Keith has started to post the pics he's doing for my game of revenge (told backwards), Six Bullets for Vengeance, and they rock to say the least.
In fact, they rock so much that I want to make more of the pictures. I want to incorporate the art right into the fabric of the game and the text, to make the story told through the pictures integral to the game itself. Now, the way I'm currently thinking of doing this is to simply make the characters from the art the characters used in the examples throughout the book, and in the extensive example of play i plan on including.
But is there more that I can do? I don't want to squander these fantastic pictures by just having them loosely related to the text. Thoughts?
Make characters run through
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Tue, 19/12/2006 - 20:01.
Make characters run through the text, as you mentioned, but really make them a key part of it: they are part of the fiction, they are part of example of play, they are sample characters. They should have names, personalities and be 'alive'.
I'd reference them as often as possible (without overplaying your hand) and make them a real part of the game.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
Another option is use the
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 19/12/2006 - 20:59.
Another option is use the gaps between the illustrations to allow the reader to imply their own story.
That's what I aimed for with Covenant's illustrations. Each one heads an appropriate chapter and has a truism as its title, with a set of recurring characters. There's no story, but it's set to encourage people to build their own from the pieces given...
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Both great ideas guys - but
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Thu, 21/12/2006 - 10:43.
Both great ideas guys - but are they mutually exclusive? Can I incorporate them into the fiction and the examples of play, AND keep them elusive and let the players draw their own conclusions?
I would say that Keith's art
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Thu, 21/12/2006 - 18:53.
I would say that Keith's art is so iconic that the point doesn't need to be laboured.
Everyone should know that it is Sharon Stone from The Quick and the Dead, or van Cleef or whatever. (And for those that don't it will be a "penny dropping" moment when they make the connection.)
I would aim for placing them in the text where the strongest connection lies. Your counting backwards, right? So I would say that the images should lead you on that trail, and that the trail of images should match up with you leading the reader through playing the game.
Maybe the example of play should be chopped up and each bit of the example placed on a page opposite one of the art pieces as a chapter header?
I like the idea about
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Fri, 22/12/2006 - 12:26.
I like the idea about chopping up the example of play, maybe having it flow as a sidebar or at the end/start of a chapter. But do you think that will bring it's own set of problems and confuse people? And it comes back to my previous point - would having these iconic characters in the example, acting out what is being shown, spoil anything?