Reader Poll: Vote for Swag and Merchandise Options

A Practical Discussion (PGTS)
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21

PCBs with components actually soldered to them become more delicate and uncomfortable to handle. I’ve seen projects with components being made out of the board itself (microwave passives, antennae, USB connectors), I’ve thought about using flextures from castellated edge-cuts to make a 3.5mm audio jack or battery holder, but that sort of thing would take a lot of trial and error and be less sturdy than a proper design. Stacking boards, or a board and a piece of acrylic, are definite possible methods for preventing hands from touching components, like how those convention badges (sadges?) are made.

But even if you could make an aesthetically routed PCB into a functionally electric piece of merch, is there anything interesting it could do? Anything with LEDs would look kinda bad without a diffuser, that could still be an option for a light-up coaster with a layer of frosted acrylic, though the frosted acrylic would cover the design of the board’s top. A mug heater with the PCB traces being the heating element?

It would be easier if the story had something as merchandisable as a nixie tube divergence meter. We’ve got the coaster, the conduit ring, maybe the spell rod or the feather wire tiara, and things like the student passes and Red Guard passes.

2 Likes
22

Here is a bizarre game that might be fun.

Have two sets of cards and lots of paper. The first set of cards describe mundane things that Siobhan might do. The second set of cards contain keywords often used to describe the Raven Queen, like “freecaster”, “shape-shifter”, “dreams”, or “shadows”.

The dealer takes one card out of the first set, an 5 out of the second. Then selects 2 of the cards out of the second set. Everyone else has to come up with a description of what outrageous and over the top thing that people now believe about the Raven Queen this time, using both of the keywords". They then pass those to the dealer. The dealer reads them, and picks a favorite. The person who wrote it gets a point, then the dealer rotates to the next person.

First person to 10 points wins, or something like that.

This would take a lot of work and playtesting, but could be fun with the right crowd.

2 Likes
23

I think pins with a spell circle or Sky Kraken University logo would be really cool!! Same with tshirts! Or maybe some of the book cover art?

3 Likes
24

You’d be surprised on how easy you can make a diffuser for an led strand, honestly , it depends on the style of led strand that you use. I’ve tried 3 so far, just mucking around for fast lights, but still

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The led strip is deliberately without a diffuser, because it’s a TV prop and only lights up to help with lighting or the CGI guys figure out how lighting should be. -okay, it’s actually a prop for Blue’s aberrant trrpg campaign, the first part is how all of our Nova’s describe it.

Id have to check, but I believe there is a way to put resin on the top of a circuit card with components and it still works, the only way I can think of isn’t very cost effective and if something breaks your screwed… But reading that, someone might know a better way. I’m pretty sure Ive heard of another, but I can’t remember right now.

And there is way to make laser engraving multiple colors, you use either lead paper or mica, I have not experimented yet, I think I will after I finish my current t order. But my engraver recommends trying it.

Also, absolutely, I want stuff from that world. Some of the stuff sound pretty practical using our current tech instead of needing spell array, I believe Ana looked at a fabric that sounds very much like one I had recently learned about.

But I want to stress, the art, the fonts, needs to be a thing. I do want to get on patreon soon cause I hear there is some art stuff there.

The wonderful thing about the spell arrays is, if I’m understanding correctly, using any glyph from any known language should work, or even combining them because it’s the belief in the symbols, not the symbols themselves.

If I wanted to make a spell array with 悪夢 and other symbols meaning nightmare, bad sleep whatever, I could hex, jynx someone with bad sleep, or maybe make a charm to catch the nightmares instead

1 Like
25

I was thinking about how much I dislike merch that goes too heavy on advertising and how I’m more likely to buy something subtle - like a tote with Siobhan’s shadow familiar on it. But then I thought about how it might be nice to have something subtle on one side and something more out there on the other for when you feel like showing off - convention side vs grocery shopping side.

I really liked that idea especially with the Siobhan/Sebastien duality.

I’m not sure how feasible it is with your supplier, but I think it’s a fun idea, even if it can only be applied to more simple merchandise.

4 Likes
26

So ideas of merch I would be most excited about would be: coasters similar to the ones used for the secret society- I also like that I could use these but it wouldnt be immediately obvious that they are merch! I also think faux potions in cool glass containers would be cool decor, or something related to ravens such feather jewerly or decor. I also would be interested in chibi versions of the characters as stickers or magnets etc. It’s awesome to be able to share my ideas and opinions!

3 Likes
27

Omg, I’ve seen some totally cute chibi plushies and now I absolutely want a full set of the main group

Thanks, my wallet wants to put a jinx on you if this becomes a thing

1 Like
28

Higher priced and quality items are the key.

But, so is storage and manufacturing. We already work with a company that makes items on demand and ships, which saves us the cost of purchasing in bulk and the time. And the storage.

And quality is the key. Some of the items from the company we already work with are just overpriced. We want to offer quality items, but it’s going to be impossible without a warehouse and shipping company to offer each and every custom made item.

29

I don’t have the final decision here, I just advise Azalea, but I do want to say how much i LOVE the idea for enamel pins. I would be all over that, and I’ll look into companies that make them.

2 Likes
30

Thank you ALL for your votes and contributions!

There are some amazing ideas in here, and some so amazing that they may not be feasible, but I appreciate the input!

1 Like
31

A layer of resin could also be the diffuser, if it were filled a suspension of fine (white) powder. Done well, you could mix up resin that looks like marble or other stone when set, but LEDs shine through it from a PCB a hidden within. Getting the light to shine only around the lines of a magic circle engraved in the top may not be easy though, at least not without an additional mask layer between the PCB and the surface.

Well even if it didn’t light up, a slate tablet with circles engraved might be a nice, durable, and relatively portable working surface. Though I do doubt there’s a service that could manufacture something like that easily, at least not without it being a cheap plastic facsimile of stone.

If going for a multi-step product with non-trivial manual input anyhow, it would be better to use those flexible LED filaments to embed a circle inside clear resin to get a decent looking coaster. Add a PTC thermistor to make it slowly breathe, and be brighter with a cold drink atop. I doubt anything with resin could be cost effective, but SLA 3D printing services might.

A different sort of coaster (not trying to imitate that of the cult) might be fine, laser-cut plywood or bamboo, sealed with spray-lacquer.

1 Like
32

I’d love to see trinkets, like a “celerium conduit” etc

33

I believe one is already available in the Patreon rewards

1 Like
34

…any chances we will get figurines? Because I would love a Raven Queen figurine :c

1 Like
35

That’s on our high priority list. They will probably be shadow familiar figurines to start with, to keep production simple. Depending upon demand, we may end up expanding.

1 Like
36

Just as a hypothetical (that I’m kinda considering taking up for myself if we don’t get an official version) this is how I would make the coasters:

Ideally I would take advantage of economies of scale to purchase other finished products that are close to what is needed. Slate coasters can be ordered in bulk pre-engraved with a pattern and in this case it can just be a sort of fake marbling as a pattern to save on cost of using actual marble and to still have the heft and texture of a bit of rock

The types of simple lights also exist, complete with adhesive to attach it, for example.

From there there’s a few ways to adapt the two products into a single appropriate one that matches the book description, but the one that makes the most sense to me is to CNC mill out the star and a tiny recessed edge underneath the coaster to recess the light sticker. You could then attach the stickers and pour some UV resin into the star from the top to make the diffuser.

This comes with the disadvantage of not really being able to get the sticker back off to change batteries though, which isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker to me.

You could remove the milling from the process and probably make it cheaper by drilling out a single large hole, rather than CNCing the star, and then filling that hole with some custom plastic bits. You can probably just get away with 3D printing a bunch of translucent plastic shells along with a lot of little black corner pieces to fill the gaps. If we’re talking about roughly 1’ stars, you can fit a lot of those on some print beds. I could probably print about 200 at once and just let it run. You would then use glue/epoxy to put them together and cover gaps. The problem with this approach is more with tolerances and the black plastic contrasting with the slate, but Sebastien may not have been so great with the stone disintegration and reformation spells yet at the time.:eyes:

Warehousing can be a random box in the corner, and from the original products can be done on-demand to save on labor. I would also look into partnering with an Etsy seller who deals with similar products already and does that kind of small-scale manufacturing/finishing and shipping a lot already.

1 Like
37

See see, box in the corner, make on demand,

I am not crazy with this idea.

Have maybe 100 or so of the tiny things and 10 of the bigger items for when you go to cons or book readings.

Keep them in little boxes on display on shelves by front door. Or somewhere stupidly obvious that the only time when you are going to forget where you keep them is if you wait til the last second and it’s rush or die.

Or you have horrible memory/bad at perception checks…

For the things like figurine or plushies, Kickstarter is a very good way to get started, if you look over at tentclekitty and her line of products, most of her stuff starts over on Kickstarter. It’s a great way to get info out, and make enough, and stuff.

Sometimes it’s SOOOO slow, cause stuff happens. There has been several occasions I have supported something on Kickstarter and forgotten and a year later it shows up on my door and omg, it’s a thing! When did I order, oh yeah!

The game spirited away started that way, I see it in some stores now.

38

I supported the kickstarters for Tak and Call to Adventure. However, both games were put together by already fairly successful game publishers.

Even with kickstarter, you should pair with a company that has already had a successful product of similar qualtiy.

CNC and 3D printing is fine for precision work, low volume, or customization. But, I suspect that casting or injection moulding in a modest volume (in the hundreds but not the thousands) is likely a better option. At least for any plastic or ceramic parts.

1 Like
39

What about a book sleeve? Prob put some cool spell themed aspects.

Also having a glow in the dark emblem of some sort that looks like “the star” Damien has for the organization would be neato.

1 Like
40

Maybe coins with the raven queens face on one side and a raven/Sebastien on the other.

4 Likes