šµ I've got a confession to make... šµ
I'm addicted to Itch.io solo ttrpgs. Seriously, it's becoming a problem. This is maybe a third of my collection and is purely showing games I've downloaded:
A lot of these rely purely on a standard deck of playing cards or some dice, but... a few in this mix require a tarot deck.
Well, that's a problem because I don't - or rather, didn't - own a tarot deck myself.
Thankfully, along comes a Kickstarter - the Octopus Tarot by Luna Charlotte and it's chock-full of some absolutely stunning holographic art. So, of course, I snap up the chance to back this and then we wait.
Now, this was a... shall we say rough kickstarter? Originally this was going to be all printed here in Canada, but as the kickstarter wrapped and the actual business of getting things done started... it must have become clear to the creator that our local printers just weren't going to produce the quality she was looking for. So, printing got moved to... Hong Kong? I think? Overseas somewhere, anyhow.
Then of course because of shipping fiascos and general chaos in supply chains, the goal of Feb 2022 for products being in our hands came and passed. Finally though, things were ready to ship and we came upon the next hurdle - some of us had $30 shipping; not bad! But some of us (myself included) had $100+ shipping costs. So, the creator and her team busted their ass to try and find another solution to this shipping nightmare, eventually working it out. My own shipping went from $120 for a $40 kickstarter to a much more reasonable $30.
Once that was all done though, all I had to do was wait six weeks for delivery. Which, finally happened over my week off!
The box!
The goodies!
This (above) is the full contents of the shipment for me. Two tarot decks (because I have a sibling that loves that shit), some stickers, a fancy little tarot bag, and a thank you card.
The box itself is lovely and is also holographic.
And of course, the stickers are holographic as well. Sweet holographic octopuses!
The pictures here don't do it justice - but the front and back of each card have holographic sections, and the sides of the cards do as well... so when they're all together they look stunning.
Now, this also came with a tarot guidebook, which as I'm mostly going to use these for ttrpg games... I won't really be using much, but it is also pretty cool and I'm sure some folks would love it.
If you're interested in these, I believe she has some for sale through her website lunacharlotteart.com still. I believe they also exist as NFTs for those folks who want to collect some octopus tarot NFTs.
Myself, I'll be diving into some other Kickstarter rewards like The Soul Sword Forge, Errant, and some other various itch.io tarot-based games now that I have a suitable deck with which to play them.
I'll likely blog more about those as I play through them, so if that kind of solo-ttrpg interests you, toss me a follow!
Until next time... Happy gaming!