The Cartographer
“The Cartographer has awakened …
in a small fishing village along the shore of an unknown body of water. Though he does not remember where he is, or even WHO he is (for that matter), he knows that he has been on a tremendous journey — many, many days and nights of travels all over the globe. His hand automatically goes to his right front pocket, but he finds nothing there, and his heart hammers in his chest at the discovery.
Where is my compass?! he thinks frantically.
He swings to the left and checks that pocket, and finds a lump, which he hurriedly pulls out into the light. It is a deck of well-worn playing cards — his hand-written scribbles on the faces and compass headings on the back.
As the Cartographer puzzles over the deck, he finds the Ace of Spades which indicates that “your journey begins here” on the face — and in the background of the card is a map of Mexico City, Mexico.
”This is where I started?” he asks himself, still feeling fuzzy about his past.
There is writing along the border of the card, and as he reads it, he understands — he has left himself clues as to the path of his journey — each card in the deck leading to another until he finds his final destination. When he flips the card to review the back, he instinctively understands the markings and needle, and understands that this, too, will lead him through the steps of his journey.”
And now, it is up to you! Follow the Cartographer’s notes, riddles, and clues — follow the path of his travels around the globe and discover the exact path taken. And when you have come to the last card, you will know where the compass was lost, and where the Cartographer finds himself at the beginning of our story.
When you believe that you have discovered the path, follow this link: The Cartographer Answer Portal
The Back Story
One of the best lessons I learned from my trip to Magic Live in Las Vegas (May 2022) was that different people want different things out of a deck of cards. You can have an absolutely gorgeous deck, designed to perfection, but if it doesn’t meet the needs of your customer base, it’s simply not going to fund.
So, I started looking at my own personal expectations from a deck of cards and began to formulate a more direct approach to what I want to achieve by each deck design.
The first aspect is playability — no matter how intricate or beautiful a deck may be, if it can’t be used to play a simple game of Cribbage or Texas Hold’em, this it doesn’t serve its primary purpose.
The second aspect is its thematic quality — this is what sets it apart as a deck for magicians or cardists or collectors.
The third aspect is what makes the deck truly unique — and this is what typically draws me to the decks in my own personal collection. I usually base my selections on a design element, or an overall package presentation. But when I think about cards and the mystery that lies in the playing of card games, it’s the puzzle of how to get the cards to do what you want them to do — how to find sets and pairs and runs — how to play them in the correct order and control the table.
After some consideration, though, I realized that what I wanted even more from a deck of cards, was to discover what THEY wanted me to find within their shuffled faces of pips and courts. This notion of a puzzle within the cards themselves brought me to the story of the Cartographer.
Every card in the deck has a unique back with a compass indicating the appropriate direction to travel to reach the next stop in the Cartographer’s journey.
And every card in the deck has a unique front with standard Lonely Jokers pips (for regular card game play) and a map which highlights a city to which the Cartographer traveled. Each card also includes a clue, riddle, or phrase that will lead inquisitive contestants to the appropriate next stop — the cards shown below have had their clues replaced with a placeholder (except for the Ace of Spades) so that everyone has a fair shot at the contest when decks are delivered.
The court cards for this deck presented an interesting challenge — how to present the imagery of the Jack, Queen, and King without interfering with the map behind. So, I created simple line-art profiles of some of my favorite actors and actresses, fashioned crowns upon their heads, and laid them down in vertical symmetry. The Jacks are presented below (with clues replaced with placeholders for now).
The Queens are next, with their tresses coiled and contained in crowns of jewels.
And finally, the Kings — proud and regal in their stature and grace.
The goal for the tuck on the Cartographer is to present a strong design for the initial printing of the deck through the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC), but to push hard for the stretch goal (during the Kickstarter campaign) to produce a fancy/specialty tuck through Gamblers Warehouse that will show off the elegance and luxury of this deck of cards.
One of my favorite aspects of designing a deck of playing cards is the development of the accessories that can be added to the campaign. In this particular case, I’m currently planning on stickers, dealer coins, uncut sheets, and deck clips.
Many thanks to my good friend, Mr. Mike Maksimchuk for his help in proofing the riddles, clues, and puzzles within the deck — you’ve definitely earned your Eagle Scout merit badge for Cartography for your work on this deck!
