Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting

This is a project unlike anything else I've done. Designing a setting for role-playing games required me to use everything I know: illustration, design, math, storytelling. It all came together into something of which I'm really proud.

Neverland started as a setting I'd run for family and friends. It wasn't formalized into something I could share with others so the first step was to collect all of my thoughts and organize the land into something that made sense.

This project is big and had a lot of moving parts, but the most important (for me) was making sure I understand the main characters/factions on the island and how the got along with each other. The above map helped me keep all of that organized.

I also needed to plot out the land of the island and what the different locations/terrains would look like. That's where the below map came into play.

After planning the island and its inhabitants, the next step is to write. A lot. I write mechanics, character bios, stats for all the creatures and monsters around the island, and create random tables for Game Masters to use when coming up with adventure ideas.

So many word documents.

With the book written (this takes months) I start working on the final artwork. I usually do the cover last because all the other artwork can inform the design, but I'll show that here first.

I knew I wanted plants/vines because the island is first and foremost a dangerous place. It's full of creatures and pantlife that can do a lot of harm so I wanted the imagery to invoke that.

The interior layout uses a 12 column grid. While that may seem like a lot, it means I can be flexible in each page's layout. Some pages, like the first chapter, uses only 3 columns of the grid. Later, like in the pages for each hex, splits up into both a 2 and 4 column grid. It offers a bit of variety while still keeping things structured.

There's a lot of information to get into each page so I try to use colour to keep elements together and visuals to offer variety. When it comes to the creatures section, I made sure to illustrate every entry. I'm a visual learner and while it's easy to imagine a mermaid, some of the more obscure creatures benefit from both a written and illustrated description.

There's so much more to this project but hopefully this gives you a glimpse into the process. If you want to know anything specific then let me know and maybe I can expand or get into it when I discuss my second RPG book, Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting!