FANTASY, RACE AND CHARACTER CREATION
No longer is tabletop gaming nor fantasy an area of interest for a small group of people, as it has influences in all corners of the world. Due to this, depicting all real-world people and cultures should be treated with an equal level of respect within not just fantasy and tabletop, but for many other genres as well.
Furthermore, the depiction of Fantasy races have their personalities and traits tied to their race: Dwarves are shown to have beards and drink ale, Elves are depicted as skinny and regal - why not mix things up a bit? The people of the real world are nuanced, so fantasy people can be too.
My goal is to create a character creation product that would be inclusive of a range of people with different identities, to hopefully identify with themselves, or to create unique characters that may not have been thought of otherwise.
This project has been discussed with professionals within the tabletop games industry in order to gain guidance, appraisal and pointers towards game manufacturing and respectfully depicting people of different identities.
To the right is my critical path workflow that I have been using in conjunction with daily to do lists and weekly self-imposed deadlines in order to manage working on an entire product creation project by myself, from research to artwork, art style direction and testing.
The workflow to the right is focused purely on the creation and production of the cards.
CHARACTER CREATION CARDS
The Concept
As of March 2021 I have created the concept art for a set of 10 characters. The goal is to represent different skin colours within Fantasy-based characters so that users can hopefully self-identify with certain artwork, or for inspiration to add diversity to their own creations.
The secondary goal is to provide users a fun and unique character creation experience whenever and wherever they want, without the need for an online "character generator" to do so - which are often created with specific tabletop game systems in mind.
These character creation cards are also stripped of gendered language, opting to use "you" in place of "he/she/they", allowing anyone to use any card and apply any identity that they wish.
Below is an early test of the concept with unfinished art and test text conducted in videogame "Tabletop Simulator", as recommended for testing in by other tabletop games creators.
As seen in the examples above, the description cards are transparent. This is to allow for the ability to mix and match different cards and layer them atop one another. Transparency such as this is seldom used in tabletop gaming, which should provide a unique and fun experience for the users.
CHARACTER CONCEPT ART
The original idea was to have full body artwork, but this limited the freedom of the user - a character shown in full armour may not correspond with the user's own identity or wants, for example - thus portraits were chosen as they allow more freedom with customization.
Through a small pilot study and conversations with tabletop players, I learned that the majority of players preferred portraits, as these would be clearer for character sheets and also for tokens when playing with physical pieces.
Before settling on a portrait layout, I created an assortment of character concepts featuring different skin colours within the different Fantasy "races", aiming for a unique depiction through this. These are shown below.
Furthermore, by only showing the portrait, if users wish to include disabilities (visible or not) to these characters then they may state so.
All artwork has been made with care to steer as clear of cultural appropriation as possible by consulting with diverse artists and groups for advice.
Pilot Survey
Below are screenshots of the aforementioned survey posted to a group of tabletop game players, to determine the style and presentation of tabletop game characters that they prefer.
The response, whilst small, was overwhelmingly in favour of portraits with good arguments as to why.
Creation and Production
Physical Prototype
After having made these concepts and having a clear design direction, I moved towards creating the rest of the portrait artwork and the cards, as seen below.
This physical prototype is merely printed onto a combination of 300 gsm card and acetate, whilst I aim for the final version moving forward to be on a clear PVC.
Testing
Audience Feedback
With the prototype printed, I acquired 20+ participants to test the product's mechanical viability and to acquire feedback regarding the diverse artwork.
Shown below are the results of this testing.
Conclusion
Thanks to this testing, I believe that by offering a product that will help players create diverse characters, it will aid in normalising the representation and depiction of non-white and non-male characters in tabletop gaming and Fantasy due to the positive responses that were received; participants were in favour of greater representation of women and people of colour in the Fantasy genre and in tabletop gaming.
Furthermore, many participants were eager to purchase this product once it's finally produced, so this has motivated me to moving onto the next stage: finalisation and mass production.
TABLETOP GAME JAM
Collaborative Project
In February 2021, I requested to be assigned the task of creating a starter pack to be used in an online "Tabletop Game Jam" - an event in which groups competed to create or pitch a tabletop game to a group of judges, ranging from those involved in the tabletop scene (The Honest Wargamer, Stone Sword Games) and those not (myself included).
This was in collaboration with other students from film and music backgrounds in order to provide a unique game jam experience. In order to work collaboratively, the other students and I would attend meetings over MS Teams each week to confirm our progress and responsbilities.
Shown below is the artwork that I made for the starter pack.
