I'm mulling over some ideas in my head that would require a custom deck of cards. I saw that Under the Bed went this route, so I know that it is theoretically possible. Does anyone know where one could go about publishing such a deck? Got any pricing?
Seth,
Under The Bed is, best as I can tell, printed on cardstock and (very professionally) cut, but it isn't really a deck of cards - art is all-but-absent, for one thing. Check out this thread (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=15065.0) for some info on what Joshua looked at for Under The Bed, but I don't know what he ended up doing.
If by custom you mean only the BACK of the cards (i.e., normal Aces, Jacks, Deuces and all), Ron has said that that approach turns out to be pretty affordable - he plans on using it with Dr. Chaos.
If you want a full-on custom deck ala a CCG, take a look at these threads:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?t=13593 (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?t=13593)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=15216.0
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14068.0
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=15778.0
For Guildmaster, I'm planning on publishing in PDF and POD, with Avery business card sheets as the stock for the cards.
RapidPOD claims they will have pricing up for printing custom cards in a couple months, or at least that's what Ken said the last time I contacted him a little while ago.
Re: RapidPOD. Read the horror stories on here and RPG.NET
I don't know that I could recommend RapidPOD at this time.
Joshua Newman used a local (traditional?) printer for Under the Bed. I'm not sure how many copies he printed.
Nate Peterson, I believe, used a traditional printer in India for Final Twilight. I'm not sure how many he had printed, but I believe it was a pretty high number compared to POD standards.
If you have a good word processor, you can set the cards up yourself and take them to get cut professionally at just about any local printer very cheaply as long as you can provide them with a "template" of how they are supposed to cut the cards.
This is what I did for my game and it turned out well. I printed business sized cards on card stock and then took them to the printer. He cut 210 sheets (12 cards per sheet) for $20.
I thought about using the Avery business cards (and I do use them for prototyping my games), but that can be a little cost prohibitive.
I printed like 2016 decks, cost about $4k and a rather large headache. Try *NOT* to go overseas as a small publisher. Too much stock to deal with, too much hassle to get it, too much investment up front.
Question will be, how many cards to the deck, are they standard face cards with some differences (IE 9 of Spades who is also the Black Knight) or are they totally custom face (as in a CCG style).
The single big issue with printing cards at a local place is the rounded corners. Seriously, the biggest thing.
Art is all but absent on the UtB deck not for technical reasons, but because I was keeping my non-rules-design investment in the game low.
I printed them at a local place in New Haven, but have since moved to Massachusetts where I should be able to print them at a much reduced cost.
I printed 100 copies for 400-some dollars. It's not a huge investment as publishing goes, but it was an awfully big check for me. The timing of the print run, though, ment that I was only out of pocket for two weeks, breaking even the week after GenCon, con costs and all. So it might be worth it if the timing's right.
There's also TM Playing Cards (http://www.tmcards.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=e5b1a11756e08235f1714c391d5624cb). They're an overseas company (though they sorta hide the fact) based in Mumbai, of all places. You might find that they can do what you want. Their minimum order is 100 decks, win increasing prices for more complex orders. I think it goes up to about $8 a deck for the most goodies on the fewest copies.
PM if you have other questions. I did a fair bit of research on this and would love to share what I learned.