Okay, feast your eyes on these babies. Hypersmurf, better known as That Insanely Awesome Guy From New Zealand, put together a deck of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND playing cards! And you can buy them RIGHT NOW!For the low low price of $10, you can buy a deck of Official DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND playing cards, and bring the likes of Victoria, Nobuhiro and Imperial Sorcerer Pak Siu Ming along on your games of Texas Hold 'Em, or Bridge, or Go Fish, depending on your preferred play style (I like Hearts, actually).
The cards use the soon-to-be-discussed "Factions" in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND (well, four of them): Imperials, Ninjas, Pirates and Natives. These replace the old suits of Diamonds, Spades, Clubs and Hearts. This of course makes sweet little Narasaki into the feared Queen of Spades, but that's amusing.You also get two Jokers in the deck -- the terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex and the fetching but even more terrifying SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY.
This is such a deal you should really be buying eight or twelve decks. Seriously. All monies raised will be going to help needy artists in Brazil. We're not even kidding about that.
But beyond the relentless salesmanship here, it's pretty cool to see that DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is beginning to spread. The idea was always that this setting would take on a life of its own, and inspire creativity in different venues, through different media. It started life as a setting for a fantasy role-playing game, but over the next year or so you'll be seeing these characters and their world getting developed on multiple fronts.
This deck of cards wasn't commissioned or even designed by me -- it was an enthusiastic fan of the setting who put this together. And there's more where that came from. There's other expressions of this enthusiasm coming down the pipe. My job is going to be trying to create a structure or an environment where this sort of creative energy can be directed, and build upon what's already been done.
DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is an experiment, one that I hope enables creative engagement on many levels. Playing cards is just one expression of that.
So BUY THEM!