World in Progress. Musings from Hexland.

Disclaimer: If you are here for the epic WIP pics, scroll down to the end of this entry where I have included a couple for you to ponder over.
As shown in the previous blog entry the walls of my apartment are at the moment filled with sketched maps. Since the last entry I have started inking one of them, the «Big Picture World Map» (Format: A1 or 4x A3).

During this tedious labour I have been revisited by some thoughts that haunted me some 7 years ago when I was inking the first Big Picture WorldMap. These troubeling thoughts where put into words and published (in beautiful Norwegian) as the very first entries on this blog (#1, #2 & #3).

They where written as 3 eccentric thounge in cheek Big Beat Poems of Genesis (representing the jilted generation!) and, in their own way, served as an introduction to this project/blog.

Since all you international readers dropped into this work in medias res I have made some sort of translation (where a lot is lost, but also with something gained). So mostly the same shit, in a new language.

Lets just call them:"Revisitations 1 – 3".

#1 «Challenges». 

Sometimes I wish I was easy.

Then I could be content making short, 

thrilling and dramatic stories
- in a handy format,
easy to package,
promote
and sell.

But I´m not,
and there is nowhere to shift the blame.

Here are my simple (or some samples of my) problems.
Everything is interconnected.

Call it magik or call it science,
thats just the way it is.

Every descision I make 

gives me new possibilities 

and directions,
but at the same time
gives me new restrictions 

and dead ends.

Every detail I define or specify,
creates a wealth of similar details
- that also can, should or must be defined or specified.

Every category I make for sorting purposes
instantly produces opposing categories
– and immense potencial for sub- categorization.
As long as you have
Something,
one could always divide
Something into two...
It is never ending, and quite magnificent!

So in stead of just telling all
these compelling stories i carry within,
I let myself entangle
in this alluring web of details.

This blog is a way of communicating 

the beauty of this
personal tragedy.

#2 «Themes».
From scratch everything was chaos.
A swirling pandemonium of ideas.
As the creator of this mess
it was my job to make things orderly around here.

In the beginning
I indiscriminately picked out single concepts
from the myriad of ideas
and scribled them down on pieces of paper
with the notion that any of them could be
just as good or important as the others.

Once isolated and noted down,
I felt that each idea
was brought under some kind of controll,
but as my random notes started stacking up,
I gradually started loosing controll again.
There was no way gettimng around the fact
that I could not create
order out of chaos
without some kind of system...

There you are;
In a clever meta way
the world building
had isolated and defined
the main themes of this work:
Chaos,
Order
and all the attempts of System
in between the two polarities.


#3 «Tools».

Wast amounts of information is floating through my imagination.
The current of the stream of conscience is so strong trying to put it all into written or spoken words is an impossible task.

But there are more tools in my kit...

Black lines
made by me
splits and divides the canvas.

The blanks are
filled in
with firm strokes of the brush.

Decision after decision
opens up and closes
faster than graspable.

Eventually:
A continent takes form
out of the nothingness
and past the point of no return.

I clearly started all off this, by drawing the first line...

but now, past genesis, the world seems to have taken upon a life of its own, and I feel more and more as a mere medium – a bound agent of reductionism.
The pics:

This first image is just a proof of progress.

It is tedious and challenging work - but in a fun way. There is stil a lot of inking left to be done, but I think its about 2/3 finished at this point. The digitalization and coloring will be a nightmare on this one...

Partially inked "The Big Picture World Map".
(Format: A1 or 4xA3 / Scale: 1cm = 50km).


This second image is just a teaser from a test project (prep work). I have been experimenting with other ways of doing the small scale modular maps.

Inspired by the scale and style of Advanced Squad Leader i have made a small batch of these, these two pages are the only ones inked so far.



Inked "The ASL Test Maps".
(Format: 2xA4 / Scale: 1hex = 50m). Ink_182

Spring Update 2015.

Its been quite some time since the last update. 

Here some «excuses»:

During the fall and early winter of 2014 i had a few months hiatus from «the world building project» which was spent working on some smaller projects.

From January 2015 I again got the urge to continue «building the world», and after this brake I felt free to approach the project from a «new» perspective. Until now I have felt no need to blog about this work, but one recent social media «interaction» inspired to share some progress.

General warning: The first two parts of this blog entry will be little rants inspired by these «social media experiences», so if you only stopped by for a few epic WIP- pics and a few notes about «the world building project» feel free to scroll down to part 3: «World In Progress».

1. «The Implosion of Facebook». A rant about social media.

After the slow but steady invasion of personalized ads and logarithmic filtering of my social media feeds it came to the point that I no longer could «keep up» with my «friends activities». When one has to access each individual «friends» actual profile page (or «timeline») to be able to see their updates because of this rigorous filtering, my opinion is that the whole concept of a social media stream is lost. By definition, it is still a stream, but not what I signed up for. Oh well, I am not particularly nostalgic, and as it turns out: Facebook - you will not be missed.

So when trawling «the digital streams» for an inspirational or good read for my lunch brake I have lately spent a little more time on the «lesser evils» of Twitter and G+.

This led to an incident last week, when noticing I had a new, «non bot»- Twitter follower. I was happy when this new follower actually turned out to be some indie game company (name not important in this context), with an emphasis on world building, so I instantly «followed back». 

Being on my lunch brake, I took some time checking out their site and started listening to one of their published podcasts. At first it sounded interesting, the participants shared some «good old» beginner advice and some «interesting perspectives», but quite soon I felt the discussion stranded on the single point of «how to sell your project» and emphasis on «bottom up»- time conserving strategies. This gave me a strange feeling of «deja vu» witch actually inspired me to start planning out this blog entry in my mind. 

As a little end note: I was a little bewildered when I revisited my feed towards the end of my 30 minute brake, just to notice that my new «world building friend» already had unfollowed me. If this was a company effort to make the Follow/Follower ratio look «better» or if the following of my stream just was an honest mistake caused by stubby fingers on a smart phone I can only speculate, but I decided to return the «favor» and remove them from my feed.

2. «The Misconception of Product Building». A rant about the current leading paradigm of Consumerism.

I guess this must be one of my preoccupations since I constantly return to writing about aspects of it. Again, if you are here for the pics, scroll down to part 3.

Last year I was invited by my local game convention to be part of a panel discussion about «Board Game Design». Both me and the attending audience was gravely misled by the programmers, and the actual discussion focused entirely on the financial and market aspects of the Board Game Industry: «What kind of games are selling right now?», «What is a publisher looking for?» and «How to successfully pitch your game idea?». 

Don’t get me wrong, in itself interesting discussions, and if the panel discussion was named «How to sell your game?» or «From game mechanics to product» it wouldn’t be any problem. But the program post and description was very general, «A Panel Discussion about Board Game Design», but ended up with focusing only on one aspect of the design process. 

When listening to the above mentioned «world building podcast» I started feeling the same kind of despair that i got when enduring the 2 hour long «sales pitch tutorial» disguised as «a panel on board game design»: «This isn’t what i signed up for». If just the podcast and the panel discussion was titled the right way, I would have nothing to complain about! 

I know this can come across as semantic nitpicking, but the way I see it, it is more a manifestation of how the leading paradigm of consumerism is defining how we think and speak - or rather what aspects of an complex activity we put emphasis on - in these examples «Board Game Design» and «World Building». 

Here is an horrific example of advice that was repeated as a chorus throughout the «board game design panel», which really illustrate what I am trying to convey: 

Game Boards, Art and Components are really expensive. If you want your game even considered for publication by any company, you should first focus on production cost, even before you have an idea for a game. Try to find a set of cheap standard components and think «how could I create a new and interesting game from them»?. The more specialized components you need, the less chance you have for your game to be picked up by a publisher.

Ok, this might be excellent advice if your goal is to «get «just any» game published» - but is it really advice for making a good board game? A satirical comparison would be for someone to advice aspiring musicians on «how to write great music» (from any musical genre - from classical composers and performers in pop groups) by telling them to become DJs, because «it is much cheaper to hire a single DJ to a club, than a whole band of musicians or an larger orchestera - and that makes it more likely for you to get a paying gig». 

Another sad example of how far the idea of how everything is a «product in need of selling» is when the panel of the «world building podcast» start discussing «how to pitch your world to players in their game groups», because your players won’t have the attention span needed if you can’t convey your game world to your players in 25 characters or less! Then they go on elaborating on how a single written page should be a sufficient start when building a  world, then you pitch your idea - and if it catches on - you continue your work… Again, if these statements where labeled «setting sketches» or «world fragments» everything would sound ok to me!

This brings me to what I - tongue in cheek - have tried to neologize as «The Misconception of Product Building». The wikipedia entry on World Building states that «The goal of world building is to create the context for a story». By definition the story is the product, and the world building is a process one does in advance of (and/or in parallel with) the story, to create a foundation for, and make sure there is consistency in the «story product». 

A simple definition of «Product» is: «An article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale».

With this clarification it becomes obvious (at least to me) that the world itself isn’t really the product, but really a part of the «refinement process», an integrated part making the product - that could be a film, a novel or a game…

If the podcast panel had been talking about «pitching stories» I wouldn’t be so difficult and pedantic.  If your players don’t like your story, then pitch them another story idea! Keep in mind, the world is a sandbox one can use to tell a wast number of different stories. 

Here is an image: World Building is like a floating iceberg. The «product» is just the visible tip of the iceberg, while the remaining 90% of the ice mass hidden underneath the surface is what makes the whole thing float. Just because your players don’t want to read a 60 page sourcebook about your world before starting play (as in «let me tell you about your character»), doesn’t make your world building efforts less important. Tell your players about your world indirectly by using it as a framework to tell interesting stories - not by starting to describe the world itself!

As a parallel, what defines a «character» (or world, actual person) is not really «how it describes itself» but «its actions in general». Over time you start to recognize the patterns of behavior and «get to know the character more in depth», and it even might turn out that «how the character describes itself is far from what it really is like».

In conclution:

Words are powerful magical tools that can be used both to enlighten and to mislead. Don’t take every advice that the «Ministers of Mammon», «Prophets of Produce» and the «Cultist of the Church of Consumerism» gives you without thoroughly researching if the «Holy Grail» you are searching for actually is the same «Artifact» they are leading you towards!

3. «World in Progress». 

Anyways, here are some notes and the grandiose WIP pics as promised in the introduction of this blog entry:

In an earlier (richly illustrated) blog entry written in Norwegian (from November 2010) i have described how I started the building of this world using a «Top Down» design approach. After organizing the Basic Ideas, Concepts and Structures i started «Zooming In» on different «interesting locations» that where further developed in great detail. 

Now, several years later, I came to a kind of «full circle». In immersing myself in all the small details, there had been accumulated so much new «knowledge» and «information» adding (and refining) the Basic Ideas, Concepts and Structures of the world that I felt the need to make a new «Top Down» redesign where all this new content was taken into account. 

When «Zooming In» this second time I chose to magnify and sketch the same «region» as in the old blog entry, both for continuity and for the fun of it. It is still very similar, but at the same time so much more defined and «rich». The first time I zoomed into this region I had «one particular story in mind», but this second time i had «dozens of stories (more or less interconnected) in mind». 

It was an almost «mystical experience» seeing how all the accumulated details fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I have always had «a lot of fun» when building the world, but this second top down draft was (in addition to being «a lot of fun») also incredibly satisfying in a way I have never before experienced… and in lack of a better word, it was quite «magical».

Ink_182

PS: All images are "just sketches" as I am still working on plotting inn all the above mentioned accumulated details.  

Un- inked "The Big Picture World Map".
(Format: A1 or 4xA3 / Scale: 1cm = 50km). 

Un- inked (and still sketching out the eastern part) "Detailed World Map"
(Format ca 200cm x 150cm or 60xA4 / Scale: 1 hex = 25 km)

Close Up of un- inked "Detailed World Map Sheet 14"
(Format: 1xA4 / Scale: 1 hex = 25 km).

Un- inked "Close Up Regional Map" (corresponding to World Map Sheet 14)
(Format: 12xA4 / Scale: 1hex =5 km). 

On The Road Pt. 1 "Highway to Hex"

Greetings, Table Top Crowd.

Here is another update for you: "Highway to Hex" - some generic pieces of road and some gloomy scenery.

When making these hex tiles I was working with the idea that the game play would mostly be traveling around the game world using Regional Maps - and when stumbling over lurking monsters or random encounters the game play would be moved to these smaller scale hex tiles for conflict resolution. With this in mind, and the idea that a lot of the conflict resolution would be connected to travel along the roads or to roadside camping, I have made a lot of road tiles. Here is the first batch for you:

 



















Ink182

Blueberry Hill

Greetings, Table Top Crowd.

Here is another "scene" or "location" for you to play around with: "Blueberry Hill" (individual hex tiles under).

There is not much to say about this little piece except that I kind of messed up the scale in the center hex (4a). I also sketched out a few alternative "hill tops", but I don't think these are inked and scanned yet. When I get the time I will finish these also, and post them here.

Ink182

Maggies Farm

Hello there, Table Top Folks.

Here is yet another "scene" or "location" for you to play with; "Maggies Farm" (individual hex tiles under).

This is the last batch of colored hex tiles, so if you want some more, let me know! If yes, I will start coloring the reminding tiles.

If any of you actually use any of the hex tiles, please share the experience with me! I would love to hear your stories and even see pictures of set up.

    

Ink182

I need some inspiration, down here on the farm...

Oh, Hi again, Table Top Enthusiasts.

Here is another “scene” or “location” for you to play with: “Down On The Farm” (individual hex tiles under).

This scene was intended for a little "freak form" scenario meant to be an introduction to both the "setting" and the "game rules" I wanted to make. Here is the idea i was playing around with in my head when drawing this scene:

"Who Shot the Sheriff?"

The Workers Union stirred things up down on the farm, the Workers are angry and the production came to a stop. 

The Farmer allied with a band of local Bandits to "get rid of" the Union.  

The Punkertons sent a couple of agents to monitor the escalating situation.

The Sheriff and the Deputy tried to intercede between the angry fractions when he is shot dead when crossing the field in DOTF #02.

All the fractions could have fired the shot, and they all suspect each other.

When a team of Hex Investigators arrive to make inquiries, all fractions have to try to prove that they are innocent.

Each player is given one of the fractions and have to make a defense where they try to prove, using the game rules (skill level, weapon range, line of sight, order of initiative etc..) why they could not be the killers. 

DOTF #05 is the first of the hex tiles where I explored elevation, and this was a difficult challenge because of the perspective which made the apple trees constantly overlap the elevation lines. The original black and white line art seemed really chaotic, but after applying color the image became easier to read. 

Anyways, here is the individual hexes, enjoy:

Ink182

Hextra curricular activities: World Building

Hello there, “Team Table Top”.

Here is another “scene” or “location” for you: the drowsy little “Hamlet of Mile Stone” (Individual hex tiles under).

The idea of making modular hex tiles (as a way to present my world building project) have been in my head for many years before I started the actual drawing.

At first I wanted the tiles to work “from all angles” - and I tried out perspectives where everything leans toward the center of the hex and where everything leans toward the edges of the hex. These two variants where both challenging and very slow to draw, and the finished tiles did not look and/or feel the way I wanted. I finally settled on having a “true north” (the red arrow in the top corner of each hex), which is limiting how one can build – but making each illustration much easier and fast to draw.

I have also tried out many different scales, but eventually settled on the current, because I really liked the level of detail I can put into each hex. I also had in mind that the tiles where to be used for RPG- ing and/or small scale (6mm) skirmish miniature combat – and I wanted the players to have a lot of “terrain” to “work with”.

This batch of hexes is one of the first I made, and there are still a few “issues” with how the roads connect, with the scale and the perspective. In later tiles most of these “problems” have been solved.  

  

Ink182

An Hexiting Location: "Fire Woods"

Greetings, fellow gamers.

On G+ I was asked to post a large batch of hex tiles to give the DM/GM something to work with, and then start publishing individual hexes on a daily basis. I see the point in that suggestion, so for the next few days I will post all of the hex tiles I have finished. Then I will post the reminding hex tiles, one by one (on a daily basis?), as soon as they are colored.

Todays batch of hex tiles: “Fire Woods” (individual hex tiles under).  

When working with the hex tiles I usually sketch out between 7-10 hexes at a time, making a “scene” or “location”. This helps me keep motivated, and it is a great feeling watching the "scene" unfold before my eyes - similar to how the picture in a jigsaw puzzle slowly appears as you lay down the individual pieces.

Another reason for making these scenes is how my creative process works. I always start with an idea that inspires a story (or scenario) - which needs a location. Each location has (at least) one of these "stories", a story not connected to any "campaign" and not meant as an adventure hook. This helps me fill the location with details and unique features that I probably would not think of if I was just making a "universal" and/or "modular" hex. 

Most of these tiles can be used individually – and when drawing them I keep in mind that they should work both as modular pieces and as part of a pre-generated “scene” or “terrain”. When drawing I also try to put in a few "easter eggs", possible "campaign elements" and references to "The Historic Storyline" of the fantasy world, but trying to keep these elements from becoming to explicit.   

Ink182