I interviewed the creator of Personal Conquest: An Erotica Trading Card Game- here are his answers to my questions:
Q: Please describe your trading card game!
A: In the game, you're the leader of a gang/mafia, crooked politician/Illuminati, druglord or police organization. We both control both sides of the city and want to take each other out but can’t get to each other. So we have to sneak up on each other to carry out attacks. The premise of this game is to send your allies to sleep with your enemies to set up surprise murders and that's one strategical way in attacking. This is an adult game that allows you to attack in more than one way.
Q: What inspired you to create a TCG?
A I wanted to make a TCG because I looked around and saw all the creators making games and I thought to myself maybe I should do this. I'm like hey, people that were successful enough are making all this money to live off of a print run which is like the best life EVER. Doing something that they love. So it didn't make sense for me not to do this. I've always had talks with my older brother for years about what I wanted to do in life and I never had an answer.
I recently told him that I put the game in test printing 2 weeks ago and he said man, why didn't you say that the first time. lol I have a passion for trading card games. I think about them 7 days a week. And also it's not always about the money, you get in gaming for the love. It's just that you have to pursue what you love doing.
Q: What TCGs did you grow up playing as a kid?
A: Honestly Pokemon was a very big part of my childhood as a kid and it's still in my life now. I came back during the post-Heartgold Soulsilver era. Sometime around year 2012 because one of the new sets on the scene was Supreme Victors and I'm looking at the cards like, "Hey, this isn't the Base Set!" lol They totally changed the scheme, the game must be down. But they were thriving and doing well then, in comparison to Gen 3. I originally thought the cards were all destroyed and didn't exist anymore until one day I was bored and decided to look at ebay and search Pokemon cards in my college apartment. I was astonished that the cards were still around, and Base Set booster packs were only going for 15 bucks a pack. I then started buying 1st edition holos from expansions like Team Rocket for $1.69 shipped. Things were that cheap back then. Back in year 2000 you couldn't get cards at all which led to a worldwide easter egg hunt that made kids search all over the place for cards. After I was given my first 2 cards I was hooked. I got a summer job and somehow flagged down Base Set 2 in a store, bought 6 packs, and pulled Charizard in pack 4. I remember like it was yesterday.
Q: What sets Personal Conquest apart from other TCGs?
A: Personal Conquest is different from all other TCG’s because it’s goes into things that people don’t want to talk about. Aside from the artwork, that has a very old school look. This game’s style and storyline is more based in the late 80’s to late 90’s and doesn’t have the same design as some of the newer games that have that new Magic, Final Fantasy/anime Force of Will type look. And the game is very dark, according to the few people that came across it.
Like what would happen if someone is mentally distraught and they come home to their husband and wife cheating on them while their holding a weapon. Or if someone is being doxed, and someone else is spying on them and stalking them all over the place. Or if someone has an issue, and they take out a whole block to get to one person. Or, if someone’s willing to sell themselves to be a part of an industry for fame and ends up losing their soul. All these things tend to happen in real life. This game is about real life.
Q: How long have you been working on the game?
A: This games been in the making since year 2017. The original foundation and all the cards in the set was laid down in like 3 months. But it took 8 months or more to refine the identity of the cards so that it would be a stronger set. When artists got involved, there was large gaps in the project. Many cards were cut out of the first set due to trivial circumstances or things out of my control. And honestly, the virus screwed up a lot of things cause the set got pushed back a year. That's probably the reason why so many games are dropping this year. What is it like over 100 games? lol But yeah, this game is the 2nd TCG I created that’s from my 5th book. The first game I made never came out. It was made around year 2015 and it was literally pulled from my first book.
Q: What was the name of your first trading card game, and why didn’t it get released? Have some ideas/concepts from the game made it into Personal Conquest?
A: The name of the first game was Treason. It was based off of a woman from the Japanese Mafia running the city of Tokyo. It didn't get released because the idea of making Personal Conquest came about and I thought it was a better project. When my brother made the comment about some card games like Magic being dark, he asked if there was any with adult content. I responded and said that it was a crazy idea and no company would do that. Then when he said the words "The College Girl" and "HIV", a light bulb went off in my head and then I knew how to make the game. But prior to this conversation I was unaware that someone made a game back in 96' called Xxxenophile, which had tons of graphic content and nudity. But I guess the laws were different back then. And also, the graphic designer that was working on the volumes from the book was M.I.A. He started working on the front cover of Vol.2 and then ran off with the money and disappeared.
All my books along with Treason Vol.1-12 are on Amazon under the pen name Bishop Foxx and Collector’s Mindset. You may find a couple of titles under the name Land of Erotica as well, but that handle is currently defunct.
There was a lot of ideas that came over from Treason. It’s a mafia-based game that has a bunch of areas and land that you can take control of. And when you ran them in your deck it made your characters more powerful. But Treason had a financial system in a later set that allowed you to use money to manipulate and control land. The game moved way faster than Personal Conquest. And this game had 6 sets completed too, so the cost of production to release both games would be insane. And there was a secret character from Treason that was an attractive German maid that assisted the mafia. She was dropped in the second set of Personal Conquest as a main character. But I wont reveal who she is.
Q: How did you come up with the name Personal Conquest?
A: I don’t know. It kind of came to me. I've always been good with coming up with names. But for legal reasons, the :An Erotica Trading Card Game was added on just in case it couldn't be claimed. You know just like how Richard Garfield and Wizards put The Gathering on the end of Magic? The word Magic wasn't copyrightable, so they had to go that route. And also hence the word erotica, it’s an adult game and I believe the word Conquest has something to do with conquering. Which in this game different parts of the city have mob bosses that are trying to take over each other.
Q: What is the illustration/design process like?
A: The design process is an uphill battle. And it takes a long time to get artwork done. And the worst part is the coloring because at first you have to indicate the artwork and paint a vivid picture for the artist to get. They have to make sketches and finalized color pieces and wait for approval. Then all the card layouts and designs have to be applied to the artwork. You’ll go through several graphic designers until you find out who wants to stick around and every single person that I engaged with looked at this project and said it was a good idea. And the first base set has many errors. There’s probably like 60 unreleased cards and over 100 error cards.
And the sad thing, a lot of those artworks I can’t do anything with. Remember when I told you that certain governments have a strict policy against games about censorship? We’ll that led to a lot of cards getting banned in the first set. That was talked about in the magazine when I released Vol.1. A couple of months ago when I first submitted the most provocative cards for review, the sales rep at the manufacturer was so bugged out that she hopped off her work computer and on her Iphone because the artworks were so risky that it could get her into trouble. She verbatim told me, that if we release these cards and they move through our factory and they catch us, the government will close down the factory and we will go out of business. And the building wouldn’t be opened again. That’s how bad it’s gotten now.
Q: What was the most provocative card that you weren’t allowed to print?
The most provocative card that I wasn’t allowed to print is a tie between Psychic, Drenched, and Webcam from the first set. There’s edited revises of those cards that made the first print run. Apparently, any kind of nudity can set off a red flag but as I explained before, certain cards that were just as provocative were passing. There’s an uncut sketch sheet that has this card called 4-Play, that is way more exposing than any card that I’ve seen in the set and is actually deemed as pornography and they passed it on the sheet. Lol I was debating about not showing it on Instagram but I might post it anyway. That’s one of many cards that I knew wouldn’t make it to the final stages.
Q: When will the game be officially released?
A: I was pushing to get this game released in September but that’s not going to happen because this game is still in the finalization stage with the main set’s holographics and packaging. However, I’m going to do a print run and the starter decks should be out sometime this year. I’m going to end up starting a Kickstarter for the booster boxes very soon. I wasn’t going to let out any secrets but I’ll tell you this. Very few of those artworks that was getting held at the factory actually got released in another territory because I sent them for review at different locations at the same time and some of them slid by. So if you’re a collector and you’re into new games that has obscure content, getting the first release printing would be beneficial for you.
Q: What are your future plans for the game?
A: My future plans for the game is to continue releasing the magazine to help promote the game and other TCG’s. The magazine is called Collector’s Mindset Magazine and the first issue is Vol.1: Summer Edition. As I spoke to you before, it goes into the world of collecting and nostalgia, and has the lore and canon from the original storyline of the game, that’s in the book. The book itself has 6 volumes, and the first volume is inside of the first magazine. So far there’s 6 sets completed, three base sets, and three expansions. And every volume is the storyline from Set 1 to Set 6.
Q: Do you have any advice for someone looking to make their own TCG?
A: Do what you love and don’t listen to anyone else unless it has something to do with the overall health of the game. Always constructive criticism over negative criticism. Never overprint or ignore your following. Or treat players better than collectors or vise-versa. Both players and collectors need each other for their game to survive. And oh lastly, never EVER release your card backs. Because once you release your original card back design files to the public, people can steal your card game forever. And that’s all.
For more, check out @personalconquesttcg on Instagram
Great interview
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