Decks O'Cards

Welp, I suppose none of you knew I was a collector of non-collectible cards. It all started with different decks of terot cards and kinda snowballed from there. Now since it's kinda nessasary to have at least one deck o'cards in a Deadlands or Castle Falkenstine game I thought I'd put up a few things that I've got in my collection (or soon will have) here. (Most of them will have links you can follow to either the manufactering company or a place you can buy them at. Click on the name of the deck to see a picture of it.
And now, on with the show . . .

--==Game Spisific Decks==--

The Deadlands Poker Decks:[pic]: by Pinnacle Entertainment Group "Enter the Weird West of Deadlands with this double deck of full-color, casino-quality poker cards. As any gambler worth his salt can tell you, it's all in the cards." I orrigonally got this set for a Castle Falkenstine LARP we once ran at a Con and they've served me well ever since. - Michelf

Wherewolf the Wild West Poker Deck -[pic] By White Wolf Game Studio: [Amazon]"You play Poker stranger? The Old West, America's frontier of years past, where fortunes were made and lost in a single hand of cards. Now you can deal yourself a hand of savage justice with these deluxe, oversized poker cards." Okay, this is annother deck I got for that same Falkenstine LARP and I have to say I was very excited about this deck as I was opening the box. But I have to say I was a tad underwhelmed when I got it open and the back of the cards looked the same as the top of the box. All in all it's a nice deck of cards, intresting artwork, and extra cards that tell you the ranking of hands and different variations on the rules of poker.

--=="Historical Images" Decks==--

American Historical Cards [pic]: - By US Games Systems: [Amazon]"Hanging out at my local museum today I ran across a really cool deck of cards. I have ordered my Deadlands deck but until I get them I will use these. They are called American Historical cards and they are a full deck with each card having a portrait of an historical figure on the face. Most of the cards are Revolutionary and civil war personalities.The cover a range of people from early 1700's to late 1800's. Including many civil war generals as well as frontier heros like Kit Carson and Calaminty Jane." - Andrew Greeson

American Civil War Playing Cards [pic] - By US Games Systems: "The historical deck of playing cards features important people, places, and events in America's Civil War. Complete with booklet containing historical information."

The Native American Playing Card Decks I [pic] and II [pic] - By US Games Systems: The site didn't give much info about these decks, they seem to be protrates of important Native Americans. Check out the pictures, they look really cool.

Union and Confederate Generals Decks [pic] - By US Games Systems: These kind of have the look of a replica deck. (ie - square edges). They are black and white ink drawings of the Generals with the actual value of the card in a square in the upper left hand of the card. You can get these decks as a set or seperate.

--=="Replica" Decks==--

The 1864 Poker Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon]"Reproduction of a Civil War era poker deck with full-length, single-ended court figures. Box reproduced with original tax stamps showing hand cancellation June 2, 1864."

Civil War Union Emblems - By US Games Systems:Deck I [Amazon] [pic] and Deck II [Amazon] [pic]. You can also get Both Decks in a set. "Facsimile of 1862 and 1863 deck with three-quarter length court figures"

Grover Cleveland Campaign Playing Card Deck of 1888 [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon] This deck, reprinted from the original housed in the Smithsonian Institution, was distributed by Cleveland during his run for the presidency in 1888. Cleveland is featured as Kings, his wife Frances Folsom as the Queens, and his running mate, Allen G. Thurman, appears as the Jacks.

--=="Also Sutible for Deadlands/Falkenstine" Decks==--

The Jesus Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: "Each of the cards contains a biblical verse combined with radiant illustrations by William Atkins. Includes a booklet of interpretations and instructions for inspirational card games by the Rev. Ralph M. Moore. Full gilt edges. Packaged in a black leatherette satin lined top-lid box." The perfict gift for the Blessed in your life!

Victorian Playing Card Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon] "Charming images from the Victorian era are recreated by Carole Murray. A wonderful addition to collections of Victoriana."

The Sherlock Holmes Playing Card Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: This is a bridge sized deck of cards. The faces of the cards themselves are more or less mundane. But the backs of the cards are a nice billiard table green with a white border and an embossed silowette of Holmes in gold. The edges are also guilded. I like it a lot for LARPs because of the size. It fits very well in my hand.

Greatful Dead "Liquid Blue" Deck [pic] - by Liquid Blue: (LIQUID BLUE IS A WHOLESAILER YOU MUST FIND RETAILER TO GET THEIR PRODUCTS) "Instead of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs, the set has Moons, Roses, Suns, and Wheels. While that may not sound too thrilling, what is neat about them is all the face cards and Jokers have skeletal figures and the entire set is very colorful. I saw them first two years ago when I was running a game at GenCon and one of the players used them for his huckster. It took me the better part of 9 months to find a set myself." - John

Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing Cards - By US Games Systems: [Amazon] You'll find this with the tarot cards but this is a nice 52 card poker sized deck. The face of the cards are normal playing cards but also have pictures on them as well as the meaning of each card printed there. An exelent deck for a Huxter or voodoo character consept.

The Buckland Gyspy Fortunetelling Deck [pic] - By Llewellyn Publications: Slightly bigger then bridge size, but smaller then a poker deck, this 72 card color deck would be the ideal deck for a well to do "occulty" traveling character. This deck has a really cool design on the back, which includes an interlocking seven pointed star in the center. (The symbol of the Knight Hospitlers (sp?) if I remember correctly.) It doesn't have any jokers but since you have to seperate out the major arcana anyway, you can choose two of those to act as jokers. (I use #20 which is a fortuneteller standing by her cards, and #12 which is a picture of stacks and bags of money and jewels.) 2 - 10 are normal playing cards, but the Aces have the backs of verdoun (Gypsy Wagons), and the face cards are portrates of people whom I assume are Gypsies.

Corsaires st Pirates [pic] - By Grimaud: (Baptiste Paul Grimaud, Maitre Cartier 'a Paris, France depuis 1848) Beautiful 54 card full color deck! I will try to keep this short, or else I'll be talking forever. 2 - 10 are normal, with the exception that the clubs are kinda funky. While the face cards and aces are full body illustrations of important figures in priveteering history. The jokers are cannons with various nautical equipmant and a flag. One joker's flag has a coat of arms on it (Prolly France) and the other is a blank white flag of surrender. (Can you tell which is red and which is black?) The backs have a baby blue background with white and gold borders and two white circles with smoke billowing cannon. The deck comes with a little pamphlet that talks about who everybody is, but you might have to bone up on your French depending on if you're lucky enough to find one that's in English or not.
My only problem with both of the decks if have from this company ((See below)) is that they seem to be "Kem" cards.

Jules Verne 54 Jeu de Cartes [pic] - By Grimaud: (Baptiste Paul Grimaud, Maitre Cartier 'a Paris, France depuis 1848) This is the same company that made the "Corsaires et Pirates" above. And it's annother beautiful 54 card full color poker sized deck! 2 - 10 are normal but for the designs on the pips. Hearts have a moon and stars in them to represent the sky, clubs wavy lines to represent the sea, spades have. . . well, it represents fire so I guess its styleised flames, and dimonds have a "Mariner's dial". (ie - compas rose) Aces are pictures of the vehicles he wrote about (The Rocket, the Nautilus, the Victoria, and the Albatross.) face cards are promonant characters. The Jokers are Jules himself standing next to a pile of his own books.

--=="Just Plain Nifty" Decks==--

The Crooked Playing Card Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon] "Be a crooked card player! No, don't cheat...the poker-sized playing cards are die-cut in a crooked yet ergonomic shape."

The Square Deal Deck [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon]"Suit signs appear on all four corners of this square deck, so no matter which way you hold the cards, their values are easy to identify.

Trees of the World [pic] - By US Games Systems: [Amazon] And now . . . 8 of spades . . . the Larch . . . the . . . Larch. (Yeah, I know, but I couldn't help myself.)