Sketching to Talk

I'm a visual communicator. Compulsively so.

Not because most of my life has been consumed with creating art. Oddly enough that has very little to do with what I am talking about. Art and communication aren't automatic bedfellows.

Also, a career in design isn't why either. It maybe helps because of the need for clarity in design, but it isn't an underlying reason why I need to use visual aids. It is something else. Something I didn't figure out until later in life.

When I try to talk about something, I need to sketch it out as I talk. Whiteboards are magic for that, but it could be on napkins. Pen, pencil, marker...

As long as it is steady in delivering pigment to a surface, I don't care what I use.

I also don't care what it looks like either. I think it has nothing to do with directly communicating out. I'm not trying to draw you a picture of something when I do this.

The thing I am drawing is a scribbly mess of lines and boxes. Half spelled words, underlines and circles. If I have more than one color it gets even messier.

I think it has to do with ordering my thoughts. With making the things in my head coherent for outside consumption.

Everyone claims I am the reason all three of my kids have ADHD. Maybe it is a part of that mess. Who knows?

What I do know is that it has been a necessary part of trying to write adventures for Torchbearer and Dungeons & Dragons. Even though I am talking to myself. Even though I am not trying to explain these things to others, it has been the only way to pull this off.

Until this year, I have never attempted to write an adventure before. I've certainly created them to run in various games, but codifying them? Creating a space in which play and some sort of narrative can unfold? Never done it.

When I got asked to participate in Death By Dungeon over on Substack, I jumped at the chance. How hard could it be? I have read and played so many adventures, both good and bad, and I am a pretty good designer, right?

The ask happened at the time I was planning the fourth issue of Yggdrasil MGZ, which I was toying with the idea of centering on an adventure for Torchbearer. It's kismet!