Regard
This is a tough one to talk about from my game dev lens on my TTRPG. By definition, regard can either be attention to or concern for something, or to consider or think of in a specified way. In regards (not intentional here but it works!) to my game world, it isn't really hard to keep my focus set in a specific way. I think I briefly mentioned in another post that I actually see my game world with my imagination. While going out on real life excursions, there are things I take note of that provide me inspiration — building architecture, how vehicles park here in CDMX (way different from parking lots in the USA), parks and gardens, clothing, shopping carts, toys, etc. Everything is just absorbed into my memory and kind of stored for later use, I guess.
There are times where I create a scene in my head, then begin translating that into a two-dimensional board, then sit back and pore through my endless memory catalogues of stuff. I know the previous expeditions that my playtesters ran through weren't exactly detail-oriented. They didn't need to be. What I was wanting to build and test at the time wasn't really about the finer details in the setting. The next expeditions will be a little more detailed, but still not really complete for aesthetic purposes. I need to start working on the abilities of my playtesters and wrap up the previous issues. None of that needs a full-blown board to get that immersion. In the future yes — but for now, no.
My creatures, on the other hand, are a bit more involved. I see my creatures in my mind — pretty sure I've talked about this before as well. My imagination provides me enough to see these creations almost as real as real-life things. That's why my bestiary entries have a lot of detail in them. My public posts don't really give a whole lot of those details, because I want it partially kept as a secret until much later. If you've stopped by my Ko-fi or Patreon, you might have noticed that some entries have sketches and some don't. I've asked my sister to provide sketches of my creatures, but she lives a pretty busy life and doesn't have a lot of time to dedicate to my game. So when I create a critter, I just put a TBA image in place, and when she gets around to giving me the sketches, I replace them. It isn't ideal, but real life is a thing and I have to consider her time in a specific way.
Creating my world to share with others takes a lot of time and effort. I spend a lot of moments thinking about how I can make my playtesters and future players experience my world the way I see it.
This is my regard.
Links: