BackerClub Forums

I am in the most incredibly beginning stages of compiling a project for a custom deck of playing cards. But in an effort to challenge the success of Exploding Kittens, I thought I would pick the brains of the smartest people on Kickstarter, the people on BackerClub!

To that end, a few questions...

• Have you ever played with something other than a standard deck (4 suits of 13 cards in 2 colors, 52 cards total)?

• What feature did you like most?

• What feature did you like least? (Not necessarily the same deck.)

• Other than Autographed Decks, is there a specific reward/Add-On you'd want to see?

Some things I'm thinking of adding. What do you think of each?

• 5 suits

• Different colors for every suit (regardless of number, think "No-Revoke" decks for Bridge)

• 4th Court Card (Princess & Prince to replace Jack)

• 5th Court Card (Addition of a "1" card for 1-10, moving the Ace to above the King

• Court Cards being historical figures related to the theme of their suit

• Replacing the Jokers (derived from Major Arcana 0) with various Archetypes

• Having more than 2 Jokers

• Having dissimilar Jokers (regardless of number) allowing for High and Low Jokers, etc.

• Is there anything else you'd want to see?

• Would "EU Friendly" shipping (reducing Customs/VAT fees) matter to you?

• Would included "Worldwide Shipping" matter to you?

• Having Backer input decide on number of Court Cards, whose on them, what's on the Jokers, etc.

• Having a pledge tier to select an Archetype for a Joker

• Having a pledge tier to add extra sets of Court Cards

And on to YOUR support if/when the Project goes live:

• What ONE thing would be most important to your decision to pledge?

• What ONE thing would keep you from pledging?

• What would you most like to see for a BackerClub Bonus?

• What would you expect to pledge for ONE deck of these cards?

• How many decks (not counting Bonuses) would you be interested in (with more decks being cheaper per deck)?

Thanks for your responses! It means a lot to me!

Things I like of your ideas:

1. 5 suites

2. 4th court card (prince & princes - can we look outside Europe/expand definition if using historical figures)

3. 5th court card

4. If doing historical figures please don't make them all white folks (African princes, Asian emperors, etc.)

5. Love the idea of doing something different for jokers & even having up to 5 of them

Things I'd like to see (or have seen others like)

1. Additional rules/ideas for how to play. (Cut throught, easy/casual, timed, for kids, gender-reverse queens higher than kings)

2. 1 sheet uncut deck/poster

3. Prints of the special cards pictures

4. PDF of the history behind concept & making of the cards/sketch book (stretch goal freebie for everyone)

5. EU friendly is important but not sure how feasible if you don't end up with a big enough campaign

6. PnP/print & play option is nice to have - I've seen it used by many who felt shipping was too high.

Stretch goal ideas

1. Better quality cards

2. Better boxes

3. Voting on new cards

4. Expansion cards/bonus decks:
A. Extra cards for deck to play new game or mini-game
B. Bonus deck: recipes related to theme/historical figures or that other thing we've talked about
C. Bonus deck: lore related to theme (see above LOL)

BackerClub perk ideas
1. 1 extra deck for every x number bought
2. Upgrade to next level
3. Special BC tins for the cards - special BC pledge level

My thoughts for the night. I'm sure there are typos. It's late I should be sleeping.

A fifth suit and extra court cards sounds good. Adding a 1 and moving the ace to above the court cards sounds good. Using 4 colors instead of 2 sounds good. The problem I see is that the more cards you have, the harder it is to fit everything on a standard sheet which will probably drive your costs up quite a bit. You would probably have to move to a double deck.

My question would be: What is the purpose of these decks? Is it just for collectors? Are you planning on creating new games around the new decks? Have you looked at the Decktet decks?

I disagree with the "please don't make them all white folks". It all depends on the theme. If the theme is medieval Europe then it probably would be all white people. If the theme is Chinese then the only white guy would probably be Marco Polo.

I like themed decks with non-standard court card images. It's even better when there is a scene that stretches across multiple cards, maybe even across a whole suit. Having a good pattern on the back is great, but I expect to be looking at the fronts most of the time.

Some themes (in no particular order):
1. Nautical (ancient maps, ancient map symbols, ships, sea monsters)
- I've been waiting for a good "ancient maps"-themed deck
2. Pirates
3. Cultures (either 1 culture per deck or 1 culture per suit)
- I've been waiting for a good Irish-themed deck
4. Birds
5. Animals
6. Plants / flowers / trees
7. Steampunk
8. Different art styles (abstract, impressionistic, Picasso, cartoon, etc.)
9. Literary
10. Mythical creatures
11. Old western
12. Space

The biggest pieces of advice I could offer (as a magician, card collector, and avid card game player) are these:
1) Sort out what the purpose of the deck is. If you are just creating a deck for the sake of offering a new deck of cards then it should have the standard 52 cards (4 suits, 13 values). If you have an idea for a game then go crazy with additional suits, colors, new court cards etc. Why make a deck of cards that is basically unusable? (PS: I love the prince and princess, but they only make sense if there is a reason for them to be in the deck).
2) DO NOT keep the basic artwork for the pips. Regardless of why you are creating this deck, the person holding it should never say to themselves "This is the same 5 of clubs from a regular bicycle deck".
3) Creating a stand out deck is hard (no duh right? lol). If it takes 10 years then that is how long it takes. Don't ever call it good enough if it will just end up being lost in the mix and forgotten.

If you are going to bring it to Kickstarter I would mention to not go crazy with different backing options, and stretch goals. I have seen some amazing decks not get funded because of convoluted goals and reward tiers (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/79 ... d-by-uspcc).

AKAAdamReynolds wrote:The biggest pieces of advice I could offer (as a magician, card collector, and avid card game player) are these:
1) Sort out what the purpose of the deck is. If you are just creating a deck for the sake of offering a new deck of cards then it should have the standard 52 cards (4 suits, 13 values). If you have an idea for a game then go crazy with additional suits, colors, new court cards etc. Why make a deck of cards that is basically unusable? (PS: I love the prince and princess, but they only make sense if there is a reason for them to be in the deck).
2) DO NOT keep the basic artwork for the pips. Regardless of why you are creating this deck, the person holding it should never say to themselves "This is the same 5 of clubs from a regular bicycle deck".
3) Creating a stand out deck is hard (no duh right? lol). If it takes 10 years then that is how long it takes. Don't ever call it good enough if it will just end up being lost in the mix and forgotten.

If you are going to bring it to Kickstarter I would mention to not go crazy with different backing options, and stretch goals. I have seen some amazing decks not get funded because of convoluted goals and reward tiers (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/79 ... d-by-uspcc).

All great points.

Hey Tasha,

Just saw this post! But we had the same exact idea of the 4 different colours instead of the plain old boring 2 colours!
We launched Splash Deck! you can check it out at http://kck.st/1ypvdkQ

We are open to any advice!

Thanks,
The Splash Team