Pompeii Playing Cards (Black Diamond Brand)

[rjtomlinson1977]

The Black Diamond brand will launch their first deck, Pompeii on Kickstarter within the next two weeks. We're just putting the finishing touches on it before launching.

[ecNate]

So much potential, not enough details (yet)....

Such a tease.

[vasta41]

Sleek back!

[sinjin7]

While the color scheme is slightly on the muted dark side, I definitely like the back design. It reminds me of the Circle Back Tally Ho, which is usually a good thing.

[rousselle]

While the color scheme is slightly on the muted dark side, I definitely like the back design. It reminds me of the Circle Back Tally Ho, which is usually a good thing.

+1

[Bikefanatic]

This deck related to this past thread topic? http://www.unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rjtomlinson1977]

This deck related to this past thread topic? http://www.unitedcardists.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not really.. Just the same brand. The standard deck has been shelved in order to retool the court cards. The Black Diamond brand will be our brand similar to Bicycle but it won't cost us an extra $1 per deck to use the brand thus saving the expense from being passed on to customers.
What makes this brand different is the fact that the Black Diamond will be a plot device used in telling the story of each deck. Each deck Will tell it's own story... Pompeii, Exodus, Salem Witch, etc... But will be framed together using the Black Diamond. Which really isn't a diamond but a magic stone that the end user can make great things happen or terrible things to happen depending on whether the end user is good or evil. This magic stone will pass through history telling story after story.

[rousselle]

Mmmmm. Passing stones....

[Eoghann]

Reminds me of that film, The Red Violin. Stained using the violin maker's wife's blood; who died during childbirth. Tells the story of the violin through the centuries, bringing fame, fortune, misery or death to all who wield it.

[NineLives]

Reminds me of that film, The Red Violin. Stained using the violin maker's wife's blood; who died during childbirth. Tells the story of the violin through the centuries, bringing fame, fortune, misery or death to all who wield it.

Great movie

I like the back design too ...

[rjtomlinson1977]

I never seen the Red Violin yet but it does sound good. It sounds like the overall concept I'm aiming for here too. My inspiration for the nested stories that are linked by a common bound comes from the Cloud Atlas movie (book). Personally I felt the movie could've been better but I liked how all these stories throughout time were linked together. The Black Diamond will be the common bound that links these decks together. In the Pompeii deck the stone will be a raw (uncut) stone attached to a staff (similar to a wizard staff). In our case, this stone (and staff) will be in the possession of Arbaces, a sorcerer and a high priest of Isis (the temple not the terror group). Long story short... he's caught up in a love triangle and in the end gets rejected. So, being pissed off he uses the powers of the Black Diamond to cause the eruption.
In other decks that happen to be set closer to present time (or even future time) the Black Diamond will appear different as it evolves throughout history. For example, by this time the stone would have surely been split to many pieces and turned into various jewelry items (rings, necklaces, crowns, etc.).

[jsantafe]

If I may ask, why is there an Isis (Egyptian culture) priest in a Roman city (Pompeii)?

Wouldn't it be more accurate or logical using another deity, such as Hera (even better, Juno) or Athenea, for example?

[rjtomlinson1977]

If I may ask, why is there an Isis (Egyptian culture) priest in a Roman city (Pompeii)?

Wouldn't it be more accurate or logical using another deity, such as Hera (even better, Juno) or Athenea, for example?

I asked myself the same question when I read the story, The Last Days of Pompeii. But after doing research I realized the fact that there is a lot of Egyptian culture mixed in within Roman culture at this time in history. Keep in mind 79 AD is only a few years after the death of Jesus... so Christianity is also a big part of the above mentioned book. At this time the Romans ruled the known world thus bringing a lot of that culture home. That's why there was in fact an Egyptian temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis located in the actual city of Pompeii. True story... not fiction.
You see a lot of this cross-cultural stuff is going on even today. For example, Japanese teens try to dress and act like American Hip-Hop stars and Americans doing Chinese yoga. It's as cool and exciting today to learn about new cultures as it was during 79 AD when Pompeii was around. Another example of this would be gladiators. While Romans conquered the known world they would enslave people of these new and exotic lands and make them fight as Gladiators. On top of that, they would make them fight using weapons native to their own lands to make it even more entertaining. You would have Celtic slaves painted in traditional war paints as they met their fate.
But in the end, this high priest of Isis was a character is the above mentioned book so that's why I'm using him. However, unlike the book he's not actually going to be Egyptian as I didn't want people to get confused. Most of my court cards won't be specific to the book. I only used the book as minor reference but did like the idea of using the high priest of Isis as my heavy.
Here's a link that will tell you about the Temple of Isis in Pompeii:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of ... Pompeii%29

Oh, yeah... it also works out nicely having the Black Diamond showing some Egyptian roots here since one of the next decks will be Exodus. So, for that deck will go back further in time. For other decks will go forward in time and in some cases go past the point we are now to show future events.

This is just a work in progress... the final version will be slightly different. But as you can see I made sure there wasn't any Egyptian references to confuse people.

[jsantafe]

Well, that is a great explanation. Thanks a lot!

[rjtomlinson1977]

Well, that is a great explanation. Thanks a lot!

No problem. Here's another example of a character based loosely on the story. In the book it's basically a love triangle. This guy wants this girl but this girl wants that guy and so on and so forth. At some point somebody goes to a witch to get a magic potion that will make the person fall in love with them. Well, the witch tricked them and gave them a potion that would make the person crazy. So, with this character I have her reacting to the eruption while dropping a goblet with the potion in it. Your average person won't know this as it's only floating in my head but this is what I had in mind. lol

[vasta41]

If I may ask, why is there an Isis (Egyptian culture) priest in a Roman city (Pompeii)?

Wouldn't it be more accurate or logical using another deity, such as Hera (even better, Juno) or Athenea, for example?

I asked myself the same question when I read the story, The Last Days of Pompeii. But after doing research I realized the fact that there is a lot of Egyptian culture mixed in within Roman culture at this time in history. Keep in mind 79 AD is only a few years after the death of Jesus... so Christianity is also a big part of the above mentioned book. At this time the Romans ruled the known world thus bringing a lot of that culture home. That's why there was in fact an Egyptian temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis located in the actual city of Pompeii. True story... not fiction.

To your point, Romans were not immediately Christians right after Jesus' death. It wasn't until Constantine in the early 300's AD that it became the "official" Roman religion. So while Christianity played a part in 79 AD it wasn't a positive one- they were not only outcasts but also persecuted. And right around that time period, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian ... l_Councils" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rjtomlinson1977]

Yeah, in the book... if I recall... one character converted to Christianity but is murdered for doing so. I agree at that time most Christians would have been lion dinner during the gladiator tournaments.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Launching July 3rd at 4pm est time.

[ecNate]

Cool, I'll take a look as soon as I can after launch.

On seeing this latest image, my first thought was that the QoS looks like your wife and the KoS looks like Jody Eklund.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Here's a preview link... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... n=a9d3b41e

It will be launching at 4pm est time today (July 3rd).

[Mike Ratledge]

Here's a preview link... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... n=a9d3b41e

It will be launching at 4pm est time today (July 3rd).

Looks perfect to me, RJ. Pricing all appears to be consistent as well. Looks like you are ready to rock!

[Mike Ratledge]

Here's a preview link... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... n=a9d3b41e

It will be launching at 4pm est time today (July 3rd).

I like these decks a lot, RJ! I left a couple of comments on the preview page, but I didn't find any issues. Someone else pointed out that the 4 deck pledges says 2 of one deck and only 1 of the other.

Everything looks great!

[sprouts1115]

rjtomlinson1977 - Is the QoH your wife?

[rjtomlinson1977]

Yes.. The queen of hearts is my wife. And... No, the king of spades isn't Jody elklund. Lol
He does kind of look like my friend from college. He had that look one time when I was making fun of him... Then he punched my tooth out.
I also corrected the 4 deck pledge.

[rjtomlinson1977]

I'll be launching a few minutes sooner because I'm about to drive through the woods... So I'll probably lose my signal

[jerichoholic]

Got my pledge!

[rousselle]

Added the "kickup" to the original post.

So, when you're no longer driving through the woods: why did you make this a two-week funding period instead of the more traditional four-week?

[rjtomlinson1977]

I did two weeks because typically the second two weeks is pretty slow. Plus you get a lot of people getting antsy over their pledge by the end of a project. It's just something to try this time around. I have another game I want to get funded to be ready for the Christmas season too. Thankfully with this new printer time isn't an issue. For my Bradford County deck the cards were printed two weeks before Western Union got them the money. By the way, WU sucks big time.

[DragonSoul]

That was me that pointed out the 4 deck pledge wording.

Silly me got distracted and missed the launch. Still, I got the last 2 deck EB.

Are you planning any add-ons? I'd love to see a coin and maybe add 1 more deck.

[rjtomlinson1977]

Thanks for pointing out the mistake. Yes, I'll probably have add-ons. My first thought was to wait until the Backerkit to add all the extra items. I didn't want the project page to be bogged down with extra stuff. But of course, it wouldn't hurt to have extra decks on there now to help reach our goal. I like coins too but they always seem to be a break-even item or sometime a money loser. I wish coins for anything would lower their MOQ to 50 coins. If they did, I would get coins all the time.