"Card Decks" Topic

We may be a little slow to the party but my group now uses cards in two of our wargaming periods – ECW "Victory without Quarter" & Napoleonic " Valour & Fortitude".
As well, we've used bespoke 'Event Cards' in several games.

My method for creating decks is probably fairly primitive. I get a suitable image from the internet for the back, print the necessary words for the front, print, cut, glue & laminate. This works but is a bit amateurish IMO.

Are there any programs that might create more professional cards?

I design mine in Adobe or Corel Draw , print on paper and then insert into card size top loaders. It works really well, but I have design skills. I have heard of programs that use templates but prefer to create my own.

The top loaders save you time instead of gluing and laminating.

Here are some top loaders of which I speak. link

I don't use cards much, but I have handwritten the text on the backs of my old business cards and that's worked out kind of OK.

Or maybe that's why I don't use cards much!

Thanks for the responses, gents.

TG, how does shuffling work out using those card holders?

If you want nice looking cards there are several online companies where you can design your own fronts and backs and they will print them on playing cards. I've seen many gamers use this option and receive some very nice looking product. You do have to put in the work to make the cards but the results are quite good. These companies usually have templates that make the card design fairly easy.

Another option is to buy blank erasable playing cards and write whatever you want on the other side. Being erasable you can always change them but the cards are so inexpensive its really not worth the effort. Not as nice looking as the cards you could have printed, but they are less expensive, easy to make, and on playing card quality stock so will last.

I just produce the cards in Word (or similar) print them out and place them in card sleeves (as suggested above) along with an old or cheap playing card as stiffener and as a back.

POD solutions, as mentioned above, are a good option. If you have art and words, they usually have staff that will help you put things into the right format.

WargameVault provides templates for you to put the words and art into, then you upload them and print. You need to check their pricing for your project (very scalable), but a "regular" deck of 52 for a single run has been $4 USD-$5 for me.
link
link

In the DIY category, there are both stickers:
amzn.to/3XSy2Kr

and sheets of cards:
amzn.to/4jac3av

you can feed into your printer.

A little more DIY, most household printers will accept index cards, so a 4"x6" card is roughly two standard playing cards. You could use your fave word processor to format this as a "double-wide", print, and cut. It's a little more manual intensive than sheets of perforated cards, but it's more accomodating printing onesey-twosey things over time and creates less waste for an alignment or feed error.

For this, you can also get a cheap specialty tool for rounded corners:
amzn.to/3XZdpwe

ETO!

I love you, and want to have your children….*

Okay, maybe a heartfelt "Thank you!" will do, but I have been stymied trying to find an affordable POD source for our extensive line of Action and Event Decks for TSATF, etc, and your links may be a lifesaver.

Other printers I have contacted wanted $10.00 USD and more for 60 card decks previously costing around $2.50 USD, meaning the sale price of a single deck would be ruinous for all parties.

You are, Sir, one of the Rare Gentlemen who offer specific, actionable information and links whenever you chime in.

TVAG

*This offer not valid in the United States, Canada, Australia, The Commonwealth, the Oort Cloud and most of New Jersey. Cash value is nil.

I'm not really concerned about 'card making' but the thought
has occasionally crossed my mind. This thread has given enough information to cheaply and easily accomplish this. Great work gents, keep those cards and letters coming. Well, just the cards anyway.

I make smaller size card decks by printing on plain paper. The front and back are joined so I just cut out and fold over. The card then goes into a laminating pouch for business cards and run through my laminator. I bought a box of 500 for like $25 USD

I don't have design skills really, but using Powerpoint as a crude layout tools gets me pretty good results.

I love you, and want to have your children

… you're … welcome?

But you can't have my children. :) The cash value of both of my kids is quite high, with them being productive members of society and all. Though, coincidentally, one was born in New Jersey…

Along with Extra Crispy's idea, there are tons of specialty cardstock printer pages for things like name tags, place holders, badges, and even business cards. Most of those have an "Avery" number on them, which equates to a pre-formatted template available in many different wordprocessors.

For small decks in my .pdf games, I have used a sheet of business cards. If someone doesn't want to buy a pack of printer perforated business cardstock, they can just cut them out.

These paper minis:

are made from business cards, cut in half. Not elegant, but you can print and play the scenario right away. Then find minis if you keep playing often.

link

Thanks, EC. This looks like the solution I'll go with.
I searched the internet & anything commercial seems too dear.

Sorry about the delayed answer Ochoin. They don't shuffle as easy as playing cards, but you can also go with soft card sleeves. I just manually shuffle and don't really have any issue.

You can also get self-sealing lamination pouches if you don't have a laminator.

link

Thanks, TG

I use powerpoint, or Libra present, to create the cards and then print it on an old ink jet printer using 200 gsm paper. Once I print one side I flip it over and print the 2nd. To allow the card extra thickness i use clear plastic contact on front and rear before i cut the cards out. It seems to work rather well. Examples of the cards can be found in this link, select the file with the word CARDS in it. The zip file contains the source powerpoint file and a pdf version.
link

I have a video with covers the ergonmics of cards for gaming.
youtu.be/5Zo8Iu-sRnw

If you're prepared to take a bit longer with the printing blank playing cards are litterally a couple of pence each link

@ pf thank you very much. Most helpful

@ Mark. Thanks for your kind intentions. Temu is something I avoid.

I may not have given you the best video, if you go to the end of this video it will show the cards, the printer, 200 gsm paper and clear contact which i use. I can even shuffle my cards when you use this system. I have seen videos on youtube on a better system for card creation, but the effort is a lot greater, but i must admit the result is nice.
youtu.be/F4neYh0BrvY