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Cardstock Tokens

We’re in the height of convention season, and with that, people are running lots of RPGs at gaming conventions. We at USP just got back from a crazy week of events at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. For me, at least, a part of running events at conventions is presentation. Good presentation won’t save a bad game – I don’t care how nice your handouts and miniatures are if the GM running the event or the scenario as written aren’t top-notch – but it can definitely elevate a “good” game into a memorable one.

I like to use miniatures and battle-maps as part of my games, and to be honest, good miniatures for superheroes are about impossible to find. You can kit-bash a lot of them out of HeroClix or using custom 3-D prints, but they’re still a lot of work. But cardstock tokens? Those are much, much more doable, and based on the amount of “Pathfinder Pawns” that Paizo manages to sell, there’s clearly a market for them. So, today, I’m going to share with you two methods I use for making cardstock tokens for my superhero games to fit onto battle-maps with 1″ squares (that are supposed to represent 5′).

First off, I’ve used two different methods over the years. One of which is much easier than the other, but requires one extra key supply.

Ingredients

To make cardstock tokens, you will need the following:

  • A list of characters you need to make tokens for
  • Digital images of those characters (for the sample file I included, I used images of the Freedom League taken from my PDF copy of the Freedom City sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds, but you can take images from anywhere)
  • A word processing program (I use Microsoft Word, but you can get by with Google Docs or LibreOffice or just about any other program of your choice)
  • Access to a printer (preferably in color)
  • Cardstock to print the tokens onto
  • Scissors
  • Tape or glue
  • (Optional) Pathfinder Pawn Bases from Paizo or a third-party equivalent

Cardstock Tokens without Access to Pathfinder Pawn Bases

This is the first method of creating tokens that I used, and it has the advantage of not needing to carry a bunch of extra pieces of plastic with me.

  1. After collecting all of your images, open your word processor program.
  2. Create a 6 column, 5 row table with the following dimensions:
    • Column Width (all): 1″
    • Row 1 Height: 1/2″
    • Row 2 Height: 1.5″
    • Row 3 Height: 1.5″
    • Row 4 Height: .5″
    • Row 5 Height: 1″
  3. Format rows 2 & 3 so that text and images are centered both vertically and horizontally. If your program supports it, and if you want to create tokens that have an obvious “front and back” change the text orientation of row 2 and 3 to vertical instead of horizontal.
  4. Import the images you wish to use for the first figure. Do not import it directly into the cells of the table – most programs will warp the table to fit the image, which will distort the whole thing. Import the image outside of the table and then use the crop and resize features. Personal preferences will vary, and specifics of how to crop and import will be different from one piece of software to another. But your final image should be no more than 1.25″ in height, and no more than .9″ in width.
  5. Cut the image from outside of the table and paste it into cell 2 and/or 3. Since I like having relative facing for my tokens (and it’s easier for me to keep track of generic mobs that are labeled things like “Zombie 1” and “Zombie 2,” I will only put the image in one of the two cells, and in the other cell of that column, I’ll put the character name. If you want to put an image in both cells, that’s fine too. Just make sure that one of the two images is rotated 180 degrees (you want both cells 2 and 3 to treat the vertical line separating them as the “top” of the token.
  6. Repeat the process for each other column in the table (for as many tokens as you wish to create). You may need to create additional pages with copies of the same table on it depending on how many tokens you want.
  7. Print your pages onto cardstock.
  8. Cut out the tokens. Cut the tokens apart by column, but do not cut any rows off the tokens. Trip off the excess white space of the document.
  9. Fold the tokens along each line separating the rows.
  10. Row 1 will become a part of the top of the “base” of the token. Rows 2 and 3 will form the visible parts of the token. Row 4 will become the other part of the top of the base of the token, while Row 5 will become the bottom part of the base of the token.
  11. Tape the token together – you will want to tape Rows 2 and 3 together to remove any gap between the pieces, and you will tape Rows 1 and 4 to Row 5.
  12. When completed, you should have a token 1.5″ tall, 1″ wide, with a 1″ square base.

Cardstock Tokens with Pathfinder Pawn Bases

This is the the much easier method of creating tokens I currently use. It does require bringing along plastic token bases, but it also creates tokens that are much faster to make, require much less construction, and are easier to store.

    1. After collecting all of your images, open your word processor program.
    2. Create a 6 column, 2 row table with the following dimensions:
      • Column Width (all): 1″
      • Row 1 Height: 1.5″
      • Row 2 Height: 1.5″
    3. Format rows 1 & 2 so that text and images are centered both vertically and horizontally. If your program supports it, and if you want to create tokens that have an obvious “front and back” change the text orientation of row 2 and 3 to vertical instead of horizontal.
    4. Import the images you wish to use for the first figure. Do not import it directly into the cells of the table – most programs will warp the table to fit the image, which will distort the whole thing. Import the image outside of the table and then use the crop and resize features. Personal preferences will vary, and specifics of how to crop and import will be different from one piece of software to another. But your final image should be no more than 1.25″ in height, and no more than .9″ in width.
    5. Cut the image from outside of the table and paste it into cell 1 and/or 2. Since I like having relative facing for my tokens (and it’s easier for me to keep track of generic mobs that are labeled things like “Zombie 1” and “Zombie 2,” I will only put the image in one of the two cells, and in the other cell of that column, I’ll put the character name. If you want to put an image in both cells, that’s fine too. Just make sure that one of the two images is rotated 180 degrees (you want both cells 1 and 2 to treat the vertical line separating them as the “top” of the token.
    6. Repeat the process for each other column in the table (for as many tokens as you wish to create). You may need to create additional pages with copies of the same table on it depending on how many tokens you want.
    7. Print your pages onto cardstock.
    8. Cut out the tokens. Cut the tokens apart by column, but leave the two rows attached. Trip off the excess white space of the document.
    9. Fold the tokens along each line separating the rows.
    10. Rows 1 & 2 will form the visible parts of the token.
    11. Tape the token together – you will want to tape Rows 1 and 2 together along the sides (not the bottom) to remove any gap between the pieces.
    12. You will now have double-sided tokens 1.25″ tall and 1″ wide. Take your Pathfinder Pawn base, and slip the token over the two tabbed slots. The token will not be thick enough to comfortably sit inside the slots, but if you’ve taped it together tightly enough, it should firmly fit over the two slots, and be tight enough that the base won’t fall out when picked up.

To help you out, here’s a link to a Microsoft Word document with both varieties of tokens set-up for you to use as a template. Next time, I’ll show my method for creating full color battle-maps for use with these tokens. Happy gaming!