Questions on using templates [CS3]

Question

Greetings,
I'm trying to figure out the best way to approach an InDesign task, and my rank-novice-level experience isn't cutting it. Normally I'd read through a gazillion help pages and do a bunch of tutorials to try and teach myself enough to answer the questions on my own - but I'm a new parent (~2 months), so don't really have the time to take my usual approach; indeed, it took me several days just to write up this question and post it. So any help is *much* appreciated!
What I'm trying to do: create ~80 cards for a board game. Each will have similar layout, so creating a template file seems like the way to go. I've never worked with templates before, but doing so seems straightforward enough for things like text, or for an illustration which would be different on every card. However:
Difficulty #1: Some cards are of one type - call it type A - while others are of type B. Several graphical elements are always the same for a given type, but are different for A vs. B. I'm sure there must be a simple way to say "this file uses all items for type A, and not B", but I'm not sure if this would be best done using different templates, different master pages, setting which layers are visible on an imported photoshop file, or some other technique. (Did I mention I'm a total novice with InDesign?)
Difficulty #2: There are half a dozen graphical elements (icons), each of which may or may not appear on a given card. Using templates or master pages for all permutations of their visibility seems like a bad idea. But if I simply delete the not-shown objects from each file (assuming one can do such a thing when using templates), that makes later changes (which might involve re-adding them) difficult. In Photoshop or Illustrator - both of which I'm more familiar with than InDesign - I'd simply make the layer/object non-visible; is there an equivalently simple way to "get rid of this object, but let it be easy to bring back" in InDesign? (I've found the "nonprinting" attribute, but that doesn't seem to hide it from view while editing, which makes verifying the layout as correct rather onerous.)
Trying to look ahead #1: Eventually, I'd like to create an InDesign document which imports all of the single card files into an easily printable layout (9 cards to a page); I'm told this is possible. Is there anything I should know to avoid shooting myself in the foot / making this task unreasonably difficult? (eg: if InDesign throws tantrums when you try to import multiple documents based off the same template, I'd sure like to know that before making 80 cards based off the same template.)
Many thanks to anyone who can help!
--Eric

Answer 1

I'd make the card file at the trim size, and add a bleed allowance if you need one. Export this to PDF withthe bleed, but NO MARKS.
Ah, here's where I display my novice status:
1. So you'd suggest just one card file, rather than one file per card all using the same template?
(If relevant: it would also be useful to be able to distribute 9-up PDFs of, eg, the only the 16 cards which changed in a particular revision.)
2. I'm familiar with bleed allowance, but am guessing at what you mean by "trim size", and don't know at all what you're referring to by Marks? My experience with actual pre-press production is pretty much nil.
I should probably mention, since I didn't earlier, that there is a downside to overriding master objects. If you apply a new master, or reapply the old one for some reason, the overridden objects remain and new master objects will be replaced where missing. Also, if you make any chages to an overridden object, that attribute, such as size or position, for example, loses it's link to the master and will no longer update if the master object is edited.
Mm, that is a difficulty; if I'm understanding this correctly, if I (eg) replaced or moved one of the icons on the master page, it would change on every card for which it was visible (printable), but not on those cards where it had been overridden to be non-printing - only a problem if I have to change which icons show on which cards, but that will certainly happen from time to time.
Is there a way to tell an object "stop overriding and re-load all your information from the appropriate master object"?