Author Topic: Making your own custom RPG accessories  (Read 2010 times)

Offline Nanshork

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Making your own custom RPG accessories
« on: October 12, 2016, 09:33:22 PM »
This thread is meant to be a guide for people who want to create their own RPG or RPG accessories.  My ideas for making things (or, more accurately having things made) started when I decided that I wanted a professional looking d8 with moon phases and expanded from there as I dug into just what I could do.

After asking if anyone else would be interested in learning from my experiences (which, granted, got a very lukewarm reception), I decided that I'd write it all down anyway.  If nothing else I can use it as a reference in case I forget.

So far I'm working on getting books printed professionally (or at least professional looking), custom dice creation, and miniature trays.  I might branch out later, and if anyone else has had things custom created (and I mean more than just going to a 3D printer and having something printed), feel free to share your experiences (both bad and good).

My guides:
Printing Books That You'd Be Proud to Display
Producing Perfect Polyhedrals

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2016, 09:33:33 PM »
Printing Books That You'd Be Proud to Display

If you aren't interested in the play-by-play and just want to follow some instructions, go ahead and skip to the bottom of this post.



Black and White

Awhile ago I got Abandon All Hope (an excellent looking game, the theme is Space Prison in a Hell Dimension), and decided that I wanted a physical copy.  If you click the link, you'll realize that drivethrurpg.com doesn't offer a print copy.  Printing it off at home doesn't work for me, and Kinko's (or your local equivalent) sure doesn't meet my quality standards.

After doing some digging around I decided on Lulu.com to print my book for me.  I went through my process of getting a book ready for print-on-demand (I'll list it at the end for ease of reference) and waited with anticipation.  For reference, it was an 8.5 inch x 11 inch black and white paperback of 128 pages for $5.24 plus $3.99 for shipping minus $1 for a coupon.

Page Comparisons
(click to show/hide)

Looking at the comparisons, you'll notice a couple of things. Yes, my scanner is shitty but yes, the text in the yellow box on the cover is kind of blurry.  The cover editor doesn't like low quality images and that's what I get when I start with a pdf.  However, all of the black-and-white stuff (aka text) in the original looks crisp and clear and great in the printed copy.  Even the color images transitioned well to black-and-white, everything remains identifiable and readable, minus images that were already super dark anyway.

Also, Lulu requires that all printed books have a barcode and if an ISBN isn't provided they just kind of make one up.  You can see the difference in the barcodes on the back covers (looking at the physical book the barcode also doesn't quite fit, parts are fuzzy and parts are crisp), and you'll see that I didn't realize that I could move the image around on the cover to make it look nicer.


Color

This went well enough that I decided to do a pricier color project.  Slasher Flick The Director's Cut (the name says it all really) is another game that I own and want to run but can't buy a printed copy of.  This was an 8.5 inch x 11 inch color paperback of 168 pages for $32.73 plus $3.99 shipping minus $11.46 for a coupon (an expensive learning experience as you'll see).

This one was tricky, the pdf was set up so that every page after the first showed two pages on one, side by side, and I had to split them.

Page Comparisons
(click to show/hide)

This one came out badly enough that I'm completely redoing it (as a 6 inch x 9 inch) for cost reasons plus others that I'll explain.  So many fuckups, where to begin.  Want to know the first one I noticed?  The page numbers are on the wrong side!  It seems that the publisher counted the cover as page one so now my redo has a blank black page before the credits page to be page number one.  The second thing I noticed?  The lines that I never paid attention to on the cover are really glaringly obvious on the printed copy.  I went in and removed them pixel by pixel. The third thing?  Splitting the pages actually made them slightly smaller than 8.5 inches x 11 inches, there's a thin white border around these pages and there's absolutely nothing that I can do to fix that (making the book size smaller does fix it for the record).  Lastly, there's that annoying barcode right in the middle of the logo.  There's nothing I can do to move it, I've contacted support about this and they've said that the only way to choose where the barcode is/ if it's even there is to use the one piece cover creator.  Unfortunately I can't seem to create a cover that it will accept so I've just given up on that.




Steps to creating and printing a book on lulu.com
1. If pdf pages need to be adjusted (cropped, split, merged,etc.) I like the following two free tools:
    a. Sejda website (https://www.sejda.com/)
    b. PDFill FREE PDF Tools (https://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html)
2. Print internal pages to pdf
    a. I have PrimoPDF installed which add the ability to print directly to pdf format
    b. Sometimes an extra page has to be added to keep page numbers accurate, check to see if the front cover is included in the page numbering
3. Print front and back covers separately to pdf
4. Export covers to .jpeg format
    a. I open the cover in GIMP and export it to .jpeg
5. Create an account for/Log into Lulu.com
6. Click create, then click Print Book
    a. Choose type, size, and color/b&w as appropriate
    b. I like Premium Paperback, it looks and feels like the same quality as my professionally printed rpg books
7. Name the book and decide how you want to sell it (Make available only to me for books you didn't actually write)
8. Upload the internal pages pdf and make changes if needed (it will suggest changes)
9. At cover creator, upload .jpegs of front and back covers (If you want a cover that doesn't have a barcode at all, you can use the one-piece cover creator.  Unfortunately I can't get it to accept a cover so I can't help with that.)
    a. Make cover templates completely black, then add images and adjust the positioning as appropriate
    b. Please note, ISBN/Barcode will be automatically created and can't be moved
    c. Make Spine an appropriate color, then add title and publisher information as appropriate
10. Confirm that everything looks the way you want it to and buy the book when you have a good coupon
11. Enjoy your professionally printed book as long as you didn't make any major mistakes like I did above

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2016, 09:33:54 PM »
Producing Perfect Polyhedrals

Custom dice manufacturers are actually very easy to find, as long as you're looking for d6's.  I was looking for d8's so the prices I write down reflect that, in addition remember that prices change over time etc, etc...

If you're looking for dice in general, here are they trustworthy businesses that I looked into (order is based on when I looked into them):

Q-Workshop - I've bought lots of dice from them, they make quality goods.  You also get a lot of options when it comes to custom dice.  However, I was quoted a minimum order of 50 at $4.28 a die and that didn't include shipping (which was really high because they're in Europe and I'm in the USA).  In addition, and I'm quoting from the e-mail that I was sent, "The price includes full customization (all faces) with adjusting your design to our manufacturing requirements, preparing a graphic visualization (3D render) of the dice, manufacturing, painting for one of standard colors, finishing touch and quality control."  If you want lots of identical dice done professionally this is who I would recommend on principle.

Chessex - Every RPGer knows Chessex (if you don't I'm very confused to be honest).  Unfortunately they'll only customize d6's and it's a per side cost.  More details are on their website, the plus side here is a minimum order of 10.

CustomDice.com - Okay, yes, these guys look very sketchy.  I'll admit that, but they were recommended on other message boards when I was looking into custom dice so I figured they were okay enough to get a quote.  They'll do d6's and d8's (I don't know if they do other dice because I didn't ask), and even have multiple sizes.  Minimum order is based on price, not dice run, and that price was $50.  Different size dice have different costs (obviously), but you can mix and match and the price includes all sides customized.  However, I was told that any customized art creation on their part beyond words and clipart would have an extra unspecified cost.

Prawn Designs - This is a one man shop so if you want him to make things expect delays (he also customizes all kinds of things, not just dice).  Currently his dice listings only include d6's.  However, look at those prices!  $12 for 6 identical d6's (not including shipping) is pretty good.


(More to come, dice making is still in progress.)

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2016, 09:34:04 PM »
Making miniature trays

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2016, 09:34:21 PM »
Another post just in case

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2016, 10:40:29 AM »
A status update if anyone is keeping track of this:

Books - My second printed book should arrive on Tuesday so I'll get that post finished next week.  I got a black and white book and since that worked out I got a color book.  I want to make sure that everything is good before writing it all out.

Dice - The design just go finalized last night so progress is being made on that front.  Next step (or what I'm trying to make the next step) is a single die getting laser cut and then then pictures taken of it and sent to me.  Actually sending me a sample would cost me extra money and I'm not interested in that.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Making your own custom RPG accessories
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2016, 12:49:08 AM »
Book printing guide is done!  If there are any questions/concerns/comments/ridicule feel free to post away.