Okay, last week being a non-week wasn't helpful for anything haha. But it was my birthday and I deserved having a bit of time to myself. So I did it! That said, it meant work from last week got shoved to this week. This week has been all about shipping charges and shipping spreadsheets.

The good news is that tomorrow I'll be shipping out Tales From the Alley; next week, I'll be shipping out the Pride Pins. And as of next week as well, shipping for the Oracle Dice Campaigns (both) will be starting with the fulfillment folks, and as of this week, shipping is beginning for all 3 Tarot campaigns (Misery Tarot, Hot Housewives Tarot + booster pack project)!

That is 7 campaigns sliding off my plate.

Now, I'm not dumb-- there will be issues with the dice and tarot campaigns as they ship out and the shipping itself will take time-- we're unlikely to see items in people's hands entirely until end of August. But!! My hand in most of these things will be fairly minimal, aside from sending spreadsheets back and forth between Backerkit and my fulfillment folks.

So as we head into August from here, I will only have two past campaigns hanging out with me: Confluence and HISTORIC. I've done a really good job focusing my new projects ahead of time so the Goblin's Tarot and my book in October shouldn't affect day to day stuff much (and be ready to manufacture as soon as they fund), which means I should be able to put in more work a week on HISTORIC (and Confluence.)

So last time, I put in work on getting their cards together. But I didn't finish their deck by any means. Today I've been trying to do that. Something I am really cognizant of since ZOETROPE is legibility. The text on those cards was so small that anyone without perfect eyesight struggled to read it in clear lighting, or in dim lighting (like we had in some con rooms where I ran the game for strangers) they couldn't read the card text beyond the title at all.

I printed a card out (in black and white) on printer paper. I'm realizing that 7 pt font is the smallest I want game rules text in this clear dark font on an almost-white background, with most text at 7.5 pt, with the flavor text italics able to go as small as 6pt. That was in well-lit and dim-room settings, but we both (my roommate and I) have pretty good vision (or he had on his glasses at least). This makes me wonder if I need to punch it up more, or accept that folks with worse vision will need their reading glasses to read the cards.

But as I do these cards, I wonder where exactly I'm going to fit stickers. If you recall, a piece of the game is that as you play it more, stickers get added to cards over time from different events-- mostly from dying or finishing your game sessions. Right now, the stickers are a bit up in the air. Things like +1 Physical Damage that you could tag onto a weapon or attack action to make those do more damage. Or "+Gain 1 Armor" on the Trophy Collector's cards, as stickers will be grouped based on whose cards they can be added to, with some situations letting you add stickers from whichever grouping to any kind of card to make weird or super strong things.

On Relics, I have plans for what their stickers specifically will do, and so the Relics have spaces on their cards for stickers to go specifically. Will I need to keep text short and to the point on all cards to 1) make the text larger, and 2) to make intentional spaces for stickers?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to finish the decks for these two classes already! So I'm focused on that tonight until I'm done with work. Specifically, I have wrapped Preparations, Search the Bags, Take a Trophy, Dominating Bulwark cards for the Trophy Collector for testing. Now, I'm heading into writing in the general use effects of Spread Wings, Chain Entrapment, Shoulder the Burden, Arm the Hopeless, Lumbering Behemoth, and Unshaking Foundation cards, which all have partial writeups for what they can do in combat. Then I need to take a look at the three trinkets, two relics, and three tools found in their deck to write the proper rules, rather than the temporary text I put on them. 

I can get a decent chunk of that done yet before I hang up my hat for today, if not all of it. Then next week, it's back to the Maker of Hands to finalize text on those cards and update the text I've previously written for those cards. And since I'm supposed to do the Caged Wraith this month as well, I think I'll just sit in and get all three of those classes ready for testing. Testing just two classes will feel weird, since the game really is more meant for 3-4 players plus the GM.

I was a little nervous about how I would do prototypes without paying much, but seeing my printer pop out a beautiful copy of a card to check font size in black and white, I think I will stick to the good ol printing on printer paper, cutting the cards out, and putting then in sleeves with cards behind them. 

Okay, see you next week where, you hold me to this, I will have the full Trophy Collector deck completed and the Maker of Hands deck nearly there (or done!!) for testing.

Next week,
7

Hello folks, no real work this week, as tomorrow is my birthday! (Yay)
And I've been caught up with figuring out the shipping cost stuff for the three tarot and two oracle dice projects, but that's wrapping itself up this week as well, so next week as normal.

Thanks yall,
7

Hello folks,

Okay, I had to really fight to break the seal. I barely did anything last week, and yesterday I kept being like, we gotta focus on HISTORIC. But then I kept finding things to do instead. I stayed busy, so it was still well-used time, but it was not focusing on HISTORIC. Finally by the end of the day yesterday, I was in the work on the deck for Trophy Collector. And getting into it, and really bringing things over to the cards-- that changed a lot of my brain chemistry.

So I would say, I finally broke the seal yesterday and I am honestly doing work again. So what have I done since then and over today? Let's take a look!

So I started by checking everything I had written for the Trophy Collector already. For context, other class decks only have Actions, the class's unique Tool (singular), and their Ultimate card. They also have a path card that lets you pick between two versions of the character. For the Maker of Hands, for example, it's either The Hand, or The Eye.

When you choose a path, you remove cards from your deck that are Tagged with the OTHER path's name, and you have certain General Action cards based on the path.

But the Trophy Collector? No, she doesn't do that stuff. She has two Paths still, but she can swap between them during play. That means that all of the cards in her deck stay in her deck, making her deck the biggest of anyone's. The cards just have two different modes depending on which Path you are currently on.

If you're The Trophy, you think of yourself alone. But this self-centered focus on your own power can still benefit your allies, such as in the Stand Strong card below. The card can be used Narratively (the book symbol) by either path to intimidate an NPC, or to make clear that you won't budge or be removed from a space.

Then, Mechanically/Combat-wise, the paths can use this Action to support their allies with their bulk. The Trophy gets likely a more powerful effect for the team by drawing aggro from all enemies to attack you alone this combat round. But the team-focused Banner half of your paths can also use this card to throw 1 Armor on all your allies, reducing damage they take.

Chain Entrapment lets you lower an enemy's die for their defense for Trophy, or lets you straight up Disable an enemy for their next actin of you're playing Banner. One of these abilities is more powerful without question. Stopping any foe (even a boss) from doing their next action could be the difference between an ally dying and living.

In this way, the deck is full of cards that benefit both paths, but offer stronger effects to certain paths. So there is a use in changing your paths at campfires.

Now look at the symbol in the top left of this card in the Trophy Collector's deck. That's not a bloody hand, signifying Action. That's the Trinket icon. Unlike any other class, the Trophy Collector's deck includes Trinkets, Tools, and even Relics-- which are artifacts that you can find during delves, but that classes don't start the game with.

These represent trophies that the collector has already taken and claimed that are lost in their bulk, in their bag, or in their chain wrap, their weapon. These are unique items that do specific things based on your path or when/how you try to use them. This Half-Drank Physik can be used during rest to heal an ally normally. As The Trophy you can heal yourself 1 physical wound in combat, or as The Banner you can use this to spray it over your allies to reduce their next damage by 1. If no one takes any damage, it doesn't do anything. But if at least one ally is hit, it's as good as its other two uses. If at least two allies take a hit, then this mode becomes strictly the strongest one, because it prevents 2 or more damage.

Note that I am no longer being precious about laying everything out perfectly, I want to make sure the cards are clear and work, and then as I finalize the game I will clarify language to all look the same/use symbols where they belong.

Now, the other classes have special dials on their deck boxes that track a unique stat for them.
Maker of Hands has a Hand counter. He makes them and spends them, usually one at a time, to make his powers work.
The Organ Eater has Ferment, which builds up and you spend it all at once when you generate a potion/salve or when you use your own ferment to power yourself. So it grows and spends all at once, then has to grow again.
The Caged Wraith has a binary, being Within or Without. Their soul being in their body, or outside of it.

The Trophy Collector has a Trophy stat, that relates to their most common card in their deck, Chained Burden.

As you find Tools or Relics in your travels, or when you find them in your own deck for example, you can take time to attach these items to your Chain Wrap, which is your main Class Tool that starts in play. Trophy is a slowly building stat on your class's dial that only goes down if you lose an attached Tool or Relic. This makes you the slowest growing class in the game, a slow bulwark of armor. But in the late game, especially in a long game where you do multiple delves in a row, your Trophy count can really grow.

So what do you do with that high Trophy count? Well, you gain it by attaching tools to your Chain Wrap, so feasibly, that card should give us a good idea... right?

Oh yes, every Trophy you get after the first increases the damage you deal with your Chain Wrap. And it has no cap. If your team wants to, they can hand every single Tool, Relic, etc to you and let you become the highest damage dealer in the game, bigger and bigger as the game goes on.

Now, the Chain Wrap is the only Tool you are allowed to Attack! with-- that means the Attack! action card. So when you play that card, you can only use the Chain Wrap. You don't get to use your cool collection of other Tools. But so long as you attach them to your Chain Wrap, claiming your Trophies with the earlier Chained Burden action card-- you can alternatively use Chained Burden to swing those attached Tools as a combi-weapon.

To avoid the Collector needing to eat up everyone's treasure, stopping folks from getting new Tools or Relics of their own, our Collector has 3 Tools and 2 Relics they can draw from their own deck. But your team can choose to hand their loot over to empower their slowly growing behemoth if they want.

Today I have been trying to finalize the cards in this deck-- specifically just what all they do, writing it onto the cards so I can do a little home print and run this deck alongside the Maker of Hands for a few scenarios to see how they feel different. I want the Collector to be a behemoth, slow moving, slow growing, but the further the game gets, when others are running out of resources and slowing down, the Collector is only growing more powerful. I'm not yet done, but there's most of the work day left for me. 

Ironically, I am finishing this deck first, meaning the Maker of Hands has some work to be done on his deck next week before I can print these out. But so it goes. 

Alright-- let me know your thoughts and if you'd want to be the slow growing tank class! I'm trying to make sure each plays clearly into a fun fantasy that feels rewarding and has you take intentional actions to make them happen.

Talk next Thursday!
7DA
your pub gob