Illevar Update Blog - More Printed Test Materials

A Phenomenal Tuesday to You All!

I hope this week treats you like the amazing individual that you are. It's getting hotter and hotter in Nagoya and Summer is just about ready to rear it's glorious, yet deadly, face upon us.

This past weekend, I was finally able to get some supplies to craft more test cards and begin the process of getting things tangible. We acquired sleeves from one of our local game store along with some bulk Magic: The Gathering  cards to act as their base. 

Along with that, we made some art for some low level sample monsters and got those sleeved up. All of the stats for the monsters are currently located in the designated Google Sheets file. 

I also worked on making an Items List over the weekend and I'm hoping to get the sample cards built and ready this week, pending work, so that by the end of June I can run a full sample encounter.

Let's See It Already!

Okay, geez. Slow down there. 

We'll start with the test prints of the monsters. The pictures were drawn by my partner and myself. I am hoping as the project gets closer to finishing that I can hire an actual artist. 

After that, we have another image of what the battle scene will look like followed by what the Player's Side will look like. It has the Class Card, Abilities, Items and Equipment. 

Elite Monsters

Battle Scene without background.

Player's Side.

So things are really, truly, finally starting to take shape. There is so much more to accomplish and hammer out, but I'm incredibly happy that the ideas are starting to line up and take physical form. 

Moving Forward

The next steps are to begin making and printing out the items and equipment cards. I have a good chunk of those already started in Google Sheets. They're divided by rarity and type. 

As rules get more solidified, I'll be constantly updating these spreadsheets in order to create the best experience that I can for my players. 

Materials

Small blurb here talking about some ideas for marking statuses and for materials. 

For status effects, I am thinking of using similar status markers as the ones used in the Pokemon TCG. Using small circle markers with images on them that dice could easily sit atop of to mark the duration and check numbers.

For the Ability cards, I think using double-sided cards would be best. Abilities can level up (Illevar Part 2 post) so instead of having new cards for each one, we could simply flip them over to their improved side. This will save cardboard and headaches hopefully. 

Lastly, for the Class Cards, I want sturdy cardstock to be used. I was able to finally get a glimpse and feel of the Shadowverse TCG cardstock and it's wonderful! They have these very study "base cards," I think that's what they are, but either way, they have an exceptional feel and weight to them.

Closing

Thank you as always for tuning in. This project has been one of the saving graces of the pandemic for me and I'm hopeful to get something presentable and playable soon. Maybe after learning how to use Tabletop Simulator, I'll upload onto that application to start testing with people around the world, but that is still a far off goal. 

I hope you'll all continue this fun journey with me.

That's all for today's post. You can always tune in again next week. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter.