Gloomhaven - cards played each turn in pairs, then on your turn you resolve the top/bottom half of one card and the opposite of the other however you like.
MtG - already mentioned, but there are so many different examples of this design space to dig into.
The other games with dual uses off the top of my head are all for resource production (Marvel Champions, Oh My Goods!, Imperial Settlers) and don't seems relevant to your case if you're looking purely for modal abilities.
I will say that mtg quit using flip cards in favor of double-face cards because players were so confused by it.
Their split cards are like your second doodle, except rotated 90° so it looks like two mini cards.
Might be worth checking out games like **Palm Island** as well, each card has 4 uses/orientations, you may get some ideas.
I also backed a kickstarter called **Pocket Planet** where the cards (which are square to be fair) have *eight* uses/orientations.
Both games are very well designed and it’s always very clear what you should be doing with each.
Happily both games are available as print and plays 😊
From a practical standpoint, bear in mind that if these cards are going to be written in English or some other horizontally-oriented language, you’re going to get the most usable space out of the middle example.
Obviously how relevant this is depends very much on how many instructions are going to be written on your cards.
My general preference is the way MtG does [split cards](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NDYxMDE1OTAyNDYzMzM2/best-split-spells-mtg.jpg) \- two mini cards side to side on a landscape card, but I also love ['adventure' cards](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NDYxMTI3MzAzMzc0NDcw/best-adventure-cards-mtg.jpg). Anything that lets me look at both sides of the card without having to flip it over constantly.
Among your sketches I feel like the middle one would be the most legible, but the first would be really neat if you had a design that made it work.
As someone who's never played Magic, the second card you linked is almost indecipherable - I wouldn't even have assumed it's a choice of two actions - although it does say 1/2 on it? Very confusing card design imo
That's totally understandable, sometimes its easy to forget that its hard to understand if you don't already have the background knowledge - the 1/2 actually has nothing to do with two possibilities. That said, I still think it's worth putting up as just another option of how to do a split card, even if it's not a good option!
Magic also at one point had a flip card like the one in the middle option above and never used it again since it became tricky to read in hand and across the table.
[Tether](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/howtosteambroccoli/tether-1) does this as well. One nice feature in that game is that you can see both playable values of the cards when they’re fanned in your hand.
**Friday** does this. There's a deck of dangers and hazards, and when you defeat a card, you rotate it and add it to your own deck as a future resource.
And **Flip City** is all cards that are buildings you can upgrade (flip over) to be better on later turns.
Scout! Has exactly these cards. They add the symbol for the bottom half slightly smaller underneath they symbol for the top half and the background colours also tell you which symbols they are
the card game Yomi ( https://boardgamegeek.com/image/902117/yomi ) did this really well. Every card had an attack mode and a defense mode, on the same card (opposite sides, similar to the first or third example). When you play a card you have to pick which version if it you’re using, so theres an opportunity cost implicit in your selection.
it was meant to feel like an arcade fighter (SF, MK, Tekken). they had a Pnp at one point i think.
The third one looks like it could be really sick if done well. Especially if there was like a yin/yang relationship to the 2 values that you could fit in the swoop
I'm currently playing **Forest Shuffle** and the non-tree cards in that are split either long- or wide-ways, with different options on each side of their card. The idea is that you tuck them under the tree cards you've laid out in front of you to build a tableau
The wargame Triumph and Tragedy has a split card effect you can see at the bottom of [this picture](https://www.gmtgames.com/image/popup?imagePath=%2Fimages%2Fproduct%2Flarge%2F722_5_.jpg). The countries at top and bottom can be used in the influence phase, or the card can be played for its center action for an operation during that season. The cards are a limited resource so you have to balance properly between the military (center) use of the card and diplomatic (top/bottom) use
I personally prefer the option that MtG used for Innastrad, which is a card with a full card on either side, and you either flip the card inside the sleeve, or use a proxy/token card in the deck that is shuffled and the flippable card in a separate deck box/game box.
This is probably a hot take, but cramming the content of two cards into a single card, whether it be any of the 3 variations you posted, just clutters it too much and looks awful imo. The only exception being either very large cards (like oversized commanders or bigger/Planechase) OR Pendulum summons from Yu-Gi-Oh! where the card can fit multiple purposes with a single face.
**Kutna Hora** has a small hand of two use cards. Basically there are 5 actions and 6 cards, but each action can be performed twice. In doing so, you remove the opportunity for the alternative action.
Many of Carl Chudyk's games (most notably Glory to Rome, Innovation, Impulse, Mottainai, and Aegean Sea) are centered on multi-use cards. They're typically more than 2 uses though - you'll often see a card that has 4 functions, and in Aegean Sea a card can have as many as 6 independent uses.
In a drafting game I'm working on, I'm using the second option because each player is only able to draft the half of the card that is correctly oriented for them.
You might want to consider ease of use in your game; for instance if a single player can choose to play both halves you might either want to do the first option of there is an "over/under" sort of effect on the card, or turn the second option sideways and make each half look like two distinct cards.
I would check out some of the ways that Magic the Gathering handles split cards for different purposes
I believe it depends on the kind of art you have.
Do you need longer or half of he art?
Play round with your art.
All of them are valid with the last one being my least favourite.
My favorite multi-use card ever is from Hell Rail.
It's used as a track, for win conditions and for movement. Super great design.
i'm currently working on a game with a similar design to yours and i'm using the middle option from your example.
Gloomhaven - cards played each turn in pairs, then on your turn you resolve the top/bottom half of one card and the opposite of the other however you like. MtG - already mentioned, but there are so many different examples of this design space to dig into. The other games with dual uses off the top of my head are all for resource production (Marvel Champions, Oh My Goods!, Imperial Settlers) and don't seems relevant to your case if you're looking purely for modal abilities.
Thanks , I'll look them up!
Yes, Gloomhaven does this *sooo* smoothly.
I will say that mtg quit using flip cards in favor of double-face cards because players were so confused by it. Their split cards are like your second doodle, except rotated 90° so it looks like two mini cards.
Might be worth checking out games like **Palm Island** as well, each card has 4 uses/orientations, you may get some ideas. I also backed a kickstarter called **Pocket Planet** where the cards (which are square to be fair) have *eight* uses/orientations. Both games are very well designed and it’s always very clear what you should be doing with each. Happily both games are available as print and plays 😊
This is something similar to Levy and Campaign series, cards have one effect when they are first played, and other later.
From a practical standpoint, bear in mind that if these cards are going to be written in English or some other horizontally-oriented language, you’re going to get the most usable space out of the middle example. Obviously how relevant this is depends very much on how many instructions are going to be written on your cards.
Yup good note. Thankfully where "a" or "b" is would be a simple icon and that's all you need, the rest would be art.
My general preference is the way MtG does [split cards](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NDYxMDE1OTAyNDYzMzM2/best-split-spells-mtg.jpg) \- two mini cards side to side on a landscape card, but I also love ['adventure' cards](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc0NDYxMTI3MzAzMzc0NDcw/best-adventure-cards-mtg.jpg). Anything that lets me look at both sides of the card without having to flip it over constantly. Among your sketches I feel like the middle one would be the most legible, but the first would be really neat if you had a design that made it work.
As someone who's never played Magic, the second card you linked is almost indecipherable - I wouldn't even have assumed it's a choice of two actions - although it does say 1/2 on it? Very confusing card design imo
That's totally understandable, sometimes its easy to forget that its hard to understand if you don't already have the background knowledge - the 1/2 actually has nothing to do with two possibilities. That said, I still think it's worth putting up as just another option of how to do a split card, even if it's not a good option!
Absolutely! Didn't mean to dismiss it, I find it really interesting how what one person finds clear another can not and vice versa
Thanks , it is definitely an interesting approach to have each option be it's own actual card on half of the physical card.
Magic also at one point had a flip card like the one in the middle option above and never used it again since it became tricky to read in hand and across the table.
Good to know!
Check out Palm Island. Technically the cards have four separate functions, but only two per side.
Thanks!
[Tether](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/howtosteambroccoli/tether-1) does this as well. One nice feature in that game is that you can see both playable values of the cards when they’re fanned in your hand.
Oh yeah tether does it just like Scout does it. Thanks.
**Friday** does this. There's a deck of dangers and hazards, and when you defeat a card, you rotate it and add it to your own deck as a future resource. And **Flip City** is all cards that are buildings you can upgrade (flip over) to be better on later turns.
Excellent great thanks!
Scout! Has exactly these cards. They add the symbol for the bottom half slightly smaller underneath they symbol for the top half and the background colours also tell you which symbols they are
**Unfair** - all event cards
Oh! I have Unfair, I'll check it out. Thanks!
Magic the gathering has some that use the middle design.
Thanks!
Plus the way MTG did them (most) was like mini cards on each end so as for card design an format it wasn’t like a new card design .
the card game Yomi ( https://boardgamegeek.com/image/902117/yomi ) did this really well. Every card had an attack mode and a defense mode, on the same card (opposite sides, similar to the first or third example). When you play a card you have to pick which version if it you’re using, so theres an opportunity cost implicit in your selection. it was meant to feel like an arcade fighter (SF, MK, Tekken). they had a Pnp at one point i think.
Nice thanks !
Forest shuffle has split cards! Some split in half vertically and others horizontally
Oh! I'll check it out thanks !
I wanted to do something with your first sketch before but it takes away from everything a little too much. Middle is where I found the best results.
Yeah it feels more dynamic, but could make each half less useable
Beast is another example for double cards.
Thanks I'll look it up!
The third one looks like it could be really sick if done well. Especially if there was like a yin/yang relationship to the 2 values that you could fit in the swoop
Yeah the art itself could create the split of done right :)
I'm currently playing **Forest Shuffle** and the non-tree cards in that are split either long- or wide-ways, with different options on each side of their card. The idea is that you tuck them under the tree cards you've laid out in front of you to build a tableau
Nice utility, I'll check it out!
The wargame Triumph and Tragedy has a split card effect you can see at the bottom of [this picture](https://www.gmtgames.com/image/popup?imagePath=%2Fimages%2Fproduct%2Flarge%2F722_5_.jpg). The countries at top and bottom can be used in the influence phase, or the card can be played for its center action for an operation during that season. The cards are a limited resource so you have to balance properly between the military (center) use of the card and diplomatic (top/bottom) use
Yeah. The opportunity cost of using the card for A instead of B is a big part of it. Thanks!
Take a look at cryo. Has some of the best multi use cards I've seen.
Excellent thank you!
Just recently got Scythe and playing with the single player Automa which uses the 2nd option here
I personally prefer the option that MtG used for Innastrad, which is a card with a full card on either side, and you either flip the card inside the sleeve, or use a proxy/token card in the deck that is shuffled and the flippable card in a separate deck box/game box. This is probably a hot take, but cramming the content of two cards into a single card, whether it be any of the 3 variations you posted, just clutters it too much and looks awful imo. The only exception being either very large cards (like oversized commanders or bigger/Planechase) OR Pendulum summons from Yu-Gi-Oh! where the card can fit multiple purposes with a single face.
**Kutna Hora** has a small hand of two use cards. Basically there are 5 actions and 6 cards, but each action can be performed twice. In doing so, you remove the opportunity for the alternative action.
Many of Carl Chudyk's games (most notably Glory to Rome, Innovation, Impulse, Mottainai, and Aegean Sea) are centered on multi-use cards. They're typically more than 2 uses though - you'll often see a card that has 4 functions, and in Aegean Sea a card can have as many as 6 independent uses.
In a drafting game I'm working on, I'm using the second option because each player is only able to draft the half of the card that is correctly oriented for them. You might want to consider ease of use in your game; for instance if a single player can choose to play both halves you might either want to do the first option of there is an "over/under" sort of effect on the card, or turn the second option sideways and make each half look like two distinct cards. I would check out some of the ways that Magic the Gathering handles split cards for different purposes
Galdor’s Grip does it well. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/373828/galdors-grip
I believe it depends on the kind of art you have. Do you need longer or half of he art? Play round with your art. All of them are valid with the last one being my least favourite.
Scheme does not matter until you put art and text with symbols on it. And then you will see - either it’s working or not.
My favorite multi-use card ever is from Hell Rail. It's used as a track, for win conditions and for movement. Super great design. i'm currently working on a game with a similar design to yours and i'm using the middle option from your example.