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Star Realms Authority Trackers

Star Realms is a fast paced sci-fi deck building game where the object is to destroy your opponent as quickly as possible.

Star Realms Cardgame

This game is a firm favorite of Mike and I’s, getting plenty of table time. With great designs and smooth game play mechanics it is a quick game with a small footprint. When we don’t want to play something epic like Twilight Imperium but still want a challenge we come back to this game again and again.

 

My only problem with this game are the authority tracking cards that are provided. It has to be said maths is not my thing, no really, I barely know my times tables!! Really bad I know. So I get into a complete pickle with these authority cards, more often than not Mike just sorts me out and tells me how to track my points. This is a pain and slows the game down and distracts poor Mike whilst he is planning his next move to kick my butt.

Star Realms Authority Cards

So I sat down and thought about what I did want from the authority tracker. We have plenty of spare dice and tokens I could use. I thought about scanning and printing more authority cards so I had more choice. Yet none of this seemed right for a game we like so much. So I figured it needed to be something simple that could count the authority both up and down easily. So I thought a spin disc would be perfect and could include the cards from the game.

Simples

Well, not really! Mike and I have been watching a lot of Mythbusters recently, what with the last season, we started watching the older episodes. Somewhere along the line one of the hosts Adam Savage said something like; “never make just one, make two and fix all the original mistakes”. Turns out this was a fantastic bit of advice for me. I have a bit of a problem if I make something and it doesn’t turn out perfect first time. So this time I planned for mistakes. I sorted out the artwork I thought I needed, printed multiple copies and made a prototype. My idea was perfect, the different pieces worked well and the spinning discs would be great to count the points. Using black foam-core for the center layer made them substantial but did not take up too much room. Yet I also noticed I needed different bits of artwork and my gluing technique was pants, the spin counters kept getting stuck!!

So, back to the drawing board. I found some little sticky dots I could use for the gluing, perfect, no more stuck discs. I also added some tissue paper behind the ships to blend it all a bit but keep them looking three dimensional. I also ditched the scissors and used a scalpel around the edges making things a lot neater and no longer bent bits of the ships! The biggest change I made was to take a sharpie to all the edges of the card. Changing them from stark white to black made them all look a bit more professional.

Star Realms Authoruty Tracker

So now I have four brilliant authority trackers that match the different factions in the game. They work perfectly and I am very proud of my handiwork. The only flaw I can find is that you can only track up to 99pts, not that I think that will be too much of a problem the way Mike and I play this game.

Star Realms Authority Tracker Cards

If you would like to make your own authority trackers using my artwork please find the files for download here;

Star Realms Authority Tracker Card Artwork.

(obviously all the artwork copyright belongs to White Wizard Games)

Star Realms Cardgame

Published inCrafty GamingCustom Boardgame Upgrades

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