Does anyone know of or own a deck of playing cards with survival tips printed on them?

Interesting idea. Adds a whole new twist to playing Go Fish! "Do you have any Photons?" ;-)

Try here or here or here . I thought Campmor had them, but apparently not. I have no idea how useful they are. Based on some reviews of commercial kits that Doug has posted, they LOOK like the same set that Doug rates as "mediocre" - Doug, Chris, any comment?

Well, I've decided I will try to make my own deck of playing cards with survival tips on them. One of my hobbies is writing table top games like board games and card games, so this shouldn't be a big stretch. I guess I'll buy that set of cards you all have suggested. I'll get some examples from that set and apply it to my own. I'll probably go to the library and get some books on survival too. Any suggestions on which books to look at?<br><br>Here are some of the things I'll try and do with the cards physically:<br>Plastic<br>Waterproof<br>Glow-in-the-Dark<br>There will be two holes in the center of each card so you can tie all the cards together. This eliminates the need for a box.<br><br>I'm playing with the idea of having blue text hidden under red artwork. This text could only be seen when viewed under a red transparent piece of plastic or red light. It would allow me to put twice the amount of information on the card, but if the red transparent piece is lost or you have no red light then you can't see the text. I don't know...<br><br>Any thoughts?

With this system, you would literally have an ace in the hole for survival (along with a club or two).<br><br>Honestly, though, your concept sounds a bit gimmicky, although perhaps useful for some people. Concentrate on the fundamentals. I would prefer a set in which the cards could be trimmed to provide firestarter, perhaps one or two with a reflective backing for a signal mirror, though I wonder if you could produce a product that would be reflective and durable enough to work well.

Well, I don't plan to use the cards in an actual survival kit. If I did use them in a survival kit, it certainly wouldn't be in my PSK and it would only serve as a suppliment to any real survival guide I have in the kit.<br><br>I basically want to use it on hiking trips. It would serve 2 purposes, playing cards and interesting and potentially life saving tips.

I looked at the cards at MajorSurplus. They are very basic and I personally found them inadequate. This is another effort at "milthink" trying to make learning appealing. Remember the comic book training manuals? For the size get a SAS GEM. I would construct cards with the more detailed tables of information, such as a wind chill chart. Even that I found superfluous in Alaska. When your rifle's primer won't detonate due to the cold and your nose hairs fall like icicles it's no time to be calculating measured temps ! Now flash cards as a training device are another idea ;O)

I bought two decks of "Survival Playing Cards" over the Internet from these guys - http://www.safetycentral.com <br><br>Both cost $11.00 US, which is more than my SAS Survival Guide Pocket Gem editions cost. Then I got stuck with shipping costs, customs and brokerage fees, and GST, so they ended up costing me about $20 apiece - definitely not worth it.<br><br>One was a set of Survival instructions (http://www.safetycentral.com/surdecofcar.html) Not very high quality, IMO, I'm afraid. The Ace in each suit is wasted as a "Table of Contents" - sorry, if you're too stupid to look through 13 cards to find the one you want, then a pocketful of survival tips isn't going to save you. Several of the other cards have no useful information on them - for example, the King of Diamonds contains a reassuring pencil and ink drawing of a man lying beside a bonfire with the caption "I will remain calm". Extremely helpful, I'm sure. Of the useful ones, they contain advice like how to find the North Star using the Big Dipper as a pointer. Their instructions for giving Artificial Respiration are at least 10 years out of date. (They're marked 'copyright 1993', btw.) The only thing they're good for, IMO, is playing solitaire. That way, if you're lost .... ;-)<br><br>The other one - Edible Wild Plants - was better value for money. (http://www.safetycentral.com/wilcaredwilp.html) There is a hole drilled through the deck so you can keep them together on a keychain. The back of each is different, with a pretty good quality colour picture of a different edible plant. The front of each contains a description of the plant, its natural habitat (?) and which parts can be eaten. And you can still use them to play solitaire. :-)