[Gaming] Inventing a Mythology

[adamdray]

If I look back at my various D&D campaigns, fantasy setting designs, fantasy game designs, and so on, I can start to see the ripples of an idea forming. Today, the small waves of those ripples have synched up and are magnified and it's pretty clear what I have been trying to do: invent a mythology.

Comments

[cucumberseed]

I don't know if this will help you at all, but I used to like to paint with watercolors, and my sense of mythology kind of works that way as well. With watercolors, you start out with the most dillute and subtle colors first, the things that are most in the background and then layer on stronger and stronger colors as you paint to create the picture.

Mythology is like that, where the beginning is vague senses and moods and then you layer on more and more information. One thing I've noticed with regards to Forgotten Realms is that it is paint-by-numbers. All the interesting work was done in figuring out where the lines would go. Eberron is more like an acrylic painting, where the paint is fairly opaque and the artistic challenge was to get everything on the same canvas.

The important thing to remember when making a watercolor is to know in advance what you want things to look like, because you're going to be putting the strong stuff on last. You need to know what it is first (and it seems that you do), but put it on last.

Opinions being what they are, this one unqualified, you may do with it what you will.

[adamdray]

That's a great metaphor. I need to figure out what the elements are first, though.

[cucumberseed]

That is the weakness of both media, you kind of need to know what you are doing (or you need an awful long time)