Talossan playing cards, redux

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Back in 2019, I designed a set of Talossan playing cards. Two days ago, I decided to do it again, for some reason. Here is the result.

The four suits are:

• bedposts / torps (clubs),
• daggers / tuzalts (spades),
• lanterns / lanternăs (hearts), and
• bence / bents (diamonds).

I'm not much of an artist, as such I based the court card designs very heavily on the playing cards commonly in use in Morocco, which some slight twists: Jacks are meant to look like hunters, based on their Talossan name (lançeir, lit. "shooter"), the Knights (the southern Mediterranean equivalent to Queen cards) are supposed to be female though I believe I failed at that, and Kings are inspired by this silly image of Ben.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to iterate on these designs if you like.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

This is unbelievably amazing! Wow!

[Üc R. Tärfă]

As a Mediterranean myself I'm very familiar with those designs. I like them a lot, especially the King! May I suggest

- to use the same "Ben" symbol is used in our coat of arms and a more golden shade? Those heavy symbols and the dark gold/orange make me think of Dragon Balls and not bents ;D 

- to flip figures in 2 suits left facing? This would give them a more realistic flavour to other cards designs.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

May I suggest [...]
- to flip figures in 2 suits left facing? This would give them a more realistic flavour to other cards designs.

I changed the suits of lanterns and bents to have left-facing figures. Let me know what you think.

[Üc R. Tärfă]

I still get the "dragon ball feeling" with that symbol and colou, but I'd like the flipped figure: they're definitely more real! I'd love t play with them 😂

BTW: on 2 and 1 the Ben symbol is not coloured.

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

These are great! I wish the smaller images had similar detail to the larger ones (such as the Ace or 2), but I understand that it may get lost in the smaller sizes.

Did you leave the Ace and 2 of bents as outlines on purpose, instead of filling them with black like the rest of that suit?

I would love to see if we could get these into production and maybe even develop some Talossan card games!

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Did you leave the Ace and 2 of bents as outlines on purpose, instead of filling them with black like the rest of that suit?

Yes I did, originally I had planned to have them all be outlines but I quickly realised that this wouldn't work.

[Audrada Roibeardet]

Great minds think alike, I had a similar idea awhile back. Except, I was planning to design a 40 card deck instead of the more standard 52 card deck. Thought Talossa could go it's own way with playing cards.

[Iason Taiwos]

We Cjovani made a 75 card deck (Cartas Cjovani) with five suits...apple, trumpet, dagger, star and flame, as well as a couple of games using such cards. (One such game, kintoufle, is like a cross between chess and poker.) (We also briefly worked on a tarot/fortune-telling deck.) (I applaud you for actually getting the card designs done. When I said we made a deck, I meant that it is just at the "drawings on notebook paper" stage.) (Is there money in the bank to get a few of these Talossan decks made? I think Vitx and I once looked up how much it costs to print playing cards, and it wasn't as expensive as we would have thought.)

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Great minds think alike, I had a similar idea awhile back. Except, I was planning to design a 40 card deck instead of the more standard 52 card deck. Thought Talossa could go it's own way with playing cards.

I figured it was easier to shorten a long deck than it is to extend a short deck, and with 52 cards you have the flexibility to play most games.

I'd like to add that a 52 card deck isn't that standard where I'm from! Most decks I've seen are 32 cards, that is pre-shortened for games like Skat.

[Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat]

We Cjovani made a 75 card deck (Cartas Cjovani) with five suits...apple, trumpet, dagger, star and flame, as well as a couple of games using such cards. (One such game, kintoufle, is like a cross between chess and poker.) (We also briefly worked on a tarot/fortune-telling deck.) (I applaud you for actually getting the card designs done. When I said we made a deck, I meant that it is just at the "drawings on notebook paper" stage.) (Is there money in the bank to get a few of these Talossan decks made? I think Vitx and I once looked up how much it costs to print playing cards, and it wasn't as expensive as we would have thought.)

Once the budget is approved, MinCulture has set aside 66¤40 ($100 USD) for Culture Initiative Support Fund grants. I think this falls well within the eligible category for such a grant.

[Iason Taiwos]

Vitx is currently working in a game store as a summer job (they sell Dungeons and Dragons stuff, board games, and trading card games)...well, apparently this place has the capabilities of printing custom cards. I'm going to get with him and see if we can print a sample deck using Marcel's designs, just to see how it turns out. I'll keep y'all posted.

[Iason Taiwos]

Vitx is currently working in a game store as a summer job (they sell Dungeons and Dragons stuff, board games, and trading card games)...well, apparently this place has the capabilities of printing custom cards. I'm going to get with him and see if we can print a sample deck using Marcel's designs, just to see how it turns out. I'll keep y'all posted.

So, almost exactly two years later...
Since this post, Vitx has become owner of the store (and it has become a Talossan Embassy in Ohio.)
I was scrolling thru pics on my phone, and saw Marcel's card designs which I had saved. I thought this would still be an awesome idea, to get decks of these manufactured. (So, Vitx can print out cards...he does custom Magic the Gathering cards for some of his customers... but I don't think they are of the professional quality we'd be looking for.) From my meager research into playing card manufacturing, producing a few Talossan decks would be expensive, but not insanely so. The question is...would it be worth it? Could we sell enough to make it worth the time and effort?
Stuff like these playing cards, or our coins and stamps... I don't think we've been proactive enough in trying to sell them. Slap that on eBay... "Kingdom of Talossa Rare Micronational Coin/Stamps". Some people who would never join Talossa still collect stuff like that.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

I've had some custom playing cards printed as part of personal projects, and it seems like getting an individual standard deck printed costs roughly $20 (economy of scale applies).

However, before we get to doing that I'd really like to make changes to these designs once I have the free time -- I'd like to think that my graphic design skills have improved over the last two years...

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Once the budget is approved, MinCulture has set aside 66¤40 ($100 USD) for Culture Initiative Support Fund grants. I think this falls well within the eligible category for such a grant.

@Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP This might be something for the current version of the Culture Initiative Support Fund. @Iason Taiwos The playing cards would probably garner a lot of attention in the Micronations subreddit channel.