My work-in-progress: Armor Cards

By bradknowles, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Posted at

Based on the old thread from “ The Dearth ”, I’ve started working on creating my own armor cards, starting with FFG line art.

I know that Kainrath has done a lot of work in this space, but I figured I’d try my hand at it, and maybe be able to fill in some gaps.

My current WIP is at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79813707/SW-EotE/Cards/Armor%20Cards%20WIP%202.pdf

Any and all feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

Posted at

Those look pretty good. Where do you get those pictures though grumble grumble

I've been using the Magic Set Editor, which works okay, and I don't need photoshop or other programs, but it doesn't share the design as this game and all the stats are just text. Adding the special rules for the armors is a pain as well, as the text shrinks as you add more.

Posted at

Those look pretty good. Where do you get those pictures though grumble grumble

I scanned them myself. It was a pain-in-the-4$$, I tell you.

For the CRBs, I ended up scanning something like about fifteen separate pages. For most of the other books, it was something more like five to six pages. And yes, I did that for every non-beta book that FFG has published so far for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, in the EotE, AoR, and FaD lines. Moof!

After scanning the respective pages, I had to open them in a bitmap editor, straighten them (some of my scans were really skewed), then cut out each lineart item from the background and save that out onto a transparent PNG file.

I’m being really careful to grab just the lineart, and not even the text with the lineart, although I do reflect that in the filename.

All my current post-processing versions of the lineart can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rhw9kk5gwb194lp/AADARc6yU9Vxvz1sdrmky_zFa?dl=0

Note that Kainrath also has a lot of these lineart images in his cards, and a lot of them can also be found on Wookieepedia. But I wanted to scan in my own copies, at the highest resolution that I felt would be useful, which was 300dpi.

I've been using the Magic Set Editor, which works okay, and I don't need photoshop or other programs, but it doesn't share the design as this game and all the stats are just text. Adding the special rules for the armors is a pain as well, as the text shrinks as you add more.

I would not be opposed to adapting these cards to working with a system something like that, where I provide the graphic background and then people only have to provide the appropriate text and maybe a picture to go along with that.

But it would have to be something that wasn’t too much of a pain to set up, otherwise I just won’t bother. And it needs to be able to put out high-quality cards.

Suggestions are welcome in this space.

EDIT: Fix link to the folder for "FFG Line Art Scans"

Edited by bradknowles
Posted at

Are you talking about making something like the various form-fillable character sheets several people have made?

Also, looks like you're missing some information for the Kav-Dann. It also ups Brawn like the Battlement.

All my current post-processing versions of the lineart can be found at https://www.dropbox.... Line Art Scans

Link doesn't work.

Edited by Blackbird888
Posted at

Are you talking about making something like the various form-fillable character sheets several people have made?

I’ve heard reference to tools that can be used to easily create a large number of cards of this type, but I don’t know anything more about them than that. I would assume that you would feed them information on the background to use, the fields to be filled in, and then leave the actual data entry to the user.

But I don’t have any actual experience with such tools, so I can’t say anything more than that.

Also, looks like you're missing some information for the Kav-Dann. It also ups Brawn like the Battlement.

Blargh. Okay, I’ll fix that.

All my current post-processing versions of the lineart can be found at https://www.dropbox.... Line Art Scans

Link doesn't work.

Sorry, that link probably only works if you’re already logged into DropBox or something. Now fixed in the original post.

Thanks for the feedback! I greatly appreciate it!

Edited by bradknowles
Posted at

I now have eighteen items at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/79813707/SW-EotE/Cards/Armor%20Cards%20WIP%204.pdf

I think I’m going to have to start a new page. ;)

Meanwhile, I downloaded “ Strange Eons ” and gave that a try. Suffice it to say that I definitely find it to be “strange” and I feel like it would take me “eons” to learn how to use it.

If there’s anything else in this space that would be better, please let me know.

Posted at

Meanwhile, I downloaded “ Strange Eons ” and gave that a try. Suffice it to say that I definitely find it to be “strange” and I feel like it would take me “eons” to learn how to use it.

If there’s anything else in this space that would be better, please let me know.

Yep I took a look at the developer tools a while back. It needs someone smarter then me. BUT, if someone completed an addon for Star Wars, it would be a god send for us. I created pages upon pages of cards for FFG's Warhammer (same system as Star Wars) that looked great with little effort. We just need someone with the time and smarts to develop a Star Wars addon. I've been asking for that from time to time for years at various places and so far no takers.

Posted at

Okay, so I have completed my initial work on the FFG Lineart Armor Cards, see https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6me62samgzsg1av/AADUlVrOFteDkFo1idaUcgOla?dl=0

I moved the WIPs for this effort to another folder, see https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y3em023teka1jj7/AAB2EOjmEBoIWskCOJL2Dr5ia?dl=0

Next, I think I’m going to start working on the lineart cards for weapons, or maybe other gear. Dunno. Haven’t decided yet.

Note that Kainrath still has one lineart armor card that I don’t have, which seems to be a result of him using lineart for the Mk. IV Riot Armor that was not produced by FFG. Or, if it was produced by FFG, I can’t find the book that it is from.

But I do now have three full pages of eight cards per page, so I definitely beat him on numbers of cards. ;)

Posted at

Note that Kainrath still has one lineart armor card that I don’t have, which seems to be a result of him using lineart for the Mk. IV Riot Armor that was not produced by FFG. Or, if it was produced by FFG, I can’t find the book that it is from.

He used a modified version of this piece.

Posted at

He used a modified version of this piece.

Okay, so where did that artwork come from? Any ideas?

I might decide to use it, or I might not. I haven’t figured that out yet. But knowing where the artwork came from might help me make that decision.

Thanks!

Posted at

Source says Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology.

Posted at

Images from the Arms & Equipment Guide has some images of things in the books but have no lineare too as well.

Posted at

So, I’ve taken a closer look at these pages, and some of them have lineart that I would be fine using. But a lot of them are done in a “schematic” mode that I think actually obscures a lot of what I would want from the artwork.

I don’t think I’ll be using any of the schematic-type images. I’ll see which ones I feel like I can use.

Thanks again!

Posted at

Images from the Arms & Equipment Guide has some images of things in the books but have no lineare too as well.

Yeah, that’s pretty good. I’ll definitely be using a lot of that stuff.

Awesome! I can’t wait!

Posted at

Folks,

Okay, I have now created custom backs for each of the cards, and set up the pages so that if you print them two-sided, with the binding edge set to be “short”, the card fronts and backs should all line up.

On the backs, all you get is the image of the armor plus the name in Aurebesh. The other side has the stats and the description, all in English/Basic. ;)

See https://www.dropbox.com/s/ie5jq651n1bbeju/FFG%20Lineart%20Armor%20Cards%20front%20and%20back%20combined.pdf?dl=0 for the current version of the cards.



EDIT: I’ll keep trying to figure out how I can post a preview image here, but for now the link above is all I can give you. ;(

EDIT 2: Fixed URL for the latest version of the cards. I hope.

Edited by bradknowles
Posted at

Now, on to weapons!

Posted at

The older versions work (mostly) but the new link is straight up 404 error. Doh!

Posted at

The older versions work (mostly) but the new link is straight up 404 error. Doh!

Blargh.

Okay, I updated that post with what I hope to be the correct link. Thanks!

Posted at

The older versions work (mostly) but the new link is straight up 404 error. Doh!

Blargh.

Okay, I updated that post with what I hope to be the correct link. Thanks!

Still error 404 :(

Posted at

Good news - the link works this time!

I think the only change I might make - from a strictly graphics design standpoint - is center the price of each armor. The $ is kind of close to the right side border. A hint more whitespace would be solid.

Otherwise, well done! 10/10 would use again/

Posted at

Good news - the link works this time!

Yay!

I think the only change I might make - from a strictly graphics design standpoint - is center the price of each armor. The $ is kind of close to the right side border. A hint more whitespace would be solid.

The credit symbol is a different font from the numbers, and part of the background image for the card. I could never get it to line up or space properly when I tried to make it part of the foreground text, and so I decided to make it part of the background and then right-align the text next to it so that it should look mostly kinda semi sorta okay.

I should probably go back and revisit that design, to see if there is any better solution I can come up with.

Posted at

Have the Weapons Cards been worked on? I found interesting Line Art Weapons

Blasterrifles_negwt.jpg