My FC First Missions box art

Mr_Tricorder · Post by **Mr_Tricorder** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 6:24 pm

I've been wanting to give Federation Commander a try for a while, but haven't been able to find anyone who has played it, has the game, or is willing to learn it with me. I've recently been getting into Print & Play games and had found the First Missions files here and thought that I might be able to get some of my friends interested in learning the game if I put it together with some decent quality components and create an attractive-looking box for them.

Here's a picture of the box lid I just created. I was going for something simple and appealing and not overly taxing on my ink cartridges. I don't know yet if I want to do anything special for the bottom of the box or not. The artwork was mostly taken from the Prime Directive 1st edition sourcebook, except for the Klingon D-7 which was taken from the First Missions PDF and the ADB, SFU, Federation, and Klingon symbols which I found in various locations on the starfleetgames website.

What do you all think? I love to get feedback on little projects like this.

EDIT: I just finished the box and put all the components into it. I went with just plain cardboard for the bottom box instead of coming up with separate bottom box art. Hex maps and ship cards are laminated and counters are printed on cardstock and mounted on thin pieces of wood and coated with a clear glaze.

gar1138 · Post by **gar1138** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:00 pm

I think this looks awesome!

I printed out a few copies of the First Missions book, then made my own First Missions Master Weapons Chart (just using only the needed weapons charts from First Missions itself). My intent was to make introductory components that were easy for new folks to get into and understand.

I really like the complete box idea!

Garrett

gar1138 · Post by **gar1138** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:26 pm

Would love to share a small screenshot of the First Missions weapons chart I made, but doesn't look like I can upload an image (just point to a image on the web, but I don't have it hosted anywhere). Unless I'm missing something?

Garrett

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:38 pm

you did a great job.

JimDauphinais · Post by **JimDauphinais** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:16 pm

I agree that is pretty neat.

With regard to images, yes, you need to use photobucket or another file server to host the image. There is no ability to upload images to this forum outside of the left side icon for your tagline (i.e., for me, the Yorktown).

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:38 pm

Garrett,
If you'll email the image to me - I'll upload it to photobucket and provide a link.

gar1138 · Post by **gar1138** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 6:28 pm

Thanks, Tony. Email sent.

More info: it is a small shot of the First Missions Master Weapons Chart I made (the full res version take up one 8.5 inch sheet of paper). Basically, I just copied the weapons charts from the First Missions book directly. Only has what is needed for the First Missions (Photons, Disruptors, no overloads, etc).

Has worked well the few times I've use it with new players (which was quite awhile ago now).

If anyone wants a copy of the full res PDF, I'm happy to share. Just shoot me an email.

Garrett

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 6:39 pm

Garrett's chart:

Mr_Tricorder · Post by **Mr_Tricorder** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:08 pm

I like that reference card. I think I'll print out a small one to go with my First Missions box. That way I don't have to keep explaining firing arc abbreviations and I don't have to open the rulebook every time someone takes a shot.

Mr_Tricorder · Post by **Mr_Tricorder** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:39 pm

Here's the image for the box top, in case anyone is interested in using it to make your own box.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8600234/my_boxart.pdf

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 10:38 pm

thanks for the link

Sneaky Scot · Post by **Sneaky Scot** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:56 am

Good job and a nice way to introduce players. Hope you're successful in finding some opponents!

pipboy101 · Post by **pipboy101** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 12:35 pm

I am going to start demos and an "academy" at my FLGS in a month or so. This is a great idea and want to do the same thing for our gamers. Where did you get the printing done and how much did it all cost?

Mr_Tricorder · Post by **Mr_Tricorder** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:42 pm

pipboy101 wrote:I am going to start demos and an "academy" at my FLGS in a month or so. This is a great idea and want to do the same thing for our gamers. Where did you get the printing done and how much did it all cost?

I did it all myself. Here's what I did for the box and components.

Box

The box is fairly small and compact, only measuring 8"x6"x1". I made the bottom box and the lid out of some spare thin cardboard I had laying around. I designed the box lid in Photoshop and printed it out on a single sheet of cardstock. Then I cut and folded it to fit on the box lid and glued it in place and then applied a self-adhesive laminating sheet and wrapped the edges with a layer of clear packaging tape.

Counters

I printed the counter sheet on cardstock (although regular printer paper would probably work just fine) and bought a pack of assorted wooden square tiles from Michaels for $3.50 and glued the cardstock counters on top of them. Then I used a paint brush to apply some triple thick bush-on gloss glaze that I had left over from a sculpting project I worked on last year.

Board

I printed out six sheets of cardstock with the hex grid provided in the First Missions PDF and then spray-painted the back of them with with gloss-black spraypaint. Then I applied a self-adhesive laminating sheet to the front of each sheet and trimmed the edges along the black lines. Then I cut the sheets in half and used clear packing tape on the back to tape the two halves together so they would fold and unfold neatly.

Everything else

The ship cards are printed on cardstock and laminated with self-adhesive laminating sheets.
The reference cards are simply printed on cardstock.
The rulebook (plain PDF version) is printed on regular printer paper using the booklet printing option in Adobe Reader. The sheets are folded in half, trimmed, and stapled along the spine.
I threw in two wipe-off markers and a spare d6 that I had laying around to make the game complete.

All in all, this could be a relatively expensive project if you don't already have some of these materials on-hand, but if you're planning on making multiple copies or have other projects in mind for these materials, it shouldn't be so bad.
Laminating sheets - $25 for a pack of 50 sheets
Black sparay-paint - $6.50 for a 12oz can
Cardstock - $15 for 250 sheets
Wooden tiles - $3.50 (and I have a lot of 1" and 1 1/2" tiles left over)
Clear glaze - don't remember, but I wasn't very expensive. Maybe about $5

pipboy101 · Post by **pipboy101** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 7:13 pm

Thank you for such a quick reply. This will help out greatly with our new gamers and getting them into the FC. I found the hardest thing in getting people into this game was that when you say that all you need to learn is on the website for free and just print it out. When they do that they have a bunch of paper and a confused look on their face. I guess I deal with alot of 40k and Warmahordes players not use to the rules layout and the hex maps.

With this they don't have to print out everything and I can just tell them what they need in their mission's box for that lesson. Plus they feel like they have something real and not just a bunch of printouts. Well, here goes nothing. Diving head first into arts and crafts time with my safety sissors.

Again a huge thanks for this idea and the step by step.