The beginning
This summer I offered my local shop to teach Android:Netrunner. It is a dynamic two-player asymmetric card game where one side plays an evil corporation and the other one a “runner” - a hacker that tries to breach the corp’s servers and steal their hidden agendas.
The shop loved the idea, and I was thrilled to get started. The plan seemed simple enough. I needed at least 10 decks from the System Gateway set (enough for 5 pairs of players) along with the necessary tokens (credits, tags, etc.).
I soon discovered a major roadblock: the EU store was down for quite some time and ordering anything would be problematic. I explored alternatives, like ordering from netrunnerscards.uk, but the cost of customs for a bulk order was eye-watering.
That’s when I realized: if the cards couldn’t come to me, I’d have to make them myself. It was time to get hands-on. The problem? I had zero experience with printing cards - and my only tool was a pair of scissors left over from first grade.
Cards
First, I didn’t have a printer. I also had no idea what kind of paper would work best. Sure, I could have just trusted the advice scattered across countless internet forums, but I wanted to figure it out for myself. After all, personal preference plays a big role - some people laminate their cards, others simply sleeve them. How could I know what I liked without experimenting?
I dove into research and found the Mixing PnP cards into a Commercial Game with NISEI’s Netrunner System Gateway - YouTube to be the most helpful resource. I took a similar approach and visited a bunch of local print shops. Then I reached out to professional printing companies via email to learn more about their costs and quality. Unfortunately, I was too small a fish for the big players-most of them weren’t interested in small-scale jobs. The ones that did respond quoted a full print of a System Gateway package at around 90 euros!
I decided to experiment with different paper types to find what worked best. Here’s what I tested:
- 150 (gloss and matte)
- 200 (gloss and matte)
- 250 (gloss and matte)
- 300 (matte), 350 (matte)
- printing on label paper (80-100gsm) to be glued onto thicker paper from the options above
I took the first page of the System Gateway cards and printed it out at different printing shops with different paper types.
Cutting it up
At this point I had bunch of paper labeled with the paper thickness and the card shop it came from. Rene “Loup” Arcemont’s face stared back at me from every sheet, as if silently judging my resolve. Now it was the time to cut it up. As suggested in the video above, I needed three essential tools:
- a steel ruler
- a rotary cutter
- a cutting mat
It took some trips to get all the stuff. Along the way, I also tried the Fiskars SureCut but quickly discovered it wasn’t up to the task - it tore the paper instead of making clean cuts, especially for thicker sheets.
Finally equipped, I sat down and began cutting. It turns out, cutting cards is a skill in itself. My first attempts were … let’s say unpolished. The ruler would slide while I was cutting, leaving wobbly, non-straight edges. Since the cards were printed in a tight 3x3 layout with no bleed between them, any deviation would ruin not just one card, but its neighbors as well. To fix these mistakes, I often had to trim the problematic card even more, which left me with a ton of tiny paper strips scattered everywhere.
Another issue came with preserving the cut marks. As explained in the video, you’re supposed to leave the 3x3 layout intact and carefully cut card-by-card to keep the alignment marks visible. However, if you cut vertically through the paper to separate it into halves, you lose the horizontal cut marks entirely, which is bound to happen if you are not familiar with the cutter.
At first, I thought I could wing it-just keep the paper steady and the cut marks should stay aligned, right? Wrong. No matter how careful I was, the paper would shift, and my cuts would go astray. I learned the hard way that there’s no shortcut to perfection. If I wanted clean, precise cards, I had to cut each one separately.
This approach added a significant amount of time to the cutting time, but the results were worth it.
The first set of cards I made were far from perfect, but by the end I became quite a cutting monster, slicing cards left and right. I figured out the ideal angle for the cutter and applied just enough pressure to avoid tearing the paper. It turns out, cutting cards really is a skill, and I was steadily leveling up.
During this process, I even created a small program to extract and add bleed to the card images, which is available on my Github. I initially needed it for one of the print shops that requested bleed edges but didn’t end up using it in the final project. For anyone in a similar situation, you could pair this program with nanDECK to create a neat 3x3 card layout. This approach could save you a ton of time, as some print shops can use a guillotine cutter to slice through entire sheets in seconds.
Finally, it was time to put my cards to the ultimate test: a blind trial with my friends. I grabbed five original cards from my Arkham Horror LCG deck (since the original Android: Netrunner was also produced by Fantasy Flight Games, the same company behind Arkham Horror). I sleeved them up alongside one of my own freshly-made PNP cards.
The feel test
Anything below 300gsm was instantly noticeable - it felt too thin. However, the 250gsm paper with an 80gsm label also proved challenging to get just right. At least it was for me, though my friend managed to find it twice in a row.
From the feel test, I narrowed it down to three solid options:
- 250gsm + label
- Pure 300gsm matte
- Pure 350gsm matte
The print test
Next came the print test. We first printed the A4 PDF of the 1x cards file from System Gateway, but quickly realized that there was a significant DPI difference between the “1x” and “3x” cards. As a result, we switched to printing the “3x” cards. Some of the earlier prints had to be redone to ensure we could fairly compare the different print shops.
I took the same card design and printed it on each of the paper types, then subjectively compared the results. What we found was surprising: the print quality varied wildly from shop to shop. Some prints were immediately rejected - colors were off, and the images were grainy. I even visited different branches of the same print shop across town. The difference was staggering! One shop produced muddy, washed-out cards, while another gave me pristine prints. I later found out that the second shop used a better printer for this type of card stock.
My original hypothesis was that printing on labels + card stock would give the best results. However, to my surprise, prints on labels were worse than pure prints on the 350gsm paper. The colors would bleed, creating muddy images. I wish I could show you the exact cards, but unfortunately, all the experimental prints were lost during a move.
In the end, I’m actually grateful that pure 350gsm ended up being the best paper for printing. Sticking labels onto paper is one of my least favorite tasks, and this saved me from that nightmare. Here’s some cards for example printed on 350gsm (though a bit of blurriness is due to camera quality, not the print itself):
Rounding corners
For rounding corners, I went with the Kadomaru Pro, which seems to be the go-to recommendation from literally everyone - and for good reason. It worked like a charm. I firmly believe that rounding corners is essential for card longevity, as it prevents wear and tear during shuffling and play.
Price
Of course, I couldn’t ignore the price/performance ratio. After all, it’s no good having the best print quality if it costs me 5 EUR per card!
One print shop - touted as “the best print shop in town” - offered to print cards on 300gsm paper (the thickest they had) at 1.5 EUR per 9 cards, or 2 EUR per 9 cards if printed on label paper (excluding the cost of the card stock for labels). The pricing was already out of the scope and the quality simply didn’t meet up to my expectations as the colors were not great.
In contrast, the 350gsm shop mentioned earlier ended up being the best in terms of price and performance. Their pricing worked out to around 12 cents per card, with the potential for even lower costs if I ordered in higher quantities.
Tokens
Again I followed Mixing PnP cards into a Commercial Game with NISEI’s Netrunner System Gateway - YouTube advice, bought a 2mm card stock (around 2 A3 sheets) from a local arts and crafts shop and used the token files provided in the video’s description. For the quantities of tokens, I relied on morvaeldd comments on PNP Netrunner tokens for new players:
To save costs, I also purchased a label paper 20 Sheets, 210 mm x 297 mm, Universal Labels, Self-Adhesive Printable, Sticker Matte Paper, A4 Sticker, Compatible with Inkjet & Laser Printers, 1 Label per Sheet : Amazon.de: Stationery & Office Supplies as the label paper at the print shop was way too expensive.
Making the tokens turned out to be the most time-consuming part of the entire project. The steps were straightforward but labor-intensive:
- First, I cut the large card stock sheets into smaller pieces, ensuring the edges were straight.
- Then, I carefully aligned and stuck the label paper onto the card stock. Getting the alignment just right was quite tricky for my fat fingers.
- Finally, I had to cut out each individual token.
Cutting tokens was far more physically demanding than cutting the cards. The added thickness of the card stock meant I had to apply significantly more pressure - especially after working through so many tokens. By the end, my arms felt like I’d been through a workout!
Many of the tokens ended up being hit-or-miss in terms of precision, mostly because I wasn’t as meticulous as I had been with the cards.
Storage
I got myself a bunch of cheap black Ultra Pros deck boxes for the corporation and the white/transparent ones for the runner. The tokens I split into smaller bags.
The box for storage came from Azul as I emptied it when I made another wooden box.
Time
The entire process took quite a bit of time, spread out over weeks. It took me a couple of weeks to scout and test print shops and gather the first selection of prints. Cutting the cards spanned about a month, as I worked on a few sheets each day, mixing in token cutting to avoid overexertion. This slower pace was intentional; I wanted to prevent injuries from trying to do everything in one sitting.
Rounding corners was done on a per-deck basis and was surprisingly physically demanding. After rounding the 1,500th corner, I could really feel the strain in my arm!
Meetup and playing with cards
When the cards were finally ready, I brought them to the local shop and hosted a meetup to teach others how to play Netrunner. I sleeved the decks with a mix of Dragon Shield, Katanas, and some other no-name brands I had sitting at home.
To my delight, no one noticed the cards were homemade! People were genuinely surprised by the quality of the cards and how well-made they looked. Unfortunately, the group wasn’t particularly taken with the game itself. Oh well - at least it was a learning experience for everyone involved!
For teaching I followed the great guide on How to Teach Netrunner.
Conclusion
Starting from absolute zero experience, I embarked on this journey to research how to print cards and tokens, find the best print shop, and figure out the ideal paper thickness. While there’s a wealth of great advice online, the MVP award undoubtedly goes to Dining Table Print & Play for his invaluable video and PDF token files. I am incredibly grateful for his work - it saved me a ton of time and effort.
Key takeaways
- Test multiple print shops. The quality can vary significantly, even within the same chain of shops.
- Buy bulk paper yourself. This helps cut costs, especially if you’re working on a larger project.
Cutting the cards turned out to be an unexpectedly zen-like experience for me. Once I was finished, I found myself itching to do it all over again! Thankfully, there’s a lot of Arkham Horror LCG custom expansions where this knowledge will come in handy!
Final thoughts
This journey was a fun and rewarding experience. Sure, it could have been simpler to just order the cards online - if they had been available. But where’s the fun in that? By doing it myself, I learned a ton, developed new skills, and gained a deep appreciation for the craft.
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