I was just mulling over some Lucky 13 entries today (no, I have not forgotten about it!) and then my attention switched to the Mephisto characters and how I had prepped some files to make overlays that would be cut out and stuck over the top of the "real" character cards.

I then thought it might be an idea to have a play and see what might work instead, and look a little more appealing.

I tried a Runebound-sized (Standard American Card) template and moved the assets from the new Token files (with a bit of jiggery pokery) and you can see what I came up with.

The "card back" will just be an image of the character you are overlaying, and there is no real need to translate the attributes as those should be obvious enough. I stuck with adding Special Abilities and the Start/Alignment text as that is what the card will be obscuring.

I will make these up at some point in the future, be it near or otherwise!

They look great, however I think I would keep the original German names of these Character cards.

Nice, but for the sake of the fan community, consider switching to "poker" (2.5x3.5) instead of "bridge" (2.25x3.5 ... RB). There are more opportunities for people get POD printed cards of the former than the latter.

On the other hand, if the Talisman plugin has the character card template, I'm wondering if people would do the overlay card or simply re-write the full character card. Is there an additional option here that I'm missing?

You are right in that switching to the standard size would be the ideal, but I just went with what I had handy at the time!

It would be possible just to reprint the cards whole, but I figured a simple translation slipped into the sleeve alongside the original card would look more pleasing, at least to me. There is also the fact that it uses half as much ink to print a set of these, or less as you don't really have to bother with the back.

...and yes, these cards might have another use for possible "Master level" upgrades. I never did like that just because you got a new job, you changed appearance completely!

talismanisland said:

Good points for the desirability and versatility among the fan community! Me and mine would never use "master" or "second level" characters. We considered them the bottom of want in 2E, even below Timescape, but admittedly we are exceptions in that.

I've been playing with a generic back instead of using the character art. Though, I may still go with that personally and use the new generic back as a kind of "title" card.

I am pondering adjusting the template (very slightly) to allow printing onto special round-cornered business cards from Moo.com

I've done a couple of tests (online) and they should work out. If I go for the generic "Mephisto" card back I can bring the cost down to £13.49 for 4 sets (50 cards = 4 x 12 + 2 over).

They are only a couple of mms shorter than what I started out with and essentially the same width, so should even fit into Standard American card sleeves.

They are 84 x 55 when finished, so it's really only a matter of making the graphic a bit more "dumpy". You can see below what needs doing really.

Of course, there are possibly other options to find, but for now this one is looking quite nice…

Okay, here's yet another thing to ponder…

Should the Ability Overlay cards be aligned to the left (as Character cards are) or centrally (as Adventure cards are)?

Thoughts? Preferences?

"Left" version looks less messy.

I vote on the "right" one!

Ell.

The right one looks much better!

Centered, definitely. Much as it is intended to be an overlay, it is still a card unto itself.

Q: Is there any way (by standard SE coding and not user tweaking) to improve the spacing on the Title letters?

Okie dokie. I think the general concensus of a centre alignment is probably the best, and JC is right in that it is a separate card and not really designed as a seamless overlay.

As to title spacing in SE. I believe there is the ability in SE to "auto kern", however it has to be built in to the font itself, and I think I remember (dusty memory banks!) that Windlass does not have this…

OR

You could really "kick it old school" and justify the text like in the older editions of the game…

…just a thought!

Now that does look rather awful!

Ell.

talismanisland said:

You're right. I forgot about that. As to fully justified, which I like for full articles, but… it just doesn't work for these cards.

Um, and, someone catch me up on another point; what is the physical dimensioning of these cards?

ADDENDUM: Nevermind, I noticed the link to Moo.com. Not crazy about the size in comparison to a character card's dimension, but I think it's functional and nice just the same.

Since these are not "played" cards, have you thought about just standard playing card size (2½" × 3½"; 63mm × 88mm; B8)? That might be more broadly functional for people who want to create other character overlays and then get them professionally printed. I realize this steps outside the standard sleeve size for Talisman, but it is a better option for printing worldwide. One can even get such done most all business supply and print shops in the USA (don't know about elsewhere).

Yeah, I wasn't fully struck on it myself, though I do remember a certain someone asking that the format be kept when FFG decided to "standardise" the card design…

JC, as far as size goes, these are standard Runebound-sized and I have not made the jump to business card dimensions yet, and don't actually think I will be doing.

I am not sure whether people will actually use these, or whether it will just be for my own benefit, so will keep the size for now. It fits rather well with Talisman character cards too plus being "Standard American" (FFG Green sleeves) it keeps it all in the family, so to speak.

Gotcha Jon. RB size is good, too, and would still work well enough on playing size cards… or MtG sized sleeves. There'd just be a bit of extra white to the left and right margins.

As to whether people would use the template or not, well, that depends. I suppose if they wanted to modify other commercial character cards without the fuss of redoing a whole card, this template would be the easy way to do it. We all know there are some standard characters that have notable factions among players who'd like to tweak them in a way that's been discussed multiple times hereabouts.