Custom 18XX CPC Set mock ups for review and comment (1 Viewer)

rebuscarnival

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Hey Ya'll,

I am another drifter what wandered over from the Apache Chips board gamer chips initiative. I use poker chips mainly for 18XX games which I play, more or less, once a week. I've been fiddling with the CPC's dopaminergic design tool for about a year with the vague idea that I would eventually upgrade. I've upgraded my chips once before from a 500+ generic dice chip (truly awful) set to a 300 piece set of Claysmith's The Mint (excellent value) with custom $20 labels. I was toying with the idea of putting together a mixed set of paulsons, but the expense approaches what I would spend on a custom set of CPC chips, especially for the lines I like the best. I have a random assortment CPC sampler but ordered the full color spread a few days ago in the anticipation of this unwise investment. I have also bought some paulson $500, just to hold, that will probably get folded into this set, as I can't justify getting 200 chips I don't need to allow for five unique chips.

I was initially modeling my set on the very pretty Lakeshore chips, but I had a epiphany today that I should have the color progression match that of the tile upgrades typical in 18xx games yellow>>green>>russet>>grey. The denominations are $1>>$5>>$20>>$100 Below is the draft set and some variations I am considering. I may still go the more conservative route with traditional color progression, but this was fun to mock up. This will be my first, and hopefully last, custom set, and I appreciate any feedback and suggestions from folks with more experience with customs and chip collecting in general.

18xx.png


18xx 1.png


18xx 5.png


18xx 20.png


18xx 100.png


Thanks for looking. I also need to consider inlays and art, but I'm not too rushed on the project.
 
I love seeing all the 18xx players showing up here. My poker and 18xx worlds are colliding!

I just ordered a full set of cash and tournament poker chips from CPC, and got $20s instead of $25s for the cash set for the first time ever with an eye towards using them for 18xx as well.
 
as for your designs, I like your original $1. I would probably swap edgespot patterns on the $5 and the $20 to give it more of a progression, but at the same time I am a fan of not making edgepots too complicated for 18xx, as there tends to be a lot less of each chip in each treasury and more dirty stacks than in poker, so you want each chip to look very distinct from the edge as an individual chip.

i like your idea of progressing through the tile colors, but at least with the group I play with, I would be leery of switching up from the standard colors. will that be an issue for you? if so, maybe use the tile colors as edge spots on standard chip colors? something like this:

b299d7d3-02a0-4f76-be3a-28fb2070ad09.png


of course, the issue with this idea is that 20s are usually gray in 18xx and that also would need to be the edge color on the 100, but you could add a little pop per above to create some contrast. I dunno, just spitballing. just keep experimenting, there is quite a bit you can do.

oh and you will also see that dayglo saturn does not look in real life like the mockup - it has a very waxy, greenish tint to it, and generally does not make for a good base color.
 
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We use a yellow $20, a relabeled $1000 from The Mint, and I would probably keep this convention if I go with the standard white, red, black. There might be an issue with the synesthetic angle with a standard/current color repurposed for another value (in this case the current $20 becomes a $1; you hear this a lot with using green $20s) but we all play at enough different tables that I expect folks will adapt easily enough. We also have two players that are red or red/green color blind, further dampening the need for color fidelity.

Point taken on the edge spots. I think if i simplify I would ditch the spot progression and just use the 3 or 4 corner dualchrome (3D14, which I think looks sharp) and keep the color contrast. I do like the playstation $100 but it is indulgent. Here is a more conservative design trying to avoid the dirty stack issue.

xx cons.png


For the sake of this exercise I'd like to keep the tile color progression. Below is the trad set I was fadoodling with before today. The $1 as a "life preserver"

xx trad1.png


EDIT: I ordered the color sampler from CPC because I was concerned specifically about the yellow, which will likely be in whatever set I end up making. The brighter the better.
 
I think the consistent 3D14s is a big improvement, and I like the edge spot combos, particularly the $1 and $20. actually the more I look at the $100 the more I like that one too.

unfortunately, one of the biggest complaints about CPC's color selection is the lack of a really bright yellow. canary is probably going to end up being your best bet, but that's what samples are for!

what are the Paulson $500s you bought? if you are going with the A mold and want to get matching chips without another custom denom, you could also just pick one of the stock Atlantic clubs and pop the inlays off to add your own, or it might even be worth asking David if he has some blanks, if you like any of them and could make them work with your set. bottom line, it never hurts to ask, he is very responsive and accomodating.
 
Thanks for the tip, its a good idea and I'll be certain to inquire. I just got some fun nites to test the feel of paulson. I only need 8 or 10 to fill out the bank, the higher denominations don't usually come out until the final set of ORs but are useful to tally up the final score. I've also considered getting some $500 plaques, but that is ostentation that I suspect might buck convention too much for taste.
 
You were right about the dayglo saturn, not what I was expecting. In person, Orange is closer to russet in older productions and close enough to the brown used in AAG handmade sets. It also has better contrast against the dark grey.

20200219_120210.jpg


xx2.png


I've had the hardest time with the green spots, I don't like most of the combinations I've tried.
 
interesting on the orange!

it's funny you say that, I was just looking at the Bee Room sample sets in the Classifieds (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/bee-room-asm-sample-sets.52768/) and thinking how much I liked the colors on the green $25s. different spot pattern, but I think it looks good on the 3D14 as well, what do you think?

5e0f5aaf-88a1-4bc8-b589-2f7c16e6a747.png


also, looking at the tiles made me think about how cool it might be to use edge spots to roughly mimic the complexity of some typical track exits per tile as you increase:

944efadd-9baa-403b-8637-58e5387f5d49.png


and a less colorful version:

d59dd5d9-c348-4dd9-9465-5955f4cfeaca.png
 
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Got shot down hard on the color progression by some regulars :( so looks like playing around with the standard, which is a shame because I don't particularly like any of the yellows. May campaign harder for it before I give up.
 
we already play with a yellow 20, that's not the sticking point, and I might be convinced to switch to grey, but I feel like the white-grey-black is real dull and looks messy in stacks.

There is a visceral dislike of the green and orange by themselves (certainly might be a knee jerk reaction) and some concern over the green $5 from folks who play with $25 sets and that the orange/russet was a little too red.
 
Oh I will probably concede and go with the Lakeshore inspired set. The tile colors was a stroke of inspiration but functionality has to come first. I played with hexes in the inlay nut it clashes.

The paulson route is tempting but I feel like I'll end up spending nearly as much as I would on the CPC customs.

It was a fun idea. When I'm rich and famous I might get this as a vanity set ;).
 

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