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Scott Everts
United States
Foothill Ranch
California
MITCHELL!!!
Push the button, Frank!
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One of the things I like to do for a short project is make player aids & add-ons (pimping) to my favorite games. Sometimes I go a bit overboard and make a ton of player aids. If you ever checked the file section of Mecanisburgo you'll see I've done a huge amount of stuff for that game. And I've only played it twice!! But I get attached to some games even if I can't ever get them back to the table. It's fun to make these things and there's always the chance another fan will download them and help make their first play smoother and more entertaining!
A problem that plagues my game group is we are constantly overwhelmed with new titles to try. So we don't often get a game back to the table. It might be months or years between plays. That's why player aids are so important. Sure, if you play something over and over you don't really need them. But that first play or long delay between plays means relearning it all again. So a good player aid can really speed things up. It amazes me why so many game companies don't offer good aids. It's rather annoying to constantly have to flip through a manual every 5 minutes. Something as simple as a card with the turn sequence and icon definitions would at least help alittle!
With my player aids I try to match the graphic design of the source game as close as possible. This can be time consuming but looks nicer when used with the game. Tracking down the original fonts helps. And I sometimes scan in parts of the components to make it easier to size/color match. Unfortunately every printer prints colors a bit differently so getting a perfect match is near impossible. So I get as close as I can.
I also try to make them easy to read with as large of font as possible. Nothing worse then having to squint to make it out. The whole point is helping the players play the game in the first place!
One concession of mine is I generally recommend they be printed on a laser printer. Especially the ones with lots of black. That's easy and cheap to do now with Stables, Office Max, Fedex Office, etc. You can even get them laminated. I realize many of mine just don't print well on inkjets but when I try to match the original graphic design I can't always choose colors. I do realize that my earlier aids tended to be light text on dark which doesn't always print or read well. I've attempted on my later ones to keep dark text on light. Even on laser printers, I've had trouble so I'm more aware of this issue.
Here's some of my favorite designs-
 
Neuroshima Hex!
I worked on the original Fallout computer game and always loved post apocalyptic themed games. When I saw details of this game I had to have it. I preordered it direct from Poland and was really excited when it showed up. But I found it difficult to teach since each army had unique units so teaching would require passing the manual around constantly. At first I was just going to photocopy the army ref sections of the manual. But decided to get fancy and make elabrate full color ref cards instead. Our first game they were really helpful. So asked the designer if it was ok to upload them to BGG. He agreed and they became a huge hit. So huge in fact that when Z-Man Games decided to print the official American edition, Zev asked me for permission to add them to the game. I was really honored and quickly uploaded my original source files to his FTP site. As each expansion came out I created new ones so he could publish them with the games.
These were time consuming to make. Getting the spacing right and condensing the rules took a long time. I also rewrote rules so they used the same type of language. Sometimes the original manuals would change how they worded an ability or function so tried to fix that where I could. I was always a bit worried that I might make a mistake since there was no heavy proofing. Time was always short so only Zev and I read them before print on both expansions. That was a bit scary!
One unfortunate mistake was the ref cards in Neuroshima Hex! Duel were the wrong size. My original ones are larger then the ones included in the base game and Babel13. Zev had them resized after I finished them. My templates were all designed for the larger size so I just made them that way and assumed they'd get resized by the printer. Unfortunately I forgot to remind Zev to tell the printer to change size so they are bigger then the previous ones. It's unfortunate but Vegas and Smart did have a lot more rules so makes them easier to read.
Another thing I was able to do for Neuroshima Hex! Duel was fix a few mistakes on the army tiles. I cleaned up the army logos and fixed some color issues with a few tokens. Z-Man's edition was based on the Polish 2.0 edition. So made sure the tile backs and other tokens continued to match that style.
The first ref card I did. What a pain to get everything to line up!
Files:
Neuroshima Hex! Army Reference Cards (Original 4 armies)
Neuroshima Hex! Borgo Ref Card v1.1 (includes Super Mutant Tile)
Neuroshima Hex! Doomsday Machine Army Reference Card
Neuroshima Hex! Babel13 Army Reference Cards
Neuroshima Hex! Duel Army Reference Cards
Neuroshima Hex! Duel Chain Reaction Reference Card
Agricola
This was my favorite game of 2007 and I was one of the gamers that pre-ordered it direct from Z-Man Games so I could get the animeeples. Boy, did it take forever to show up but I was so excited when it did! We played our first game right away and it did live up to the hype. We had a great time and were anxious to try it again soon.
One of the amusing things about our first game was our constant confusion on which wood disc went with which resource. This was especially a problem for wood and clay since they were both shades of brown! I had recently tried out laminating stickers which worked well so thought it would be cool to put little stickers on each wood disc that had the resource icon on it. So spent a few evenings re-creating the icons and placing on stickers. I decided to sticker both sides which turned into a 300+ punching and stickering marathon that took several nights and wore out several punches! And then I did another set for a friend!
I decided to upload the stickers just in case someone else was insane enough to sticker that many discs. Well, apparently there are a lot of people that insane! It's my biggest download with currently over 14,000 downloads! The file was even mentioned on the Dice Tower podcast. Apparently even Tom Vasel had a bit of trouble!
I later made Resource & Animal Multiplication Markers so players didn't need to use the generic ones. My final file was 3x Resource Stickers that worked with 19mm discs & 5/8" circle punch as an alternative to using the Multiplication Markers. I really liked how these turned out.
The stickers really look nice and I get many positive comments when my copy is seen at conventions. It really inspired me to do wood disc stickers for other games. It's amazing how nice it makes a game look.
Files:
Agricola Resource Stickers
Agricola Resource Multiplication Markers
Agricola Animal Multiplication Markers
Agricola Resource Stickers (No color backing)
Agricola 3x Resource Stickers
Mecanisburgo
I learned about this game from Kulkmann's G@mebox Essen 2008 coverage. I loved the theme so immediately tracked down a copy which was rather expensive at the time. My first attempt to read the manual was daunting! I reread it over and over and then ran a mock couple turns just to get the details right. I realized that a zone reference card would be quite handy so immediately worked on it. And then I got carried away! Just made more and more player aids. I eventually was noticed by the designer (Servando Carballar) who was so impressed that he send me free copies of the expansions and several of his other games from the 2009 & 2010 Essen releases.
This is what I like to call a crunchy game. It's dense and difficult to learn but once you get it figured out it's not so hard. What you really need to be is prepared! Someone in the group should know the rules well and understand the more difficult to interpret icons. But once you get it down, its a rather interesting game. It tells a story and does it well. One of those games you'll be thinking about long after the game is over.
My first play aid with detailed zone references. Many of the rules weren't on the board so this really helped cut down on manual reference. It was a nightmare getting all this data to fit!
This is the 3rd edition of the Major Projects Reference. Major Projects are open info and the deck is available to examine at any time. But thumbing through a deck is slow so made this to speed up selection. It is sized same as Zone Ref so I printed/laminated them back to back.
Each Megacorp has a set of special rules/characters/properties so created these card sized references for ease of play. I also created a set of VP cards to keep track of points.
This is a Major Projects Tracker that sits to the left of the gameboard. It is designed to slide under the board edge. I also made round 5/8" counters to track which Megacorp has which Major Project. This way, at a glance, everyone can see which are still available and who has the purchased ones.
Threats are special cards that require Megacorps to work together to defeat. Many, if ignored, can destroy zones and if 3 are destroyed, everyone loses. The full rules of each card are in the manual so I made this reference so players didn't need to check the manual all the time.
I didn't like the expansion Planet Miniboards just hanging about the table so created a Sizeboard for them to sit on. This wasn't entirely cosmetic; the Zone order wasn't indicated on the planets so I put that on the Sideboard.
The Major Projects and Planets sideboards attached. It really looks impressive on the table. Though didn't quite get the colors to match!
Files:
Mecanisburgo Zone Reference
Mecanisburgo Major Projects Card Reference
Mecanisburgo Combined Major Projects Card Ref - Ver 3
Mecanisburgo Megacorp Reference Cards
Mecanisburgo Megacorp Victory Point Cards
Mecanisburgo Expansion 1 Zone Reference
Mecanisburgo Major Projects Tracker
Mecanisburgo Megacorp Tokens - 5/8" size
Mecanisburgo Threat Card Reference
Mecanisburgo Expansion 2 Zone Reference
Mecanisburgo Expansion 2 Megacorp Reference & VP Cards
Mecanisburgo Expansion 2 Planets Sideboard
I went kind of nuts on this one didn't I? 
Mage Knight
I suppose this is the one that started it all. My first foray into play aids and pimping. Way back in 2000 I fell in love with Mage Knight. I was lucky enough to attend Gencon that year. I worked for Interplay at the time and we had done a lot of D&D computer games so had passes to go to the convention. I was invited to attend. This was my first one (and currently only one!) so had no idea what to expect. I spent most of my time in the extremely large dealer's room. The game of the show for me was Mage Knight. They only had promos at the time so couldn't buy any. But when it shipped I bought tons. Couldn't get enough of them. Ahh, blind purchase games, I certainly got that addiction burned out of me by this game. Thousands were spent on this game tracking down every figure and every promo.
I found a regular gaming group that played each week. WizKids released printable terrain templates but they were really dull. They added a lot to the game but looked so poor used with the awesome figures. So I used a bunch of tileable nature textures we used on various games at work (I had permission!) to make full color terrain templates. My gaming group loved them. I really wanted to share them but didn't have any place on the Internet to host the files. So contacted Wizkids to see if they wanted to post them on their website. They were extremely interested and actually mailed me some free promo figures as a thank you! I met Jim Long who I stayed in regular contact as I expanded my offering of templates. He was very gracious and mailed me many of the sets and promo figures.
Eventually I got the idea of making 3D versions of the terrain/building templates. These were very popular. Once the original Wizkids shutdown, their website went dark and all those files disappeared. Fortunately, by that time we had BGG which could host them. So I pulled out my files from old archive CD's and did some minor updating to re-release here. They've been downloaded many times and are generic enough they can be used with any fantasy or medieval themed games. My favorite is the Gatehouse which I did last.
Files:
Mage Knight 3D Buildings- Houses
Mage Knight 3D Buildings- Walls & Hedgerow
Mage Knight 3D Buildings- Bridges
Mage Knight 3D Building- Tower
Mage Knight 3D Building- Gatehouse
Mage Knight Dungeons
A couple years after the huge success of Mage Knight, WizKids made a dungeon crawling expansion. This one used board tiles and didn't need a tape measure. I loved this version even more then the original and it was easier to find players since it played more like a boardgame then miniature game. Wizkids had big plans for this but apparently it didn't sell as well as they liked so only 3 sets were released.
At the time I was losing interest in regular Mage Knight and their were rumblings of a Mage Knight 2.0 so decided to sell all my figures except heroes and mage spawn so we could still plays Dungeons. Another good reason was I had a third of a room tied up in Mage Knight figures, castles, buildings, titans, etc! Dungeons took a lot less space. Unfortunately Mage Knight 2.0 was announced before I got all my sets up on eBay so their value dropped significantly. Those that remember that time will know that 2.0 was a big flop and angered many players since it made the hundreds of previous figures mostly worthless.
I still have my complete collection of Mage Knight Dungeons which includes all the promos and all 111 heroes. Pretty much takes up an entire shelf but better then a third of a room!
There were a bunch of interesting add-ons players made for this game. There was even an attempt to make a GM run RPG rulebook for it. Sadly, that was never completed though a rough version exists. Some of the add-ons were really neat ideas but had poor art. So I updated my favorite ones with new art and rewrote some of the rules for clarity.
Wizkids released a set of 3D dungeon tiles. These were really neat but extremely expensive and not super functional. They took a long time to put together and frequently jammed up the bigger figures. They added a Trap system for them so I created a version that wouldn't require the 3D tiles.
Duane R. Haut II came up with a great idea to add bugs to Dungeons. He called this expansion Dungeon Critters. Duane made many add-ons for Dungeons but this was my favorite. The art wasn't very clean and the dials weren't accurate so I updated them with all new dial art and cleaned up bug art. Plus made them at 300dpi for extra clarity. The rules were also revised with a new alternate placement rule & rules cleanup.
Duane also created the Deadly Pudding so I updated the art as well and added it to Dungeon Critters 2.0 update.
My own addition to Dungeon Critters was spider webs. They go great with the spider critters!
I made a set of Outdoor Adventures tiles in both 1.5" & 2" scales so could be used either with normal tiles or 3D tiles. Also made 3D cardboard trees (unpictured). All these are generic enough to be used with any game.
Unpictured are the Minotaur's Maze map from Scrye 49 & Hero Reference Sheets.
Scrye included a nice new map with special rules. Once the issue was out of print I asked if I could post it as a PDF and correct the missing tile lines. When they created it, they forgot to put the dotted lines that divided the tiles which is important for various rules.
I put together the Hero Reference after realizing how annoying it is to check your figure's dials when deciding on which one to level up. Having it all displayed on a chart was much easier. Though having them on cards would be even better so some day I might tackle the big job of converting all 111 of them to cards.
Files:
Mage Knight Dungeons - Traps system for 1.5" maps
Mage Knight Dungeons - Dungeon Critters v2.0
Outdoor Adventure tiles - 1.5" squares
Outdoor Adventure tiles - 2" squares
Outdoor Adventure tiles - 3D Cardboard Pine Trees
Mage Knight Dungeons - Hero Reference Sheets
Mage Knight Dungeons - Minotaur's Maze Map
Mage Knight Dungeons - Minotaur's Maze Rules
This is getting long so will continue this in Part 2 (coming soonish)! 
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This is the 3rd edition of the Major Projects Reference. Major Projects are open info and the deck is available to examine at any time. But thumbing through a deck is slow so made this to speed up selection. It is sized same as Zone Ref so I printed/laminated them back to back.
Threats are special cards that require Megacorps to work together to defeat. Many, if ignored, can destroy zones and if 3 are destroyed, everyone loses. The full rules of each card are in the manual so I made this reference so players didn't need to check the manual all the time.
For Mecanisburgo Expansion 1: Moon and Ceres & Mecanisburgo Expansion 2: Mutants on Mars I created a half size, two sided Zone Ref which included the Moon, Ceres, & Mars. These were extremely difficult to layout with a daunting amount of information required.
I didn't like the expansion Planet Miniboards just hanging about the table so created a Sizeboard for them to sit on. This wasn't entirely cosmetic; the Zone order wasn't indicated on the planets so I put that on the Sideboard.
The Major Projects and Planets sideboards attached. It really looks impressive on the table. Though didn't quite get the colors to match!
My own addition to Dungeon Critters was spider webs. They go great with the spider critters!
I made a set of Outdoor Adventures tiles in both 1.5" & 2" scales so could be used either with normal tiles or 3D tiles. Also made 3D cardboard trees (unpictured). All these are generic enough to be used with any game.
