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Hi all! I wanted to have something physical to show my players when it came to access cards. They offer such a cool opportunity to show this advanced race that the PCs only know little about at the beginning. So I came up with a template in photoshop, added in a number of sci-fi easter eggs, and started making my own.
I've made the original five brown cards that the PCs can gain from Sef, and will be doing the black card they can find in the room with Hetuath next. I'm going to look ahead and see how many of each type I'll need to make based on what can be found. I'm not bothering with ones they want to purchase, I figure those will only be a lower level but can make new ones on the fly if I need to.
Hope you like them! I'd be happy to answer any questions about what various parts mean or the design choices too.
Brown Cards - Found on Sif
Black Card - Found in room with Hetuath
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The sigil for Divinity is an Art Deco piece I found for the Voyager.
The watermark is an insignia from Star Wars.
The individual portraits are just from various google searches. I hadn't intended to share these out much beyond my own private boards and here, so hadn't gathered the artist names. Just searched for "sci fi portraits" and went from there.
Very nice, although, personally I'd prefer the color of the card to play a more prominent role. I like the QR code. :)
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Going to post more of these later, but figured the GMs would want to know some of the details about what they actually say/mean:
Banner (Top Right):
Language Choice:
Words under Banner (Top Right):
Words under Portrait (Middle Left):
Central Words (Middle):
Bottom Words (Bottom Middle):
QR Code:
Regarding language: The Georgian language has a cool alphabet that can be used if you want something that looks alien and is not immediately recognized by everyone. It looks like this:
ეს არის ქართველი ანბანი
Regarding language: The Georgian language has a cool alphabet that can be used if you want something that looks alien and is not immediately recognized by everyone. It looks like this:
ეს არის ქართველი ანბანი
I like this, as it more accurately matches the description of the Androffan language, curvy. (The the Firefly homage is nice too, Karui Kage). If only there's a language that is both curvy and incorporated dots, that would fit the description perfectly.
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Georgian was considered, but it and similar languages have been used for Celestial and Elvish and such for so long that I wanted something very different. We used Japanese for Tian, but Chinese hadn't been used for much yet, so... and yeah, the Firefly bit helped. :)
Nothing completely matches the example runes for Androffa sadly, so in the end it's just a placeholder. Meant to be something no one in my game understands and looks like symbols, which Chinese does a great job at.
If only there's a language that is both curvy and incorporated dots, that would fit the description perfectly.
Arabic could probably fit the bill, but is also too easily recognized, and I think the recognition breaks verisimilitude for things like these.
If only there's a language that is both curvy and incorporated dots, that would fit the description perfectly.Arabic could probably fit the bill, but is also too easily recognized, and I think the recognition breaks verisimilitude for things like these.
I agree.
I scrolled through Google Translate for half an hour, :P, and found 12 languages I thought fit and were foreign enough (the examples all say 'Divinity'):
Bengali দেবত্ব
Gujarati દેવત્વ
Khmer ទេវភាព
Malayalam ദിവ്യത്വം
Marathi दैवी
Punjabi ਬ੍ਰਹਮਤਾ
Sinhala
Tamil தெய்வீகம்
Telugu దివ్యత్వం
Thai เทพบุตร not totally foreign in name, but the writing is foreign enough
Urdu دیوتو like Arabic, so not completely esoteric, but I thought I'd throw it in
Yiddish דיוויניטי
My favorite is Tamil, it's curvy and incorporates dots. It even translated words like 'android' and 'nanobot' properly! :D My second is Thai, I think it really fits well.
Just for reference:
Chinese (Simplified) 神
Georgian რობოტი this says 'robot' because 'Divinity' doesn't translate well.
Arabic لاهوت
Very nice.
Karui Kage, would you be willing to share the photoshop template? My characters are half-way through scrapwall so want to create some newer versions - like white etc.
I'll use this in my game! Very nice!
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The problem with using Chinese is that it heavily overlaps with Japanese, (Kanji are Chinese characters). Since, as you note, Japanese is already in use, Chinese is probably not a good choice for an alien script.
A quick bit of digging turns up the font "Mara's Eye", which is actually pretty close to what we see of Androffan:
Or we could figure out just who to poke at Paizo to find out if they made a complete character set and if they'll let us use it for home made player aids.
Were we using Tian more (it may help to say this is for a PBP game), then Chinese as alien may not have worked. As it is, we haven't used Tian since Jade Regent, so it works. Admittedly, it was part Firefly-reference, and part-no one in my group understands Chinese. :)
Mara's Eye is *very* cool. Sorely tempted to replace the current work with that. The main problem I had with a direct a-z translation is I liked the idea that Androffan, like Thassilonian, used more of a rune -> word system then a direct letter based system. At least, that's the impression I get. Chinese/Japanese/other symbol based languages seemed to fit better, with one or two symbols representing one or two words.
Not that I couldn't still do that with Mara's Eye, of course. Will need to ponder.
As for the photoshop files/more of these, I shall put all of those up soon. My weekend is coming up (Sun-Tues) so I'll be posting more then.
As for the photoshop files/more of these, I shall put all of those up soon. My weekend is coming up (Sun-Tues) so I'll be posting more then.
Great, thank you :)
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Still getting the PSD file in a place I want it, but I did add on some functionality for the Mara's Eye font in addition to the Chinese one.
Chinese Version
Mara's Eye Version
I really like the Mara version. Excellent, and its white to boot :)
I didn't notice but until I saw your details but Mara is actually readable if you look closely. Even more excellent since I have one character fluent in gothic but it would make sense by the time characters enter the arena in scrapwall that they have been exposed enough to begin getting it.
MORE PLEASE!
The white access card was a hit in the game tonight.
:)
I liked a lot the Mara Eye version!
Hi Karui, any chance of making the rest of the lOrd of rust cards or sharing your template?
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Sorry I haven't been able to put up more of these lately guys, real life attacked me. That said, I *did* get a rough template together, which includes spots for both Mara's Eye and the Chinese fonts. I hope it helps!
As a request, if you use this to make more, please share them here (with translations and such) :D
Thanks Karui. I couldn't figure out how to replace the headshot (wouldn't let me paste into the layer) so just ended up making a new layer go over the top then hiding the actual portrait. Here is Engineer Zara Helios (green).
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Ah, yeah. The headshot was the only part that isn't an easy fix. What I did with those:
1. Delete the original headshot.
2. Place a new headshot just below the "frame" layer. Size appropriately for what I want in the frame.
3. Select the frame layer. Magic wand everything outside the frame (just click with it anywhere outside).
4. Select the headshot layer. Delete everything selected. This should leave just the headshot inside the frame intact.
That's about it. Green looks awesome! :D
Thanks Karui. Here is another, very campaign specific for me - Battle Sister Izumi Angilello.
And another - Hadrak Alquesta.
Four more - the Gray Access cards from the Haunted Wreck. The poor sods who tried to escape but were burned up in the landing and then reanimated as under technicians.
In fact I will slowly be adding them as my party needs them so feel free to check out the access card tag.
Thanks. I'll add more as my characters need them. No access cards in The Choking Tower.