I recently stumbled upon the fact that an author friend of mine is also a Tarot card enthusiast, and she wrote a book that was just published called Applied Tarot: An Excessively Practical Guide to Tarot Card Interpretations. Her book is a very tongue-in-cheek reference guide to the meanings and symbols of each card and how to use them to figure out "specific answers to the most mundane, everyday questions," like: where did I lose my keys?

You can pick it up from Amazon.com here: https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Tarot-Excessively-Interpretations-Divination/dp/1735617016/

It's also available on BN.com.

I've invited the author (Emily Paper) to come check out our forum here; she's planning to develop a tarot deck, herself, so there could be some lively conversations coming soon!

Available on their website, too: http://www.bn.com.

For those of us who were unable to attend, will the 2016 Club Deck be made available to members online the way previous years' decks have been? Hmmm? Hmmm? :-)

For the Win!

Nicely done, all the way around. Cheers to your friend who came up with the idea.

Gotta say, based upon what little I've seen so far, I like the court art better this time around than the first time around. Don't get me wrong; the first deck had an interesting style to it. But this one, so far, calls to me more. Depending upon price point, I'll likely be going in on a pair.

Like Shade above, I'm into the foil / metallic inks on playing cards, and they really work very well on this (and the Silver club edition) deck. The metallic inks are much shinier than I've seen on most other decks, and the foil on the back works well. The first time I saw the back design, I wasn't particularly taken with it, but when you see it in person, it really works well.

I did go ahead and open my Silver club deck, and I'm quite happy with it. That said, given that it does, indeed, have a higher price tag, it's the gold deck that I'm currently taking out of the box most often since receiving them in the mail. I tip my proverbial cap to all involved with creating these decks. Both the silver and gold editions have a lot to like about them.

Whereas, I rather like the moire pattern. I expect this will be a rather fun deck to play with. I'm in for a trio.

As for the "Anything is Possible" issue... that *is* a little concerning. I hope he gets that resolved with Mr. Grant, if he hasn't already. I was unaware that was a trademarked name, but it stands to reason that it would be. Not cool to muscle in on another person's branding.

Yay, Rose! Way to Carp Diem!

The Kitchen Utensil Deck(tm) would feature four suits: forks, spoons, knives, and chopsticks.

The suicide king would be the King of Spoons, of course. ("Why a spoon, cousin?" "Becaust it's DULL, you twit! It'll hurt more!")

The courts shall be adorned with chef's hats and aprons.

I, for one, see a lot of cleverness in the design, but I also realize that different folks will have different tastes.

Regarding the intellectual property issue: I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV (heh, get it? repurposing other people's intellectual property? Oh, never mind), but from what I know as a content creator myself, I'd be willing to wager that as Don says, the holders of the DC IP rights would probably not *win* a lawsuit claiming infringement, but they nonetheless could have enough of a case to get that litigation started, and they have deeper pockets than you in that regard.

I don't know where DC falls in the spectrum of companies that do that sort of thing; I know that Lucas (before his IP was bought by Disney) used to allow -- even give a wink and a nod to -- people playing in his Star Wars universe, as long as they were not encroaching upon his sole right to make money off of it, while Disney would sue everybody and anyone if they so much as even *thought* about referencing a Disney property in their works. DC might let this one slide, and I'm confident enough to back the project, but I hope y'all will be setting this money aside against the possibility of needing to reimburse our pledges in case you or the card manufacturer/printer receive a Cease and Desist letter. If you receive one of those, just give up.

But, yeah, you can't copyright or register a trademark for a color combination (although it's been tried), and you're using standard pips instead of registered trademarked logos. It's like issuing an "Espionage Deck" featuring images of a man wearing a tuxedo and holding a pistol with a silencer on it. You can't copyright/TM that, but it instantly evokes the idea of James Bond. USPCC didn't seem to bothered by that when they released their Espionage Deck. My guess is, this would fly, for the same reasons.

That said, to Fes and others who see much to improve the design... throw your ideas out there! They've responded to our calls to modify the backs. That's part of what convinced me to pledge for this. Let's help them make it better!

Just my tuppence.

The Red Gnostics were gone by the time I tried to get them at 19 minutes into the sale.

Got my blues, though, which was also on my list. Heh.

I actually don't think this is all that similar to Believe. None of the elements feature the techno-theme of the prior deck, and I really like the Native American-themed courts. Assuming the price is right (and assuming he fulfilled his commitments to Believe), I expect to pick up two or three of these.

Okay, I think this might fall into a little bit of a grey area, and I'd like some clarification. (I am braced for getting slammed on this one.)

I have a design idea in mind that I am pursuing with a friend of mine. It is an homage to Russian-style decks, which observe the Anglo-American suits and courts, but they feature the cyrillic letters representing the courts/aces rather than the English (the K for Karol/King is the same, but a Russian д for Dama/Queen and a Russian B (their "v") for Valet/Jack and a T for Tuce/Ace). Would these non-English letters be allowed in the indexes for these otherwise Anglo-American ranks?

Thanks.