may seem broken in places until further notice

this guide uses the image editing program GIMP[www.gimp.org], I use version 2.10.28 for this guide, but you're welcome to grab any version you like.

once you have that installed/installing, let's continue to the other things to install
firstly, the fonts, you will need:

• redstatebluestate[www.1001fonts.com] (for all game text and keyword text)
  
• crash landing[www.1001fonts.com] (for card titles and target HP numbers)
  
• armor piercing[www.1001fonts.com] (for character HP numbers)

you'll also need to gather the art you'll be using for your cards, this can be done at any point in the process, so you can get it all now or wait until later.

and finally, the templates:
click this for my GIMP Templates[files.catbox.moe]

and thanks to deathnoks the templates also come in .PSD format! but keep in mind this guide only covers the use of gimp, not photoshop.
click this for the Photoshop Templates[files.catbox.moe]

(I've also heard various users from europe tell me that the site catbox.moe which I host these files on doesn't work for them, if any european users have an alternative, leave a comment and I may upload mirrors so that more people can download.)

catbox scrambles the names of files, the gimp .zip comes with the card templates, a box template, and a grid template, so if you open one and it doesn't look like one singular game card, then open the other ones until it does.

The first thing you should do when you open the card template is to duplicate (ctrl+D) the project and then save (ctrl+S) the duplicated project, name this new save whatever you want, this will be where all the cards of your deck will be stored, this way you still have the original empty template if you decide to make another deck later.

next step is deciding whether you want to make a hero, villain, or environment deck, you will be deleting parts of the template you don't need to save on file space and to make sure the program doesn't slow down.

in the bottom right, you have some layer groups you can expand and collapse with the button beside them

• . rules card
  
• . villain card
  
• . hero card

you can right click each layer group you don't need and then delete them, don't worry though, if you delete something you need you can always reload the original template again

and then inside the card layer group there is a borders layer group, and within that there is a hero group, a villain group, and an environment group (as well as a blank card if you're feeling creative)

inside those groups I've made a few different versions of the card templates, pick which one you like best and then place it directly above the borders layer group, also bring out it's associated keyword box and place it one layer above it, and then right click the borders group and delete it, you wont need it's contents anymore

then you can right click the keyword box and merge down, this will make the entire card background into one layer to minimize filesize


if your deck will not need targets in it, you can also delete the hp number layer group and the hp blast layer. having fewer layers will be good in this next step

now, close the card layer group and clone it, then move it inside the empty deck layer group, and then clone it multiple times until you have as many cards as you'll need for the deck, I would suggest 15 unique cards for heroes, and 10-13 unique cards for villains or environments.

at this time I'd suggest you start paying extra attention to what layers and layer groups are visible (the eye button next to them) from now on, because the main display will always show the top-most visible layer, this can cause some trouble if you're not thinking about it, for example, in the gif on the left all of my layers are visible, so if i start typing on the main display, then it will type on the default card that is still outside the deck group, which we dont want to edit.

To begin making a card, make all card layer groups invisible except for one, that group is the card you'll be working on first, use your Text tool (T) to select the card's text and then you can replace the placeholder text with your desired effects.

there will be some syntax advice later in this guide, for now just write an effect that you yourself can understand and remember.

you'll notice that when you have a text box selected, there's a little control panel that opens up above it, that thing is actually very useful!
it has 4 different buttons for different text effects, bold | italics | underline | strikethrough

and then has 2 numbers set to 0.0 by default, the left number is vertical offset, and the right number is horizontal offset.
(you can also select font, change font size, and change font color, but we wont need those right now.)

in this gif I select parts of the text and then apply effects

• I select "power:" and make it bold.
  
• I select the first letter of "lightning" and add some spaces. (if it's not moving, try pressing enter and adding a linebreak manually.)
  
• I select the first letter of "zapper", and then increased it's horizontal spacing by 5 pixels. (making power bold unaligned the top and bottom lines, this fixes that.)
  
• I select the top line of the flavor text and reduce it's vertical spacing by 60 pixels.

now the card has some nice spacing and correct font styles!

This will be basic if you're familiar with image editors, but I'll include it for beginners.
so here, the process goes

• click and drag or copy and paste the image into GIMP
  
• scale (shift + S) and align the image using the gizmo, and then press "scale" at the top of the screen to confirm the changes.
  
• move the image layer beneath the card template in the layer group (making sure it's still inside that card's layer group!)

and unfortunately, adding the H icon to your cards must be done manually, I've included a text-sized version of it in the template above all the layer groups, using the same Scale (shift + S) and Move (M) tools you can place it where you want it on the gametext.
I've found that if you put a standard H into your text you can use it to help guide the placement of your H icon, and then just replace the text H with a space.

I saved this until last because adding the outline will remove the text information of the layer and make the title un-editable with the text tool, so once you've finalized the name of the card, select the title layer group, and then in the top left of GIMP select Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow.
you should see a panel like this pop up, set each of these settings shown:

• X & Y = 0
  
• blur radius = 0
  
• grow shape = circle
  
• grow radius = 5
  
• color = black
  
• opacity = 1

before pressing ok press the + button in the top right of this panel and create a new saved preset with these settings so you can easily apply them again later

a really useful hotkey for this part is (ctrl+F), this will apply your most recently used filter to the selected layer, using this you can select another card's title and then press the hotkey to instantly apply this outline that title also.

and if you look at the card layer group, you'll find a layer named "titleandgradient", if you open that you'll see a gradient layer which is invisible, enable it's visibility and you'll get the colors in the title.

(this was invisible by default because the gradient is above the title text in the layers, and was hard to select with the text tool.)


and there you go!
that's your first card complete!

I'd suggest you repeat this process a few more times to get more familiar with the tools.

In the layer group named hero card you can find 2 subgroups, front and incap, these are what you'd expect, the front side and back side of the hero character card, let's start with the front.

to make sure you don't accidentally click on the wrong layer, ensure that only the hero card layer group and the front layer group, and the layers inside front are visible.

and at this point, lots of the character card process can be done using the same steps as explained in the previous section

• basic text and advanced text sections can be applied to your innate power.
  
• adding art is the same process, import it, adjust it, and move it's layer to the bottom of the layer group, in this case the bottom of the front layer group.
  
• the title outline you used on the title can be used again on your hp number, (ctrl + F) is your friend!

next up is the stuff the character card specific stuff
let's add a nemesis icon, in the front layer group there is an icon layer group, open that and follow the next steps.

• drag or paste your image into GIMP
  
• move it directly above the "icon background" layer.
  
• change it's mode from "normal" to "lighten only" using the dropdown menu at the top of the layer viewer. (if the image disappears, that is ok, you can still move it, it's just invisible until it's overlapping the nemesis icon.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• use the scale (shift + S) and move (M) tools to place the icon over the icon circle.
  
• once you're happy with it's location, right click the layer and merge down.

so, i would advise making a grid file for your deck, i hear there's a tool packaged with TTS to help make one? you can try that, but i've never used it, i use GIMP, i make a new project, set the grid to 1060x1500 and then go to view > show grid & snap to grid
this will set the grid to move in segments that are the exact size of each card.
next you will use copy/paste on each "card copy" layer group in your first project, then in the grid project, you will paste it, might take a few tries to get it pasting correctly, sometimes it wants to paste as a layer group, what we want, is it to paste as a flat image layer. once you have the grid laid out you can also save this so you can just paste over it later without needing to move cards at all.
like so:
once you have this, export is as a png, and also export your other images from the previous project (character card front and incap, and the deck back), put them somewhere easy to find and remember, organization is key!
now the moment you've all been waiting for: open tabletop simulator!

open up a new table, and go to modding > cloud manager if you're new to uploading to TTS, this will likely be completely blank, which is good! that's an easier starting point than a mess!
so i'd advise you to make some folders, you can see mine in the gif, i have sotm, then one of each for heroes/villains/environments, and then character folders inside that, once you've built a little organization structure then you're ready to put the cards in, there's a little folder button near the top right of the tab, that will let you upload the images, and that's also why i said to put the images somewhere easy to find and remember, i personally like to mirror the filepath in TTS with the one on my actual drive.
once you have the images uploaded and sorted, you can use the custom deck item, place your deck grid in the top box, and your deck back in the bottom box, then adjust the sliders to match your grid size and card number, if you followed my recommendation, you'll use 5 width, 3 height, 15 number.
i also organize my cards so that the bottom 5 in the grid only have 2 copies, while the rest have 3, so it's faster to stack.

importing the character card is the same process but for just one custom card.

for this section i reached out to various respected members of the community for what they had thought would be constructive and helpful to teach new and old creators alike, so with their feedback along with my own knowledge and thoughts, i'll make a section dedicated to tips, tricks, and various balance advice.
SO, in no particular order:

• 1. simplicity is key: if you can accomplish the same effect with fewer words, try to, even if it's not "exactly" what you want, if it is easier to read, and faster to play, then players will enjoy it more, since this will not inflate that hero's turn, long-winded effects cause the others at the table to wait, and have less fun, especially if this effect is non-interactive for other heroes, the player of this hero will also have less fun due to them needing to read the large amounts of text on their card rather than talking with the other players and thinking of teamwork, the same goes for villain and environment decks, dont over-complicate things!
  
  
• 2. be careful while giving out of turn effects: such as a play, power, or draw, to someone else when it is not their turn, since this is giving them an entire extra phase effectively! some characters are restricted by how much they can do in one turn as a balancing method, and while you shouldnt be paranoid of what other decks may be enabled to do, it's good to keep in mind that giving someone another phase is extremely powerful, especially if there is no cost!
  
  
• 3. cost and weakness are two different things: as an example, a cost is something like a resource (setback having his luck resource), and a weakness is something that character cannot do, or has extreme difficulty doing (chrono-ranger having nearly no way to regain hp), if a character can do anything as long as they can afford the listed downside/payment, that is a cost, if a character cannot do something, or can only do it in tiny tiny amounts, even while being completely set up, then this is a weakness, i believe each hero should have a weakness, so they must rely on their team to succeed, it's not a "team game" if you dont need your team!
  
  
• 4. the word "whenever" is very dangerous: if a card has "whenever" as a trigger, this means that it can happen any number of times in one turn, so make absolutely sure that this trigger is not something that will happen often, and the payoff is also not very impactful, ask yourself "how realistically could this trigger 3+ times in 1 turn?", and "what impact would this have if it did trigger 3+ times in 1 turn?", i'll let you run the specifics through your own balance regulations, however, if it feels too strong, or you want an alternative, "once each turn," is a fantastic option instead of "whenever"!
  
  
• 5. if a card allows you to perform extra actions, why?: if you make a card, and add "draw 1 card" to the end of it, ask yourself "why does this character need that extra card draw?, same with powers and plays, "is that extra effect something this character and deck needs?" again, especially if there's no cost for the bonus!
  
  
• 6. hp regain is not a very interactive mechanic: while in other games like FPS or MOBA, hp regain is a timing based thing, where your opponent may target and behave unpredictably, in sentinels of the multiverse, it is very standard for the villain to target highest hp heroes, while the reactionary decision making is not present due to it being turn-based, so you can always calculate the best healing route, which slows the game, i believe it is better to increase your character's maximum hp and remove healing from the deck unless it has a good reason to be there, to keep your effective hp more controlled, and to prevent "heal stall tactics", and remember, healing, for heroes or villains, does not get either team closer to victory, it only takes the opponent farther from it!
  
  
• 7. avoid cards which search through a deck without a good reason: commonly referred to as "searchers", these are cards which allow you to search your deck and often trash too, for a specific type of card, then put it into play or your hand, so similarly to number 5 on this list, ask yourself "why does this character need the card being searched for?", and if you do need that card, it would probably be better to add more copies of the card you're looking for in your deck, rather than a card which searches for it!
  
  
• 8. choice is very powerful: the heroes are naturally favored in this game due to the fact they are players, and need to make decisions when the game itself cannot (such as the heroes deciding which target is "highest" if there is a tie), and whenever you add a choice, you add that much more power to the heroes, since every single choice you add to the game, will always result in the most hero favored option!
  
  
• 9. this is one five player game, not five one player games: try to make your deck interactive with the rest of the table, cause it to effect the other heroes in some way, maybe asking if you're allowed to do something even if it has a shared cost, or letting people know you can do something to help them, and collectively deciding when it's best to do, i would advise that you make teamwork required for victory!
  
  
• 10. do not be afraid to lose setup: it is not good to rely on your ongoing or equipment cards too much, since setup can, and will, be destroyed by the villain, environment, and sometimes even other heroes, it's a natural part of the game, if your character cannot function without setup cards, then i think you should change them to be a little less reliant on them, setup cards should be bonuses, not keys to unlock your default bindings!

now, in the words of the funny pirate man, "they're less rules, and more like guidelines.", so you do not need to fully obey all of these, and sometimes a gimmick can directly contradict one, just keep them in mind while creating something.

and of course, your first deck will never be perfect, mine sure wasnt, so dont give up after the first try, if you find it fun, then keep making decks, your skill and sense of balance will improve, and if a gimmick doesnt work out the first time you try it, put the idea down, do something else, and re-visit it later, i've done that with many decks, some of my decks im most proud of are from a fresh look at an old idea, so dont be discouraged if your ideas initially dont work out!

one of the newer members of this community had only started using gimp after seeing this guide, and had learnt a lot in a short amount of time, but did ask that i include more gimp knowledge in this guide

SO let's get some gimp tips going!

how to make custom symbols for your card using gimp:
you can use the nemesis icon as a base for a unique symbol, in this example, i add an image, set it to lighten only so it only shows on the black background in the icon circle, no cropping needed!
next i anchor it, delete the glare layer, and scale the image to 40x40 pixels, to match the size of the font!
once you have this icon, you manually copy paste it everywhere you want it to be
you can make this icon with as many pictures or numerals you want, however do try to make sure it's clear what the icon is!






various tricks to pretty up your character title:
cannot stress this part enough: dafont[www.dafont.com]

finding fonts that fit your chracter and look nice is super important to make the character card look good

and remember to use some filters and add extra colors/edits to your titles, they'll look a lot better and more unique, trust me.









like here on neveah, i turned the negative space in the middle into solid white, then made a new layer and used filters to create a blood-like design, set that layer to lighten only, put it over my font, and added an outline

tools used: fuzzy select, waterpixels, oilify, lighten only, drop shadow



or here on homura, a little effort can seriously go a long way to add more character to the character's name, for this one, i inverted the black to white, i added a long shadow that was only slightly darker than the white i used for the text, then i imported a fire image to use over it, and set the fire layer to multiply, finally once that was on, i added an outline to the whole thing

tools used: invert colors, long shadow, multiply, drop shadow


lossless method of scaling boxes:
lots of people i see simply squish their villain/hero character boxes, but if you use this method, you'll keep the scaling on the outline to make it consistent, advice for this, use the layer link! you see those chain buttons i press on the right? that's layer link, it moves those layers at the same time

tools used: box select, cut, paste, move, layer link









filters i frequently use:
these are filters, they can be found in the filter tab in the top left of gimp
from top left to bottom right

• artistic > waterpixels
  
• artistic > oilify
  
• distorts > newsprint
  
• light & shadow > vignette
  
• distorts > shift
  
• edge detect > edge
  
• distort > engrave

i do use many others, these are just a few good ones to start, allow me to show you a very simple effect you can make with only a few filters
that is how i made the gametext background textures, i took a little more than 20 seconds to do it, but i used these same tools and ideas.
the process:

• begin with 2 layers, 1 black, 1 white, white on top of black
  
• filters > artistic > cubism (adjust sliders)
  
• merge white layer down
  
• filters > artistic > waterpixels (adjust sliders)
  
• colors > hue-chroma (adjust sliders)

done!

it'll take too long to list every filter i've used and how i've done it, so i encourage you to explore and experiment with them yourself, you'll find one or two you keep coming back to

other helpful tools:

• blender: i have made various simplistic shapes in blender, screenshotted them, and used them in symbols or names on cards before, and of course learning how to use this program can help just about any other digital creative project in some way, i'd say the basics to blender are a must-know if you're planning to make mods or games!
  
  
• upscayl:[www.upscayl.org] this is beauty of modern technology, if you cannot find screenshots that are high enough res and dont want them to be blurry or pixelated, just upscayl it!

correct wordings are also confusing for newer players, so here's some standard formatting references, the community refer to the many bizarre instances of wording in this game as "sentinelsese"

damage:
damage is written as source first, target second, damage third, type fourth, and in the event of a multiple target attack, the word "each" is usually placed at the end, however not required. examples:

• legacy deals up to 4 targets 2 projectile damage each.
  
• legacy deals any number of targets 1 melee damage each.
  
• baron blade deals the highest hp hero target 5 energy damage.
  
• baron blade deals each non-villain target 2 energy damage.

damage types:
there are only 11 official damage types, you should use only these damage types, since that means other decks can interact with them, if you decide to make your own damage type, be aware that it will almost never specially interact with another deck!

• melee
  
• projectile
  
• fire
  
• cold
  
• lightning
  
• psychic
  
• toxic
  
• energy
  
• infernal
  
• radiant
  
• sonic

HP regain:
healing is referred as "regain" or "restore", neither of these can go above maximum hp, regain is BY a number, restore is TO a number. examples:

• this card regains 3 hp.
  
• restore this card to 10 hp.

start-of-turn & end-of-turn:
lots of effects activate at the start, or end of a turn, or specific phase, and it's written in specific ways. examples:

• at the end of your turn,
  
• at the start of the villain turn,
  
• at the end of your draw phase,

increases and reductions:
now when you want to increase or reduce something, there's a few ways that's handled, it's either a passive effect, or a "next" effect, meaning it only affects the next time you would deal/be dealt damage, it is written increase/reduce (the next < optional) damage dealt to/by target by X(for duration < optional). examples:

• increase the next damage dealt by this card by 3.
  
• reduce damage dealt to this card by 1.
  
• increase damage dealt by legacy until the start of your next turn by 1.

X values:
sometimes it's best to use an X value, X values are very useful, and also cannot be increased by numeral increases! in sotm i've found it's easiest to add it at the end of an effect that uses that value, and written like so:

• where X = H plus the number of minion cards in play.
  
• where X = the number of cards you have in hand.

revealing & searching:
revealing and searching is a little bizarre, so bear with me here, first off, revealing you write it like reveal [location and amount] of [target deck], [effect to do to the target cards], then [what happens to the remaining cards] . most often it's replacing them (placing them back on top) or discarding them, you must specify what happens to the others otherwise they will stay "revealed" for the rest of the game, not in any play area or deck, but if there is only 1 card revealed by the card you do not need to specify what happens to the others since there are no "others", next, for searchers, it's a little more simple written like search [target deck] for X (specified type < optional) card(s) and [effect to do to the target cards]. and you should always shuffle a searched deck afterwards. examples for both:

• reveal the top 3 cards of any deck, discard up to 2 of them, replace the others.
  
• search your deck for 1 equipment card, put it into your hand or into play, shuffle your deck.
  
• reveal the top card of each deck, discard or replace any of them.

"when" & "after":
the wording "when" is tricky, i'd advise you to use "when X would happen" and "after X happens", on any reactionary triggers, card plays, draws, damage, all of it. examples:

• when legacy would deal damage, that damage becomes irreducible.
  
• after an environment card is destroyed, draw 1 card.
  
• after you draw a card, legacy regains 1 hp.

"instead":
the word "instead", i love using this word, it's very interesting because it outright replaces it's trigger effect with it's own effect, and allow for some very game-changing potential, like so:

• the first time each turn a player would play a card, they play 1 random card from their hand instead.
  
• when a target would regain hp, this card deals them that much toxic damage instead.
  
• when legacy would deal damage to a hero target, that target regains that much hp instead.

since lots of stuff in sentinels of the multiverse is more wordy than it needs to be, the community sometimes opts into making keyword for convenience, however they dont always package their keywords with decks that use them unfortunately.
so i will write out a reference here, however first i do want to issue a warning to you all:
these are non-offical keywords, they are not in the real rulebook and do not "technically" mean anything, it's just something the community has done for convenience and ease of play!

however, unless you're a rules lawyer or sentinels purist, you should have no issues using these from time to time.

enhance & revert
by: Patchait
these two keywords interact with each other, these are used for cards which evolve or have multiple forms.

• enhance: change the state of a card to either the next state or a specified state.
  
• revert: change the card to the previous state or a specified state.
  
• when a non-character card with its state changed by enhance or revert leave play, change it to its initial state.

create
by: Elnath

• create: put the specified card into play from outside the game. when it leaves play, remove it from the game.

attach
by: Narrator

• attach: when you attach a card to another card, you move it next to that card.

the card next to the card with the attach keyword is considered "attached". when the attached card is destroyed or incapacitated, destroy each card attached to it.

shared power
by: Sleeves

• shared-power: this functions the exact same as a regular power, but any player can use the power as if it were their own, replacing any instances of "you" with the current player using the power.

the power can still only be used once per turn, no matter who uses it.
any written names are not changed, however, you may write "your hero" to allow other heroes to do things. (with multi-heroes, "your hero" reads as "one of your heroes")

sentinels of the workshop is a community hosted table which features many different creator's content (including mine!).

if you made something with this guide and want it to be added, or are simply looking for more advice, join the sentinels of the workshop discord server![discord.gg]

once you're there, you can ask Ace Master any questions, he's a friendly guy, and he runs the table currently,

also if there's anything i should expand on more, something i missed completely, or any other critiques i could correct, feel free to comment.

and finally, if this helped and you were able to make something with it, please do tell me about it in the comments! better yet if you uploaded what you made, leave a link the workshop page below! i'd love to see what i enabled!

thank you for reading, and good luck.