SPARKS
Free For All!
Sparks™ concept, font design and text by S. John Ross
Artwork by Dan Smith, Matt Drake, and from Macho Women with Guns, BTRC's kick-butt game of satire and mayhem!
Version 2.0

What's a Spark?

For a long time, game companies have printed little paper miniatures: to go with adventure modules, to fill out boxed sets, as promotions -- even as standalone products. And for almost as long, there have been electronic versions - you can find some on the World Wide Web if you look, usually in the form of large .GIF or .JPEG files, or the occasional outing in PDF or PostScript. The advantages of the electronic version is obvious: You can print out entire armies, if you need them, and since they're "disposable," you can write on them, color them, mark them, burn them, spill Coke on them, or whatever turns your crank, without worrying.

Sparks are a new way of making paper miniatures with your computer - a better way! Sparks are paper minis in the form of a TrueType font, so you can make up your own "sheets," with any composition you want, in any scale you want, any time you want, using no software more complicated than the word processor you're reading this file in! In fact, if you've already installed the font packaged with this documentation, the following row of characters will be . . . characters!

AMLSG
amlsg

If the fonts are not yet installed, they're just big letters. Close this file, now, and install the font if you haven't already. Then come back here and follow along.

The characters shown above are characters included in this set, displayed in 28-point type. It's two rows of glyphs (letters), with the caps on top and lowercase on the bottom, like so:

AMLSG
amlsg

By making half of each miniature its own glyph, we can put more detail into the artwork! If you print this doc out on a good printer (300dpi or more is recommended), you'll have paper miniatures in 28mm (1:64) scale. If you want the your Sparks to be bigger, though (for the other characters to fight, maybe!), just up the print size, like this:

AD
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Now you've got a pair of giant miniatures! The possibilities are many . . . With a color printer, you could print each character in a different color (as shown). With colored paper, you could print color-coded hordes, and even vary the scales . . . Most printers can also print on light cardstock (available at nearly any hobby/craft store), for more durable Sparks. It's worth the few extra pennies per page!

You can also use Sparks in graphics applications like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, using the art as the basis for a character illustration, or on player handouts. Since TrueType fonts are entirely scalable "vector-based" images, you can create large images that retain as much detail as the smaller ones.

Cutting and Folding

Use scissors to cut out each figure, then fold along the middle line (the line between the head of the figure's front and the head of the figure's back). With the figure still folded, snip a slit up the middle of the outer panel (the one with the character's name in it, and it's blank opposite, held together so they overlap evenly). Snip up just as far as the bottom of the character's name - maybe even a little less. Then fold eaach of the outer panels inward, using the slits to help join them. A tiny piece of tape or a paperclip can also be added (the latter also adds weight to the base, which may be desireable), but isn't necessary. Now, your spark is ready for play! NOTE: If you're cutting entire rows of Sparks, leave them together until after the folding and the slit-snipping is done, and you'll save lots of time.

Printing to Scale

Games, and game-players, use a lot of different scales. One of the advantages of the Sparks format is that fonts are completely scalable, since a font glyph is a vector-based image. Here's how to print  your Sparks to match the scale of your choice:

•	For 50mm (1:36) scale minis, print human-sized Sparks at 50pt type.
•	For 28mm (1:64) scale minis, print human-sized Sparks at 28pt type.
•	For 25mm (1:72) scale minis, print human-sized Sparks at 25pt type.
•	For 15mm (1:120) scale minis, print human-sized Sparks at 15pt type.

This will give you perfect results for any Sparks representing humanoid creatures, or smaller creatures like halflings, dwarves, runty alien invaders, and zombies missing their lower half. For creatures and characters who are obviously meant to be bigger than 5 or 6 feet tall, just scale the Spark upwards as high as you want! In this set, characters like the Battlewarmechbot or Bigass Ogre would look really good printed extra-big (maybe 80pt or so), for example.

Boldfacing: While there isn't much use for an italic Spark, printing them in Boldface can help make them a bit clearer at small (15mm) scale. Boldfacing the sparks is an effective technique for reducing the "fuzz factor" with some inkjet printers, as well (especially in humid weather).

Character Roster
These are the characters included in this free Sparks set - a spark for every letter of the alphabet from A through V! They provide a cross-section of the many kinds of Sparks available for sale. Enjoy!

•	Bigass Ogre (A/a): Seven hundred pounds of muscle, bone, and teeth, Bigass enjoys scooping out peasant huts and eating the soft insides, ripping up small trees to use as wiffle-bats, and underwater photography. He's an Aries, and girls - he's single.
•	Daisy (B/b) and Maisie (C/c): Twin sisters, lookin' fer trouble, love, and fresh ammunition. Don't be fooled - Daisy's the right-handed one! She and her mirror-image sister use their purses as their primary fighting weapons. The gun's just for backup.
•	Urban Legend (D/d): The real monster lurks beneath the surface, and this is just ONE of his feeder-tentacles. It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?
•	Isaac Azathoth (E/e): A popular keynote speaker at the annual convention of Extradimensional Aliens Who Want To Eat Our Souls, "Dr. I" is prolific, witty, and a sneaky teleporting hell-fiend.
•	B.W.B. (F/f): The term "Bat-Winged Bimbo from Hell" is a crass generalization, as Tica, here (a Bat-Winged Bimbo from Ogden) clearly demonstrates. Nice wings!
•	Nameless Drifter (G/g): From the obscure "Exploitation Spaghetti Western" sub-subgenre that Sergio Leone and Russ Meyer were secretly planning (but never got off the ground) comes this excellent example of Old West Woman, armed for bear and bare for ratings. She's got a taste for thin Mexican cigars, raw meat, and cordite.
•	BattleWarMechBot (H/h): A 60-ton monster antropomorphic tank with a Big Effing Cannon and a surly jock riding the cockpit, determined to demonstrate that mechs are a viable form of . . . something. Have a Nice Day.
•	Ninja (I/i): She'd look slick in a superhero campaign; she's both macho and elegant, shown dancing back to avoid a careless spray of submachinegun fire. Don't think you can harm her with simple guns . . . Gotta be clever.
•	Sister Mary Renegade (J/j): The leader of the Houston Convent of Renegade Nuns, Sister Mary Renegade is as tech-savvy as she is lovely, and dresses more conservatively than many of her fellow sisters.
•	Redneck (K/k): Rufous Ludd has always secretly wanted a nickname like "Space Cowboy," but in the meantime, he'll make himself feel better by copping a feel on any chicks that walk by. He knows they want him. Suck in that gut, Rufous.
•	Zombie Mailman (L/l): Because no game of mayhem is complete without the restless dead. Rod here was taken down by a pack of mad hounds when trying to deliver a C.O.D. to a little old lady on Cedar Avenue, but they didn't get his bones, by god. Nobody will ever get his bones. He's a little fixated, and we don't just mean the stare.
•	Alana (M/m): A young thief and treasure-hunter, Alana spent a year with a troupe of criminal acrobats and minstrels before setting out to find some "serious" adventurers. That quest brought her to the towering ruins of the Secret City, where her fighting-staff might not be enough for the horrors she may face. Fortunately, she's got a few extra blades whenever she needs them, and a sense of humor as wicked as any demon.
•	Gus Redlock (N/n): As strong as a human twice his size, Gus is a compact bundle of fighting prowess, architectural know-how, and a thirst for mead that would put six lusty Vikings to shame.
•	Magus Nor-Rin (O/o): He hooked up with Alana after they were both attacked by the same brigands, and the unlikely duo formed a partnership. They've become separated in the ruins, and Nor-Rin wonders if Alana hasn't just abandoned him as she did her troupe a few years ago. In the meantime, he has enough to worry about, as the shadows lengthen and the sounds of scuttling grow louder nearby.
•	Orc (P/p): Recruited by the Master Evil One for street-clearing and kitchen duties, the Orcs were quickly removed from the latter position when their prediliction for cannibalism (and almost pathological need to put eggplant in every dish) was revealed in their cuisine. Now, they settle in the darker tunnels beneath the Secret City, emerging into the shattered streets only at night.
•	Thrum (Q/q): Raven-haired, mighty-thewed and royally-pissed, Thrum is determined to find out who shoved a big stick into the thumb-socket of his favorite bowling ball. His trusty sword is slung along his back in case he needs to remove the offender's limbs when he finds him. Thrum can't spell his own name, but he's the Black Iron League's #1 high-score master, and can pull a 7-10 split on pins, goblins, or unsuspecting mercenaries, as the occasion demands it.
•	Proto Droyd (R/r): Nobody's had the time, yet, to give him some decent plating, so his innards are exposed (but easier to repair!) He speaks over 1,400 languages and is a master at 9,341 variations of Contract Bridge, but despite all that he's usually pleasant company. He avoids the Space Ape, though; Ape doesn't seem to understand that Protos are delicate.
•	Mystik Ronin (S/s): His leg-wrappings and mud-stained cloak, as much as the hilt of his Sonic Sabre, reveal him for what he is: a former knight in the Mystik Order. Now masterless but far from friendless, he wanders the galaxy righting wrongs in his own way, a grim spectre of justice.
•	The Huntress (T/t): Never one to pass up a bounty, she's downed criminals and deadly space-monsters alike, turning over their heads or flash-frozen bodies for Galactic Megacreds and drinking away the profits. She's both perky and violent, a combination the Mystik Ronin finds intriguingly attractive . . . But they're just friends, for now.
•	Space Ape (U/u): 500 Kilograms of blue-black fur and technical expertise, the Space Ape is a Hurmoggian, one of the most respected species in the Interstellar Federation. He can pick up Proto Droyd with one hand - and frequently does, to shake it when it gets irritating.
•	Dr. Tendrax (V/v): The brilliant Brunaxian scientist, Dr. Tendrax, was studying the upper atmosphere of Manacorus IV when his station came under attack by pirates. Fortunately, the others were there tracking down the pirate leader for a bounty, and the doctor was rescued. He's found that the life of an adventurer brings him more opportunity than ever before to study strange new phenomena, and the crew keep him around to sound out big words.
•	Pinkerton Op (W/w): He took on the Wild Bunch in Colorado and Utah in his early days. Now he's a seasoned veteran of the agency, ready to cross the country (yet again) to get his man.
•	The Professor (X/x): Goliath Witherspoon is the kind of genius you don't want to share a building with when he's feeling creative. Despite his miniature stature and apparent frailty, he moves with the personal energy of a dozen motivated men, and survives dozens of explosions monthly - including blasts that have leveled chunks of entire towns shortly before they ran he and his family out on a rail.
•	Critters (Y/y and Z/Z): A Chimera and a Mule are mapped to the Y and Z keys. Sparks Critters, unlike most of our sets, is printed in a "mixed" scale to allow the graphics to fit comfortably in the boxes. To print the mule at a realistic size, use 31pt type for 25mm scale, 34pt type for 28mm. For the Chimera, do anything from 31-50pt for 25mm, and anything from 34 to 55 for 28mm (depending on how big you think a Chimera should be)!

More Sparks On The Way!

The Cumberland Fontworks are always developing more Sparks and other gamer-fonts. Keep an eye on the web at

http://www.cumberlandgames.com

. . . for the latest news on updates, new sets, and anything else Spark-related. Please support Sparks by buying lots of them! The more we sell, the more we can make! Enjoy your Sparks!

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This documentation and the Sparks font design are Copyright © 2000 S. John Ross. The artwork used in this set is Copyright © 2000 by Greg Porter (Sparks e thru l and E thru L) Matt Drake (Sparks W and X) and Dan Smith (all the others). Macho Women With Guns is BTRC's trademark for its satirical, mildly offensive, parody RPG. Sparks is a trademark of S. John Ross. Users of this font are granted license for unlimited private use of the images contained in it - print all the Sparks you want, use them as illustrations on your character sheet, whatever you like, provided you don't use the images in any public forum (like the World Wide Web, or any form of publishing, hardcopy or electronic) or sell them for profit in any way. Inquiries regarding licensing the Sparks artwork for purposes not granted by this license should be directed to the artwork's owner(s). This font is provided as-is with no warranty expressed or implied. Any questions about this font should be directed by email to S. John Ross <sjohn@io.com>