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Civic Raleigh
NC State Capitol
Finished in 1840 and barely altered since; a National Historic Landmark.
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Every city deserves its own card game.
A fast game of collecting property — charge rent, steal a set, refuse to pay. Name a city and we fill all 110 cards with its neighbourhoods and landmarks, a true fact on every property, and the people you love engraved on the money.
$15.00 $30.00 50% off + $6 shipping
See what is in a Block Party deck
We design it and send it to you within a day. Nothing is printed until you say so. $6 flat shipping, United States for now.
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After Dark
Glenwood South
A warehouse strip that turned into the city's noisiest few blocks after dark.
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The Crown Jewels
NC Museum of Art
A hundred and sixty acres of parkland with the sculpture left out in the weather.
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The layout is the printed one, down to the band heights. The artwork is stood in for — real decks are painted.
- cards in every deck
- 110cards in every deck
- property sets
- 10property sets
- real places researched
- 28real places researched
How it works
From one question to a deck on the table.
- 1
Tell us what it is about
A city for Block Party, or the themes it carries for a deck you draw from. One screen, about a minute. Everything after it is ours.
“Lebanon” is a country and also a town in Pennsylvania. Ambiguous names get a nudge.
- 2
We design the whole deck
Every card, front and back, painted to one art direction so the deck reads as a deck and not a folder of pictures. Within a day.
The proof is the whole deck rather than a sample, so nothing arrives unseen.
- 3
You change anything
A name, a fact, an illustration, the back. Say what you want different and we redo it. Nothing goes near a printer until you say so.
Changing one card repaints that card and leaves the rest of the deck alone.
- 4
We print it and post it
Printed on real playing-card stock, cut square, boxed and put in the mail. Nothing to print at home, nothing to assemble at the kitchen table.
$6 flat shipping anywhere in the United States, however many cards the deck has.
Why it doesn’t look generated
The picture is painted.
Every word is typeset.
Image models cannot spell. Ask one for a card with a place name on it and you get lettering that looks right until you try to read it. So we never ask. The model paints an illustration with no text in it at all, and the renderer sets the type afterwards at 300 dpi — the set banner, the place name, the fact, the rent ladder, the denomination on every note.
Your spelling wins. A place name typed by a person is set by a typesetter, not spelled by a painter.
The money lines up. Numerals sit at fixed positions, so all six notes agree instead of each drifting its own way.
Typos cost nothing. Change the field and the card is reset. No re-roll, no new image, no waiting.
Right-to-left is really right-to-left. Arabic is shaped and set as Arabic, not mirrored English.
GLENWQOD SOUJH
RENNT 1 · 2 · 4M4
Invented letters, a number that means nothing, and the only fix is to buy the picture again.
GLENWOOD SOUTH
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Exactly what you typed, at the exact size the card was measured for, in whichever of the five languages you choose.
What arrives
You design it. We make it and post it.
There is nothing for you to print, cut or assemble. When the deck is finished we run it, box it and put it in the mail, and what turns up is a real deck of cards about your city.
110 cards
106 to play with, plus 4 quick-start rule cards so nobody has to look anything up on a website.
Printed properly
Real playing-card stock at 300 dpi, cut square by a machine rather than by you and a steel rule at the kitchen table.
In a printed box
A tuck box with your city on it. It arrives looking like a game you bought, because that is the only way it is worth making.
While we’re in beta
One free deck each, $6 to post it.
The deck costs you nothing — not the research, not the artwork, not the printing. Shipping is a flat $6, and the free deck is one per person, counted by email address and by shipping address. United States only for the moment; everywhere else is a postage problem we have not solved yet.
Design as many decks as you like. The limit is on how many we print and post, not on how many you make.
The shelf
2 decks, and neither is off the shelf.
What sits behind them — research that fills a deck with real things, a typesetter that never misspells your city, and a print run that ends with a boxed deck in the post — was built to serve more than one.
Block Party
A game for 2–5A fast game of collecting property, about a city you choose.
- 110 cards
- 10 property sets
- About two minutes to build
- Posted to you
$15.00 $30.00 50% off + $6 shipping
Mensajes del Universo
A deck to draw fromAlgo que necesitas oír, y una pregunta de vuelta.
- Choose your themes
- One card a day, or a circle
- In Spanish
- Posted to you
$10.00 $20.00 50% off + $6 shipping
Questions
The things people ask first.
What kind of game is Block Party?
A fast card game about collecting property. Deal five cards each, draw two at the start of your turn and play up to three: money into your bank, property into your sets, or an action card at somebody. Rent is charged, sets get stolen and swapped, and a refusal card can stop any of it. First to three complete sets, in three different colours, wins.
Do I need to know how to play?
It takes about a minute to explain, and 4 quick-start cards come in the box, so the rules are in the box rather than on a website. Most people are playing properly by their second turn.
How long does the whole thing take?
The research is about two minutes, and you can start editing the moment it lands. Painting the artwork is the long part — it runs in the background, so you can close the tab and come back later. Once you say it is finished we print it and post it, and you get an email when it goes in the mail.
What if it researches the wrong place?
Plenty of names are shared, so you can say what kind of place you mean: “Lebanon” is both a country and a town in Pennsylvania. If it still lands wrong, correct the place and run the research again — nothing is stuck.
Does it have to be a city?
A city works best, simply because there is more to find: 10 sets need 28 genuinely distinct places, and a small town runs thin. Countries and regions work well too. The card backs take a brief of their own, so the same deck can also be a birthday present or a wedding favour.
How does the deck actually reach me?
You do not print anything. We print it on real playing-card stock, cut it, box it and post it. Shipping is a flat $6 and we send to United States addresses for now — everywhere else is a postage problem we have not solved yet.
Can I change things after the art is painted?
Until it goes to print, yes. Names and facts are free to change — they are typeset, not painted, so the artwork stands. Changing the art direction on a card repaints that one card and leaves the rest alone, and switching between the four painted backs costs nothing. Once a deck is on the press it is on the press, so we ask you to say it is finished before anything is made.
What happens to photos of my friends?
They go into private storage and are only ever reached through links that expire. Consent is an explicit checkbox recorded with a timestamp, and anyone without one is skipped rather than quietly used. Delete the deck and the photographs are deleted with it.
Will there be other games?
Yes. Block Party is the first, not the only one. What sits behind it — research that fills a deck with real places, a typesetter that never misspells your city, and a print run that ends with a boxed deck in the post — was built to serve more than one game. What comes next is not announced yet.
What does it cost?
While we are in beta the deck itself is free — the research, the artwork and the printing — and shipping is a flat $6. The free deck is one per person, counted by email address and by shipping address, because every one of them is a real deck we pay to make. Designing decks stays unlimited; it is the printing and posting that is capped. When any of that changes it will be said plainly, up front, before you order.
Deal yourself in.
One free deck per person, artwork included, $6 to post it anywhere in the United States. Name a place and see what comes back — the research costs nothing and you can start over as often as you like.