Super Secret Project: DWS (1 Viewer)

PlaidDragon

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Greetings PCF'rs.

Today I unveil a project that I've had bouncing around in my head since before covid. I was uncertain this would even happen for the longest of times so I never mentioned it directly until now given the order is finally in progress.

Thus, I present to you: "Dragon's World Series".

DWS_Lineup.png


Yes. I know I need show REAL inlays. ;)

Further down in this post you'll see the actual inlay design for the 500K. As I write this its the only denom art I have. I should have the rest of artwork from J5 soon and will post it all here when I get it.

So... onto the inspiration for all this:

Back in 2019 rather than create a new set, I thought to expand my existing Dragons to include more denoms, thinking I'd top off at perhaps T100k. That was semi-appealing for a while, but the more I considered it, the worse of an idea it seemed to be. I just couldn't fit more chips into that set while maintaining spot progression as well as good color choices versus all the other existing denoms.

Though I DID ultimately expand the Dragons to T5000, I still came to the conclusion that an entirely new set of chips was called for. I wanted something along the same Dragons theme but also something new and distinctive; in addition, a set I could employ for special occasions and events. I also felt higher values for the denominations, like those we might see at the Main Event final table, would contribute to this theme.

Another inspiration to do this was when I saw these WSOP chips for the first time:

1639797129283.png

From the moment I saw them I thought they were absolutely awesome. So cool yet simple. I had to have some! However, I know full well that I'll never own nor will likely even handle any of these, so my next best choice was to re-create them. The problem was, even though CPC's available colors got me close, they just didn't look good when throwing the actual color sample chips together.
  • Black looked better than their charcoal so I went with that.
  • Light chocolate for one of the quarter spots was nearly perfect.
  • However, for the other quarter, even though DG peach looks very good in the design tool, putting the actual samples together showed me it was too bright. (reinforces the mantra of "get samples" ;) )
  • Alternatives in yellow, butterscotch, and orange didn't make me any happier so I deviated hard and chose Lt. blue instead.
Though it no longer tries to exactly copy the WSOP 25K, it's still a cool and unique look for the set, and maintains the spirit of the chip that inspired it.

Some of the other denoms also had inspiration from existing Paulsons.

My initial choice for the 100K was to emulate the white 100K from WSOP but with 618 spots from CPC. Instead, I changed to 414 spots though given that seemed a better transition from the quarter pie chip. The lavender and pink spot colors I felt made the chip stand out more than blue/black. Thus, it completely transitioned away from emulating anything from WSOP. Plus, I later chose 618 spots for the 500K.

The only other colors I want to mention are those for the 1M. The Arc Yellow, green, and brown are the colors of a Paulson chip that uses (I think) "50" as its denom?. Someone here at PCF used to have it as their avatar but I can't find it in any existing pron threads nor in the chip database. Still, I've always loved that color combo and went with that instead of trying to mirror the same yellow of the WSOP 1M.

The inlay was another challenge. Real WSOP chips have their own distinctive, but no frills, look. At first, my inclination was to copy WSOP not unlike so many of the other "tribute" sets that are out there. Over time though, I gravitated away from that idea in lieu of the following design which was the first I sent to J5.

DWS_Crude_Base.png

The general idea was keep that basic look suggesting it's "WSOP" but also hint that it's "Dragon's Poker Room". Thus, I had J5 copy the WSOP font as best he could and include the card suits, but to also incorporate the dragon from my original set to tie the two together.

What came out of that is best displayed in J5's initial mockup to me.

DWS_Mock1.jpg


The dragon was altered slightly so as to keep more real estate available for the rest of the text. I wanted the numeric denomination to be the most prominent part of the inlay.

Regarding mold choice, I absolutely did not want another A-mold set like the Dragons. Also, I didn't want scrowns (even though I love them) given I already have that mold for my main cash set. The end verdict changed many times throughout 2020 and 2021 but I finally settled on CSQ's. Their very cool look will be great as the foundation of what might very well be my final set of CPC chips (barring any future add-ons).

Even without final inlay art, I've put the CPC order in already so as to avoid the 2022 price increases. (--EDIT-- I've decided not to release samples for this set. Sorry.)

It may be a while before these come given I'm pretty sure CSQ mold just ran (or is running now?). Dave informed me though that the mold _MAY_ run again sooner than anticipated if stocks of their CSQ Rounders run low, so here's hoping a huge number of people order Rounders chips for Christmas. :LOL: :laugh:

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading about what I hope will be the capstone set of my collection. Will post the cpc proof and final artwork mocks when I can.
 
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Very cool. What if the dragon filled most of the inlay, faded? That way it's more prominent yet not overpowering. It's relative small size now doesn't have as much impact. Also, "Hoard" popped into my head. Would "Dragon's Hoard Series" be too punny?
 
Never known a CPC inlay to fade; though my oldest CPC set is only been around 3 yrs. I'm good with the Dragon's World Series moniker, but thank you for your input. :D
 
Sorry I didn’t mean fade as in with age but like if the dragon graphic was larger and semi-transparent as a background on the inlay.
 
Seems vaguely familiar. Can't quite put my finger on it tho.....

to be fair, mine uses light blue instead of gray, but they are pretty much interchangeable in this scheme. i went back and forth a few times but ended up using gray spots a couple times elsewhere in my cash set.
 
You make a good point, but I'm not that concerned. :D

I thought about how the quarter pie would fit in and had even originally considered a solid for the 5K. Over time though I realized that I just don't like solids and ultimately settled on the simple spot pattern for the starting denom.
 

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