On 7/17/07, David Artman <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
RE Square cards: In closing, my noodling about with layout has shown that they will end up looking like Monopoly deed cards, if I go with my initial idea of a "band" across the top. Therefore, I am going to try other basic designs for the Suits (using Andrew's card coloration as inspiration), in the hopes of giving the set a consistent "feel". I want the Minor and Royalty and Majors to be recognized at a glance without seeming like a jumbled together mess.
The point of being square is so that facing doesn't matter. In my mind that means you want four way symmetry so that, no matter which way you pick up the card, it has /a/ top on top. (Does that even make sense?) By that theory, you'd need the name (or icon / name equivalent) on all four sides. Squeezing game text in starts to sound difficult though... Anyway, just a thought. And while I'm on it, you will /definitely/ want four way symmetric backs. I am all about the "immidiate recognizableness" of the card's power. The Tarot deck that I have and use for Gnostica happens to have the lesser arcana (and royalty) very obviously color coded. It's quite simple to tell at a glace where what powers are on the board, it helps a lot. -- - |) () /\/ I've also found that after a few games, you really do start to learn the powers for the cards. I could almost recite them from memory now. Granted, there may be fiddley things that come up once ina while and you have to check the rules, but (almost) every game has that.