Making your own power cards

[sunspot]

Sunspot, I love your cards. I noticed some editing issues, though. Is there something some of the rest of us can do to help you?

Absolutely!

For starters, advice on layout modifications is always welcome. Furthermore Pointing out editing mistakes is also greatly appreciated, (I would rather you email me those, in order to not clog the thread). But most importantly I need to have the powers in txt format, in order to facilitate cut/paste of power descriptions. If you find a good link for this please let me know!

Thanks for the support!

I will do my best to have all the powers out within 1-2 weeks.

 

[Netminder69]

Complete Fighter Cards

These two archives hold the .jpg files of the complete set of Fighter cards. Including Paragon Paths and Class Features.

These were used with Randal's template in MSE. I tried to keep the body text as clean as possible, so any action type, attack parameters etc. that had a box on the side to place the info are not represented in the body text unless there's something special about them. Even so it made it hard to fit everything on the card sometimes (Kensei Weaponsoul dance being the hardest).

In regards to the action icons, I used the weapons surrounded by a circle to represent utility, special action, or support abilities. Ones without the circle are attacks.

Enjoy. If someone has Illustrator/Photoshop, etc and wants to put these images onto a sheet, please be my guest. I don't have those programs myself.

EDIT: also, if someone wants to host these somewhere, be my guest.

MSE creates images that are 7.5" high. To make them the size of playing cards they should be scaled to 3.5" high x 2.5" wide.

Have fun with the new edition!

 

[Iceman75]

Absolutely!

For starters, advice on layout modifications is always welcome. Furthermore Pointing out editing mistakes is also greatly appreciated, (I would rather you email me those, in order to not clog the thread). But most importantly I need to have the powers in txt format, in order to facilitate cut/paste of power descriptions. If you find a good link for this please let me know!

Thanks for the support!

I will do my best to have all the powers out within 1-2 weeks.

A general request that you incorperate backs to them, please?

Thank you for all your hard work

 

[sircedric4]

I did not see this power card thread when I made this thread:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=229430

Or I would have put the information here instead. Now that I am more educated, here is another little file I put together for making your own power cards.

I put together an Excel file for my own personal use to make and fill in trading card size blanks for the character powers in 4e. After looking at all the powers in the Player's Handbook, it appears as if most of the powers are pretty consistent through most of the levels. With this in mind I decided to attach a little database to my power card blanks to create a generator so that once I enter a character's powers it will be there for any future characters.

I liked it so much that I decided to throw a few directions on it and I added to my website for all to use. I am posting it here so that you guys can use it for your own games. Please take a look and let me know if this is something you can use, and give some constructive feedback. It meets my needs but I know some other player's are more demanding.

The link is:
http://beliefsciences.com/4efiles.html

There are screenshots in the other thread I referenced.

 

[halo99]

Unrelated website, but that excel sheet is awesome.

How long did it take to make?

Thank you very much for this.

EDIT: Loving the sheet however a few questions.

1) How do i add more power slots seeing as there is only 6.
2) I just added the 4th power, and all of the "cards" afterwards seem to have become that card, is this meant to happen?
3) Is it possible to order the drop down menu?
4) Is it possible to add in power levels? (On the drop down menu as well)?

 

[sunspot]

A general request that you incorperate backs to them, please?

Done!
I've added to my folder a pdf with Nytmare's excellent card backs.
It's a separate file, just reverse page and print.

Here.

 

[sircedric4]

Unrelated website, but that excel sheet is awesome.

How long did it take to make?

Thank you very much for this.

EDIT: Loving the sheet however a few questions.

1) How do i add more power slots seeing as there is only 6.
2) I just added the 4th power, and all of the "cards" afterwards seem to have become that card, is this meant to happen?
3) Is it possible to order the drop down menu?
4) Is it possible to add in power levels? (On the drop down menu as well)?

Yeah the website is not exactly related, outside the magic theme, but it is the only webspace I have access to so I took advantage, and a little traffic never hurts. At least I did link straight to the files without all that crappy popup stuff people do.

I'll try to answer your questions, and keep in mind that the database file hasn't exactly been "user-friendlyed" yet.

1. There should be 9 power cards. It would be relatively advanced to add more cards to the existing page, which is why I added the drop down menu. Setup the cards for the powers you want and print it, then setup for the next cards. All the data stays in the database so you only have to use the name box to find it again.

2. The power on the cards have to be reselected right now after every power added and every sort of the database. I just enter the powers I want all at one time, and then choose the ones I want to print right before printing.

3. You can order the dropdown menu by sorting the database page. You can sort it anyway you want using the Excel Data sort function but there is already two sorts "macro'd" using the dropdown on the database page.

4. Now that you pointed it out, I do see where I didn't have the power level on my cards. I will see about fixing that and adding it to the dropdown menu. Having not gotten to play yet, this kind of information is great. Levels to be added.

It took me about 8 hours with the programming and formatting to complete the file. I did it basically for my own uses but I was so happy with its simplicity and use I added it to the greater web so that other's could use it if they want. I hope you enjoy it and I'll fix the file and get a new one up in a few hours.

 

[Ander00]

The Set (dnd_powers_set.rar)
This set consists of 1127 cards in total, including the powers from classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, feats and races (from the PHB and the MM, as well as Dragon issues 364 through 367), as well as blank cards to fill in for the different item types (though you can also use the template to make finished cards for different items).

By popular demand, I have included things like second wind, power attack and various class features. I'd rather not muddy the waters like that (for example, second wind isn't supposed to interact like that with effects that recharge encounter powers) and further increase each player's hand size, but the information is there on cards now for those of you who want it.

Also contained in the set are swordmage powers from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, and the barbarian powers from Dragon 368.

If you're using a template based on Randolph's "D&D" game file, you can probabably still use the set, but you will have to reenter some of the information.

There is also a separate set (contained in bard_n_druid.rar) that includes the powers for saric's bard and malcolm_n's druid. I've made a few cosmetic changes to them ('1 [w]+...' to '1[W] +...', etc. , but that's as far as my editting went (except for a few isolated cases like the bard's Mind Fog power, which was missing a target line and listed the targets in the attack line).


The Template (mse-template-Ander.rar)
The template should work properly with MSE versions 3.0.6 and 3.0.7, and includes a style option for completely bland (or more printer-friendly, if you will) and not quite so bland cards (see attached samples). Comes with its own MSE game file.


Installing the Template
In case you are unfamiliar with MSE and aren't sure how to load a set, here are some short instructions to point you in the right direction.

• Download and install MSE version 0.3.6.
• Put everything from 'mse-template-Ander.rar' into the 'data' directory of the MSE installation.
• Extract and open the 'core_complete.mse-set' contained in 'core_complete_set.rar'.

If you have never dealt with .rar archives before, you may need to get WinRar or some other compression tool that supports .rar files.
If you have previously used MSE, you might have to delete the 'mse8.config' file found in your '...Application Data/Magic Set Editor' directory.
If you have problems with MSE itself, you might have to download the Windows 9x fix, even if you are using Windows XP.


Power Card PDFs
If you are so inclinded, you can download the whole set in PDF form.
I'd still advise you to use the MSE option because you can easily make your own corrections as needed, add your own cards, and specify exactly which cards you want to print. But if, for some reason, you cannot get MSE to work, maybe you can get some use out of these PDFs.

With the 30/06/08 update, these cards are out of date. There are PDFs further down the thread, at least to the point of the 05/07/08 update.


Browsing the Set
You'll probably find browsing the set most comfortable sorting by the 'Power Class/Type/Level' column. The 'source' column might be hidden by default. If that is the case and you want to have it shown, you can activate it in the menu under 'Cards->Card List Columns...'.


Printing the Cards
MSE assumes a paper size of A4. There are some tips on getting it to work properly for other sizes further down the thread.
__________________

Edit (07/06/08): fixed a few errors in the set.
Edit (08/06/08): corrected erroneous information about compatibility.
Edit (09/06/08): a few more fixes to the set; also added the warforged DDI material.
Edit (14/06/08): corrected a few more errors and incorporated the PHB errata.
Edit (14/06/08 #2): another small fix to the set; added short installation instructions.
Edit (14/06/08 #3): added link to the power cards as PDFs.
Edit (18/06/08): changed PDF link to an up-to-date versions (thanks to Colawley).
Edit (30/06/08):

• More fixes: Added the missing Shadow Veil and Bolstering Strike Powers. Fixed errors in Frontline Surge, Deadly Payback, Raven's Glamour, and Hurl through Hell.
• Added powers for saric's bard.
• Added powers for malcolm_n's druid.
• Added powers for the swordmage.
• Added wizard illusion powers from dragon 364.
• Added warlord pack master powers from dragon 364.
• Populated the cards' 'source' field.
• Added powers for class features, second wind, and power attack.

Edit (05/07/08):

• Fixed a few errors (mostly cosmetic, with the most glaring ones being a wrong icon for the Nimble Strike exploit, and removal of the 'DRUID' placeholder card).
• Incorporated errata for the powers from Dragon #364 (please let me know if I missed any).
• Added powers for the artificer playtest from Dragon #365.

Edit (25/09/08):

• Added the remaining powers from Dragon up to issue 366.
• Added swordmage powers from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide.
• Incorporated the latest errata to the core powers.
• A few more error corrections.

Edit (30/10/08):

• Added the powers from Dragon 367.
• Added the barbarian powers from Dragon 368.
• Moved the fan-made bard and druid to their own set.
• A few more error corrections.

cheers

 

[MrJamela]

Now that (almost) everyone has their books, here's the update to my MSE template, as well as a complete set of cards. I hope some of you will find either of those useful.
If you like, feel free to host them on the Fan publishing site (I'm just not getting a gmail account for that), or do whatever else you please with them.

They look great!

Has anyone made a PDF of these?

Jaime

 

[syndalis]

They look great!

Has anyone made a PDF of these?

Jaime

Making PDFs from these things is a major PITA; all the printouts are HUGE.

 

[Asmor]

Just download a PDF distiller. For example, CutePDF.

It installs a virtual printer which you can print to from any application. Thus you can make a PDF from any application which you can print from.

 

[Bayuer]

@Ander00
Wow man! Thats a great stuff. Best on ENworld! Gratz!

@MrJamal
Here you go
http://sharebase.de/files/IQnFsh0G17.html

 

[mindshadow2k]

Just download a PDF distiller. For example, CutePDF.

It installs a virtual printer which you can print to from any application. Thus you can make a PDF from any application which you can print from.

Hehe the issue is not the actual software to create the pdf, its the Magic Card Editor software and how it converts its data. When you go to say just print off like a single set of say Cleric spells it sends an almost 1gig file to the print spooler and that is just 11 pages. Although good news is tat the 11 pages when completed printing is only 14 mb, but it still takes a long time to crunch through the spool job.

If you try to print off the whole thing then well you kinda SOL. It is like you have to do 1 page at a time, which is not very fun.

This is unless I am missing something in the MSE app.

FYI other then that I love your cards @Ander00, they are exactly what i was looking for. I did pretty much the exact same thing in an image application as opposed to MSE, but only finished with the first level spells for all classes. Now if I could just get yours to not create a 1 gig spool job... grrrrr

 

[Duckforceone]

sad to see that tintagel removed all his wonderful templates from the website..

now we have no nifty great looking templates for power cards...

 

[Veilheim]

Absolutely!

For starters, advice on layout modifications is always welcome. Furthermore Pointing out editing mistakes is also greatly appreciated, (I would rather you email me those, in order to not clog the thread). But most importantly I need to have the powers in txt format, in order to facilitate cut/paste of power descriptions. If you find a good link for this please let me know!

Thanks for the support!

I will do my best to have all the powers out within 1-2 weeks.

Sun, do you want these as a word/doc file or a pure text file? I've got the cleric powers all done, just need to know exactly how you want the file format.

 

[Ander00]

In case you want those, I have most of the powers in word files now (I didn't use this mode of operation for warlord powers, which I did first, so those are missing). The warlock ones I only have with some abbreviations ('Constitution modifier' -> 'Con', 'Fortitude' -> 'Fort', etc.), all others I should have in full and in that variant. Also, at least the name, flavor text and rules text should work fine if you load my set with your template.


cheers

 

[Daelkyr]

Now that (almost) everyone has their books, here's the update to my MSE template, as well as a complete set of cards. I hope some of you will find either of those useful. ...

And helpful they are. I'm running a game tonight and they have sped up char design to no end. Thank you very much.

On a related note, how does one edit the files so they can add their own race in the keyword drop-down menu? I want to add Warforged to the list of races.

Thanks again.

- Josh

 

[Ander00]

You could just type it in of course, but if you want to add it to the drop-down menu, all you have to do is to find the following part in the game file:

	word:
		name: Tiefling
		line below: true

And replace it with:

	word: Tiefling
	word:
		name: Warforged
		line below: true

cheers

 

[Veilheim]

In case you want those, I have most of the powers in word files now (I didn't use this mode of operation for warlord powers, which I did first, so those are missing). The warlock ones I only have with some abbreviations ('Constitution modifier' -> 'Con', 'Fortitude' -> 'Fort', etc.), all others I should have in full and in that variant. Also, at least the name, flavor text and rules text should work fine if you load my set with your template.


cheers

Hi Ander, so I tried loading your files in (after upgrading) and mse blows up on me instantly. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Can you point me to where I might learn about not being stupid?

Thanks!
V

 

[GMLtd]

The Plan

So is anyone going to go through the Player's Handbook and do ALL the cards for (I like Troll's) template? That is an aweful lot of printing, wonder if a printing company would do it if it was JUST for personal use? After all, if WotC decide to make blank cards for personal use, why cant we print out a professional set of cards that are type faced instead of hand written. No one is going to sell the cards so no one will be making a profit. Blank cards already have the "You may photocopy this sheet for personal use..." tagged onto it.