Misprinted cards in the boxed set

Hi folks,

Just got the boxed set, and unfortunately it looks like a lot of the action cards are misprinted. Specifically the card backs are discolored or faded, one of the card fronts is offset (no big deal but a little annoying when I’m putting down a good chunk of change), and one of the “Defend” cards is completely missing!

  1. Is this a known issue, or just me?

  2. To whom should I go to get replacements? BWHQ? Archaia? Someone else?

Tweet @archaia for the customer service.

Can you post pics of the cards?

Link: http://t.co/mh3TsYpl

The top left is the “normal” card. About a dozen cards (total in the set) are like that. Top middle is the majority; it looks washed out. The shadowing around the letters is gray instead of black. There are three that look like the top right, greenish and washed out. They are all Maneuver cards. Bottom left is normal; bottom right is the misprinted Defend. That’s not a big deal, but having backs that look different defeats the purpose of having them. And the missing Defend card is a problem.

The Condition and Weapon decks are all fine.

Thanks!

No response yet to the tweet (although I understand it is the holiday season, so no big deal). I sent them an email tonight.

I just got the box set. Are the misprints strictly decorative or are there actual typos that are wrong. For example, a card might say “sword +3 dice to any action” when in fact the real rule is +1D to any action. Know what I mean? I haven’t seen any obvious glaring ERRORS per se.

The misaligned Defend card is purely aesthetic and has no effect on play. However the washed-out card backs on the three Maneuver cards, while not a typo, absolutely affect play - it makes it obvious when you have selected a Maneuver for your action.

I know there’s a mistake on one of the cards. The sick condition card says “Recovery: Ob 4 Health test”, when it should say “Recovery: Ob 4 Will test”.

The sick condition card says that you make a Health test to recover. It should be a Will test instead.

EDIT: I went back and checked my cards and my original post was mistaken.

I know there’s a mistake on one of the cards. The sick condition card says “Recovery: Ob 4 Health test”, when it should say “Recovery: Ob 4 Will test”.

Luke, could we get a word-of-god verification that it is indeed the card that is mistaken, and not the book?

I went over my deck of cards, and identified the following imperfections:

  1. There is some variability in how dark the backs of the cards are. This is most noticeable when looking at the black outlines of the words.
  2. Two of my Weapon Deck cards have black ink smudges a couple mm’s across on the back sides in the bottom-right corner.
  3. On the backside of one of my Weapons cards, the top 1/4 of the card hasa greenish, smudgy look. I’m not sure if that is because a layer of ink didn’t get applied properly, or if an extra layer of the wrong color ink got applied (or if there is something else going on).
  4. On the front side of one of my Defend cards, the top 1/2 in or so is unlaminated.

Hope this helps.

I checked my box set cards today and the only imperfection I notice is that some cards appear to be printed a bit lighter than others, sort of like when a printer is running low on ink. Some of the cards have crisp and dark shadowing on the words on the back of the card, others look sort of faded or washed out. I would have to say that while I certainly notice the imperfections, it is only a few cards and would likely NOT, in my opinion, affect game play in any way. I doubt if any of my casual and lighthearted gamer friends would “memorize” which action cards had faded backs and which didn’t. And if that were a real problem, I would simply suggest putting the cards in card sleeves with a generic solid backer so all the backs are equally hidden. Granted, it would have been nicer if the cards themselves were printed perfectly but it’s certainly a simple and non-critical issue.

My cards also say that to heal an injury the player should test HEALTH (not will). I don’t know, but I’d bet that it’s the original book that’s wrong not the card. Doesn’t it seem to make sense that you’d test health to heal an injury but test will to not be angry? Why would you test will to overcome an injury?

Anyway, as a veteran gamer with over 50 designer boardgames in my personal collection and countless others played over the last decade, I have to say that the QUALITY of the MG box set is extremely high. The artwork is naturally just simply amazing. The rulebook is printed on quality glossy stock in full color. The dice are high quality and have etched facings with custom symbols. The map has the look of parchment. The cards are very thick stock and although they seem to have had some printing errors, some worse than others per individual box, the end package is just simply excellent.

I got my box set as a Christmas gift and I’m THOROUGHLY happy with it. I would have paid full retail price without hesitation. It is worth every penny.

Even with the print irregularity I would still buy the set knowing it from the start. HOWEVER, to Luke I would certainly recommend addressing it with the printer. Although I as a customer am willing to accept the printing issues, if I were the owner of the company that paid the printer I would be pretty upset. The work is clearly subpar and inconsistent. I feel like I can say this because I have over a decade of experience in the printing industry. This is simply a problem of lack of quality control on the printer’s end. When I finished my print runs, I would always inspect my product for wandering print (loss of margins) and inconsistent print quality (which could be caused by various factors). As a printer, this type of poor product consistency just is pretty bad.

I don’t have a problem (much) with the washed out card, but I would like the discolored ones replaced. Yes, I could sleeve them, but (a) the art on the back is awesome and I’d hate to cover it up, and (b) if I get a deluxe version of something I don’t think I should have to buy extra things to correct manufacturing defects.

By the way, dysjunct, I agree with you. Maybe I just got lucky but my printing errors just don’t seem too bad. But it seems like some of yours are worse, in which case, I agree that you should be allowed to have new cards sent to you. The box set is costly and you didn’t get what you paid for due to a printing error.

Good luck man. Maybe you’ll post the outcome of your cards here so others can learn how to get their cards replaced too? Just an idea.

Tweeting @archaia has proved to be the only reliable source of remediation for customer service. Sorry guys! I wish I could help, but I’m only the designer, not the publisher.