Making your own power cards

Khaalis · Apr 4, 2008

Another question. Do you have to customize the game and style files for each template? None of the styles I have downloaded have included these files.

Ashardalon · Apr 4, 2008

Huh. In the mse-style folders, there should be a style file already, along with the necessary image files (a few pngs and several jpgs). Simply unzipping the zip file you downloaded in the data folder should add the folder to be ready to be used. Lordpenguin over on the MSE forums suggested checking the file permissions of the folder and the style file.

Knight Otu · Apr 4, 2008

While we're trying to fix that...

Lord Tirian said:
@KnightOtu: If you like it, feel free to include it on the MSE forums. I'm off tinkering... perhaps I'll produce something useful... - I always want to hear suggestions, if possible.

The DDM-style colors seem a bit too muted, though that may just be my crappy monitor. Otherwise, I like what I see.
Also, I've gotten off my lazy behind and added

a default script to automatically determine which color to use for the card (red for encounter, green for at-will, normal for the rest (daily)). Other colors can of course still be selected manually. That's in the game file, so it works with your templates just fine.
a png with a black header for my templates. Since your templates don't have (and don't need) such a file, I turned it into a style option that replaces the light grey. It's active by default (if someone wants the light grey, it can be turned off, and for individual cards if you want to mix light grey and black).
the center text option to my templates. I don't think anyone will need it, but you can choose to center none of the text boxes, either of the text boxes, or both text boxes. Do you want me to add that to your templates?

WhatGravitas · Apr 4, 2008

Knight Otu said:
The DDM-style colors seem a bit too muted, though that may just be my crappy monitor. Otherwise, I like what I see.

Let me double-check, when I get the time. I used the preview DDM cards to get some colours, but I was visiting my parents the last two weeks, so I've worked on a different monitor... I'll check back when I get the time.

Knight Otu said:
Do you want me to add that to your templates?

Yes, please!

Cheers, LT.

Ashardalon · Apr 4, 2008

Now also downloadable from the file library (first post).

Khaalis · Apr 4, 2008

Ashardalon said:
Huh. In the mse-style folders, there should be a style file already, along with the necessary image files (a few pngs and several jpgs). Simply unzipping the zip file you downloaded in the data folder should add the folder to be ready to be used. Lordpenguin over on the MSE forums suggested checking the file permissions of the folder and the style file.

Thanks for checking into it. Everything works perfectly fine on my XP system. I'll have to double check the folders and file permissions (though I have full admin rights) on my Vista system. I'll have to let you know if I can figure out why it wasn't working in Vista. I could see and access the style files that were installed via the MSE installer, but not any that were attained via download.

Oryzarius · Apr 5, 2008

Fun to find this thread! (New member, first-time poster).

I've been working on the same concept, albeit in a different format than MtG-sized cards. Mine are landscape-format, third-of-a-sheet pieces, created in Adobe InDesign -- I hate reading small text, and there's a lot of detail in some powers, particularly the advanced Wizard spells we've seen in the DDXP page previews. The design is not as lavish as some of examples here, since I tend to eschew backgrounds for readability (and ink savings!).

I've used color-coded borders for classes (to make it easier for different players to find their own cards and fish them out of the discard pile after the encounter, for example) with a different border style to distinguish encounter from daily powers (since I figure at-will should go on the character sheet).

I think I've figured out how thumbnails/attachments work, so I've attached some examples.

Knight Otu · Apr 7, 2008

Oryzarius said:
I hate reading small text, and there's a lot of detail in some powers, particularly the advanced Wizard spells we've seen in the DDXP page previews.

I agree that this can be a concern, but since the cards don't have to be the same size except for convenience, that can be solved regardless of how they're created.

ianleblanc · Apr 10, 2008

Wow! fantastic! Awesome! These are but some of the many words that come to mind!

The only thing I would recommend, would be to use the original abbreviations like dex and 2[w] instead of of words like 'weapon' or 'weapon times 2' in the descriptions. I figure this might help with the space issue, plus it will make it more consistent with the WotC books.

And maybe have background cards that indicate whether its a daily/encounter/at will power.
(this could also be done on the borders)

But seriously, these are the best fan made products I've ever seen!
Congrats guys!