Red Rising Playing Cards

[RandyButterfield]

Hey Everyone,

I have a new design launching on Kickstarter next week - Tuesday, February 1st at Noon EST.

The officially-licensed Red Rising Decks are designed by me and feature Character Illustrations by Briana Crotinger (pb.doodles). She’s awesome with conceptual art (my weakness)! The Decks are based on the first trilogy of Red Rising books from author Pierce Brown.

Utilizing Briana’s beautiful character drawings as the centerpiece, the design for the Red Rising Decks is meant to let them shine and to complement PB’s drawing style. The 12 Court characters depict the characters of:

HEARTS:
Darrow / The Reaper
Virginia / Mustang
Sevro / Goblin

SPADES:
Ragnar Volarus
Aja / Protean Knight
Cassius / Morning Knight

DIAMONDS:
Nero au Augustus
Octavia / The Sovereign
Roque au Fabii

CLUBS:
Fitchner au Barca
Victa au Julii
Adrius / The Jackal

JOKERS:
Darrow O’ Lykos
Eo of Lykos.

No 24 Hour Early Birds for this one. The Red Rising guys wanted to keep the Pledge Tiers to a minimum.

Thanks, Randy

[RandyButterfield]

Some more images

[Sir Toddalot]

Looks awesome! I love the books.

[hsbc]

The gilded sets signed by the author are a nice touch

[BaconWise]

Great representation of the books and I am so excited to get my hands on these!

Can you include an add-on where we get gold wings implanted into the back of our hands? Asking for a friend.

[RandyButterfield]

Great representation of the books and I am so excited to get my hands on these!

Can you include an add-on where we get gold wings implanted into the back of our hands? Asking for a friend.

Thanks Sir Toddallt, HSBC and Baconwise!

This one has been a blast. We’re hoping we’ll be able to do a design for the second trilogy in a year or two.

Baconwise, your add-on request gave me a stretch goal freebie idea - custom Temporary Tattoos!

I’m looking around, and it’s definitely doable at a good price. I think we would do 2 or 3 sheets, that way we could squeeze in each of the 14 color sigils (around 2” x 2” per sigil). That could be fun and cool.

Thanks, Randy

[vasta41]

I don't know what this is but I'm in! Looks great as always, Randy. Who's the printer? LPCC?

[STLBluesNut]

i know nothing of the books but i do like the tuck and back designs. the courts however, i am not a fan. most of the characters look good but a few of them don't look great. Not sure i could articulate why though. JoH QoC JoC and QoS

[Bradius]

I really like the design. It is great to see how you can take some great art and translate it so well to playing cards.

[shkorc]

Like the illustrations, but not a fan of how the two halves are merged. To me it looks like the courts were flipped, then a black sharpie was used to blend them together.

[RandyButterfield]

I just saw that Jared Hansen is gonna have Temporary Tattoos for his Tattoo Decks.
So I’ll most likely not even mention that idea to the Red Rising guys, as a show of respect to a fellow Deck Designer.

Thanks, Randy

[Bradius]

Like the illustrations, but not a fan of how the two halves are merged. To me it looks like the courts were flipped, then a black sharpie was used to blend them together.

I generally would agree with you. In almost any other case, I would not like this type of transition. However, I think this transition really works well with this art style. That was one of the reasons I commented that I really appreciated how Randy was able to translate this art into a playing card design.

[Harvonsgard]

Not feeling the mash between what I would call pencil style illustrations and modern design elements at all.

[hsbc]

Not feeling the mash between what I would call pencil style illustrations and modern design elements at all.

It's definitely a weird mix, I'm not sure how I feel about it

[Bradius]

I guess I may be in the minority. I am just reminded of Randy's back designs for the Pollock series. Here was how the overlay went to make the 2-way design work as one of the best transitions ever to make a 2-way design.

PollockSchematic1.JPG (70.73 KiB) Viewed 10014 times

Pollock Campaign Image1.JPG (80.32 KiB) Viewed 10014 times

I still have my brick and brick box.

[BaconWise]

Halfway funded already. Go get some!

[Gilded]

Well got stuck in a meeting and missed the gilded set so this is the first Butterfield set I won't be getting I guess.

[RandyButterfield]

Well got stuck in a meeting and missed the gilded set so this is the first Butterfield set I won't be getting I guess.

We underestimated how many Gilded Sets we should have. Joel is asking Pierce if he’s open to signing more than 200 sets (400 Stickers).

If so, we’ll add some more Gilded Sets.

Thanks, Randy

[hsbc]

Well got stuck in a meeting and missed the gilded set so this is the first Butterfield set I won't be getting I guess.

Keep checking, people will drop their pledges/add-ons throughout the campaign

[alric]

I always appreciate how Randy designs decks that are meant to be used and played. Fading the colored corners to black to prevent edge reading is a subtle, but considerate and functional feature that preserves the integrity of the deck for actual card play. I hate it when a designer utilizes full bleed printing that gives away the suit of the deck, or whether they're court cards or spot card. They are either unable, or unwilling, to make the effort to modify their design to make their decks usable without sacrificing their art or design.

Adding the random holographic card in each deck makes it a fun challenge to try to put together a complete holographic set. I can see a robust trading market for the extra card, kind of like putting together a special set from the inserts in packs of baseball cards. I wish Randy would make a special empty holographic tuck that can be purchased by collectors who are willing to try to put together a compete holographic deck.

I also like that the House of Mars deck is actually an excellent cardistry deck. The bold full bleed backs and the faces with colored corners will allow for great fans and spreads. The only negative I have with these decks is that it's printed by Legends in China. I think the Red Rising decks would've been an ideal deck to be printed with Carta Mundi.

[Strag]

Adding the random holographic card in each deck makes it a fun challenge to try to put together a complete holographic set. I can see a robust trading market for the extra card, kind of like putting together a special set from the inserts in packs of baseball cards. I wish Randy would make a special empty holographic tuck that can be purchased by collectors who are willing to try to put together a compete holographic deck.

I think that would be quite the expensive deck to put together... even more expensive if it's put inside the sealed tuck as opposed to coming on the outside.

We underestimated how many Gilded Sets we should have. Joel is asking Pierce if he’s open to signing more than 200 sets (400 Stickers).

If so, we’ll add some more Gilded Sets.

Thanks, Randy

Maybe consider doing an unsigned gilded set? Might help satisfy demand.

Interesting design, but cost and subject matter not for me. That said it looks like it's gonna be huge!

[hsbc]

[Harvonsgard]

I still chuckle everytime I hear free after I pay $100+...

[STLBluesNut]

I still chuckle everytime I hear free after I pay $100+...

lol. free is always built in and never free when purchasing another item to get something free. if it were free free i should be able to just email him and get one free without joining the campaign at all.

[RandyButterfield]

I would love to see how many actual free items you guys would have available, with your Deck.

The Holographic Cards are “free” as well (each Deck ordered gets 1 Holo Card). We’ll be spending over $4,000 on the Holo Cards and over $1,000 on the Brick Boxes. Free ain’t cheap for the KS Creators!

Thanks, Randy

[Bradius]

Randy:

Are there going to be any full decks of holocards available, or just the cards included with the orders?

[STLBluesNut]

I would love to see how many actual free items you guys would have available, with your Deck.

The Holographic Cards are “free” as well (each Deck ordered gets 1 Holo Card). We’ll be spending over $4,000 on the Holo Cards and over $1,000 on the Brick Boxes. Free ain’t cheap for the KS Creators!

Thanks, Randy

nothing would be free if i had a campaign. i think the point here is that the items are included and accounted for in the price. i am sure you are not just giving up $5000 out of profit or your own pocket. that $5000 is accounted for and distributed into the over all price of campaign items so that your margins still work out. which is completely fine.

[BaconWise]

I still chuckle everytime I hear free after I pay $100+...

I think offering a custom brick box is hardly something to scoff at. Perhaps it's because I offered a similar thing for those who backed a half-brick or more, but there are real costs associated with custom anything. Randy is offering this as a courtesy, rather than as an entitlement. Yes, a brick of cards is costing backers $150, but they are also heavily discounted ($12.5/deck), so he isn't getting full value per deck. Add in a free custom brick box and you can realize he isn't recuperating much of his project costs with brick backers at all.

[Bradius]

As someone who does spring for bricks of decks more than most people, it is fun to get them as they are incredibly more rare than the typical deck issues. They also make a really nice display for all of these decks you order. Obviously, getting them does incentivize folks like me that are not resellers to purchase a large number of decks. This helps sell more decks to get better price points for printing decks, or even get to minimum orders. Getting the lower pricing per deck also helps. Anyway, it is a nice incentive. I don't know if this brings in a ton more deck sales. Again, as a collector, it is fun when you can afford it. I tend to go for a brick and brick box over an insanely expensive exclusive deck. But that is me.

As I said earlier, I really like my Pollock brick box. In this case, I am not a fan of this material, so I will probably pass on a brick set. If I was a fan, I would be all over getting a brick box.

[STLBluesNut]

ok, i have to chime in again after looking at the campaign. for the base deck, which offers no other features over the Rome deck he made a bit over a year ago, this deck is $4 to $5 (EB) more expensive. the brick is $150 versus $112 for Rome, which also had a custom brick box. so what is free again? look, a complimentary extra holo card is included, i would expect the deck to be more expensive. you are doing this for a living and have expenses and a family. i get it, we all work for money and need to make a certain amount or it isn't worth doing. the only thing labeled in the campaign as free is the brick box.

so anyone thinking these are freebies, you are paying for them in the cost of the decks. again, that is fine. i suppose it is all semantics and marketing in the end.