. Some of those demons will make it into my personal copy of Talisman as Nether cards. Great stuff!

[heartburnron 0]

New player here to Talisman although have totally fallen in love with the game and spent £650 to get my collection this year (the price of importing some stuff rom the US to the UK is shocking!) which includes the 4 corner expansions plus Cataclysm, Dragon, Reaper, Blood Moon and Harbinger.  I'm interested to know how you guys use these custom design cards once printed off - do you put them in to sleeves, keep them as paper, print them on to cards or what??

[Pheonom 40]

The road I’ve gone down is to have my designs printed over at MakePlayingCards.com. They have a size that’s pretty much the same as the adventure cards and a linen finish to boot.

My cards will arrive in a week or two, so I’ll be happy to post comparison images to see how close they actually do match. 

[Reedstilt 170]

I've considered using MakePlayingCards, but every time I try uploading the HD png files from Strange Eons, they don't fit properly onto their 41X63mm card template and they tell me the resolution is too low to adjust. Have you had any issues with that?

As for my own cards, I've only gotten around to printing out a test set for Atlantis. Its just on card stock at the moment. I'm still exploring options for a more official-looking printing.

[Earl Wynn 49]

I'm a bit of a wild card when it comes to print solutions. I use Artscow, even though they only do the fat mini cards instead of the sleek minis you see in revised 4th. Only about 10% of my cards are official material, though, so I don't mind the off-size if 90% are the same size. I also have my 2nd edition cards mixed with my revised 4th, so it's a little chaotic in the card bins, but my group digs it.

[heartburnron 0]

Thanks for the responses guys.  I had no idea that places such as MakePlayingCards existed!  Definitely something to consider in future...

[Pheonom 40]

On 4/1/2018 at 10:18 PM, Reedstilt said:

I've considered using MakePlayingCards, but every time I try uploading the HD png files from Strange Eons, they don't fit properly onto their 41X63mm card template and they tell me the resolution is too low to adjust. Have you had any issues with that?

Make sure to...

1. Export your .eon file to a .png (ctrl + e).
2. Select the drop down option that allows you to adjust settings.
3. Set the ppi to 600.
4. Tick the box that says ‘allow bleed’. 

This is what I had to do to get the cards to look right on the MPC website and it worked perfectly!

Edited November 4, 2018 by Pheonom

[Pheonom 40]

Wow, no idea what happened to the font there...

[Reedstilt 170]

Just tested it out and it looks like 600 dpi did the trick. I didn't realize Strange Eons went that high. I'd only been using 300dpi. Looks like there's a tiny amount of spillover beyond red outline, but if I understand the system correctly, that should be fine. They don't cut at the red line, right? That's just where they expect the bleed margin to start so having the corners of the actual image poke over the line shouldn't be an issue. Or am I wrong about that?

Looks like I'm going to have to take some time to re-export all my cards and get these printed out.

[Pheonom 40]

Did you check the add bleed option when exporting your file? I found that my stuff fitted perfectly with those settings

[Reedstilt 170]

Yep, doublechecked and checked with one of yours. Got the same tiny (and I do mean "tiny" amount of card just outside the Safe Area. I just re-read their page on the Safe Area and Bleeding Area and it should be fine.

Now I just need to decide what my first print batch should be.

[Cru4n 33]

14 hours ago, Reedstilt said:

Just tested it out and it looks like 600 dpi did the trick. I didn't realize Strange Eons went that high. I'd only been using 300dpi. Looks like there's a tiny amount of spillover beyond red outline, but if I understand the system correctly, that should be fine. They don't cut at the red line, right? That's just where they expect the bleed margin to start so having the corners of the actual image poke over the line shouldn't be an issue. Or am I wrong about that?

Looks like I'm going to have to take some time to re-export all my cards and get these printed out.

They do not cut at the red line. They cut where you expect them to cut, the cards look just fine. Just like originals, you won´ t know the difference.

[Pheonom 40]

Update: So I received my cards this morning and am delighted at how good they turned out! Honestly, they are such a close match to the original FFG cards.

Things to note:

• The 310gsm linen finish is a perfect match for card thickness and texture.
• The card size is almost identical.
• The colour of the borders and card backs are slightly darker, but I personally don't see this as an issue.
• They can easily be shuffled into an existing Adventure Card deck, without being 'obvious' homebrew cards.

Overall I'm extremely happy with my purchase, I spent around £30 (incl. p&p) and received 224 professional grade Talisman cards. Seriously, well done to Make Playing Cards!

Edit: Added pictures (below).

Edited November 4, 2018 by Pheonom

[Reedstilt 170]

Pretty quick turn around too. Very cool.  

The picture links in your last post seem to be broken in the post, but I assume they are the same pics you added to the Dropbox link. The shade difference is noticeable, but not as bad as it is with my test print outs. 

Also, side note, I've poached a card from you for my Hidden Valley deck, so thanks for the idea. Gotta love cross-pollination.

[Pheonom 40]

1 hour ago, Reedstilt said:

The picture links in your last post seem to be broken in the post, but I assume they are the same pics you added to the Dropbox link.

The images show fine for me, how odd! For those that can’t see them, they can be found by using the Dropbox link from my original post.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fws3ns87i6orvr7/AACof2W4QcV1yY3lf3UK0UUca?dl=0

1 hour ago, Reedstilt said:

Also, side note, I've poached a card from you for my Hidden Valley deck, so thanks for the idea. Gotta love cross-pollination.

Which one did you use? I’m intrigued  

[Reedstilt 170]

I tweaked your Bone Plate a bit. The name and wording is slightly different but mechanically its the same and it uses the same Rattleshirt image.

[Nr.5 1]

On 14.4.2018 at 2:18 PM, Pheonom said:

Update: So I received my cards this morning and am delighted at how good they turned out! Honestly, they are such a close match to the original FFG cards.

Things to note:

• The 310gsm linen finish is a perfect match for card thickness and texture.
• The card size is almost identical.
• The colour of the borders and card backs are slightly darker, but I personally don't see this as an issue.
• They can easily be shuffled into an existing Adventure Card deck, without being 'obvious' homebrew cards.

Overall I'm extremely happy with my purchase, I spent around £30 (incl. p&p) and received 224 professional grade Talisman cards. Seriously, well done to Make Playing Cards!

Edit: Added pictures (below).

Hello looks very great,
see the link, is this the right size: http://www.makeplayingcards.com/design/custom-mini-us-game-deck-size-cards.html ??

Which attidute did you use for printing the cards?

Thank you for answering.

 

 

[Pheonom 40]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

Yes the US Mini size is correct, you just need to select 310gsm (linen) to get the same finish as what I used.

Hope this helps!

Edited May 23, 2018 by Pheonom

[Pheonom 40]

So I have an update for those that are interested, I've completed some alternate endings;

The hawk-eyed among you will see that the Battle Royale, Blood Hunt and The Usurper are inspired by other endings already out there. However, I have also created originals that I haven't tested yet, so opinions are very much welcome! ?

Dropbox Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k16xtu2obar7c4x/AADJ5k7c10CyGVv2Z7nZB48Wa?dl=0

    

Edited November 5, 2018 by Pheonom
uploaded new versions of Ancient Hydra and The Usurper