The leading designer of Sultana Playing Cards and creator of Wiretap Playing Cards, Dave Boyd, decided to go on with his spy theme for playing cards. Now he presents Gag Order Playing Cards – the futuristic sequel to the Wiretap deck. This deck of fifty-six custom-illustrated playing cards is devoted to futuristic spies in a dystopian world. Artworks were inspired by different movies, books, and games such as Blade Runner, Splinter Cell, Brave New World, 1984, etc. So, spies of the 2261 year welcome you in their net… or network, who knows.

The deck is planned to be printed by Make Playing Cards in the limited run of 250 decks.

“The year is 2261. After America’s subversive takeover of Canada in the 2150’s and hostile takeover of Mexico in the 2180’s, it began to employ mass surveillance on a global scale. The U.N.A. (United North America) seemed to be the most powerful nation on earth, but dissident voices reached a fever pitch. In 2214, citizens formed D.O.S., the Defenders of an Open Society, to combat the draconian powers of spying that leaders were exercising over them.” ~ Dave Boyd

The front part of the tuck case traditionally shows the Ace of Spades from the deck. It is surrounded by some type of a force field. Don’t pay your attention to “Printed by LPCC” on the left side of the tuck case. This information isn’t actual. Read this as “Printed by MPC”. This deck isn’t for cardistry or magic, so such fact shouldn’t be critical for poor playing card collectors. I am not sure about poker players. Will you want to play with intellegent agencies? 🙂

The back design of playing cards shows us a stylized image of internal magnetic disk of HDD (a hard disk drive). This is a disappointing forecast for SDD (a solid-state drive) manufacturers. In 2261, we will still be enjoying the persistent crackle of HDDs. Western Digital and Seagate should pledge. 🙂

The deck:

• Fully custom playing cards;
• Custom tuck case;
• The deck is planned to be printed on 300 gsm smooth card stock, but quality can be upgraded to 310 gsm linen casino-grade French stock due to backers on Kickstarter;
• Limited run: 250 decks (can be expanded up to a max of 2,500 in case of some extra funding);
• Poker size;
• Will be printed by the Make Playing Cards Company.

You could pledge here: http://kck.st/1CThrGd

[Funding Unsuccessful]

This project will only be funded if at least $1,750 is pledged by Tue, Feb 17 2015.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Broken-down “lamps” on all aces aren’t lamps. Dave subordinated the design of the playing cards to the short above quoted plot of anti-utopia. “Lamps” are lenses of security cameras. So any active representative of the D.O.S. should start his fight with the broken security camera. Those are broken-down lenses of security cameras. But you can’t break-down all them as small pips on number cards shows.

Each suit of this deck is represented by separate special U.N.A. agencies. All well-known to Americans (and their enemies) organizations survived in 2261, but have changed their names.

Spades are represented by NSA – the National Security Agency. It’s a United States intelligence agency responsible for global monitoring, decoding, translation, collection, and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The agency also is responsible for protection of United States government communications and information systems against penetration and network warfare.

Now it’s the Geospatial-INT Surveillance. It employs field agents with thermo-optical camouflage cloaks for long-term GEO-INT missions. A radar face in the background of Spades number cards should be a symbol of this activity.

Gag Order Playing Cards: Spades

Hearts cards are occupied by FBI – the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is a United States governmental agency that serves as both a federal criminal investigative organization and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI is the lead United States counterterrorism agency and the lead United States counterintelligence agency. It belongs to the United States Department of Justice.

It is the Signal-INT Surveillance in 2261. It remains the primary source of information for other U.N.A. services. One of their methods is an e-mail interception which is symbolized by an envelope in the background of Hearts number cards. Al their agents are professionally trained people; all wear data mining kits with tablets (Apple asked to mention that they didn’t ask to mention them here) for visual interface.

Gag Order Playing Cards: Hearts

Clubs cards are represented by CIA – the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s one of the principal United States intelligence-gathering agencies. The CIA has three traditional principal activities: a) gathering of information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals; b) analysis of that information, along with intelligence gathered by other United States intelligence agencies, in order to provide national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers; c) upon the request of the President of the United States, carrying out or overseeing covert activities and some tactical operations by its own employees, by members of the U.S. military, or by other partners. It’s the only independent United States intelligence agency.

So, welcome new HUM-INT Surveillance. It no longer has civilian oversight, and therefore has become strong-armed in their tactics. They employ agents that specialize in optical reconnaissance (as well as optical concealment) which is symbolized by an open camera lens in the background of Clubs number cards.

Gag Order Playing Cards: Clubs

Diamonds card were granted to DIA – the Defense Intelligence Agency. It’s the main United States foreign military espionage organization. The DIA operates under the jurisdiction of Department of Defense (DoD).

In 2261, it is the Acoustic-INT Surveillance. Its agents are masters of jamming and collecting acoustic intelligence data. They deal most with foreign entities. So, the background of Diamonds number cards has a speaker face as a symbol of the agency.

Gag Order Playing Cards: Diamonds

Gag Order Playing Cards – Jokers: Mecha Orwell and Robo Bradbury

George Orwell – Influential 20th century English writer well-known for his novel 1984. The term “Orwellian” has become synonymous with totalitarian or authoritarian social practices.

Ray Bradbury – American author best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. The novel describes a future where books are burned on sight, and raises many questions about suppressing dissenting opinions.

Now you can check the project on Kickstarter, and maybe even to support it. Meanwhile, I am going to take my place near my entrance door waiting for guests. Even in 2015, no one can use a combination of tags #FBI, #CIA, #DIA, #NSA, and word combinations “America’s subversive takeover of Canada”, “hostile takeover of Mexico”, “Defenders of an Open Society”, “draconian powers of spying”, “agents that specialize in…” in one post without consequences.