LoG&S Icon Deck

[Panjumanju]

I've been looking forward to the Icon Deck for the "Lords of Gossamer & Shadow" RPG since the game came out. The Deck is something I always thought was a no-brainer for Amber Diceless, but never happened. (Except in French there were some, people tell me, but also that they were not entirely adequate.)
 
Well, now we have an Icon Deck for Lords of Gossamer & Shadow, and upon seeing it I'm feeling a bit deflated. The idea is stellar. The art is amazing. Execution...I have issues.

To preface – it is a fine creative work and I suggest anyone who has bought "Lords of Gossamer & Shadow" should get their hands on the Icon Deck, fail none. However, I don't like the cards nearly as much as I wanted to.

When I saw the previews of the Icon Deck I thought they were just showing us the great art that would be the focus of the card...not the entire side of the card. The only thing they added between preview and card was the artist's name.

Art is important, artists deserve credit, but when the artist's name is the only text on the card it soundly wrecks any verisimilitude the Icon Deck was trying to evoke. This is perhaps the thing I'm most disappointed with – they so clearly look like Cards For A Game and not magical mystical telekinesis-teleportation items of mysterious power.

After the huge, huge borders on every page of the LoG&S rulebook, I'm surprised these Icon cards don't have borders, and I think they suffer for their lack. I'm also surprised they are in the dimensions of playing cards, not tarot cards. I'm not sure if that would have made printing more difficult, but I think they would have looked classier with a little extra room to frame the art. A little context, maybe – even if it just said "Lords of Gossamer & Shadow", it would have looked nicer. As it stands they look about as sophisticated as a 1990 superheroes trading card deck.

Is there something I'm not getting? Is there a design sensibility at work that I am just missing?

Further, how the heck am I supposed to print these darn things? Even if I could get access to cardstock and a colour printer, they're going to look lousy as I hack at them with my guillotine paper cutter.

All this aside, the art on them quite nice, and there is a good range of characters on the cards – men, women...things....of various genres and periods that all somehow seem unified as part of the same LoG&S universe. (Although, there are a few too many cowboys for my liking.) This is a tremendous achievement, and not a small thing – that was the hard part. I feel like the parts that don't fly with the Icon Deck were the easy parts.

Should the Icon Deck become available to buy physically, (print on demand cards?) I will still consider buying them. I think they're a great idea, I just wish the in-betweens of it, the presentation of the art as cards, could have been executed with more panache.

How did other people feel about them?

//Panjumanju

[Gavken]

My understanding is that they are going to be available to purchase from a print on demand source within the US. In the Kickstarter you could purchase this as an extra to buy the deck at cost (not retail price).

All the art looks great and if I ever run LoGaS as opposed to the current Amber campaign I am running I will use this.

Although having tarot cards would be really nice, they would be a lot more expensive as the unusual card size would mean specialist printing. As such I do not mind the cards being standard size and in fact in some ways it is better as they will be pocketable.

As to the border, I agree it would have looked better with a border, but with the smaller card size may have made the images too small. I will have to see what they are like in practice.

My main question is as to whether there going to be descriptions of all the characters somewhere - hopefully Rite Publishing can answer that one.

[noman]

How did other people feel about them?

Loved it!

Gush, gush, gush, gush, and more gush.

Ahem.

That being said, a few points.

Panjumanju, I'm not terribly bothered the text on the art.  However, I totally agree with you that this could be a problem for some people.  The artist's name, being displayed so prominently in the lower-middle section of the art, might handicap immersion for some people.  Though I don't have this problem.  Still, I was surprised they did it that way.  It would have been better if they had used a smaller font, and put the text in a lower corner.

Although having tarot cards would be really nice, they would be a lot more expensive as the unusual card size would mean specialist printing. As such I do not mind the cards being standard size and in fact in some ways it is better as they will be pocketable

.

This.  Also, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, after everything that Steve has said publicly since launching his Diceless line, I'm guessing this was the best, most economical way for Rite Publishing to get this out.  It's been made clear that the standard artwork for Diceless is going to be good quality, color prints.  That's money, and to date they haven't charged more than $5.00 US for any of their supplements.  I'm guessing having the artists name on the cards reduces the costs for the art.  Don't know, just speculation.

Anyway, my overall reaction to the text is a resounding "meh".  I'm just giddy to have a fucking trump deck for a diceless game.

Not bothered by the lack of borders.  I'm glad they didn't add any.  Less border = more art.

The PDF is meant to be printed out.  A good color printer, some good stationary and glue, and a little craftiness and you've got yourself an icon deck.  YAY!

I'll probably buy a physical deck, when if and when it comes out.  I plan on giving copies of one of the cards to all my coworkers and friends and saying, "if you need to contact me, just stare at this picture."

My main question is as to whether there going to be descriptions of all the characters somewhere - hopefully Rite Publishing can answer that one.

Gavken, I think that this art is mean to correspond with the upcoming Iconic Characters supplement.  I think.  I do know that they're planning a second icon deck for the NPCs in the book, so that will be cool.

[Panjumanju]

I'll probably buy a physical deck, when if and when it comes out.  I plan on giving copies of one of the cards to all my coworkers and friends and saying, "if you need to contact me, just stare at this picture."

While I think that's a great idea - wouldn't that involve buying several decks and then just taking your one card out of them? Or better still, maybe you could work out a mailing deal with other backers to swap cards.

I'm kicking myself now that I couldn't scrounge up a few more dollars to be included in the deck. It's a tremendously cool idea.

So, which one are you?

//Panjumanju

[noman]

While I think that's a great idea - wouldn't that involve buying several decks and then just taking your one card out of them?
//Panjumanju

I may buy another eleven decks so my set would be namned and numbered

So, which one are you?

The Dimmerlaik with the severed head.

What about you Pan?  Is there a picture you would base a character on?

[Panjumanju]

Is there a picture you would base a character on?

In assembling this list I realise I have many favourites in the deck, furthering my intentions to purchase it when it comes to print.

Right now the ones I would make characters for, in rough ascending order, are:
* The woman seated on steps with her dragon.
* The lean stained-glass wizard in profile, standing on a precipice.
* The Walrus-man in battle regalia.
* The black man holding a card of himself as king.
* The girl in the white dress holding a crooked staff, standing in front of what looks like an Arizona lake.
* The fellow in green leaning against a wall drawing patterns in the air.
* The pale Victorian woman in black and white with blue flame rising from her hand.

Does anyone else have any favourites they want to share?

//Panjumanju

[Gavken]

I spoke to Steve on the Kickstarter and he has told me that the first deck is from descriptions given by people from the KS. This means there are no stats attached to them. The second deck however is meant to be for the iconic characters from the books and will have full descriptions with them.

I would like to see what the cost of these decks comes up as, since if I'm playing over the table it would be great to have several copies. If the 'at cost' printing is low enough then I'd be tempted to get several sets.

[jibbajibba]

My understanding is that they are going to be available to purchase from a print on demand source within the US. In the Kickstarter you could purchase this as an extra to buy the deck at cost (not retail price).

All the art looks great and if I ever run LoGaS as opposed to the current Amber campaign I am running I will use this.

Although having tarot cards would be really nice, they would be a lot more expensive as the unusual card size would mean specialist printing. As such I do not mind the cards being standard size and in fact in some ways it is better as they will be pocketable.

As to the border, I agree it would have looked better with a border, but with the smaller card size may have made the images too small. I will have to see what they are like in practice.

My main question is as to whether there going to be descriptions of all the characters somewhere - hopefully Rite Publishing can answer that one.

I looked at print for cards and found this place - http://www.makeplayingcards.com/

You can basically construct your own decks from custom artwork and you can get oversized cards and add borders.

If Rite games were willing to give folks permission to print custom decks with a company like this you could get a set of oversized cards or tarot sized for about $16.

[Gavken]

Wow that looks really good for US residents. Alas I'm based in the UK so shipping would really be a bitch.

Secondly I would want to wait until the second batch of cards is out as well as I'd want all the core characters from LoGaS in the deck as cards (Drake, Vala etc...).

As to which one I'd make a character of .... the Walrus in the Armour wins my vote.

[jibbajibba]

Wow that looks really good for US residents. Alas I'm based in the UK so shipping would really be a bitch.

Secondly I would want to wait until the second batch of cards is out as well as I'd want all the core characters from LoGaS in the deck as cards (Drake, Vala etc...).

As to which one I'd make a character of .... the Walrus in the Armour wins my vote.

I am in singapore but their postage rates are pretty good.

I am not familiar with LoGS but your deck can be upto 130 cards and you could add any of your own stuff to anything you build though obviously you would want it to match up with the Rite publishing stuff.
Maybe approach the artist they used with a commisison to do a couple of your PCs and add them into the deck.

[RPGPundit]

Are there pictures online we can see, to get an idea of what you're talking about here?

[Gavken]

The PDF of the deck was made available to Kickstarter backers recently. There are five of the arts available on the Rite Publishing icon deck page at:-

http://www.ritepublishing.com/dicelessroleplaying/icondeck.html

[tammytahreem]

chcek this out jogos de moto

[Jason D]

* The lean stained-glass wizard in profile, standing on a precipice.

That's me!

[Panjumanju]

That's me!

It's a great one! I can't believe how evocative some of the Icon Deck pictures are.

//Panjumanju