Blackwind Project - Illustrated Art Deck - KS

[Fes]

[Blackwind]

Pitching in as the creator and thank you for opening a thread, Fes!

This is a small project, and our first venture into playing cards. We've also been recommended to get your feedback from Fargin_Iceholes from the playingcards subreddit, not long ago.

Feel free to ask anything, fellows!

[theCapraAegagrus]

The work itself isn't bad, but the black-and-white just kills my interest.

[Fes]

Pitching in as the creator

Hellos and welcome to UC! I like your creation and I would have backed when I saw it but for one thing.

We partnered with DriveThru Cards to handle the manufacturing and fulfillment of this campaign.

As a collector and user of playing cards I have an unfortunate affliction that I've picked up over the years. It's being a card snob and DriveThru just doesn't cut the jam for me. Of course I've several decks produced by these folks. (Fine folks I'm sure) So my opinion is one made over time and with experience. I encourage going right to one of the sources (USPCC, Cartamundi, Liberty, NPCC, TWPC, etc) rather than through a Print on demand service. Some of them (Liberty, NPCC) can handle the complete process through to fulfillment while producing a higher quality product.

I like the art on your cards. I find the characters dramatic and gives me a smile while inspiring my imagination at to what the many stories of them could be. I imagine the Parrot AoH there is the criminal mastermind. Clearly up to no goods as he looks over his shoulder to make sure no eyes are on him as he plots his next caper. Which is to hide the King of Diamonds police shirt and badge. The just and noble officer has seen better days, when he had his shirt and badge. He's on the case and this time it's personal.

Great looking characters. I could go on as I wonder about them and I shall. Take the Six of Spades there, Steve "Beans" Malone, as he wanders in off the wind blown whatever on his way to local grub-n-gulp. The grill master there, deuce of clubs, Marty "Toaster" Valentino is Beans best pal and confidant. Not many know this about Toaster but he's actually a fruitarian and wears the mask because he really can't stand the smell of grilling meats. Beans and Toaster's friendship blossomed weeks ago when together they tossed out The Cure fan and generally obnoxious Friday loving seven of Diamonds Willburt Robbie from the local watering hole. (doh, talking myself into backering a pod deck again)

Classic deck is great with the two tone background on the face cards. Dark and light pips, it's nice and a win in opinion. The dark deck with a silhouette feel of the character all white. High drama indeed! While my affliction doesn't allow me to support your campaign in a direct way, such as funding. It does allow me to support you in the spirit of crowdfunding and I will share your campaign with some DnD playing folks who don't give a flying burrito who prints what or how. Best of luck with the campaign I hope that it's a grand success and we see more (perhaps with another manufacturer) in the future.

[Blackwind]

Many things to say here:

First, thank you for bouncing back a few names of solid card publishers that handle both fulfillment and printing. We've been looking for some time, but weren't able to find any that would handle both. We'll definitely go to Liberty/NPCC for future cards projects! Being based in Italy and fairly "green", it can get difficult to nail logistics- and we were familiar with DT to begin with. In fact, it's the reason why the decks are modestly priced, as is the end goal. It's a small project, with a small print run, but hopefully well done for its scope.

You're not wrong either. There -are- stories attached to some of these characters. For instance, the Queen of Diamonds is Commander Maddellin, leader of the rebellion and crash survivor on Y10-REGULUS 4, while the JOKER is the swamp monster from the same adventure; the Jack of Hearts is Captain Raul Navarro Garcia, underling of Don Murillo, Governor of Santamilla (king of hearts), and the parrot (ace) belongs to Murillo's Daughter (queen of hearts) Donna Isabel, all competing to unearth the lost treasure of Maracaibo.

In the spirit of doing more and better- would similar decks, but with better printing and perhaps fancy additions, such as foil, be appreciated? Is there something else you would like to see in the future? For instance, a few folks brought up custom pips, or only having face cards illustrated. We actually swapped to having the same back (so that black and white cards may be mixed) after a similar suggestion.

Last but not least, thank you for sharing! All Blackwind projects share the same funding pool, so if we meet our goal here we'll definitely prepare dedicated, more specialized runs at the end of each project cycle.

Ps. Edited to show a little alternate version of the Joker, in color:

[Fes]

In the spirit of doing more and better- would similar decks, but with better printing and perhaps fancy additions, such as foil, be appreciated? Is there something else you would like to see in the future? For instance, a few folks brought up custom pips, or only having face cards illustrated. We actually swapped to having the same back (so that black and white cards may be mixed) after a similar suggestion.

I'd say so, yes. I like playing cards and would love to see more. I enjoy expression and there seems to be a lot going on with this bunch of characters. Enhancements are all depending on your vision. Generally we appreciate custom pips that are clear and easy to distinguish. A spade looking like a spade is nice. Claw marks in place of a club pip is not. I personally have poor vision and value clear easy to read pips and font on the indices of cards. We love the same things most people like and just don't cue in on why they like it. Like custom pips that are easy to read, most people really appreciate it when they see a deck featuring them. Custom courts, most people enjoy custom courts for the fresh look and expressive art. Card backs that are well balanced and make use of negative space instead of going to war against it in contrast. Folks like that stuff and we do too.

I will say different colored card backs is a big plus. There are a few card games that benefit from the same color card back but they're not a big deal played by a vast majority of folks. Different colors on card backs between two decks adds variation and enhances the contrast between the two decks.

I still think the Parrot is the evil mastermind.

[Blackwind]

To be honest, never understood "substitute" pips. They can be a little confusing, if they do not resemble the original ones at all.

However, redesigned classic-style pips could be a really good idea. We actually did modify the pips a little elsewhere (on the tuckbox), but were wary of making the cards too "busy", and drawing attention away from the center. Moreso as the project as a whole tends to land a little more on a very simple/old school look.

Something simple and stylized, perhaps:

I still think the Parrot is the evil mastermind.

I mean, as Hitchcock taught us, all birds are inherently evil!