Clue: LTC Style

So I have this idea on how to play the game of Clue by LTCs. Personally, I think it might work out and it would have a different level rather than that of just a swap.

Firstly, it would play like the board game Clue...it will actually be a game of Clue. Participants aren't just committing to making a LTC but also to trying to solve the mystery or at the very least, answering other people's e-mails or AQ mails concerning the mystery. Here's what would happen:

1. Everyone would make a single LTC. They would choose either a suspect, a weapon, or a locale.
2. They send 25 copies to the swap leader (me) before, or on, the launch date. Any other copies should NOT be traded until the game is complete in order to avoid confusion!
3. I (swap leader) randomly selects one of each type of card to hold out. (Like in Clue...this becomes the solution).
4. I split the rest into 3 groupings of cards and send them out to all participants. By this I mean, I will sort cards into a set for everyone (with the solution cards in a separate envelope). Then, I will break the 24 participants into 3 groups: Group A, Group B, Group C. All members in a Group will get the same 7 cards. The 7 cards will consist of 2 suspects, 2 weapons, and 3 locales. So if a boxer from Group A contacts another member of Group A, she won't get much since Member2 holds all the same cards she does. So not only must you figure out the solution, you've got to contact the members in the opposite groups. I think this will be easier since then you don't have to potentially contact 23 separate boxers...only 16, maybe. Unless you just want to keep asking the same person a bunch of questions!
5. Participants then have to solve the mystery by giving me the correct Suspect, Weapon, and Locale that I kept out of the mix.
6. So now, they have to find out, by the process of elimination, the solution. Which means, they need to contact others in the swap to see which cards they can eliminate. This part would play just like Clue...you send a message to Boxer1 "I think Mr. Green did it in the Dining Room with the Knife." Boxer1 replies (within 3 days) "It's not Mr. Green."
8. When someone contacts me with the correct ACCUSATION. "I accuse Mr. Green of killing Boxer in the Dining Room with the Knife." Then, the game is over. I mail out what is left of the cards including the solution. The winner receives a special LTC.

This swap would have to be for chatterboxes and those who check their e-mail or AQ mail on a regular basis. It wouldn't have to be daily but at least, twice a week. There would be no discussion on the boards about which specific cards you have but you could discuss how the game is progressing like "How close is anyone to solving this crime?" That's acceptable but you couldn't post "I've figured out that Mr. Green did it but I don't know the other stuff." or "I've got the Statue of Liberty card so that's not it."

A tracker would be set up on AQ, but no one would be allowed to log ANY finds until the mystery is solved! I would probably make it a limited tracker just so that I can keep track of how many suspects, weapons, and locales I can get. Since I need a limited number of each one, I wouldn't want a bunch of people to sign up all thinking they are going to do a weapon!

It also requires the honor system. You can't tell people you've got a card when you don't or that you don't have a particular card that you do. And just like in Clue if you have two cards that proves someone wrong, you can choose which one to reveal.

And me, as swap leader, would know all the cards. So if someone gets frustrated because e-mails are going unanswered for a week, then I can step in and answer the question for them. I wouldn't make an actual LTC for the game but I'd be responsible for making the "Prize" LTC, the tally sheets, and the solution envelopes.

Participants would have to mail me enough postage for 2 mailings. The first mailing would be in a regular envelope and would include their 7 cards and a tally sheet to keep track of what they know, if they want to use it. The second mailing would be in a bubble mailer with the remaining balance of cards, the solution with envelope, and to the Winner, their Prize LTC. I would ask that participants send their contribution of 25 LTCs in the Bubble mailer with enough postage for the two mailings. I would provide the envelope for the first mailing.

So participants would be responsible for:
1. Making a LTC. Either a Suspect (7), a Weapon (7), or a Locale (10)
2. Mailing 25 copies of this LTC to swapleader in a bubble mailer along with enough postage to cover both mailings.
3. Being available to answer e-mails or AQ mail regarding the mystery. I wouldn't expect daily but at least, twice a week.

Swap leader would be responsible for (besides the regular swap leader responsiblities):
1. Providing Tally Sheets
2. Answering AQ mails concerning the mystery.
3. Making solution envelopes and Prize LTC.
4. Mailing out all cards in 2 separate mailings.

I think that does it for my brain storm, reference list. I wonder if anybody is up for it?

Letterbox Trading Cards

Letterbox Trading Cards (LTCs) are an off-shoot of Artists Trading Cards (ATCs). An ATC has the dimensions of a playing card, 2.5 X 3.5 inches. An LTC is the same thing with one exception: the LTC must have the image of a hand-carved stamp on it. That's what seems to make it a part of letterboxing. Though hardly a replacement for true, traditional "Get out there and box" letterboxes, it does pass the time on a snowy winter's day. It spurs my idea machine into thinking about what I can plant in the spring, new ways of doing up clues, and makes me carve stamps which happens to be one of the hardest parts about planting for me.

But back to LTCs. I find the hardest part about this is figuring out what will be the focal point of the card. Whether it will be the stamp image itself or something else. I can usually come up with a card "design" before I think about the stamp. The stamp almost becomes an afterthought...oh yeah, I gotta put a stamp on it somewhere...

But now that I am getting some ideas about what I might want to do, I can figure the stamp into the design better. My first LTC was with a UFO stamp that I had lying around from the Northern NY Gathering. It was small so I had to design the card with a different focal point than just the stamp. Overall, the design turned out really well. I thought they were great cards and in fact, am a bit disappointed that I didn't make more of them!

I feel that when trading for cards I want as singles, I need to send a card that makes me proud to put my sig stamp on the back. I have several cards right now that I am proud of and a couple that are "okay" in my opinion but not as great as they might have been. I am very proud of the retired "Music of the Spheres". Well, almost retired. As soon as the ring rolls around and the cards are distributed, it will be retired. I am also very proud of the "Shamrocks Everywhere" contribution I have just completed. Called "Shamrock Knot", I did make some extra to trade as singles but they are not exactly like the ones that will go into the ring. But the stamp turned out really good and I like my design concept for the card overall. I even experimented with some leftover scraps I had for another design and liked that one as well...more of a quilt block pattern. I may be using that "design" for a different card in the future.

I'm not so proud of my "Wyvern's Signature" but I wasn't out to make something really fancy. I wanted something simple, easily reproducible, and with no real fancy embellishments. Since the card is intended to be traded at gatherings or traded for other signature cards as well as being Unlimited (as in I'll always be willing to make them), I wanted something that I could make fast and in a pinch. The finished design is good and I like the look of it but I think I polished the look with the "Shamrock Knot" card I did after. See...I'm learning...

Also not so great, in my opinion, is my "Snips, Scraps and Splotch" set. But then this is more of a concept type card than something that can be replicated. The concept is for me to clean off my craft desk every so often. So I use the paper scraps and little odd ball stickers and embellishments that are cluttering up the desk to make an LTC. I figure every batch will be a new set of "Splotch" cards. I call them Splotch because that's the handmade stamp I put on it to make it an LTC. Originally called "The Protozoan" this stamp also was lying around waiting to be planted or used. It was so small, I wasn't certain what to do with it...HH, cootie, urban box...so because it's a stamp that was sitting on my cluttered desk near all my scrap paper, Splotch became the mascot of these cards. I liked some of the cards I made with my first batch but some others just seemed too plain even with Splotch stamped on there. But then, I am at the mercy of my scraps pile...I want to stick to the concept I created. I can ONLY use the papers in the scraps pile to decorate the cards.

So my LTC adventure is continuing with lots of new ideas springing up all the time. But I'll add that as another blog entry.