Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn
With the success of The One Ring rpg, Cubicle 7 and Sophisticated Games decided the time was right to publish the first spin off product for the line - A storytelling card game called Hobbit Tales.
Designed by multi-award winning designers Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, players take the role of Hobbits in an inn in Middle-earth, telling tall tales of their exploits, directed what shows up in their hand of suitably evocative cards.
It struck me as hugely important for a game like this that there be a minimum of visual interference from the graphic design. I wanted the players to feel “in” the world, not simply looking at a bunch of cards designed in a typical card game style. The play style is light, fun and hugely atmospheric and we needed a visual design ethos that would reflect and heighten that.
The game also presented the challenge that players can use the title of the card, the quote from JRR Tolkien's text which appeared on the card, or the art as an inspiration - in play these elements can work separately around a theme, rather than all being about the same thing. Unusually the art had to provide inspiration to the players beyond merely illustrating a title, which called for some smart briefing, and a team of savvy artists who could wrap their heads around this unusually subtle idea. Each card needed to be able to be used again over and over to tell unique stories.
We also had constraints of budget, and a need to re-use certain elements from the core brand of the roleplaying game wihtout diminish value to the customer.
After a great deal of head scratching I came up with the plan to make the cards appear as fragments of the table within the pub itself. Artwork would appear as sketches or paintings in books. Text would appear on scraps of paper and parchment laid on, or tucked into these books. Everything, much to the chagrin of our indefatigable and very patient graphic designer Paul Bourne, would be on an angle. All icons used would be “in world” items of a suitable scale that whilst they’re visually recognisable and easily readable, would disappear within the “in world” feel. So we have pebbles and coins, leaves and in-world tokens providing all the information to the players, without stepping out of the Middle-earth context.
As always there were some necessary compromises made to this plan, and the complexity of it in practical terms almost broke us, but the end result is an absolutely beautiful game, and hats off to Robert Hyde of Sophisticated for the idea of making the cards in the larger “tarot” format.”
Designed by multi-award winning designers Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, players take the role of Hobbits in an inn in Middle-earth, telling tall tales of their exploits, directed what shows up in their hand of suitably evocative cards.
It struck me as hugely important for a game like this that there be a minimum of visual interference from the graphic design. I wanted the players to feel “in” the world, not simply looking at a bunch of cards designed in a typical card game style. The play style is light, fun and hugely atmospheric and we needed a visual design ethos that would reflect and heighten that.
The game also presented the challenge that players can use the title of the card, the quote from JRR Tolkien's text which appeared on the card, or the art as an inspiration - in play these elements can work separately around a theme, rather than all being about the same thing. Unusually the art had to provide inspiration to the players beyond merely illustrating a title, which called for some smart briefing, and a team of savvy artists who could wrap their heads around this unusually subtle idea. Each card needed to be able to be used again over and over to tell unique stories.
We also had constraints of budget, and a need to re-use certain elements from the core brand of the roleplaying game wihtout diminish value to the customer.
After a great deal of head scratching I came up with the plan to make the cards appear as fragments of the table within the pub itself. Artwork would appear as sketches or paintings in books. Text would appear on scraps of paper and parchment laid on, or tucked into these books. Everything, much to the chagrin of our indefatigable and very patient graphic designer Paul Bourne, would be on an angle. All icons used would be “in world” items of a suitable scale that whilst they’re visually recognisable and easily readable, would disappear within the “in world” feel. So we have pebbles and coins, leaves and in-world tokens providing all the information to the players, without stepping out of the Middle-earth context.
As always there were some necessary compromises made to this plan, and the complexity of it in practical terms almost broke us, but the end result is an absolutely beautiful game, and hats off to Robert Hyde of Sophisticated for the idea of making the cards in the larger “tarot” format.”
Doctor Who Card Game
Given that there have been many Doctor Who related card game products on the market over the years I was very keen that Cubicle 7’s game bring something new and fresh to the table. The obvious choice was to use stills from the show, but this presented a visual problem: Within the game players create battles between The Doctor and his Companions and Adversaries which take place in familiar locations from the show. To use photographic stills meant bringing along the backgrounds to those stills, which created a confused narrative. Equally this approach had been used many times before.
I decided that we would attempt to use a contemporary painted style, working very closely with photographs of the cast and locations, and assembled a team of artists who could handle this high level of production art. This wouldn’t simply be making illustrations of a given subject: The style had to be cohesive, match the colour palettes of the show, pass strict approvals, and all hang together as a complete and seamless experience on the table.
Likewise the graphic design needed to match the aesthetics of the show, whilst also bringing something new. There is a tendency in card games to retread very well trod ground - with art in the top half of the card, and text in a box below, all surrounded with a computer generated frame. This didn’t seem the right approach for Doctor Who. I’m extremely interested and highly invested in breaking out of received wisdom on the visual design of games, whilst keeping a close eye on the right level of accessibility and familiarity. With that in mind I decided to run the art right across the card, with title and necessary game text placed on semi-transparent “straps” across it. The cards almost become playing pieces, which was very gratifying to see in play.
The game was the recipient of the 2013 Origins Award for Best Card Game.
For the Second Edition of the game I have taken this approach even further. The translucent bars are gone, the backdrops to the characters are even more solid colour for greater readability on the table and an even slicker, fresher look, and text is now in Gill Sans - a personal favourite “British” typeface which I was hugely gratified to see used by the BBC for Doctor Who.
The end result is fantastic, and a table full of the cards looks wonderfully engaging, with an absolute minimum of visual noise between players and the Doctor Who experience.
I decided that we would attempt to use a contemporary painted style, working very closely with photographs of the cast and locations, and assembled a team of artists who could handle this high level of production art. This wouldn’t simply be making illustrations of a given subject: The style had to be cohesive, match the colour palettes of the show, pass strict approvals, and all hang together as a complete and seamless experience on the table.
Likewise the graphic design needed to match the aesthetics of the show, whilst also bringing something new. There is a tendency in card games to retread very well trod ground - with art in the top half of the card, and text in a box below, all surrounded with a computer generated frame. This didn’t seem the right approach for Doctor Who. I’m extremely interested and highly invested in breaking out of received wisdom on the visual design of games, whilst keeping a close eye on the right level of accessibility and familiarity. With that in mind I decided to run the art right across the card, with title and necessary game text placed on semi-transparent “straps” across it. The cards almost become playing pieces, which was very gratifying to see in play.
The game was the recipient of the 2013 Origins Award for Best Card Game.
For the Second Edition of the game I have taken this approach even further. The translucent bars are gone, the backdrops to the characters are even more solid colour for greater readability on the table and an even slicker, fresher look, and text is now in Gill Sans - a personal favourite “British” typeface which I was hugely gratified to see used by the BBC for Doctor Who.
The end result is fantastic, and a table full of the cards looks wonderfully engaging, with an absolute minimum of visual noise between players and the Doctor Who experience.
