C.J. Burke's .sig card #101: The Pun-isher

Since C.J. has given his blessing to proceed with alternate artists, here comes the first new card under that umbrella. Enjoy!

Downloading PDFs

It's not very intuitive, so here's how to download the PDF:

1) in the upper right hand corner of the PDF, click the little box to open the PDF in a new window.

2) In the new window, on the left side you will see two options: File and View. Click on File to open a submenu.

3) On the submenu select Download Original.

The file size is about 24MB, which is close to the 28MB of Phil's Seven Seas PDFs.

Good luck!

First Hi-res template

A new link has been added in the Sidebar called "Champion's Odyssey Hi-res PDFs". This will take you to a shared Google Docs folder containing all the PDFs.

I had to remove the PDF embedded in this post. Not only was it consuming lots of my precious download limit every time I loaded the page, it was also nearly impossible to edit the post.

And on that note, the second PDF is done...

Hi-res card template

In one of my previous "Bringing Homebrew Cards To Life" posts, I describe how printing the Seven Seas PDFs result in cards smaller than standard cards. The size of a standard Guardians card is roughly 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. A Seven Seas PDF card measures 2.25 inches by 3.125 inches. It's a noticeable difference.

To make a 3 x 3 printing of standard cards, you get a total measurement of 7.5 inches by 10.5 inches, which should fit on a standard sheet (8.5 inches by 11 inches) of paper. But not so fast! Many printers can't print to the edge of the page...you should allow for at least a .25 inch margin on each side of the sheet. That brings the total measurement to 8 inches by 11 inches, which barely fits. That also means the cards must be up against each other with no gap between them. Therefore the PDFs will have 9 cards, arranged in a 3 by 3 grid, with no space between them. If people are against this, please let me know before I get too far, and I'll lay out a different grid (maybe 2 by 4).

I'll post some images of this concept soon.

News, News and More News

First let's start with the poll. It's gone. I really liked the concept, but it was poorly designed. I could not create it without voting myself. Others apparently cannot vote even though they were signed in. And though I don't use Internet Explorer, the poll doesn't even look correct under IE. So I have removed it until something better comes along.

Second, early opinions are that I should start working on hi-res PDFs of Champion's Odyssey and Sig cards for people to download, so I will start this soon. I thought I would need Acrobat, but apparently Photoshop is capable of creating PDFs.

Third, C.J. has given me his blessing to continue making Sig cards using other artists. So instead of stopping at 100, I will produce more Sig cards soon.

I hope you'll all bear with me on the recent changes and layout experimentation. I am committed to a goal of continuous improvement and excellence for this blog.

Trying Out Poll Feature in Sidebar

I'm going to try out the new Poll feature over in the sidebar to see how useful it is. If I don't get much of a response I will probably get rid of it. Unfortunately I believe you must be logged in to vote. I have tried hard to make it easy to post on this site, allowing anonymous comments and not requiring word verification (meaning I must police the site regularly for spam postings). For the voting, though, my hands are tied...logging in is a required feature. I could not find any other poll gadgets, so this is all I've got. If you'd like to vote and don't have a Google (Gmail) account, take a moment and sign up. It's free, relatively painless, and you don't have to do anything with it (except log in and vote, if you wish).

So the first poll will be about what I've been discussing lately - what's coming up next for the blog. The poll asks what would YOU, the reader, like me to work on next? Enter the poll to let me know.

Note: You can vote for more than 1 selection, and you can also change your vote. Please let me know here in the comments if you experience problems voting...

New design features in sidebar

I have not changed the layout of this blog in a LONG time. C.J. has made me aware of two great tools which I have incorporated into the sidebar.

The first is Recent comments that show what has been posted lately. The second is most popular comments so that you can see what has generated the most buzz.

Please make use of these features and see what C.J. has been up to. And please leave comments for him...he is, after all, the designer!

UPDATE: I have removed the popular posts but left the recent comments feature. The popular posts goes off of page hits rather than quantity of comments, and I didn't feel it added enough to bump the links and archives so far down the page. In addition, I added a poll feature for future use...

Adding to What's Next, and a celebration is in order

Be of good cheer, everyone! C.J. Burke has returned to the Guardian community! I don't know how long he'll be back, but he was sorely missed and we are lucky to have him for whatever amount of time he'll be around...

In my last post I talked about what's next for the blog. As I was going through emails, I came across a message from a gentleman that I had forgotten about...I promised him a few things that I would work on, so here are a couple more items I'll attempt to complete:

A. Hi-res PDF versions of Champion's Odyssey, and now C.J.'s sig cards, similar to what Phil created for the Seven Seas set so that readers can print decent copies of these cards.

B. Another installment of "Bringing Homebrew Cards to Life". This will actually focus on card creation in Photoshop using the templates from Phil and applying artwork to get that "Guardians Look".

I'm not sure what kind of time I'll have to post over the holidays, I've got a busy schedule, but I'll certainly check in from time to time to respond to comments.

Happy Holidays to all, and may your Beer Sled be full!

What's next for the blog?

It's going to be tough to post for awhile, work is extremely busy and the holidays are coming. But here's what I have planned, not necessarily in this order:

1. Sig card compatibility with Solo.

2. A couple of new game variants.

3. Another installment of Math in Guardians.

4. A new kind of card for Guardians (like how CJ introduced Events).

5. A Deck Library.

6. An in-depth look at Drifter's Nexus & Necropolis Park cards.

7. Some "fan fiction", stories I'd like to write about Guardians characters.

8. Solo Adventures strategy, part 2.

Enjoy your holidays!

Set Summary for .sig cards

This set still needs a name. I am open to suggestions, especially from Professor Burke... 

Set Breakdown by Artist
Achilleos: 5
Beauvais: 5
Brom: 17
Easley: 3

Elmore: 8
Hildebrandt: 1
Kelly: 2
Maitz: 11
Parkinson: 13
Ploog: 9
Rowena: 5
Sweet: 5
Warhola: 2
Whelan: 14

Set Breakdown by Card Type
Downgrade: 0
Elemental: 19
Event: 0
External: 16
Guardian: 0
Magic Item: 10
Mortal: 22
Shield: 0
Shield/Terrain: 0
Ship: 0
Spell: 25
Standard Bearer: 0
Stronghold: 3 (1 Set)
Terrain: 2
Upgrade: 3

Creatures By Type
Angel: 3
Animal: 2

Bug: 1

Devil: 1

Dragon: 1

Dwarf: 3

Element: 5

Elemental Lord: 1
Elf: 3

Gargoyle: 6

Giant: 1
Goblin:1
Knight: 4

Misc. Human: 6

Nymph: 2
Ogre: 2
Pirate: 2

Spirit: 2
Undead: 4
Wanderer: 5
Wizard: 1
(Note: some creatures that are double-classed were counted twice)

Creature Stats
Flyers: 10
Bribeable by Babes: 8
Bribeable by Beer: 11
Bribeable by Gold: 15
Not bribeable: 32
Channelers: 1
Channeling receivers: 19
Small: 7
Medium: 33
Large: 17

Card List
Ahhz-Chooz

Alpha Betty Gal

Angel of Justice

Apple Treefolk

As the Shield Turns

Auntie AOE

Avenging Gargoyle

Banshee

Beer Elemental

Belmont D'yan

Berzerker

Bogus

Catapult

Chicken Soup

Cloud Cover

Code of the West

Collapsible Wall

Combined Forces

Condor

Continental Divide

Cranston

Crazy War

Damned if You Don't

Dark Angel

Dark Nymph

Demonic Pact

Die Hard

Dimensional Maelstrom

Disappearing Tweezle

Dot Breeze

Drift

Dwarven Armorer

Dwarven Mining Operation

Dwarven Nomad

Dwarven Tunneling Machine

Dwarven Weaponsmith

Eager Ogre

Earth-shattering Kaboom!

Edgar Scissorclaws

Elven Priest

Entropy Effect

Fallen Elf

Fire Nymph

First Circle of Hell Left

First Circle of Hell Middle

First Circle of Hell Right

Flanking Army

Fort Knight

Gang O' 8

Granite Gargoyle

Guardian Gargoyle

Haba Naba Raba

Hardass

Hell Hound

High Elf

Ice Gargoyle

Iron Gargoyle

Leftovers

Lion Tayoo

Lost City

Lycanthrope

Miss Good Wench

Miss Spelled

Mr. Suitcase

Mud Elemental Lord

Nicky Threefingers

No Huddle Offense

Orderly Procession

Owl Father

Pain in the Asp

Pandora's Stones

Patron Saint

Peanut Gallery

Pet Dragon

Pirate's Ghost

Playing 'Possum

Poppy Field

Psychic Elemental

Red Ghost

Rogue Ogre

Shadow Elemental

Slag Pile

Spell-free Zone

Squire

Stick 'em Up

Stone Gargoyle

Swords to Plowshares

Tree Giant

Two Kinds of Booty

Uberknight

Unmasked

Up Up and Away

Vampire Gargoyle

Wandering Minstral

Wandering Spirit

Warwick's Wedding Spell

Water Elemental

Wizard's Guild

Y2K Bug

Zephyr Winds

C.J. Burke's .sig card #100: Disappearing Tweezle

And so it ends. 100 of C.J.'s most diabolical card designs are now in the books. I'll have a set summary posted soon...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #99: Drift

C.J. Burke's .sig card #98: Pirate's Ghost

C.J. Burke's .sig card #97: Zephyr Winds

C.J. Burke's .sig card #96: Hardass

C.J. Burke's .sig card #95: Earth-shattering Kaboom!

C.J. Burke's .sig card #94: Cranston, Overlord of Limbo

So I got snow as predicted, and lost my internet as predicted. I even lost power for 2 hours, and it's a balmy 13 degrees outside right now. Still, I endure! My signal is back enough to get this post up. I had 2 very different images for this artwork, one from Ploog and one from Whelan. The Ploog fit the name Cranston but not the Overlord of Limbo or the card text. The Whelan fits the Overlord of Limbo and the card text but not the name Cranston. In the end I went with Whelan for the card text and Overlord title, plus the art is so cool! I'm pretty sure C.J.'s vision of the card art was probably different, but it is becoming really tough to find appropriate artwork from the original artists, it's just not out there. This will have to do...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #91, 92, & 93: First Circle of Hell Stronghold

It's supposed to snow here the next couple of days and I might lose my internet signal, so I'm going to post the entire Stronghold set at once and I won't post again for a few days. The artwork was done by Jeff Easley, a good friend of Keith Parkinson's during their TSR days. His artwork is a good fit in the "Guardians style", and some of his artwork also appears on Seven Seas cards.

Left Stronghold:

Center Stronghold:

Right Stronghold:

And here's how the Stronghold looks when laid out as a set:

C.J. Burke's .sig card #90: The Entropy Effect

C.J. Burke's .sig card #89: Patron Saint

C.J. Burke's .sig card #88: Eager Ogre

C.J. Burke's .sig card #87: Berzerker

C.J. Burke's .sig card #86: Wizard's Guild

C.J. Burke's .sig card #85: Belmont D'yan

C.J. Burke's .sig card #84: Shadow Elemental

C.J. Burke's .sig card #83: Playing 'Possum

I have planned to do 100 of C.J.'s .sig cards to match the 100 cards in Champion's Odyssey. Since a Stronghold set and a Tweezle are already done, counting "Playing 'Possum" there are only 13 more cards to make...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #82: High Elf

C.J. Burke's .sig card #81: Elven Priest

C. J. Burke's .sig card #80: Y2K Bug

Not much good artwork for bugs, there were a couple of good ones but they were snagged up in the Seven Seas set. This will have to do. It doesn't fit the card much, although I remember when the Y2K bug was forecast to be The End Of All Things...for awhile it did seem to sit on a throne and be more important than many other things.

C.J. Burke's .sig card #79: Peanut Gallery

Header for Halloween

Hope you enjoy the new header, inspired by the humor in the Guide to the Mid Realms and on the backs of the cases. Keith Parkinson would always remind us that humor is important in Guardians and that we not take the game too seriously...

Enjoy!

Events: single border or double border?

I'd like to take a brief break from card creation to talk about Events. I have scoured CJ’s blog & website, Phil’s website, and the Yahoo! Group, and one thing I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere in the creation of Event cards is whether they are single border or double border on the back. So which is it? In my opinion they should be double-bordered, and here’s why…

Single-bordered cards are represented by Terrain, Shields, Stronghold Upgrades/Downgrades, Creatures, and Accessory & Creature Magic Items. These are all physical items that either move around the playfield, or in the case of Upgrades/Downgrades and Accessories, are permanently attached to Strongholds or Guardians.

Now consider the double-bordered cards: Spells, Bribery, and Hand Magic Items. While it’s true that Hand Magic Items are a physical item, they do not move around the playfield, nor are they attached to something on the playfield. Like Spells and Bribery, they are effects that change conditions in the game.

When considering Events, the very name itself suggests that these are also effects. The definition of an event is either an occasion/happening/incident, or it is a result/consequence/outcome. Either way it influences or has an effect on the game, rather than being physically attached to something on the playfield or moving around the playfield.

I have therefore concluded that Events should be double-bordered cards. This has little impact on the game, other than the fact that it goes into your Storage Depot instead of your Creature Pen. Some cards do affect the Storage Depot or Creature Pen, or affect cards based on whether they are single- or double-bordered. They fact that Events are double-bordered is very important if you are going to print your own cards, however.

Hiatus - From Heartbreaks to Healing

As many of you loyal readers know, back in April I lost my grandmother to a stroke. I appreciate the condolences that were offered by all. This loss led to something profound - I decided to seek my birth father, whom I had never met. The result was an instant family that was thrilled to meet me, including a half-sister who I adore, another set of grandparents, and even relatives in France!

I have spent much time with my new family lately and think about them often. Unfortunately this has led to less time devoted to the blog. Still, I will find time to post when I can, and will try to post at leat once a week if possible. Look for more .sig cards later this week.

My best regards to all of you and your families,

Jackalwere

C.J. Burke's .sig card #78: Fallen Elf

Still having trouble managing my time. This was the best I could do in limited minutes. I removed the Elf class from a couple of cards in my set, and C.J. has debated the thought of including Elves in Guardians, but he didn't let it stop him from coming up with a few. This is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

C.J. Burke's .sig card #77: Wandering Minstral

It's going to take me a few weeks to dig out of all the work that waited for me while I went on vacation. I won't have time to create any new cards for some time, and you're probably tired of seeing Combined Forces as the latest card. Therefore, I'll leave you with another card for awhile: Wandering Minstral...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #76: Combined Forces

I'm extending my vacation by a couple of weeks. Here's another card to tide you over. Thanks for your patience!

C.J. Burke's .sig card #75: Mud Elemental Lord

I'm leaving you all for a couple of weeks to go visit family. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite cards of the set, Mud Elemental Lord. The Ploog artwork is beautiful and fits the card well. I had to change CJ's Babes bribery to Beer since the Mud Lord looks decidedly female...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #74: Apple Treefolk

Since I used Hildebrandt artwork for the Strongholds in the Champion's Odyssey set, I feel it's only fair to use them for a few cards here too...

C.J. Burke's .sig card #73: Unmasked

C.J. Burke's .sig card #72: Damned If You Don't, Damned If You Do

C.J. Burke's .sig card #71: Beer Elemental

C.J. Burke's .sig card #70: As the Shield Turns

C.J. Burke's .sig card #69: Miss Spelled

I changed the title of this one from Mispelled to fit the artwork. Card concept is the same though. Hope CJ doesn't mind!

C.J. Burke's .sig card #68: Gang o' 8

C.J. Burke's .sig card #67: Dwarven Tunneling Machine

C.J. Burke's .sig card #66: Dot Breeze

C.J. Burke's .sig card #65: Swords to Plowshares

C.J. Burke's .sig card #64: Guardian Gargoyle

C.J. Burke's .sig card #63: Spell-free Zone

C.J. Burke's .sig card #62: Red Ghost

C.J. Burke's .sig card #61: Warwick's Wedding Spell

C.J. Burke's .sig card #60: Slag Pile

C.J. Burke's .sig card #59: Lost City

C.J. Burke's .sig card #58: Die Hard

C.J. Burke's .sig card #57: Catapult

C.J. Burke's .sig card #56: Psychic Elemental

C.J. Burke's .sig card #55: Stick 'em Up

C.J. Burke's .sig card #54: Dwarven Weaponsmith

C.J. Burke's .sig card #53: Dwarven Armorer