So, I’m new, not only to Stimhack but to the game of Netrunner, as well. With that being said, I’m a graphic designer by trade, and like to keep things within a certain sense of aesthetic in my life. The same can absolutely be said for Netrunner, as I’ve already planned a build for a matte black LED click tracker, a custom playmat, and designed out this entire token set, which I’m looking to have made next month.
I was hoping this skilled, veteran community could help me out with building the most complete token set to have at my disposal, and was gauging interest to see if anyone was interested in any of the individual tokens, as well.
The credit tokens are all inspired by physical Bitcoin mint, and the style that is most commonly associated with them. These are going to be engraved on a single-side mirror-finished piece of acrylic.
The Bad Publicity, and Virus tokens are based on physical devices, with the bad publicity token being a blog on a tablet device, while the virus token is a computer monitor with a Warning dialog open. The text in the background of the monitor is real, encryption-based code commonly used to encrypt simple communications.
The medical and power tokens are more simple, being icon based circular designs that follow a simple visual hierarchy. These are the primary tokens I thought necessary, but was wondering if there were perhaps any that I missed? All of the designs are based on the more modern idea that the world we live in now has become quite “cyberpunk” in its nature, with tablet devices and cryptocurrencies really taking hold.
Experience: I have the PennyGems. I’ve seen all the other tokens. (The metal ones are slick)
Make sure you can tell how much money you have from across a table. You may also consider a couple of Tag tokens and either some generic ‘Advancement’ tokens, or I guess you can use the Power for those.
Otherwise, these look pretty clean. Are they going to all be B&W or are you going to color-code the money tokens? Either works. I believe there might be a trademark on the credit symbol, so check on that before selling them. For personal use, you’re fine, though.
Oh! Duh. Click tokens (four of them) can be useful. You can either flip them over when you use them on the Runner turn, or you can put them in a pile at the beginning of the turn, and dole them out to the different places you’ve used them during the turn.
Oh wait, you’re making an LED click tracker. … Nevermind then.
Also consider how they might look being filmed! Some people have really beautiful tokens that are super difficult to follow when being streamed or recorded.
Personally, I think that credit denominations beyond 1 and 5 are confusing, and lead to me constantly asking my opponent how many credits they have. Also, I think it’s very important that larger denominations be larger physically; it makes it much easier to count credit totals, especially for your opponent who is not accustomed to your tokens like you are.
Have you seen any other token sets like Team Covenant’s? If not, I would highly recommend checking them out. Some feedback on your designs:
One-sided is not ideal and makes the tokens more fiddly. The credit denominations are only distinguished by the numeral, not by size, shape, color, etc. This would easily lead to confusion, especially combined with the one-sided nature and player’s tendency to stack or pile tokens. Small numerals like those on these tokens would also be more difficult to read from across the table upside down.
The BP and Virus Tokens are similar-looking and generic. This would only be exacerbated by them being across the table. Generally, I would avoid using text in these designs. You seem to be missing a tag token. I’m not sure why the virus token is rectangle-shaped or why it has the background noise instead of just being the dialogue box.
The Medical token would be for brain damage? I think it looks great. It’s a very recognizable design that works well thematically. My only concern with that would be distinguishing it from your other circular tokens.
The power token takes “power” too literally in its design. Power tokens represent the widest range of abilities and effects, so you want to avoid a design with a specific use. In addition, the symbol seems dated because of its shape and size.
Hope the feedback was helpful and good luck with your creative endeavors!
I’m generally ok with 2’s and 3’s; they make certain cards a lot easier to physically manipulate. (Daily Casts, Adonis, Kati) But I also see your point with the sizes. It’s why I’d asked whether they’ll be colored differently or not.
Oh! The $25 is prooooobably never going to be used.
My experience is that all you need are 1s & 5s that are credits with an advance side on the back and then a set of Power/Virus tokens which can also be dual sided unless you want to carry around an extra set of plastic. This minimalist set covers 95% of game scenarios. Power/Virus tokens can be used to track clicks, as its rare to use all of them if your set is large enough.
And that leaves something to count bad pub, tags, & brain damage. Dice tend to work well for this, but you can also use tokens. You need to be careful with tags and carry a die for this anyways as this number can get quite high.
I too am a user of Penny Gems, and find that they meet most of my needs so I’m not interested in a new set, but graphically your stuff seems cool. My main thing would be to echo size differences in credits, minimizing value differences between them, and accenting readability for all.
Getting virus & power tokens on reverse sides of the same piece is usually a win as they are used for many of the same scenarios and you get used to reaching to only 2 places if you follow this model for the most common of scenarios.
If a click tracker is something people would be interested in, for a complete token set, I wouldn’t mind designing something out. Just interest based. How would I go about checking on the copyright status of the Credit icon?
That truthfully isn’t something I’ve thought of, but something that could be easily figured out with the right workarounds. Maybe paint. Who knows? Maybe the engraving darkens the mirror finish enough for it show well.
If I limit the denominations to say… 1, 3, & 5 - I could color-code them by mint. Bronze, Gold, and Silver. That would make them more easily recognizable in play for opposing players, and myself.
The BP and Virus tokens are more personal stylistic choices, as I’m not a fan of the more common “virus-shape” tokens that seem to be out there.
As for the Power Token, like I said, my designs are based on more modern-day ideals of the way things are represented. As much as it pains me, the power cord is still a universal symbol in regards to power in that way. But, I was also thinking of maybe going more generic with just a lightning bolt. Maybe that would be better?
Here’s an update to the general token set, with the added Alt Power token, as well as a small color code for what I was thinking to differentiate tokens.
Looks cool; I guess my last comment is that BP is a consumable resource for which you likely want keep the count while also showing you’ve used it. Flipping tokens works very well for this, but if you’re cool just flipping to a blank side, maybe that works for you. I suppose you can also switch to virus token, but that could be confusing if the play area wasn’t organized enough.
That virus token kinda clashes from the storytelling in most of the netrunner cards, doesn’t it? A popup that reads “Warning” would probably come from antivirus software like Cyberdex Virus Suite or Cyberdex Free trial, and by the time those happen there are no tokens. A lot of viruses seem like they are subtly infecting the corp and going undetected, like Deep Thought and Chakana.
The flavor lover in me would prefer a little symbol illustrating cellular replication, acknowledging that virus counter usually represent that the runner’s virus has successfully copied itself. Or even a more generic thing like a skull and cross bones, and X, or anything that doesn’t suggest the corp always knows when a virus has been installed immediately.
OTOH I really like the bad publicity one, and think that’s a really good flavorful generic representation of bad publicity for the corp. Whether there was a Hostile Takeover or the news studio has stooped to Muckraking someone is gonna blog about it. The Medical token one is fine too, it shows the runner’s brain activity getting monitored. And since power tokens are used for everything you want it generic, I think the power plug is reasonably generic, others have suggested that maybe you want to go even more generic with the power symbol and I don’t disagree with that.
Hmmm, I hadn’t thought about the storytelling repercussion of the tokens, tbh. I’ll see what sort of more generic option I can come up with the for the virus token. It was really more of a symbolism thing, with the Warning dialog being used for the Virus token than anything. My assumption was the alert would come from an anti-virus software in that sense. I’ll have to dig into that design a bit more, and see.
was just about to say this! really dislike the metal tokens for this reason (they can even be hard to tell when you’re in person).
My personal preference is to have different sizes/shapes/obvious colors for different denominations, and to limit the number of denominations (imho ideally to 1’s and 5’s, but many people like to use the 2’s and 3’s I know. most would agree I think that 10’s and 25’s are totally unnecessary)
I really like the black-and-white look of these, very slick design. power tokens especially are slick, I’d love to see the viruses be more like that (many decks accumulate and spend a large number of virus tokens over the course of a game). Also, many player will assume they are tag tokens since bad publicity and tags originally had the same shape.
TLDR:
looks really great to me, kudos
differentiate the $ denominations so they’re very easy to tell apart in person and maybe even on camera if you plan on distributing these
square virus tokens might be confusing, especially without tag tokens
I’ll most certainly adjust the denominations so they’re more easily recognizable after they’re printed. And I’ll definitely work on a tag token, next. See what I can come up with for that one, as well.
If the 1-credit tokens aren’t reversible the way the Team Covenant ones are, they’re basically of no use, IMO. I’ve won two sets of credit tokens from FFG themselves that I’ll never use because they’re single-sided. The ability to flip the 1-credit counter over and use it as an advancement token is such a usability aid I’ll never go back. (It’s worth noting that the cardboard tokens that come with the Core Set have double-sided 1-credit/advancement tokens.)
[quote=“Brodie, post:19, topic:6300”]
they’re basically of no use
[/quote]I mean, ok? That’s just your preference, style-wise. You can just put them on the agenda. there’s no mechanic in the game where credits just sit on a face down card like an advancement, so there’s absolutely no mechanical reason credits need a different side to be used as advancements. (also the ffg ones are different on the back side… they’re blank)
that said, if you’re making a double-sided token, I agree that there’s no reason not to have something fun as an advancement side (I like the TC ones you mention, and the pennygems have a cool flip side as well.)
