Card Warden?

[RDewsbery]

Has anyone tried importing Pathfinder ACG to Card Warden (the card game "sandbox" on the iPad)?

I'm *far* too lazy to attempt such a thing, but I suspect that it could be a really neat way to play PACG on the move.

[ralsar]

Yep works great. Takes awhile to scan everything in, but its a great way to game on the go. And you can save your game so you can play in short bursts.

[rune_74]

Can you share those scans??

[Vic Wertz]

rune_74 wrote:

Can you share those scans??

That would be a violation of copyright.

[rune_74]

Heh, I own it already I guess I will just have to do it myself:)

[RDewsbery]

Vic Wertz wrote:

rune_74 wrote:

Can you share those scans??

That would be a violation of copyright.

And that's the one huge drawback of Card Warden. It looks like a great way to play card games on an iPad, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to share art files. And there mustn't be an easy way to share aret files, or it becomes an exercise in wholesale copying of other people's games. Which means that users have to scan everything in themselves, for each game that they want to play. Too much trouble for me. I can think of ways that game publishers might use Crd Warden to provide customers with the necessary card scans, but why would they? Extra work for no return, and the risk that the artwork gets out "into the wild" at some point.

But for the industrious types, it's one way to take Pathfinder with you to play when out and about.

[rune_74]

The problem with the IPAD 2 as well is the camera sucks...you need to make a decent setup that you just slide the cards under then hit the take photo button then it would take a few hours to get them all in.

[Mark Moreland]

I tried this out tonight to get a feel for how Card Warden would work within the context of the PACG, and I'm not sure how it would work, even if a player were to scan all the cards.

I used the sample cards we've put up on the blog just to see how well I could generate location decks and then draw from them, and I couldn't figure a way to do it without knowing ahead of time what was in each stack. The only way I could do it was to make a different "deck" of each card type, then randomize each one and draw the prescribed number of cards from each one when generating the location deck. Then I had to go back to the deck organizer and manually create each of these decks from "box." I also couldn't find an easy way to remove the cards from their respective stacks so that I didn't randomly draw a unique item, monster, or ally from the box that was already seeded at a location.

So, asking as someone who'd love to play the PACG solo on my iPad while I'm on the bus or relaxing on my patio, how exactly does this program allow me to do so? Is there something I'm not getting?

[ralsar]

I made a deck of every card type then I store those decks in one of the slide panels that are on the game table. I randomize each deck and build location decks by drawing cards from them. And I have easy access to them whenever I need to banish cards or draw from those decks.

The problem is that all the decks look the same with the same card back so you have to remember which deck is which. To rememedy that I am going to make a custom background eventually with a label for each deck. Then I just load each deck into it's respective spot on the game table.

You also have to edit the various boon decks after each scenario to remove the cards that are in your character's deck. This, as you pointed out, is the biggest issue with this type of game on Card Warden. But what I do is just keep the same game going forever. I don't start a new game after a scenario. I just build the next scenario. So the cards in my character deck are always "in-play" and not in the decks.

Ultimately, this isn't any more or less cumbersome then the normal setup outside of easy shuffling. But it is nice for lunch breaks, time with the wife, church, pooping etc.

And yeah I can't share card scans. Card Warden is a great tool to play games on the go, but as soon as we start sharing card scans it becomes a great tool for game piracy. Having to scan the cards yourself is the only real method of ensuring that you own the game.

[Mark Moreland]

Thanks for the tips, ralsar. If and when you make that custom background, I'd be interested in seeing it. It should be sharable under the terms of the Community Use Policy.

Any advice for loading in all the cards, especially those with different content on both sides? The card import screen seems set up for decks of cards that all have the same back, making the importing of character cards, locations, and scenarios/adventures particularly cumbersome. I wish the app had better documentation.

[ralsar]

Double sided cards are a pain.

You need to scan one side then choose that side as the back to your card when you scan the other side. On the right hand side towards the bottom is a screen for card backs. You can choose any card to be the card back for the card you are scanning in.

EDIT: David just posted about Card Warden with some screenshots of him using it for PACG

[rune_74]

I am finding it really easy to scan the cards in, since there are so many duplicates it cuts down the time required.

Funny someone mentioned the custom backgrounds, it would be also nice if he could add the ability to put a text note on the background.

Neat little program.

[Fentum]

Check out the Mage Wars forum on BGG for several interesting discussions about allowing cards to be made available to the general public to play a game on line. In that instance, it is the OCTGN system.

See also Memoir 44 on VASSAL.

In general, the physical player base has really benefitted from open access to card images for on line / remote play.

[Deekow]

I'm still working on the scanning bit, so it's taking me awhile, but...

I started with the double-sided cards scans and then stopped right before I finished them all and scrapped it. The only cards that have double-sided game mechanics are the ones that you want to see both at the same time (character cards, and scenario cards), so having 2 copies of each is just fine. With 2 copies of each, you don't need to worry about them being double-sided.

It's making the scanning go SO much easier just having the same backs on everything and keeping 2 cards of each that I need double-sided for in the first place.

The one trick I can see with the different decks in storage (I had the same thought, by the way) will shortly be remedied with being able to import tokens. Just keep a different token for each deck type, and make sure you store each deck with the correct token. Voila!

[Mark Moreland]

I hadn't even considered the fact that the cards that are double-sided are never randomized and thus didn't have to be imported that way. Too bad I scanned them all this weekend already. Still need to import all the single-sided cards into the app, but since the double-sided ones are all done, I might as well just keep them.

As for storing each deck, I plan to make one deck for each card type and put it in one of the many drawers in the table view. I was just going to draw myself a key, but now that you mention the tokens, I will totally do that once that functionality is added. For simplicity's sake. I'll be starting with all the cards in the base/character add-on/Burnt Offerings set and just grow from there. I'm going to skip the Perils of the Lost Coast adventure for my digital playthough. Then I'll just keep a perpetual table going so I never have to worry about making sure the cards in my character deck are adequately removed from the boon decks so I don't throw off randomization of the remaining cards.

[mahgnilloc]

I'm planning on scanning Pathfinder Adventure Card Game soon. Has anyone who has done this got as far as needing to upgrade their characters? I wondered how you have or are thinking of handling that?

Tokens maybe?

Thanks

[Deekow]

mahgnilloc wrote:

I'm planning on scanning Pathfinder Adventure Card Game soon. Has anyone who has done this got as far as needing to upgrade their characters? I wondered how you have or are thinking of handling that?

Tokens maybe?

Thanks

Tokens for sure... I have created small tokens with 5, 6, 7, etc for the hand size upgrades, and other tokens with shorthand abbreviations for 'LtArm', 'HvArm', 'Weap', Dex, Int, Str, so on and so on.

Before the token upgrade, I was just using the token counters on each card and having to remember what they might have meant. Thank the gods for the token patch!

[Nymisis]

I just got started on my scans and I'm finding that I either have to scan one card at a time (which will take forever) or they end up askew more often than not. How is everyone else dealing with the actual scanning as to keep the cards square?