Doing It Myself

 I’ve done a lot less gaming these past couple of weeks, tabletop gaming in particular, because I’ve been on a little of a Do-It-Yourself kit. There were a couple of projects I’ve had planned for a while. However, since I was already in a crafting mode, those couple of planned projects turned into several more unplanned projects.

CUSTOM CARDS

This actually started a couple of months ago.  One of the games I play is the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game. As I was approaching a natural stopping point of the official content I already owned, I began to explore some of the custom content that had been made by the fans.  I’d looked at a bunch online, but never converted any to a physical form because I wasn’t sure of the best method to do so, regarding time, material, and finances.  Finally, I decided to just print them out using card stock and putting them in sleeves to integrate better with the official cards.

CARD STORAGE

More recently, my DIY surge was a result of wanting to organize the card I owned for another deck building game Aeon’s End.  Aeon’s End has several expansions, all of which can be combined to be used together.  However, the organization system that came with each expansion was only enough to hold what originally came in the box with little extra room for additional cards, especially if you kept growing your collection. My plan was to convert the boxes I had into a system that organize all the most commonly used cards, playmats, and other pieces all in one place.

I started with the box from the Aeon’s End: Legacy expansion.  I chose this one for obvious reasons; it was the largest.  I removed the original plastic tray that came with the game. It took up a lot of space and rendered many portions of the box being unusable. Next, I gathered the material to make the dividers that would hold the cards and objects in place.  Most of it was waste packaging from Amazon and Walmart orders.  My main reason was that it was cheap, but if you want to be more environmentally conscious, you may consider it recycled packaging. After penciling out the various sections of the box, I cut dividers from the stiffest cardboard I had.  Next, I lined the edges of the box with sturdy foam packaging to give support to the dividers.  Finally,I glued everything in, sorted the cards and game pieces, and neatly returned all the currently active cards and game pieces to the finished box.

There were still some cards and other items that I didn’t need on a regular basis. I put those in a box from another expansion in case I ever wanted to add them back into the game or, in the case of items that could be discarded, had use for them in a future project.

LIFE COUNTERS

Since I was on a roll, I decided to make some life counters.  Did I need them?  No. I have official versions that came with various games, plus, I’d made some homemade counters a couple of years ago that have yet to be used. Still, I really wanted to try a different pattern than the ones I’ve used in the past.  A piece of card stock, a sheet of laminate, and a few paper fasteners later, I had made my best homemade counters to date.

CARD BOX

Before I tell you about my final project, I need to take a moment and talk about tarot. I do not put any faith in tarot readings or fortune-telling.  In fact, as a Christian, God is clear that such things should be avoided (Deut. 18:10-13). So, it should be no surprise that I do not own a tarot deck. The problem with that, I am finding, is that more and more independent game makers are using the tarot deck as their randomizer of choice for their journaling and story-based games.  I didn’t want these games to pass me by, so I had to re-evaluate my decision to use or not use a tarot deck.

As a mature Christian, I am aware that all scriptural commands, encouragements, and warnings   need to be examined within their context.  While the tarot deck isn’t specifically mentioned in scripture, many practices and objects associated with the occult are.  However, where the Bible warns us against certain activities in one place, similar activities appear to be acceptable elsewhere. For example, decorating wood with gold and silver is frowned upon in Jeremiah 10:2-5, while admired in 1 Kings 6:18-22.  What’s the difference? Comparing these two passages, it’s clear that the difference is intent: One is to create a false idol; The other is to build a temple that honors God. The reason something is done or and object is used gives it meaning, good or bad.

Understanding this, I was okay using the tarot deck as a creative writing tool, but I still didn’t like the idea of buying an official deck. Luckily, I found several alternatives. One was to use a digital deck. Another was to consult a chart that equated dice rolls or standard playing cards to drawing a particular tarot cards.  All of these are fine (not to mention portable, which I love), but sometimes you like the tactile feel of dealing out physical cards.  To fulfill that desire, I decided to make my own.

Cheapness and simplicity were my main goal for this project. To start, I found several free, printable tarot decks online. I found a nice greyscale version (cheaper than printing color) that was formatted to match the size of a standard playing card. Instead of card stock, I opted to print the deck on cheaper plain copy paper.  To give them a card feel, I slid them into sleeves and used standard playing cards as a backing, both of which I already owned.  The particular sleeves I used had true opaque backs so the different patterns of the decks wouldn’t show through. 

 

Now that I had a rather thick deck of 78 cards, I needed some way to store them.  I could just put them in a ziplock and call it a day, but that would look messy and not stack well on my shelf.  So, naturally, I decided to create a custom box. (So much for simple.) Since the deck was an odd size and I wanted to use only one sheet of card stock (saving money again), I had to create my own custom pattern.  However, I did get inspiration and ideas from other patterns I found online, such as this one. To give the box some character, I found some nice artwork and Photoshopped it (or GIMPed, in my case) to flow nearly seamlessly around the box.  I wasn’t sure how it would turn out when I started, but in the end I was rather proud of the final result.

Now comes the questions I keep asking myself whenever I do one of these projects: Am I ever going to use these creations?  With the exception of the Aeon’s End box, probably rarely to ever. Do I feel that my time working on them was a waste?  Not really. They are fun to do, stimulate the brain, and get the creative juices flowing. Even though they are done and I have resumed actually playing games again, I’m already contemplating what project I can do next.

There’s only one problem . . .

Those creative juices really leave a big mess.