Zane_Marlowe Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Yeah that was essentially my reasoning. However, the color idea is a good one, which is why I used different colored sleeves. In the test game for these, I used black for basic character info, red for weapons, green for heroic talents, blue for arcane spells, and white for divine spells (see pic above for example). I'll probably simplify the scheme somewhat, but part of the challenge is working with the quantities one has of any particular color. Yesterday I picked up some purple and silver sleeves to add to my collection of black, red, blue, white, gold, and green sleeves. (This is going to be really cool when I get to Champions!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Hmmm. I'm sure there is an answer though. if the watermark was a different colour for the various things then it would not matter hugely about the hard to read - or even simply a border round the outside. That would provide an indicator without being a deal breaker if a colour printer was not available... As I said - colour is not a must but our brains usually sort by colour more quickly than by pattern or words. If there is a way to add it in - perhaps a flash on the main bar that would add if colour printing was used but lose nothing if you were limited to black and white. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted May 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Well, again, that's why I went the card sleeves route. If you want to save money on the sleeves, I'd suggest the gray fluff text background and the black header background could be recolored and printed on a color printer at the local copy shop. (Could even laminate it too.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Not cardstock' date=' cardsleeves. Look upthread for the link or just look for the trading card games at your FLGS. They're printed on regular paper and super easy to make. Once I get this perfected, I'll post the template for others who are interested.[/quote'] Thanks for that reply, btw. I didn't get back here until just recently. I missed the card sleeve info, thanks for point that out again. Hmm,.... thinking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards That would mean it requires a color printer, or using of colors that are hard to read when transformed to greyscale. Better stay at simple formatting, more people can use it that way. Highlighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 20, 2011 Report Share Posted May 20, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Highlighter. Repped for simplicity! Sometimes the old fashioned ways come through strongly! Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted May 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Well, here's the Word document template for those interested in doing their own power cards. I briefly experimented with some variations on export formats, but I'm not seeing anything that I can cleanly cut and paste into Word, formatting intact. Hope you guys have a great time with it, I'm already creating Star Hero cards, and will post examples here when I get them done. Feel free to post your card examples, modifications, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards This must be made into an HD template! Surely there is someone who can take on this awesome task? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted May 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Well, there's not a good way of doing Word output with HD so far as I know. I looked into this briefly, and it's far more complex than I'd guessed. Without doing it in Word, it'd need some serious HTML wizardry to come out right, and that's a BIG project. I'm happy to help if others have expertise here, but the closest I've got at present is a text file export that has the relevant returns, tabs, etc. for pasting into the Word template in my previous post. Thing is, it still requires editing because I haven't found a way of getting the advantages and limitations printed out separately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards You might try shooting a PM to RPMiller, the resident RTF export guru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards You might try shooting a PM to RPMiller' date=' the resident RTF export guru.[/quote'] Yes this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted May 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards I did an RTF export, but the embedded graphics for the watermarked shield and lightning bolt didn't work. You think it would be preferable to try without those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted May 30, 2011 Report Share Posted May 30, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted May 31, 2011 Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Well' date=' here's the Word document template for those interested in doing their own power cards. I briefly experimented with some variations on export formats, but I'm not seeing anything that I can cleanly cut and paste into Word, formatting intact. Hope you guys have a great time with it, I'm already creating Star Hero cards, and will post examples here when I get them done. Feel free to post your card examples, modifications, etc. Say, could you provide an RTF version of that at all? My version of Word is outdated to the point that it cannot properly load your template. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted May 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Hm, I think I've been too hasty with claims about having an RTF export ready. Will have to consult RP Miller perhaps. Also, have a real hurdle with the fact that you can't get Advantages and Limitations to write separately on the export. Not sure what there is to be done about that. Anybody know otherwise? I'd love to be wrong about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted June 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Hey, a quick postscript on this for you who are approaching convention season with Power Cards in mind. I've discovered that if you're putting these in the card sleeves, you can stiffen the cards by inserting a normal playing card (or a standard-sized TCG card) in behind the power card. Gives it a much nicer tactile quality as a "card" rather than as a plastic-protected slip of paper, and it adds a little weight that makes it feel a little more solid and durable as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
culhwch Posted June 3, 2011 Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Hey' date=' a quick postscript on this for you who are approaching convention season with Power Cards in mind. I've discovered that if you're putting these in the card sleeves, you can stiffen the cards by inserting a normal playing card (or a standard-sized TCG card) in behind the power card. Gives it a much nicer tactile quality as a "card" rather than as a plastic-protected slip of paper, and it adds a little weight that makes it feel a little more solid and durable as well.[/quote'] Have you tried printing them out on cardstock? Just wondering if that'd give the same feel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards Have you tried printing them out on cardstock? Just wondering if that'd give the same feelnot all printers can handle cardstock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted June 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards The cardstock thing is possible if you go to places like Kinkos or even some local print shops, but that just seems more expensive than a deck of playing cards from the corner drugstore. Heck, I'm actually using some surplus TCG cards from a long defunct game (you know, back when everyone thought TCGs were a license to print money). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards but if you print money on cardstock, it feels wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards but if you print money on cardstock, it feels wrong On so many levels.... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says the way to make a mint is to take up gardening Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Re: Hero System Power Cards If you keep this up, there will be pun-itive measures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted July 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 Re: Hero System Power Cards Hey everyone, a quick bump to this thread. I've achieved something close to a nice export for the Power Cards. Get it here. What I've done is to create a pair of export formats that will output a text file formatted so that Word can use it as a data source for Mail Merges. I've also created a corresponding pair of Word documents with all of the formatting and merge fields configured. So, all you need to do to be able to create your own power cards in a (mostly) automated fashion is follow these easy steps. 1. Load up whichever characters you want to use these in Hero Designer. 2. Use the Stat Card Export combat record export format to export any or all of the characters you want stat cards for. 3. Save the stat card export text file somewhere handy. 4. Open the Stat Card Template.docx file, and point it at the text file you just exported. 5. Complete the merge to get a separate printable (and editable) document. That should get you three stat cards per exported character with the same basic information as is on the template linked up thread. For Power Cards, the procedure is mostly the same. 6. Repeat steps 1-5 with the Power Card Export.hde file. That should get you a series of power cards for a particular character. I'm still trying to figure out how to make Power Card export work as combat record export, but it works fine for individual characters for now. I've posted a thread about this in the Hero Designer topic area, but I haven't heard anything back yet. One thing you'll quickly notice is that the output is a bit different. I've reformatted the content of what's on the power cards and how it's arranged. It's inspired mainly by the Hero System power layouts in the various current books, and I thought that would make it easier for people. You'll still have to enter a few things by hand until I figure out how (if possible) to get information out. (I'm thinking of how long it takes to active a power, its to-hit attribute or roll, etc.) To get best results, I recommend careful use of the "Display" and "SFX" fields in Hero Designer. Put something in the SFX field that's descriptive of the kind of power you have (I use things like, "Heroic Talent," "Gear," "Spell," "Weapon," or "Superpower"). The "Display" field populates the "Effect" part of the power listing, so make sure you put something sufficiently descriptive if the name of the power is rather general (e.g., Change Environment). Not every power outputs something that looks right, so you'll certainly want to tweak a few things in the finished product, but one thing's for sure, you'll have saved yourself a LOT of data entry! Let me know how this works out for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Baker Posted July 5, 2012 Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 Re: Hero System Power Cards Did I miss the templates? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zane_Marlowe Posted July 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2012 Re: Hero System Power Cards Scott, the original templates were posted as simple word files you could edit manually, but that entailed a lot of data entry. So, I put together export formats for use with Hero Designer and Word documents formatted with mail merge fields for use with the export format output. They're in a zip file linked to the word "here" in the third sentence of my last post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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