Designing the 'perfect' spell card

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zweihander

zweihander

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I've been working with one of my new designers over the past couple of months to create the 'perfect' spell card for Zweihänder Grim & Perilous RPG. We're getting closer to locking down the look, leaning towards utility and elegance in design. We aimed for the following:
  • It has to be DriveThruCards compatible, period
  • It needs to be in tarot-card format to support a wall of text
  • It needs to have only one image on the backside, and playable rules on the frontside (business in front/party in the back)
Has anyone else designed their own spell cards or utility cards for their game? Inquiring minds want to know!

Mockup_Nightfather_text.jpg
 
zweihander said:
Tell me more about your Tarot card magic system. Perhaps a new thread?
Click to expand...

Maybe when I've got more to say. For right now, its a pretty simple framework (mainly as I use it for Cthulhu games, so each spell is adventure-specific).

A magic user employs some way of gathering magical energy (based on the tradition they follow). This determines how many cards they can draw from a deck. Spells have a cost based on the associated suits (Fireball, as an easy example, might cost Wands 3). The player must either play the appropriate Suit of a number equal or higher , or combine cards, or they must discard the cards drawn and try again the next turn (taking a point of Stress for each card discarded). Magic users having an Arcana rating based on the Trumps, and if they draw a Trump card under their rating, they can use this as a 'Wild Card' towards the spell cost. If they draw a Trump card higher than their rating, they take Stress equal to that card's value. If a character's stress exceeds their Psyche, they suffer a psychotic break, otherwise the paradigm shift causes them to increase to the next Trump rating. Other than that, there's a few wrinkles in regards to ceremonial magic, sacrifices, etc. but its all just notes jotted down in my playbooks that I tend to wing during play.
 
I think that reference cards benefit from brevity: just the mechanics are necessary, unless some extra fluff provides useful descriptors of the effects.

In the above example,
  • I'd remove things like "After successfully casting this spell..." from the SUCCESS section because it's a bit redundant.
  • If I was low on space, I'd remove text like "Fortune favors the bold... except for you guys" or whatever. It's nicely written, but I'd rather just know what the mechanics are for easy, quick reference.
Question: how are each deck differentiated? From the background image only? Would it be possible to write out the name of the "school" or deity on the mechanics side as well? Nothing too big or prominent. Might not be necessary, just brainstorming.
 
TristramEvans said:
Maybe when I've got more to say. For right now, its a pretty simple framework (mainly as I use it for Cthulhu games, so each spell is adventure-specific)...
Click to expand...

This is good stuff. There's so much you could do with tarot cards for the magic system. I'm thinking about all kinds of quirks (what DCC might call mercurial effects) that can be associated with the major arcana. There's so much opportunity for great flavor.
 
Necrozius said:
I think that reference cards benefit from brevity: just the mechanics are necessary, unless some extra fluff provides useful descriptors of the effects.
Click to expand...

I mostly agree, but a single line of italicized flavor text could go a long way.
 
Edgewise said:
I mostly agree, but a single line of italicized flavor text could go a long way.
Click to expand...

For sure. The best cards that I know of all have a single line of of flavor text (always in the same spot, so users can easily skip or ignore them later). However mixing in extra flavor with the lines describing the mechanics can be a bit unnecessary.
 
Necrozius said:
I think that reference cards benefit from brevity: just the mechanics are necessary, unless some extra fluff provides useful descriptors of the effects.

In the above example,
  • I'd remove things like "After successfully casting this spell..." from the SUCCESS section because it's a bit redundant.
  • If I was low on space, I'd remove text like "Fortune favors the bold... except for you guys" or whatever. It's nicely written, but I'd rather just know what the mechanics are for easy, quick reference.
Question: how are each deck differentiated? From the background image only? Would it be possible to write out the name of the "school" or deity on the mechanics side as well? Nothing too big or prominent. Might not be necessary, just brainstorming.
Click to expand...
Good feedback!

So if you know anything about Zweihander, it's that Magick is divided into two traditional approaches: arcane and divine. Within each approach, there are nine different lores or prayer sets. Each of those sets are then subdivided between three principles. those three principles make up a total of nine spells. Whew!

Beyond the long explanation, that means there are nine unique images for arcane, and nine unique images for divine. This is a total of 18 total unique images for all spells, of which 9 spells always share the same unique image (because they belong to the same lore or prayers).

Here's a great example: https://grimandperilous.com/coming-soon-to-zweihander-magick-cards/
 
I just noticed the arrival of the arcane cards...very nice!

Zwei, not sure if this is intentional, but it looks like your full-size preview is the entire 114 page document. That's for both card sets.
 
Gorgeous! Way out of my price range, but wonderful.
 
These look Awsome! Great job!

I have some too in the Magic Description Cards. But I don't want to distract from your beautiful cards. Wow.

I think you should go to kickstarter with these. Please let me know if you need help.
 
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