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A quick 'hello'! I’ll come up front and admit to you: I LOVE designing magic cards. I have a friend who shall be dubbed “da wayfarer,” and him and I have designed and planned many a set together. But none of them ever got completed. I have files upon files of cards that should be in a set right now but have died in design. And that is something I don’t like happening. After hyping it with each other for a month and tons of deigning, it dies. And there is a reason for this: we didn’t design these sets properly. And that is something I am determined to rectify. This column is something of a culmination of what I have learned while trying and failing. I hope to inspire future designers not to fall into the same pits that I have. What this will look like. This column will eventually cover all important aspects of set design as I have found them. My methods may be different from others, but it helps me very much. The most important aspects as I see them are:
This column will help you future designers in how to create a set. And, to make things interesting, I will be using your comments and designing a set parallel to what the readers say. When I finish an article, people can write to me and give suggestions for where to go with this set. You will be able to see the completed set as we move along and I will show you the set as we finish it. That way, you can see how the other general public approaches set design. The first thing you need to have. The first thing any set will need is a storyline. The first question I expect will be asked is “What if I don’t feel like writing a novel?! I want to create cards!!!” The main thing that aspiring designers need to understand is that it need not be a fancy, 300-page work of art. A storyline could be a short paragraph or even just a 1-2 sentence summary of the set’s plot. This way, you don’t start churning out vanilla cards. When you have your storyline. These are some examples of a concise storyline:
As you can see, a storyline doesn’t need to be big and huge. The cards you make should more or less be a part of your story line to give your set/block more flavor. The occasional random card is fine, but I find that without following the storyline, I always wind up with 70% random cards. If you do create a literal work of art of your story line, it only makes it easier to do that and the second part of today’s column. Placenames and Adjectives: "Plane-ing" your cards.
…etc., etc., etc. That helps you relate your cards and flavor text to your plane to give it more life and flavor. This helps your set create a more organized feel and make it easier to relate too. A set without some commonality between the cards is either A) A core set, B) An old set, or C) Reeeeeeeeealy unorganized. To avoid being unorganized, the tribal terms help tie the set together. That’s this week’s space. If you would like to contribute to the set TGP is creating via your input, drop a line to epsilonforce(at)hotmail(dot)com. Include your idea for the storyline, a “lexicon” for your set, and your “name” (not your real one, please). [Oh No! Real Names! Eek! ~Streetz~] Ciao, You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular
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