#47: Maps

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/physics/physics47.phtml

Summary:

Maps, graphs, and RPGs.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/physics/physics47.phtml) for more information.

[Paul DuPont]

Well, is was hard to see how all of this applied to RPGs. Maybe I should read those three columns you refered to at the begining of the column. However, several of your comments sparked some ideas, especially near the end. I have a game I want to design that involves the players creating organizations, playing characters of those organizations and defining the world based on their organizations. My working title for this is Guilds. The comunal map would be a straight forward and interesting way for characters to build the physical layout of the world, shape the territory and place things important to their own organizations on the map. Your enclosure game seems to use similar concepts on a more intimate scale.

I am very curious about your iterative maps. I can see a computer program that would do that but can't seem to understand how to create a game mechanic that interacts with the players to do it. Could you give some examples to help me understand the high level dynamic and the game implementation?

[Wyrmwood]

Firstly, thanks for the feedback. Inspiration was my primary goal in the article, so I'm glad it served its purpose.

About iterative maps, these are actually fairly common too, if you look at game design from the right perspective. Let's just look at interative maps of characters. These take a character and transform it, and can be applied again and again.

Character advancement is one very common design element that fits that description. But there are other possiblities, mechanics that change the role a character has in current situation, and so on.

Iterative maps are a way of looking at mechanical change, during play. It works especially well if you don't want to confine yourself to a pre-specified states.

- Mendel