Jessie's Prints - Episode 39 - Index Card RPG Card Back Stamps

This week, I are mostly been printing... Stamps!!

ICRPG CARD BACK STAMPS - Thing 6545499

My recent foray into the Index Card RPG system (ICRPG) involved a lot of DIY card making, which I love.

However, during play this presented a problem in that all my card backs where blank and indistinguishable from each other.  What I needed was a simple stamp which I could apply to my card backs.  

I find it useful to categorise my cards into one of 4 types:

• People - NPCs, Villains, Bio-forms
  
• Places - Locations, buildings, Landscapes 
  
• Objects - Things, weapons, loot, traps and trinkets
  
• Monsters - Stuff that wants to kill you
  

This would help me to keep my ICRPG cards organized and reduce seek times to a minimum and thereby make me look like a great DM.

Tinker Cad to the Rescue

My experiments making a plaque for my Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II model taught me that this was going to be easily achieved.  

Step 1 - Make a black and white image in GIMP where black is what you want stamped and white is what you don't want to stamp.  This image is then reversed and saved as a JPG or PNG.

Step 2 - Use convertio.co to convert your JPG or PNG into an SVG which can then be imported into Tinkercad.

Step 3 - Import your SVG into Tinkercad and scale it to fit inside your stamp pad.  Make sure that the stamp is at least 4mm high and that you create a backing plate at least 1mm high to connect all the pieces of your stamp together.  Position the stamp so that it intersects with the backing plate and then group the objects together.  Export this as an STL for your 3D printer.  

Step 4 - Make a wooden backing plate and handle for each of your stamps.  If you get into ICRPG you are going to be making a lot of cards and doing a lot of stamping so this step is essential for long lasting stamps.  I made mine out of some scraps of hardboard I had laying around and I glued some pieces of old broom handle onto the backing plates before supergluing my stamps together.  

You could of course model the whole thing in Tinkercad.

 

Step 5 - Stamp Away!! - I bought some cheap stamp pads from AliExpress less than £1.50 each and they have lots of different colours to choose from so you can have a different colour for each card type.

 

Buy Me a Coffee

I have shared the stamp patterns on Thingiverse, so if you like them, download them and print your own card backs.  Support the channel and please leave a tip in the jar or use the paypal tip link.   

The Perfect Gamer Notebook?

I have recently taken up the mantle as session reporter in the Savage Worlds Hellfrost game which is run every Friday night at my game group Dragons Keep Roleplay Club, in Chislehurst, South East London.

I've been using a less than practical A6 sized filofax style notebook that I bought as part of my Random Wish Roleplay Stuff challenge.  This got me thinking about...

What Should the Perfect Gamer Notebook Look Like?

The criteria are simple.  It needs to be:

• Sturdy and Secure - Your notebook will get tossed into a bag and rattle around with all of your other Roleplay gear so a sturdy cover is essential.  An elastic ribbon or similar to keep it all closed up would be double handy too.
  
  
• Good for Mapping - Having squared paper is essential when you get tasked with being the map scribe for the night.
  
  
• Lined for Legibility - My penmanship is not great at the best of times so having lined paper is an essential to keep your notes in check
  
  
• Good for Sketches - Sometimes you just need a space to sketch.  Maybe it's a character portrait, maybe an object or a symbol.  Having an unlined plain white background is useful if you want to digitise the image
  
  
• Session Info - A space where you can write that all important session info like date or session number.  Very helpful when you are playing multiple different games.
  
  
• Loose Pages - Having ring bound pages is a great way to keep your campaign notes organised.
  
  
• Compact and Bijoux - Let's face it by the time you have your rulebooks, character sheet, pencils, dice and tray, snacks and a drink on the table there's not much room left.  Having a large A4 sized notebook is probably a step too far, A5 is about the maximum size for the cramped playspace and still be a useable size.

Have you seen a great notebook.  If so pop a comment in the box below.

Another Vintage Boardgame gets the Rescue Treatment

This is my copy of Judge Dredd the boardgame which I have had since I was 10.

Sadly along the way I managed to lose a perp.  Careless of me I know, but in my defence it has been 39 years and two house moves.

Judge Dredd Boardgame (1982)

The miscreant in question was one Remington Ratner proprietor of Ratner's Rest Home for the Semi-Dead (which may have been a slight dig at the House of Lords) and featured in the story Body Sharks (progs 149-151).  

In game terms he is only semi dangerous (4) and body sharking is a mid level crime (5).  

Body Sharking and Organ Legging

According to the the 2000ADopedia (seriously needs a better name) body sharking is a very common crime and 1 in 4 (25%) of citizens will encounter body sharks in their lifetime.  Nevertheless Body Sharking and Organ Legging are heinous crimes and cary a mandatory life sentence.