The Wyrd Lands

Can we map where a thing is or its dimensions when playing RPGs? I'm not sure we can.  There's been a certain amount of discussion recently about the idea of conceptual mapping in RPGs, mostly inspired by the comments in this video on Video Game design . The general idea is about applying a version of our understanding on how we form cognitive maps in our minds (imagine how you know the way to your nearest shop or back to your hometown).  Taking that and applying it to designing levels in computer games. Raccoon Medicine has started an excellent series on thinking about the same ideas in terms of designing and running RPGs. I am not going to do the same because they are doing it better than I and you should head over and read them. For this post, I looked at some actual plays (using the same as I used in this post on narrators ) to see if I could identify evidence of this kind of mapping when players were moving characters. In short, I didn't really find it, and I am now no...

I finally got into hexmaps. So like everyone who comes late to things, it's time to act like I have unique insights. I'm going to analyse some hexmaps and think about how that might inform my own. I was inspired by James Chip's recent hexmap  which did something that I, personally, had never seen in a hex-map before: it captures the landscape. That's going to be my final thought for this post so I'll come back to it.  First though, let me reveal my matrix of hex-maps! I love making these for some reason.  This image shows to scales: from abstract to scaled, and iconic to evocative. The examples given below, and all the full hexmaps, have been publicly shared. The terms Iconic hexmaps use icons: symbols that have little no inherent meaning on the hex-map but refer to something that has significance in the game-world, often described in a key or list. The images are often formulaic and general. Evocative hexmaps are those that have meaning primarily from the use of im...