I Have to be there Before Daybreak

Good morning, friend.

So I have a rather unhealthy relationship with sites like Ebay, Coolstuffinc, and Kickstarter. There are so many awesome things to find online, and I simply have to have them all. For instance:

I decided to back Unspeakable Words on Kickstarter. I've always wanted this game, and it's been out of print for over a year. 'Simple enough, I'll get this one thing and show some restraint,' I think to myself. Then it hits me: the kicker. 'Why don't I just look around a bit and see what else is on kickstarter at the moment,' I let my mind wander. Bad decision.

If you don't know, Kickstarter is a crowd funding web site where creators can post projects and get average Joes to fund them. This eliminates corporate greed (in theory) and gets money directly to the creators, while also allowing the Joes to get a great project in the end. People kickstart many things from music albums to live concerts. It's really quite fascinating. I have a weakness for board game kickstarters.

So there I am, looking through the kickstarters coming up, and I notice some striking art. 'Arcana Playing Cards?' I ask myself. 'I'll have to check this one out,' I think innocently as I open up the project, completely not intending to get sucked into another project, particularly one involving playing cards. I have several decks, I don't need a fancy one.

I was not prepared for the beauty that awaited me. This project, Arcana Playing Cards, floored me with it's beauty. Then I saw that there were two versions of the deck you could buy - a light themed one and a dark themed one. What really made this deck unique to me was its integration with the old Tarot decks, and the resulting art. Guess what? As an add-on you can buy the cards that will even out the 58 playing cards to the 78 Tarot card deck. But wait, there's more! You can also get beautifully crafted boxes to put them in, wood protective boxes with a metal stamp on it, specially minted coins to match the art, etc, etc, etc.

Well, I wasn't planning on spending so much on a deck of cards. It's just so beautiful. As of this post, the playing cards still have a day left to kickstart - feel free to go over there and back their project. The guy does great art, and it's wonderful to see someone so passionate about their creative endeavors. A piece of advice before you go:

Just look at the one project on kickstarter. It's a terrible downward spiral.