I believe we need to look at the ways that we can make custom card creation more accessible for those who wish to go beyond making a single card or two. We have dozens of guides and articles written that can help teach a range of knowledge required. But these guides are scattered over dozens of websites, and forums posts. This makes it difficult to point to a single resource that we can point someone to.
I suggest we make another subforum for guides and primers on custom card creation.
Not only could this potentially act as this single resource point but it may mean more users are tempted to write their own guides, seeing that they would get an audience.
I want custommagic to be the best it can and I think this is one step of many that can help it be that.
Would you like a Guides, Primers and Articles subforum?
Would you be interested in writing a guide etc?
Any other suggestions on how to improve the custommagic community?
I doubt anybody would actually read a Guides, Primers and Articles subforum. The subforums we do have get comparatively very little traffic.
What I would like to see is the FAQ and stickies cleaned up and modernised. The Card Making FAQ thread is dismally outdated, and the Custom Keyword Encylopedia and Fantasy Art Thread are, in my opinion, just clutter. We've had the same set of dead stickies for a long, long, looong while now.
I mostly lurk CCC main, so maybe I'm out of touch, but I have a hunch I'm not the only one.
Welcome to the exciting world of Custom Card Creation, where your wildest fancies can be brought to life, discussed with other like-minded individuals, and even playtested in real games of Magic! Such a large, vibrant community can be daunting to take the leap into, so if you're feeling nervous about creating your first cards, then this is the guide for you!
Be respectful and constructive when critiquing cards.
This forum is not for proving you know more or are a better designer, ripping people's work to shreds, or for rude comments and heated debates. Engaging in any behavior that contributes to a hostile atmosphere rather than to a positive and supportive one will be treated as a flame or troll.
Always provide artist credit!
Renders are pretty, but without proper citation they'll only be replaced by angry red mod text. You can avoid this by including the artist's full name or screen name, as well as a link to the site you found the art on. If you, a significant other, or somebody else created the art, and you have been granted permission to use it, please mention this in your post.
Necromancy is forbidden.
Thread necromancy happens when you bump a thread that hasn't been replied to in a while, creating a mindless zombie thread. Zombies are smelly and just litter up the forum, so please practice your dark arts someplace else.
Don't double post.
Double posting, like double striking, is incredibly powerful and should be used sparingly for balance reasons. For example, you may bump your own threads with new content.
Making Magic
The long-running article series by Magic's head designer, Mark Rosewater. An invaluable asset from the man who knows Magic best. As this article series is so expansive, a choice selection of some of the best articles has been provided in the spoiler below.
The Design Series
101 102 103
Nuts and Bolts
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII
Color Philosophy Colors: White (Revisited) Blue (Revisited) Black (Revisited) Red (Revisited) Green (Revisited) Colorless Guilds: Selesnya Azorius Dimir Rakdos Gruul Orzhov Izzet Golgari Boros Simic Shards: Bant Esper Grixis Jund Naya Wedges: Abzan Jeskai Sultai Mardu Temur
Player Psychographics
Timmy, Johnny & Spike (Revisited) Designing for Timmy Designing for Johnny Designing for Spike Melvin & Vorthos
The State of Design
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Miscellaneous
New World Order
When Cards Go Bad
10 Principles of Design, pt. 1
10 Principles of Design, pt. 2
The Great Designer Search 2
Part article series, part game show. Wizards reached out to the best designers the community had to offer and pit them against each other for the chance to earn a paid internship in Magic R&D!
The Re-Making Magic Podcast
Produced by our very own Doombringer and Stairc, and often incorporating content generated from users of this forum, Re-Making Magic is an accessible discussion of Magic design from an outsider's perspective.
Goblin Artisans
Two contestants from the second Great Designer Search make cards and discuss Magic.
Magic Set Editor (MSE)
This little gem is used to make most of the renders you'll see posted in the site. Invaluable for the custom card enthusiast, with a ton of useful utilities for creating everything from single cards to entire sets. [Help Thread][Official Site]
Cockatrice
A program to play card games - including Magic - over the Internet. An invaluable resource for playtesting custom sets. [Help Thread][Official Site]
Great idea Doombringer. Like Chemtrails, I think the stickies should be completely overhauled.
The Custom Keyword Encyclopedia needs a complete rework. "Real"abilities could/should be contained in a spoiler in the first post. Identical custom abilities could be reduced to one, with variances of them contained in spoilers directly below. Abilities that are clearly unprintable could be removed entirely. Grammar and punctuation corrected. Mango updated. Etc.
We are definitely due for a sticky overhaul. I agree with the need for a better repository of knowledge and reference materials.
But we should also maybe think explicitly about how we make that stuff accessible to newcomers. After all we don't (necessarily) want to be like, "Haven't you read all the articles linked in the sticky?" That's a lot of material.
I'd focus on giving all the materials easy to understand names. New people still won't read them, but those who want to should be able to find them easily.
If I were in charge of our FAQ, I would order it as...
Rules
Proper formatting of cards on forums (and a link to detailed explanations of tag system)
Helpful Articles and Resources (links)
... New people really need to learn 1 and 2. Helpful articles make them better designers, but you have to be able to post your cards before anyone can help you become a better designer.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
But we should also maybe think explicitly about how we make that stuff accessible to newcomers. After all we don't (necessarily) want to be like, "Haven't you read all the articles linked in the sticky?" That's a lot of material.
This is a cultural problem, if it happens (and I doubt it will). We do not currently refer people to Making Magic, and I don't think we would if we were to have a well-ordered FAQ/resource directory. "What's a set skeleton?" a new user might say. Under the current system, they either ask or never know. At least this way they can check the article directory, see that set skeletons are explained in Mark Rosewater's Nuts and Bolts series (and/or Doombringer's article), and then know all about them.
Helpful articles make them better designers, but you have to be able to post your cards before anyone can help you become a better designer.
Yes, most articles are mostly not an beginner resource - but that doesn't mean we should ignore them. I figure we'd produce our own primer outlining the absolute fundamentals. In all honestly, I do not think it'd be very long.
Boreal DruidG
Snow Creature — Elf Druid (C) T: Add 1 to your mana pool. Some creatures are bound to the cold by Rimewind magic. Others seek it out, adapted by two thousand years of the Ice. The Boreal, where Heidar's frigid sway is strongest, is home to both.
1/1
.
What I would like to see is the FAQ and stickies cleaned up and modernised. The Card Making FAQ thread is dismally outdated, and the Custom Keyword Encylopedia and Fantasy Art Thread are, in my opinion, just clutter. We've had the same set of dead stickies for a long, long, looong while now.
Yes this is another connected issue and something that also I agree needs to be addressed.
I guess my thoughts with the Articles subforum idea is there isn't really a repository of knowledge, its all so scattered.
Who do we need to talk to about getting the stickies overhauled? I'd be happy to do it myself if the mods couldn't be bothered.
I suggest we make another subforum for guides and primers on custom card creation.
Not only could this potentially act as this single resource point but it may mean more users are tempted to write their own guides, seeing that they would get an audience.
I want custommagic to be the best it can and I think this is one step of many that can help it be that.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
What I would like to see is the FAQ and stickies cleaned up and modernised. The Card Making FAQ thread is dismally outdated, and the Custom Keyword Encylopedia and Fantasy Art Thread are, in my opinion, just clutter. We've had the same set of dead stickies for a long, long, looong while now.
I mostly lurk CCC main, so maybe I'm out of touch, but I have a hunch I'm not the only one.
The Custom Keyword Encyclopedia needs a complete rework. "Real"abilities could/should be contained in a spoiler in the first post. Identical custom abilities could be reduced to one, with variances of them contained in spoilers directly below. Abilities that are clearly unprintable could be removed entirely. Grammar and punctuation corrected. Mango updated. Etc.
But we should also maybe think explicitly about how we make that stuff accessible to newcomers. After all we don't (necessarily) want to be like, "Haven't you read all the articles linked in the sticky?" That's a lot of material.
If I were in charge of our FAQ, I would order it as...
... New people really need to learn 1 and 2. Helpful articles make them better designers, but you have to be able to post your cards before anyone can help you become a better designer.
- Manite
Yes, most articles are mostly not an beginner resource - but that doesn't mean we should ignore them. I figure we'd produce our own primer outlining the absolute fundamentals. In all honestly, I do not think it'd be very long.
Yes this is another connected issue and something that also I agree needs to be addressed.
I guess my thoughts with the Articles subforum idea is there isn't really a repository of knowledge, its all so scattered.
Who do we need to talk to about getting the stickies overhauled? I'd be happy to do it myself if the mods couldn't be bothered.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
contact Gerrard's Mom or Moss Elemental. they're this forum's mods.
Also w/r/t articles, Curse has a My Content section but I don't know if it works and/or is worthwhile.
Edit: It works like this?