2012 DW Convention ~ Cripple Mr. Onion Card School

[Jan Van Quirm]

Have heard from Brian the Chairman - he's passing on the idea to the Monks of Cool (who're in charge of the ancillary event programming). They had at least 1 THUD workshop last year so I guess it'd be easy enough to tag this onto that for a Discworld Games area

I'm going to do the 4 extra suits based on the Discworld Caroc as we have Roundworld suits which are based on trad Tarot (wands, cups, swords and pentacles) and that'll also make it easier to put it into our current theme

Now I'll get back to Mystmoon hunting!

 

[meerkat]

Let me know when you've you;ve finished them, I'll see if I get any vibes off them!

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Well I did the turtles for the minor Arcana which is a mix of Roundworld and Discworld so we have Crowns (instead of Swords) and Octangles (instead of Pentangles) and Wands and Cups still (as the disc versions are turtles and elephants and we already have them on the backs anyhoo.

Apparently for Cripple Mr. Onion with 8 suits you have to pair the suits off so this sort of works out OK by putting Crowns with Spades; Octangles with Diamonds; Hearts with Cups and Clubs with Wands - I think that works out with the elemental connections meerkat? Let me know if not.

 

[meerkat]

Sounds good. i could cope with that. And the higher Arcana?

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Getting to that

I've heard from the Monks today - just an acknowledgement with a contact, so it's looking 'cool'. If you're prepared to volunteer for doing 'Caroc' readings, using the Round world Major Arcana (with DW equivalents - e.g. The Low King could be the Emperor and Elf Queen High Priestess maybe?) then that's the way to get it staged for 1 session at least over the long weekend.

I've done the number cards for the minor arcana last night so I'll post them up later on today - they look really spiffy although how the hell you're gonna remember all the rules for playing CMO I don't know

I'm doing a seperate pack for the Major Arcana anyway - there's no definitive listing of the Caroc aside from MAD's link on wiki which is mainly concerned with CMO, so I'm keeping the minor arcana in line with standard playing cards which means I'm ditching the Knight (or Page - whichever's not the Jack equivalent) so they'll be light of 4 cards but I will include 2 more jokers so we'll have 4 in all There's also another wiki dedicated to Caroc on L-space

Meerkat - do you use the entire tarot deck or just the Major Arcana for readings. I know people do both and we want the minor Arcana anyway for CMO so I'm doing the lot but it seems a lot less complicated to keep the Majors just for occult reading purposes else it'll get hideously complicated! It's apparently possible to play games (like Bridge) with the Major Arcana as trumps but that's going too far I think so for that I'd prefer to simply adapt DW Caroc to the Roundworld and stick at 22 cards for that please else we'll start getting really skewed and my brain's about to wave the white flag as it is We can talk about that on IM anyway

 

[meerkat]

I use the higher arcana cards.

I once had a very nasty experience with the nine of spades which was enough to put me off for a while. I don't mind doing readings... if I don't miss anything at the Con that is!

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Whoa! I just read this email from the Monks properly! 8)

this is what they say...

This sounds like an interesting and fun activity. We should have several small rooms this time around so fitting it in should be no problem. So, yes: fan activity, sounds fun, we have room: I think we
can fit you in the programme.

This item sounds like something that should indeed actually run by
someone involved in making the cards, so I'll just see whom you
appoint as volunteer No doubt you have also noted the theme of the
convention. We are trying to get the whole convention and programme in
this theme, but we have not yet decided on details yet. I would like
to come back to you on how to make the activity fit the theme. This
can be very limited to just something simple in the description
("Visit an authentic Ankh-Morpork card making shop") to something more
involved. It will all depend on what we are going to do and what your
group can come up with (and of course, what you all think is fun to
do).

If you have any questions, remarks, appointed a volunteer, please
don't hesitate to contact us.

Regards, Eelco

Replying to them to say that we have meerkat on occult duty and I'll help out with giving out decks so long as I don't have to actually play the damn game

If anyone else is going to the con and would like to help out with running the 'shop/gambling den' then pipe up please! Especially if you're good at poker or blackjack!

So guys - I've heard from Mystmoon and she's still in and doing the Death (Spades) series (subject to confirmation); Cheery's doing the Watch (Clubs) now and Bikkit and Archer are going to help and we have 6 suits to make up and a Major Arcana (22 cards) to find characters or scenes for...

I've got the extra 4 suits number designs cracked and will post them up in here later with the 'work schedule' Kidding - we've got well over a year to work on this so plenty of time and no pressure


In the meantime I think we need to get this topic out of the Drum as it keeps getting buried so needs a quieter place to stay 'up there'...


TONY - COULD THIS BE MOVED INTO THE TERRY PRATCHETT FORUM PLEASE! (with the past convention-related stuff)

 

[The Mad Collector]

if I don't miss anything at the Con that is!

You are guaranteed to miss lots of things at the Con. At any one thime there are usually 7 or 8 different things happening and you have to choose which you really don't want to miss

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

I'm sure we can have 'by appointment' sessions if it comes to it It sounds like we can be in something that's like a drop in area so there'll be a way to get around any clashes I'm sure

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

OK - this took so long!

Samples for the minor Caroc suit cards

Octangles

Crowns

Cups

Wands

 

[The Mad Collector]

Aren't they all turtles Jan or am I missing something?

 

[ShadowNinjaCat]

It's the patterns on their shells ,Mad.

 

[The Mad Collector]

OK, I can see it now but I have to look carefully rather than just glance at the card so I don't think this would work during actual card playing. You want to be able to quickly sort suits and this is just going to be too slow.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

It's all in the patterns and they're a bugger to theme even though essentially it's a copy/paste job from the template and 'simply' changing the links so the size and orientation are consistent... Actually I've been thinking about the recognition side of it especially if we're using Caroc as well, so I'll just put the symbol only under the numbers/letters as per standard Roundworld decks

Time to recap what we're doing with the court cards peeps as we have 4 new suits to 'cast' and find artists for. Although we have plenty of time, because we now have space for more themed sets and the higher Arcana for the Caroc cards to match I'm making some executive decisions although we can still discuss details and the artists will have some say in how the suit they're illustrating is made up (if there's a query after the character we can talk about about it basically)

First the 4 'decided' suits which are based on the traditional Roundworld sets.

Suit ~ Spades
Theme ~ Death series
Artist ~ Mystmoon
Characters ~ A -Death; K - Mort?; Q - Susan; J - Death of Rats? Albert?

Suit ~ Hearts
Theme ~ Witches series
Artist ~ TBA
Characters ~ A - Granny Weatherwax; K - Nanny? Verence?; Q - Magrat; J - Nanny? Greebo? Jason Ogg (love of iron)?

Suit ~ Diamonds
Theme ~ Wizards
Artist ~ Cheery?
Characters ~ A - Librarian? Alberto Malick? Hex? Ponder?; K - Ridcully?; Q - Eskarina; J - Rincewind? Librarian? Dr. Hix?

Suit ~ Clubs
Theme ~ The Watch
Artist ~ Cheery
Characters ~ A -Vimes; K - Carrot; Q - Angua; J - Nobby & Colon? Detritus?

Jokers/Tricksters (as this is the 8th convention we'll have 8 of 'em I think - 1 for each set! ) ~ Dr. Whiteface; Beano/Edward d'Eath; Verence? Malvolio Bent?; Luggage?; Nobby & Colon? Gaspode? Greebo? CMOT Dibbler? Daft Wullie? Lu Tze? Moist?

The second set will be based on Roundworld tarot cards (with the Knight removed). These will be more 'fit for purpose' so I've decided the themes for the 4 suits, but again specific characters are open to negotiation and dscussion

Suit ~ Crowns (pairs with Spades)
Theme ~ Heads of State
Artist ~ TBA
Characters ~ A - Vetinari; K - Verence? Low King?; Q - Elf Queen? Magrat?; J - Moist? Lady Margolotta?

Suit ~ Cups (pairs with Hearts)
Theme ~ The Gods
Artist ~ TBA
Characters ~ A - Wintersmith (is named as Ace of Wands so use regardless); K - Blind Io? Fate?; Q - The Lady? Anoia? Patina?; J - Om? Offler? Anoia?

Suit ~ Octangles (pairs with Diamonds)
Theme ~ Supernatural
Artist ~ TBA
Characters ~ A - Black Aliss? Lily Weatherwax? Angua?; K - Baron Uberwald; Q - Lady Margalotta; J - Reg Shoe? Mrs. Cake? Mr. Ixolite? Mr. Gryle?

Suit ~ Wands (pairs with Clubs)
Theme ~ The Guilds/AM people
Artist ~ TBA
Characters ~ A - Vetinari? Moist?; K - Moist? Harry King? ; Q - Rosie Palm? Queen Molly?; J - CMOT? Canting Crew (Gaspode, Foule Old Ron etc)?

Lastly the cards that are for seeing into the future and not for playing with... The Caroc.
There isn't a lot of info on these - the best I can find aside from the Cripple Mr. Onion link was on L-space wiki. Also they're organised differently to the Roundworld version with the minor arcana only going up to 8 for the numbers (including the Ace) and have 4 court cards making 12 cards per suit and 30 major arcana cards (the ones generaly used just for readings) making 78 in all.

So another decision to makes thing easier for us Roundworlders who're gonna to be strugging with 4 extra suits anyway - totally adapt them to Roundworld sets (by adding a 10 card and ditching the Knight) and culling the major arcana to 22 so that meerkat can still read them properly - Terry's not specified all the cards anyway so Discworld equivalents will be adapted where possible but again sticking with the Roundworld system. Because of the significance of the major deck meerkat will decide how they're translated and therefore she'll also choose the characters/scenarios although some of them may need talking through! Once she's come up with an adapted system then our artists can then pitch for who does what.

Sorry to do such a horrible info dump but I needed to get this all put down semi-clearly so we can tame it all and start assigning 'work' in earnest. I'm PMing the people who've expressed an interest in designing the suits already and will go back to the Art thread and link to this post so everyone gets a chance to work on this that wants it and regardless of whether they're going to the convention

 

[archerinwood]

I could probably do malvolio bent ( the joker). I am not the best drawer in the world but I could give it a shot.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Well have a bash at him if you like archer and then if you start to get into it you can maybe try some more

OK - suit symbols. Keeping the turtles as they'll look better printed but the symbols to go under the number or letter on each card will be more distinctive - like this...

 

[meerkat]

ok, going to spread a set of cards today and see what I think will be more important and suitable.

22 ideas will arrive hopefully by the Sunday or at least Tuesday (I am in hospital on Monday).

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Plenty of time as we discussed already meerkat - hope it all goes OK on Monday

 

[meerkat]

Thanks Jano.

I've decided to squint at my 'odder, sorry, more unusual' packs, such as the round ones. And the unique ones (new age/angel cards/rune cards etc).

I know there's no rush, but I do so like looking at them!

 

[Jan Van Quirm]