Okay, I’ve wanted to write about this for a while now, but I’ve just been too busy.
Ready? Name of the Wind Playing Cards.
Okay. Hopefully I have your attention.
A while back, I fell in love with the work of Shane Tyree when he was doing a kickstarter for a deck of Cthulhu playing cards. I boosted their signal on facebook, they donated to Worldbuilders, and we bought some cards to sell in the Tinker’s Packs. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Later, I was delighted to find out that Shane had read my books. More than that, he was a big soppy geek for my books.
Which was a happy coincidence, as I was a big soppy geek for his art.
So we decided to join forces, forming a giant robot that fights crime. In our off time, we thought we’d make a deck of playing cards based on The Name of the Wind.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Kilvin, the King of Diamonds.
(You’re going to want to embiggen this….)
As those of you on my facebook fan page have probably already seen, Shane and I have been working together on these cards, doing public google hangouts so people hear me say things like, “could that face be a little bit less face?” then try to dig up pictures on the internet that show what the hell I’m talking about.
I cannot describe how fun this has been for me. I cannot draw, so art is magic to me. Getting to make art collaboratively with someone like this makes me feel like Gandalf the Grey, Merlin, and Harry Dresden all rolled up into one. Normally when I try to draw something, I feel more like Schmendrick the Magician (in the first half of the book.)
For those of you who haven’t seen them yet, the hangouts we’ve already done are available to watch on their YouTube channel. We’ll be doing more of them over the next nine days or so.
Why only for the next nine days? Well…. because that’s when the the Name of the Wind playing card Kickstarter ends.
Yeah. I’m bad. I should have posted a blog about this *weeks* ago. But I didn’t have any of the art to show off yet.
Like this:
Here’s the initial line art for the King of Hearts. One side is Stancheon, while the obverse is Deoch.
Not to geek out over my own project here, but they turned out So. Cool.
Okay. I’m not going to spend the whole time gushing here. There’s some specific news I have to give you.
- These are high-quality cards.
These cards are printed by the same folks that make Bicycle brand cards. They’re not shitty flimsy things. I wouldn’t do that to you.
- It’s not *just* cards.
You can get a bunch of stuff in the kickstarter other than a deck. You can get art prints based on the cards. Magnets. Dice.
You can get poker chips too. And not crappy poker chips either. You can get *nice* poker chips. Those cool clay ones you use in casinos.
Even better, our chips come with kingkiller iconography that I’ve helped Shane design. The red chips have the Amyr’s broken tower. The white chips are the talent pipes. The blue chips have…
Well. If you go over there and look you’ll see what they have on them.
You want a beautiful velvet-lined box to put those chips in, so everybody knows you’re bursting with extra savoir faire? They’ve got those too…
- We have cool stretch goals.
Jim has agreed to lend his likeness to the Ambrose card. Because he’s awesome.
This one needs a little explaining.
If we hit 160,000 dollars for this kickstarter, it will be the highest funded card kickstarter ever.
That means I’ll have played a part in two of the #1 funded kickstarters ever. (This one, and Torment.)
To celebrate that, I will make a video of myself singing one of my favorite songs. “I Crush Everything” by Jonathan Coulton.
I asked Jon if that was cool with him, and he says he’s okay with it.
More stretch goals will follow after we’ve smashed through these.
Sorry, *crushed* these.
- It’s for a good cause.
Kickstarter won’t allow funding for charity projects. It’s one of their rules.
But I *can* help run a Kickstarter and then use the money I get from it to support Worldbuilders.
So that’s what we’re doing. Albino Dragon (the studio in charge of this project) was a Worldbuilders sponsor this last year.
So if you head over and decide to buy some stuff, you’re not just buying some cool swag. You’re not just helping support independent artists create something awesome. You’re also making the world a better place, too.
- Supplies are limited.
Some of the stuff that’s up for grabs only has limited quantities.
For example, they’re doing two editions of the cards.
There will be two printings of the cards. The green back will be a limited edition. We’re printing them once, and when they’re sold out, there simply won’t be any more….
The burgundy back is the unlimited edition. We’re going to be printing those for as long as I have any say in the matter.
And here’s another thing. Something that’s *very* limited.
This, my friends, is a jot. A copper jot.
I’ve been working with a gentleman numismatist named Tom Maringer to develop the coinage in my world. Because I am a complete geek for coins.
This is one of our prototype jots. It’s not the sort of jot Kvothe would use though. Not quite. This is a jot that would have existed in the Four Corners several hundred years ago.
Tom and I are going to do several limited batches of jots, refining the design until it’s the same counterfeit-proof coin that exists in Kvothe’s world.
We’re only going to make 1000 of this version of the jot, and Tom has graciously agreed to let me add 100 of them to the card Kickstarter. So right now you can be one of the first folks to get one. But only if you jump onboard and before they sell out.
We just added these jots to the Kickstarter tonight, so y’all have a decent chance of heading over and grabbing some. But they *are* going to sell out fast.
I’m sorry for that. Rest assured you will be able to buy these jots later. But probably not online for at least another couple months….
* * *
That’s all I’ve got for now, folks. I’ll probably post up one more blog about this before the kickstarter’s over. But honestly, the best way to stay clued-in to what’s happening is to head over there and buy in, even if it’s just for one deck. That way you’ll get all the notifications they send out about new stretch goals, add-ons they’re making available, and cool art.
Like this, for example,
Later,
pat
P.S. Auri and Elodin are the jokers. If that doesn’t bring you in. I’m guessing nothing will.
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