Instead of putting them in the rule book, I have my monsters (and players) described on tarot-sized cards (120x70mm). This provides easy reference during play, plus it's very clean to extend the set of monsters (or players) in expansion packs -- the deck just gets bigger.
I know I've said nice things about GIMP, but I actually bought Photoshop this week and it's indispensable for final layouts before things go to the printer.. (among other things, GIMP only works in RGB, not CMYK). Plus I can trade files easily back and forth with the artist.
So I got the card template from my artist, and did some layouts.. A couple are on my KS Update page at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/727578181/heroes-and-treasure-rpg-b.... I'll attach one more, which I had to shrink a little bit to keep it under the 1MB file limit here. It's the final boss, who is.. big.
Anyway, I did the layout myself, and I made the shaded dice, but of course the illustration was done by Xin Ye.
There's something to be said for a semi-flexible card format. The HP and attack dice are standard across all the cards, but for the abilities I didn't get caught up trying to shoehorn everything into the same mold. People can read.
Comments
So why are the borders around
So why are the borders around the characters? Why go outside of it, while others are not centered?
I like the layout of your cards, just curious about the actual character layout.
Jessi
Well they’re all centered
Well they’re all centered left to right. There’s a sort of presumption that there’s a floor, so the monsters are close to the bottom. This particular one is the only one who breaks out of the border, because he’s really big. (Nearly double the character size)
Well I think you can "shrink" a bit more
I think if you get his "Head" below the title of the Monster Card, that should make it look a little better (I think)... I get it: it gives more of a 3D feel by going over some of the "lines".
It's true it does give more of a 3D feel... But I think the space is a bit "crowded"... Like if his head reached the TOP of his "box" (like BELOW the "Living Statue" Section, it would look better.
He looks a bit "cramped" IMHO. But overall looking good...
I like it. I like how he
I like it. I like how he bursts out of his frame. Good and readable stuff overall.
What I would do is to italicize the first paragraph so the real mechanics are easy to pluck out of the card. (Or is the first paragraph not just fluff?)
I feel kind of dumb for not
I feel kind of dumb for not making that italics.
I'll see what it looks like.
As for the large guy, as I said, this is the only one who bursts out, and I'm okay with having him take up the whole card pretty much. If he was slightly shorter, I would also be fine with that but don't really want to update it :)
Okay, I italicized the text
Okay, I italicized the text and uploaded a new (Troll) card. Better? I don't really want to change the font size, which I'd considered (making the flavor text slightly smaller, and still italicized)
You could also ADD spaces to FULL JUSTIFY
Might make the sheet more presentable if you use "Full Justification". Don't worry, I know Photoshop doesn't have this. The good news is that you can SIMULATE this. How? It's pretty simple: all you do is ADD space more or less evenly in each LINE so that the end of lines all "line-up".
It might make the text look more presentable...
Breaking the mold
I like the Big Bad being too big for the frame. You might even consider putting his head a couple pixels into the bleed area.
I'm a little leery of the spells identified by icon only. It works in CCGs because there are only a handful of symbols used inline with the text. If you only have half a dozen spells, they can coexist with your dice and status markers.
And if I want to get really picky, is a character a "spellcaster" if they are a certain profession (you can tell my looking/smelling) or only if they actually cast a spell in the encounter?
questccg wrote:Might make the
It might make the text look more presentable...
I'll think about that, although I would never try to do it by adding spaces.. that would still give a weird, ragged edge. Photoshop does have full justification, but only if you draw a text box to hold the text, rather than just typing it.
FrankM wrote:I like the Big
I'm a little leery of the spells identified by icon only. It works in CCGs because there are only a handful of symbols used inline with the text. If you only have half a dozen spells, they can coexist with your dice and status markers.
And if I want to get really picky, is a character a "spellcaster" if they are a certain profession (you can tell my looking/smelling) or only if they actually cast a spell in the encounter?
Sorry, was away for a bit and catching up sporadically :)
I don't want the guy's head cut off!
As for the spell symbols, there are literally only 3 cleric spells and 3 wizard spells, so I think the symbols are okay. Note that the key to the symbols is on the same card!
As for spellcasters, that's what the Quest Master is for :)