Monday, January 7, 2019

Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game - First Edition!

Hakkeyoi!  I've had this custom Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game project in mind for quite a while now and was finally able to put some work into it last month to make it happen.  I pitched it over at our Facebook Group, BBM Sumo Card Collectors, and was able to get 7 other players.  So 8 of us are playing the first-ever Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game for the Hatsu 2019 (January 2019) tournament.  In a nutshell, here is how it works:



1. I build a custom 54-wrestler deck of cards (see images above for front and back of card #05)  and have it printed at a store specializing in custom playing cards.  Printing, shipping, and delivery takes about 3 weeks.
2. Once I get the deck, I randomly divide the deck up across all the players using Random.org.  In this case, each player got 6 cards with 6 left over.  These left over cards are used as substitutes in case a wrestler withdraws before the tournaments starts.
3. I ship each players' cards to them before the tournament starts.
4. Upon receipt of the cards, each player discovers the different ways they can earn points during the tournament for their wrestlers printed on the backs of the cards.  See picture above.  With card #05 there are 5 different ways to earn points.
5. At the end of the tournament, each player adds up the total number of points from all their wrestlers and the winner is the one with the most points.
6. The winner receives a full deck of the cards from me as a prize.
7. This deck of cards is retired and we repeat for the next tournament.

Best of all, it's free!  My main goal is to try and connect the sumo card community a little more in a fun way during tournaments and overall it's fairly low cost.  The only "catch" is these cards cannot be sold.  They can only be traded or given to other players.


Things I've learned about making a custom card set:

1. I am not a graphic artist by any means, but figure the aesthetics of the cards will grow over time.
2. I clearly don't understand the entire printing process as you can see I've pixilated the grey background of the card during my editing/saving time.  They went to the printer looking just fine, but came out printed like this.  I'm working to fix this for the next round of cards.
3. I did not want to get bogged down with making this set perfect.  I'd rather get them in hand and figure out how to improve them for next time.  Font size and balance come to mind after I see what the final product looks like.
4. Feedback from the other players will be critical for the next tournament.  What new ways to earn points would be fun, what didn't they like, what did they like, any special cards I should print, etc...?

Interested in playing?  Be on the lookout for the March tournament announcement sometime toward the end of February.

11 comments:

  1. Dude. These are fantastic! If I weren't a poser "fan", I'd love to join your league. But, I wouldn't know the first thing about who to pick since I don't really follow the sport (just collect the cards). Any chance you'll post the other cards in the deck for your readers to see? Will you catalog these in your book?

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    1. Yeah, I need to find a good way to share them. Not sure if I'll catalog them in my book or not...since they are not "legit" cards. Maybe at some point though.

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  2. I can confirm they look excellent in hand! I know you want to tweak some things but they look really good! I’m proud to have these in my collection. And stoked to play the game!

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  3. Congratulations on seeing your idea come to fruition! During my late teens, a friend I started working on our own CCG, got fairly far along with it, but then my friend decided that it was proving to be too much work and quit the project, leaving me to try and finish it alone... it never did get finished :(

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    1. Thanks Jon. It’s turning out to be quite fun and engaging. What was your game all about?

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    2. Vampires! It might sound a little silly now that they're everywhere in pop culture, but they weren't at the time. And of course, there's been multiple vampire CCG's released since then, so...

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    3. Awesome. Too bad you weren’t able to get it off the ground.

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  4. If you would like help on future series let me know, I am a graphic designer and I've been doing custom cards for years.

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    1. Thanks for the offer! I'm going to keep this basic design for a few more tournaments, but then will change the design. Would love to have you look at the new design and offer any suggestions.

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  5. Hello! Are you still doing this game? I'm a big fan of card games, and a fan of fantasy sports, and even though I'm new to the world of sumo I'm very interested in it as well. I'd love to be a part of the next round, if it's at all possible. I live in China, though, so I might have to print the cards myself rather than have them shipped. (Getting stuff shipped here is notoriously unreliable.) Thanks!

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