Despite all the technology available to the hobby gamer in this age of desktop publishing and productivity, there’s something warm and cozy about having an actual artifact in front of you when you play. Especially with maps, documents and other handwritten artifacts.
I wondered what this was and have decided that it's a super sweet hand-drawn map.
I don’t mean artifacts in the context of powerful magic items. Rather, I mean solid, tangible things you can touch and feel. I’ve made it no secret that I enjoy writing longhand, and I really enjoy drawing crabbed, little maps by hand. Which is kind of a shame, since I have all the artistic ability of a wet paper bag. There’s just something more dear to a handmade artifact, even a found artifact, than the slick productions I can purchase.
Likewise, there’s something nice about dice. I have all the dice I’ll ever need. We used to package our own dice, made promo dice, etc., so there are literally probably a million dice around the office, but I still like new dice, especially buying new dice, and I do it at every GenCon at least. Maybe it’s because I’m a creature of habit and the ritual is comforting. Or maybe I’m a hoarder, and it manifests only at GenCon. I like dice so much, I watched all ten minutes of this and enjoyed it.
My wife hollered at me for buying more Moleskines the other day. I bought them for work, but they’re square-ruled, so I co-opted one to scribble little notes and maps in. As with the dice, I have a thousand notebooks and pads lying around the house and office, so why do I need another? Well, to take notes, of course. And to feed my addiction.
Hey, I know I’m behind on the actual plays and scenario updates. I’ll correct that when I can.
