Hobby Dungeon

I've made versions of this same map several times. The same coastline with islands dotted alongside, leaving the Southeastern world as an unimportant mystery. The focus here is on the woods, the sea, and the mountains. There are people here, but they are sparse and distant. I've never been much for drawing, and of course the scale is terrible. I've got a little legend there showing that a centimeter is about 25km (American translation: 5/16" is about 18ish miles - that's a ballpark). Anyways, this area is massive, especially for people traveling through forests and snow on foot. I've started putting together some ideas for who the people that live in these places are, but nothing too concrete yet. I generally don't like worldbuilding-in-advance like this. Normally, I prefer to pick one setting, create my characters, and see what they do. But with my minis all boxed up at the moment, I'm working backwards. I think the next thing I do will b...

What’s this all about? I recently started watching Game of Thrones again from the beginning. ASOIAF is probably my favourite fantasy series of all time – and that is despite all of my love for the Old World. ASOIAF, both in the books and the tv series (and also the graphics novels, and supplementary worldbuilding materials – yeah I’ve read it all) has the perfect blend of historical fiction, low fantasy, low magic, grand narrative, political intrigue, and human story. Above and beyond these things, the world is hedged in by a deep history of the occult and supernatural. And I don’t just mean the dragons and the white walkers – there are the Lovecraftian old ones, the glass candles, and the many mysteries that the series alludes to just out of the direct framing of the story. I’ve tried several times to write my own wargame (I spent several months and hundreds of dollars writing rules and commissioning artwork for a game that I never ended up releasing) or roleplaying campaigns that...

  Blogs are once again in vogue, and that works for me. I started this blog before I created a hobby Instagram account, and I'm happy to return here. I've had a love-hate relationship with Instagram, and often, I don't actually care if anyone is reading what I write or seeing what I work on. Most of the time, it's just the act of creation that means something to me. At this current moment in time I'm in between houses and don't have all of my hobby stuff, so a place to write and post ideas is a great cathartic exercise. I'm also coming to the end of the 2nd annual One Page Game Jam, which has been getting a great response just like last year - but once that's done, I think it will be time to delete IG off my phone again. Having a place where I can potentially reach some of my friends (even in this belaboured form) helps me feel like I'm still connected to the zeitgeist. So, this is just a little post to kick things off. I've got a few ideas for p...