The Workshop

Hello and welcome to the workshop, where you can pick up a few hints on making your own great quality card and board games.

Counters

For counters I now have a set system for producing cheap, professional, regular and durable counters. First of all I use 25mm plastic counters which can easily be bought through companies such as EM4 Miniatures (tell them Omnivistascope sent you!). Then you will need a 15mm circular craft punch available from most craft shops for about £2 (a few dollars). I then print my counters onto adhesive label sheets and punch out the counter designs. It helps to turn the punch upside down, with the image face up, so you can position the image centrally. Then simply remove the backing paper and place the label centrally on the counter. And there you have your counter. You can use different coloured counters for different purposes, print the design in full colour of course and experiment with other sizes and shapes.

Special Dice

Want dice that have different designs and numbers on them? Well, you can buy blank 22mm rounded dice from EM4 Miniatures (can you tell I'm hoping for some free miniatures? ;) and simply print our the faces onto adhesive labels, use your craft punch to cut them out and stick them onto the blank die. I made a very good 'Shunk Die' for 54 Jones using this method.

Cards

The easiest and best way I know of to make durable cards is to simply buy a pack of plastic card wallets as used with Collectible Card Games (try your local games/comic shop) and print your cards off to the same size. You can add blank card 'stiffners' to them if you can only print on paper. They come in both clear and versions with coloured backs so you can colour co-ordinate cards if you don't want to design a card back for them. All my game cards are designed to fit the standard card wallets.

Game Boards

For sturdy and lightweight boards I recommend foam board. It's available from art and craft shops and is a white meringue-like foam sandwiched between two sheets of smooth white card. It can be relatively expensive, so shop about, but an A1 sheet might make you a few games. The best way of attaching your board printouts to it is to first print your board on good quality smooth or coated paper and cut your foam board to size with a sharp knife and steel rule (watch those fingers/dining room tables!). Then using spray mount (available from arts and craft shops) spray the foam board or the rear of the sheets, and place the printouts carefully on the board and smooth down. Note: Spray mount/spray adhesive comes in permanent and repositional forms and most importantly is really evil stuff. Use strictly outside and for Messiah's sake don't breathe it in! It's airbourne glue!

Lastly...

You might find that for one game this works out as quite expensive, but you'll soon find lots of uses for all of this stuff. If you have any ideas you would like to add to the workshop, by all means e-mail me.

All the best

The Games Mechanic

Introduction

The Game

The Background

Downloads

FAQ

Introduction

The Game

The Background

Downloads

FAQ

Introduction

The Game

The Background

Downloads

FAQ

Introduction

The Game

The Background

Downloads

FAQ