A Gaming Folder (Part 3) - A title page

I'm a very visual person. I like to start things off with an image to set the tone for a campaign, this isn't necessarily a spoiler for storylines, but often an overview shot to help introduce things. Sometimes I'll dig through clip art, find a photo, an illustration of the typical types of character I'd expect to see in the story, or sometimes I'll just use the cover illustration of the game rules we're using (but this is very rarely the case...I think I've only done this once or twice). If I've got a really specific idea in mind, or just can't find anything that fits my ideas I might create my own artwork for the front cover. I'll also try to include an evocative title for the campaign as a part of the cover.

I typically consider the image on the front cover to be a touchstone for the stories.

For example...

I used this image by HR Giger almost 20 years ago when I ran a campaign I called "No Eyes. Big Mouth". It was a game set in the Alien cinematic universe, using the "Big Eyes Small Mouth" game system. The campaign lasted a couple of dozen sessions over the course of a year or so, very dark, very Lovecraftian, very lethal, with no characters surviving more than a few sessions, but the computer archives gradually built over time until the final group of characters had enough data to understand what was happening...and understand that the aliens were an unstoppable force of nature, and it was the corporation who were the bad guys for constantly pitting the characters against the implacable foe. It was one of those games where the players still talk about it to me... The cover image doesn't say anything about  the company, but does suggest the ongoing threat in the universe where the stories unfolded.

Another example was an L5R game of high intrigue, where I used a painting of a teahouse. Yes, there was violence in the game, there was magic and swordplay, but the core of the game was the political intrigue, so the image on the cover was the kind of location where such conversations would be had, and where deals would be made. The campaign was simply called "Kitsuki's Teahouse", because this was going to be a significant location in the narrative. I didn't know if the players were going to regularly frequent the location, or burn it down, or what might happen, but by loosely giving the campaign this title I knew that things would revolve around this place and the Kitsuki family (who are renowned investigators in the setting).

I run a fairly loose sandbox game, but this can often mean that the story can lose focus. So the first storyline element for me is always the image and the title of the campaign, if they no longer seem relevant, then I'll try to inject a few elements that redirect the story in a way that the original image and title regain significance. Yeah, I guess in some ways it's a bit like railroading, by pulling against the wildest whims and desires of the characters, but I always feel that a bit of restraint makes for more interesting and focused stories that feel consistent.  

I do the same sort of thing when designing games, trying to give some kind of evocative image and name that sets the tone for what I'm trying to achieve. This was an example of something I was toying with a few years ago...but it never really ended up getting completed as a game, or as a campaign at the table.