My plan:

Nice. What would you say is your strategy if you were to articulate it?

Quote from: Arminius;834352Nice. What would you say is your strategy if you were to articulate it?

Assume, since the problem is near universal, that the usual methods are garbage, rather than assume the players are all lazy assholes. Proceed by finding another way.
My way is to do discrete one page datamaps like this. If I disire more detail, I just tighten the scale- Datamaps like this can be nested within one another like russian dolls.

Quote from: Aos;834356Assume, since the problem is near universal, that the usual methods are garbage, rather than assume the players are all lazy assholes. Proceed by finding another way.
My way is to do discrete one page datamaps like this. If I disire more detail, I just tighten the scale- Datamaps like this can be nested within one another like russian dolls.

Teaching the players to find things did have the negative of having to update the Index often.  However, as it is an online wiki, they have all gotten in that habit.

Quote from: Aos;834356Assume, since the problem is near universal, that the usual methods are garbage, rather than assume the players are all lazy assholes. Proceed by finding another way.
My way is to do discrete one page datamaps like this. If I disire more detail, I just tighten the scale- Datamaps like this can be nested within one another like russian dolls.

Based on your example, I would add that you're making the process of absorbing the data kind of fun. It doesn't require a linear read-through--it can be traversed based on interest. It's allusive not comprehensive, which piques the reader's curiosity and leaves them wanting more. In short you're slyly encouraging an active approach to discovering/exploring the setting.

What players are so jaded they aren't curious about a setting that has a fucking MURDER MOON in it?


MURDER MOON.

As a GM I hate reading setting text. So much mental overhead to keep, and I feel chained by it because there's an expectation that you will stay true to the setting.

Short bits and pieces is what I do, and how I relay it to the players.

Quote from: Arminius;834368Based on your example, I would add that you're making the process of absorbing the data kind of fun. It doesn't require a linear read-through--it can be traversed based on interest. It's allusive not comprehensive, which piques the reader's curiosity and leaves them wanting more. In short you're slyly encouraging an active approach to discovering/exploring the setting.

Yeah, exactly. This map is made to be left on the table and looked at during lulls or whatever. Also, I try to distill the data presented down to  'take away points' because I think a lot is lost after a first reading anyway. Also no page flipping.

I love it.  I've always believed setting detail should be boiled down to one page for player dissemination.  The rest should be revealed during play in some meaningful way.

I'm working on another pdf, and I am going to use this sort of caption on the illustrations, but I hink that I want to make a screen and cover it with stuff like this too.

As it's powered by a heart, i can understand why it'd be exploring a belly-button, but i presume it's a naval vessel?

Quote from: One Horse Town;834425As it's powered by a heart, i can understand why it'd be exploring a belly-button, but i presume it's a naval vessel?

Well, shit.

Quote from: Aos;834350My plan:

I like it. I think symbolic maps like that are a great way to get the players interested. I'm always reminded of the map from White Plume Mountain.



Useless for hex based exploration. Great for the player to gaze at and wonder who Dragotha is, or what potions Thinizarrd offers.

On a side note, for my current 2nd ed campaign writeup, I'm trying not to front-load world info. I feel the problem is that infodumps are boring without context. And at the beginning of a campaign, there's little context or time to process setting details. IMO that stuff should be woven into adventures in bits and bites, and be put in as they are relevant to the scenario.
Ex. If there's a big assassin's guild, don't tell the players, show them by having the King assassinated.
"Show, don't tell" for RPG scenario design.

I only bother with hexes on a smaller scale.

Really like the phantasmagoric text. You're not dumping information; you're hinting at things left unsaid, and letting their imaginations run wild.

If I were to make one suggestion, I'd recommend building the text more into the map. Right now, it's just a bunch of paragraphs next to a picture, each kinda sorta nearish the the thing it describes. Arrows, call out balloons, text spilling into or off the map, alternate black and white boxes, that kind of thing.

Acid Lake: Put a comma after "live".
Freak City: Is "Ragling" correct?
Outpost 15: Do they know what outposts are? Because you didn't describe it, at all.
Weird Woods: m-dash after the first "dreams"
The Wurm: Umlaut, or no?
Outpost 17: Another m-dash.
Skarn: "Skarn, the Jewel"
Empire Roads: Add "and" in front of "keep".