Before reading this post, please read the 'On the Subject of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place Cards' post first.
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Because I now had to create 18 additional cards for Last Chance Saloon, I thought it would be a good idea to create a different reverse design for each of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place cards.
To clarify, this meant that 1st place cards would have on their reverses a different design to 2nd place and 3rd place ones.
As well as the different flavoured text revealing more of that character's story, this would go further in providing a more immersive and better sense of achievement for the players. It would also add more variety to the game itself.
People like myself enjoy looking at a card's design rather than simply reading what is listed on it for gameplay's sake. This was another reason why I made the decision to create three different reverse card designs for these types of cards.
The photograph underneath is of page 22 in my sketchbook, upon which are a few basic sketches of ideas I had for the reverse of each card of this type. Obviously, the higher the position, the better the design would be.
1st place cards will have on their reverse the image of a lone gunman in the middle of a frontier town riding off into the sunset.
'Riding off into the sunset' has become so ingrained within popular culture that it has widely become a common term in conversation, often meaning that a person has resolved their conflicts in a neat and pleasing fashion. The term, obviously, stems from Western films in which the hero, having done his job (whether it's to save a town from bandits or avenge his loved ones) would be seen mounting his steed and riding off into the sunset.
Avid fans and aficionados of the American frontier will understand the image of a sunset to be a powerful and elegiac metaphor for the American frontier itself, as the sun sets in the West.
Riding off into the sunset is seen as the 'ultimate victory' for anybody in a Western film, and that is why the 1st place reverse has this design.
2nd place cards will have on their reverses a opened lockbox inside which lies a bundle or a sack of payroll, with currency or gold strewn around the area around the lockbox. One of the biggest and most common motivators in Western films is money: the entire plot around The Good, the Bad and the Ugly revolves around the search for gold. This shows that although the character didn't quite get the outcome they wanted exactly, lots of good came from their exploits.
The reverse of 3rd place cards depict a rough wooden background upon which lies several bullet casings and splashes of fresh blood, indicating that a gunfight has taken place. The player in 3rd place has won the gunfight, but does not walk away unscathed. In the centre of all these designs will be the Last Chance Saloon logo, a battered and damaged saloon sign bearing the game's name.
06/03/2020 - present