Figured it would be easier to post this here than in an email!
Here are a few images of the tokens so far. I started with just filling up the spaces with tokens, but quickly realized that with the different shapes I would end up with an unnecessary amount of different cut line files. This isn’t a problem when it comes to cost, but it will be less complicated for you to order the punchouts the fewer different cutlines we have! Also I believe a more organized layout of tokens makes it easier for a new player to visualize and learn about the different components when first punching them out.
This photo from my sketchbook shows one suggestion for how I could get the different cut files down to six:
I have put just one hero per slug, so the first five slugs have 1 hero and 4 time. This gives us 20 time instead of 15. Not sure if this is useful or not! Of course, it could also have just 3 time per slug, for a total of 15. The time tokens are shaped like hourglasses, and don’t have the word Time on them - I figured that would be obvious enough:
For the explore tokens I’m using hexagons. The back face of the tokens have a new icon and no text. For 2nd wind and Respite I attempted a design using the already established Boost icon. I’m not sure if the visual grammar is clear, though. It’s supposed to be read as [GRIT cube] gets [Boost card] +1. This related to how, for example, Determined is shown on the Vitals tracker, where it’s [GRIT cube] +1. But maybe [GRIT cube] + 1 + [Boost card] would be clearer? Note: on this image I have mixed Explore tokens with Time, but as my sketchbook shows, Explore tokens would get their dedicated slugs.
For the other tokens, I’m just using the current icons for now:
POI/Barricade and Backtrack are also tokens placed on the map tiles, so they are also hexagons, but with a different colour to separate them from the Explore tokens. I had a few different ideas for the Barrier icon. Since both Locked and Barricade are picures of doors, I wanted Barrier to be something more abstract that shows that this is a permanent dead end, not something that might be opened later. I’m most partial to the ones to the right.
For POI I have versions with or without text. I think text might be a good choice for both POI and Barrier, as they are not that obvious otherwise.
Persistent conditions are squares, only slightly smaller than the old ones, 17,8mm vs 19mm. I talked about making individual shapes for each type of token, but for now these will do! I’m also starting to reconsider that idea, for two reasons: some conditions are easier than others to find good shapes for; and having just one shape communicates that these are related to each other.
Combat status are slightly assymetric (that is, bottom heavy) diamonds. Visually, they stand on an unstable point, as opposed to the stable, persistent Conditions. HP tokens are hearts, using the same icon as on Denizen cards (which, to be honest, is a first draft that stuck). I think red is a good colour for Combat status, so I wanted to avoid that for the hearts. The HP tokens could either be used to keep count of damage (in which case they could say -1, -2), or the player could make a stack of tokens on the Denizen, and remove them as damage is dealt. Not sure which would be more intuitive, or need fewer tokens!
As you can see on the sketchbook page, my current layout has two HP tokens on every Condition or Combat Status slug, for a total of 16 HP tokens, compared with the curren 9.
There are a few errors with this layout. For example, this gives us 4 Shaken, which you already pointed out isn’t needed. It also gives 4 Backtrack. Oh, and I put question marks on slug 19, because I forgot about the ready/exhausted tokens!
You asked about having two maps on one slug. The current maps tiles are about 79mm across. To fit two maps on one slug they would need to be 66-67mm across. That’s quite a bit smaller, but still usable as far as space to place things go - you need space for the player standee, an explore token, and one or more POI/barrier/backtrack tokens. It gets crowded, but is not impossible.
Of course, the text and iconography on the map tiles would need to be compensated a bit so they’re still readable. They would consequently take up more relative real estate. Also, the illustrations would be smaller.
If we did use two maps on each slug, that means 9 slugs would be used for the maps, plus one for the stop tile. The current token count (excluding vitals widgets and ready/exhausted, which I failed to account for in my previous mail) is 83 tokens, and with the suggested layout in my sketchbook, we can fit 98 (plus vitals widgets and ready/exhausted). If all 98 tokens go on slugs with 15 tokens each, we would need 7 slugs. For 83 tokens we need 6 slugs. So with two maps on each slug, the total amount of slugs needed is 16 or 17.
Here’s an image showing the size difference. If you print it at 100% size it should turn out natural size, if you want to get a better feeling for how smaller maps would work. The inner edge of the thick gray line is the actual edge of the map tile, the gray line represents the 3,2mm distance that’s mandatory between cut lines and the edge of the slug, and between two cutlines.
Love the design choices so far.
