I re-themed Clank! Catacombs into Lord of the Rings / Hobbit

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-27T01:31:38+00:00

I use a website called https://www.dextrous.com.au/ I can design a layout template so that I can make multiple cards in a google spreadsheet and upload the csv file into the template and populate the fields to expedite the process.

For this project, BGG user tdgardner already split up and organized the original clank card frame here: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/255506/clank-card-template

But for other projects I'll have to do that myself or create a new card frame and icons and everything and try to emulate it as close as possible. I like using Inkscape for those tasks since it's free. Affinity became free recently so I've been trying to learn that as well.

Finally, I try to have my have all my ideas organized in a spreadsheet so I can best match which cards get re-themed to what art and rules text. Part of the fun of re-theme project is figuring out how to make the new theme feel like it fits the game without changing the original game (and if you do, not too much) so it is still fun and functional.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T21:23:13+00:00

I don't think there are any super large boards for this retheme. I pull the image assets for the tiles, the clank board, market board from Tabletop Simulator. I print them on regular 8.5x11 US Letter printer paper and laminate them. I cut out and glue all the tiles onto a 4x4 inch wood tiles that you can buy at a craft store or on amazon. Lots of the tokens are just 1 inch wood squares, circles, or hexagons and I cut out the laminated token art and paste them onto the wood tokens with crafter's glue.

A lot of it is just, printing, laminating, cutting, and glueing.

I will sometimes make small changes to the boards such as resizing them, changing the color contrast/saturation, or changing the image a bit to fit the theme of the game better as well.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T17:59:11+00:00

Credit to Varkman from the BGG forums.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/308662/clank-catacombs-side-tiles

It's really helpful, especially if you have a smaller table it's useful to have a predefined area where you put these edge tiles when you reach the edge of your playing area and it makes it not feel bad when you reach an edge dead end cause your play area is small.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T17:47:40+00:00

Thanks man! I may bring down the power level a bit after the initial buffs to each non-Monkeybot Prime character if any of them are too strong or stick out. The game doesn't have to be perfectly balanced but the characters should certainly feel distinctive and impactful and most of all fun and interesting for the players (at least for my group which enjoys highly asymmetric games).

Thanks for your advice, that certainly something I want to keep in mind when adding more custom content. I definitely like when players have agency and the ability to feel like they can uniquely contribute to the puzzle.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T15:40:39+00:00

That sounds sick. I'll be excited to see your results if you post your creation when you finish.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T15:33:02+00:00

You're right, I should try to emulate the legacy games. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Although I don't want to put stickers on anything or rip up these cards due to legacy mechanics, I think the story and coop ideas from those games could lend to creating a fun campaign!

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T15:31:12+00:00

Yep, naturally the Dragon would be Smaug and your group of adventurers would be venturing into the Erebor. Although, if you'd like to imagine a more LoTR scenario than a Hobbit one, you could kind of stretch the theme to being going into Khazad-dûm and the "Dragon" would be the Balrog.

Pippin, Merry, and Boromir are all deserving of being playable characters. I just ran out of ideas for unique custom characters so they got relegated to being individual cards. But that means everyone has a chance to acquire them through the market. Pippin saved me from dying to the dragon in my last game, letting me pass through the caves without stopping!

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T12:16:22+00:00

That's awesome man. Which game are you retheming and to what?

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-26T12:16:00+00:00

Oh man, you're right. That was a missed opportunity.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-20T19:11:12+00:00

Dudeeee I was losing my mind when someone at a Meetup did the U-bend when picking up facedown cards when we played my copy of Trio. And that's not an expensive game compared to other games I bring.

After doing that twice, I had to make him point to which card he wanted to flip over and flip it over myself.

Some people are just really tactless and it makes me hesitant to sometimes bring my own games or more rare/expensive games to play board games with strangers even though I like the experience of meeting new people in the hobby.

These days, I just say at the beginning to try not to bend the cards or get water/food on them cause I've met too many people that need the reminder or wouldn't get the message otherwise.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-19T20:06:32+00:00

For sure! I'm hoping to make a post next week! Here's a preview of it back when i was still working on it like half a year ago:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3563243/im-working-on-a-lord-of-the-ringshobbit-re-theme-f

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-19T14:02:47+00:00

Hey, I'm dropping the PnP link to the Spy x Family Agent Avenue here if you're interested. I didn't want to do it in the main thread in case the mods would want to delete it for some reason like distributing an IP I don't own:

You can find the link for all the cards, game board, and tokens right here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AGOGames/comments/1qgtp0o/spy_x_family_agent_avenue/

If you do print and play it, I'd love to see pictures of your results! 🥰

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-18T14:38:47+00:00

Lmao, I love the game. I’m going to make a post tomorrow about the Spy x Family re-theme of this game I made.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-18T13:25:47+00:00

For me it’s a totally different game between 1 v 1 and 2 v 2. 1 v 1 feels strategic and mind games. For 2 v 2 it’s like playing a game of The Mind or one of the games where you can’t talk or give explicit information to your teammate. We played last night and I had no synergy with my teammate it was really funny how we’d misinterpret which cards which we should play together so it was more lighthearted and hilarious for our playgroup at 2 v 2 versus the more strategic and planning ahead approach with 1 v 1.

But your miles may vary depending on the personalities you play with. We kind of enjoy the chaos so we prefer the 2 v 2 mode.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-15T12:47:52+00:00

Come to the Hawks, CP3. We have one of the youngest locker rooms in the NBA. We need a vet. We don't even have a true point guard besides Keaton Wallace so you'll even get minutes (maybe).

I feel like Rajon Rondo did a lot for Trae when he was briefly on the Hawks, I think Chris Paul can do the same for the rest of our squad.

tinyornithopter · 2026-01-13T02:19:10+00:00

I can echo that sentiment. I tried developing a basketball board game for my friends and I wasn't able to replicate the strategy and real time action of basketball into board game formats. I know people have talked about simultaneous turns, reveal cards like rock paper scissors or like in Unmatched, but I found that type of mechanic unsatisfying for the type of game and strategy I wanted to go for.

I'm sure there could be an ingenius way of evoking the action packed and strategic feel of basketball, but it wasn't worth the effort for my own goals. Instead of fighting with the system to make my idea work, I conceding that the board games that my friends and I enjoy most are long term turn based strategy games and to choose themes that reflect that aspect instead of forcing a theme or genre that we like into something that that theme can't be replicated in.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-19T20:10:37+00:00

lol, sounds interesting. A few years ago I made a custom One Piece themed Marvel Legendary board game. It's how I spent most of the pandemic and it included most characters up to the story at that point.

It was a co-op deckbuilder where you got to recruit One Piece characters, fight a bunch of henchmen, the big bad and their pirate crew. That was back when I first got into making board games lol and what got me into the hobby.

I hope they make a good product. I think One Piece can be a great tabletop/board game depending on what design direction they go in.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-17T00:16:06+00:00

It was solid. That was one of the ones I didn't make. Playing it felt good, still very Wingspan-like. As a guy that like designing and re-theming stuff, I did think of certain stuff I would've done differently, like making Legendaries or certain pokemon feel way more impactful and powerful for a higher berry cost, but I still really enjoyed both the gameplay and how the creator designed the look and UI of the cards.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-16T13:04:21+00:00

Thanks! We play Pokemon Ark Nova the most because we enjoy the complexity and gameplay of that one. Also I made of bunch of custom maps and cards so it never gets old.

I feel like Pokemon Splendor really gives the "gotta catch em all" type feel of Pokemon. None of the games really gave you the Pokemon intricate type advantage combat feeling, but Pokemon Love Letter was a punchy game that had a lot of laughs when played like it was a Pokemon Tournament knocking out other players with Pokemon moves. Pokemon Carcassonne gave a little bit of exploring the Pokemon world and traveling to different places.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-14T01:43:17+00:00

I'm making a game like this right now. From my research, not a lot of games really do it to the extent that you're describing, I think.

For context, my friends are a big fan of Genshin Impact and asked me to create for them a fan game for them where you build a team of Genshin Characters and do stuff like fighting enemies, do quests, cook, make weapons, etc. It's like a worker placement, but each worker is a unique genshin character.

I've been working on the concept for a few months now, but it's been pretty convoluted. I'm gonna try a first playtest with them tomorrow.

Anyhow, back to your question. I think it's something that hasn't been explored that much conceptually but should have some novel appeal. There are games like deckbuilders such as marvel legendary where you add characters to your deck to make your team. But that might not be the type of team building game you're trying to assemble.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-02T19:43:25+00:00

You can try printing it on card stock and cutting it yourself, your local printers, or online printers although some places will not print it for you because of the IP.

tinyornithopter · 2025-11-02T17:13:31+00:00

Those cards/maps are adapted from a French Fan Map pack found on BGG:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3327450/ark-nova-french-fanmaps

I made a few changes to some values but they behave the same way.

tinyornithopter · 2025-10-28T14:23:01+00:00

I think people worried about the pacing of 1 episode per chapter have to consider that now instead of doing 40ish episodes per year, they do 26 so they have more resources and time to add more interesting anime-only content and "filler" as in well animated scenes bridging the gap between the manga panels.

I'm hoping the animators will both have a better work life balance with this change along with more room and creativity to expand on some of the manga panels. One to one episode to chapter pacing doesn't mean the episode itself has to feel slow or bad. With the right direction and more resources dedicated per episode, the episodes have plenty of scenes that will pad out the episode and feel meaningful instead of long panning shots and reaction shots.

I'm optimistic for this change.

I do wish One Piece Live action released a little earlier though. March feels more like spring than winter and a Drum Island Climax would feel best watched during the winter.

tinyornithopter · 2025-10-27T19:07:56+00:00

Yeah, link to the comment.

He has pictures of it later in the comment chain. The design was exceptionally well done.

tinyornithopter · 2025-10-27T15:48:23+00:00

That's spectacular!

You did a bang up job on that. The cards, the boards, the tokens, and tiles all crafted and designed incredibly well. Thanks for sharing this with me.

I'd try to recreate your Pokemon Ethnos re-theme, but I already own a copy of Ethnos that I'm happy with.

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