I made some PSD templates for making cards and characters for the Revised 4th Edition of Talisman which have been available for a little while over on the Downloads Page. I figured it was about time I wrote a little "tutorial" on how it all works, though I am sure most of you who use Photoshop regularly will have a fair idea!

I've taken some screenshots and will try to go through the process step-by-step, showing what I do to create cards at least. Photoshop enables you to make an image out of various "layers", which can be images or text layers. You control which layers are visible by selecting the "eye" icon and then you can manipulate these in the templates to make a pretty good representation of a card from the new edition.

The first layer is the "Card Name" layer, which funnily enough allows you to change the name of the card!

Just select the layer and, using the text tool, adjust the name to one of your choosing. Remember that the cards use the "R" without the flowing tail which, in the version of Windlass I have for download, is the "Registered" symbol (Alt+0174).

Next up is the "Flavour Text" layer, which has a few different options to choose from.

You can choose from text boxes with different spacings for keywords, like Armour and Weapon, Enemies or just plain text for other card types.

Select the layers you wish to change and alter them, not forgetting to make the "Craft Value" layer visible if it is an Enemy Spirit or other Craft-based Enemy.

If the card has two distinct uses or effects, like the Pixie, these should be separated using the "Divider" layers. Just leave a space and a half break between the parts of text, then make a divider visible and move it into place.

The "Card Types" layer is pretty straightforward as it is where you decide what type of card your new creation is going to be!

Don't worry about having to alter the Encounter Number, as that is done automatically when you select the Card Type. Don't forget to hide any layers you are not using otherwise the box will become a jumble of text!

If you wish to make a card for a particular expansion or you have plans for making your own, then you might want to use the "Expansion" layer.

The expansion symbol is currently made using the Wingdings font, but you could deselect it and paste in an image of your choosing instead.

The "Backgrounds" layer gives you the choice of making your card an Adventure, Purchase or Spell card.

These will hopefully be added to as and when new card templates are required. Warlock Quest cards for instance, and who knows what else!

Finally you will need to add a decent image to your creation.

This style of card requires an image approximately 410 pixels wide x 240 pixels high, whereas the other version of the Adventure template uses an image around 410 pixels wide x 350 pixels high.

Just paste it into the template above the "Example Picture" layer and position it so that it is central.

Et voila! You can now hopefully make your own cards for the game like these below!

For those of you that do not use Photoshop or would like to create some templates for use with The Gimp or other software you can use the image below as a guide to the fonts and sizes used in the creation of these cards. Note that users of The Gimp will be able to open these templates, but you won't be able to alter the text nodes on the text layers. You will have to replace the contents of those layers with the GIMP's text nodes.