Hobbies

[The Drunk Guy]

I've been kicking around this idea I have for a fantasy/philosophy novel(s) for the past few years. I've had the characters etched vividly in my mind for even longer, but the essential plot has been my main focus here recently. My problem is that I know what the main character must do and his personal journey (which is where the philosophy part kicks in), but I've been dying to create a very realistic, hostile political story to parallel his personal story. That's been tough since I have never really developed characters for his opponents.

To help out with this, I want to create the main character's world. I want to map it out, create geographic and political boundaries, and even predict cultures given geographic differences. Developing this history would create a mixture of backgrounds and motives for the eventual conflict in my novel.

The first step is mapping the world. (I've always enjoyed creating "fantasy" maps and, I know, that's probably the weirdest doodle out there, but I love maps and enjoy creating new worlds.) I've doodled out a couple versions of the main continent, but I want a final, comprehensive atlas for this place. To do that I needed paper. But not just some legal yellow pad. I wanted an oversized sketch pad. So I ventured to Hobby Lobby.

I fell in love with the place. I've always enjoyed indulging my creative side with random little "artistic" toys, but they had cool shit that I've never seen in a store before. My favorite was the diorama kits, which I think I'm gonna go pick up. (If I like creating maps, why not create places!) And the painting section was fantastic! A whole aisle of watercolors and oils and brushes, another aisle for easels, and another for canvases. I guess I've just been too lazy about my artistic desires before now, but having such a cool store next door has sent my imagination soaring.

So, what types of hobbies do you folks indulge in? Besides cooking and web-browsing and strategy games, we haven't really gotten into this topic. I'm curious for ideas and stories about your creatives sides.

[dilettante]

...(I've always enjoyed creating "fantasy" maps and, I know, that's probably the weirdest doodle out there, but I love maps and enjoy creating new worlds.)

I'm also a fantasy map doodler. Though when I'm feeling really into it I'll try to put something together in Photoshop so I can use the layers feature to create various overlays of major cities, roads, political boundaries, points of interest, etc.

[Michael]

Looks like maps are a common hobby/interest around here. :)

I've got several antique maps (and/or reproductions thereof) on the walls of my library/study (1650's Paris, a map of Alexander's Empire, 17th century Carribean, 1650s Blaeuw worldmap) and I've always had a passion for looking at old maps (modern maps aren't so interesting).

Anyway, I also have a long history of association with the game of Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D to be specific) - primarily as a game master and/or game designer. And apart from the gaming modules themselves, it is a great pleasure to create an entire 'world' which serves as the geographic setting. I use a program called Fractal Mapper which is a vector-based program and is very good for creating maps and diagrams for use in the game (campaign world). Creating a campaign world is particularly interesting fun as it involves lots of history, geography, economics and politics - topics that I find endlessly fascenating.

I also love the whole idea of the way geography tends to determine history. Thus, to create a world involves inventing the various human races & cultures, then inventing the general outline of the history one wants to have, then designing the geography in such as way as to make that imagined history a natural result of the geography.

My latest obsession is all about creating a couple of highly realistic medieval walled towns (5000 to 10,000 population). I've spent years researching medieval economics and medieval towns gathering the information needed here. You can be sure that the population distributions in my campaign worlds fit actual historical patterns - I have even created my own feudal economics model based on various hypothetical GDP per capita rates that goes with my population-distribution-density model. :D

I also have a (not-surprising) passion for satirizing actual or real history in the creation of my fantasy game worlds. My most amusing creation is the "Danian Empire" which is essentially a communist version of the Roman Empire. ;)

What is particularly challenging (and thus very interesting) is to try and create/imagine Elven or Dwarven politics! :D

So that's my 'map' hobby. I created a 'world' about 15 years ago and I've been recreating, redesigning, refining and mapping various parts of that world ever since. Cities, towns, trade-routes, even ancient history maps. Its also fun to create little lists of the "Seven Wonders of the world" for my little world.

Note to Drunk Guy: If you need a 'fantasy world' actually created & mapped, I could possibly help you do that. I've created a couple different ones over the years. I can work to your specifications. :)

[Korimyr the Rat]

I'm a writer and a gamer, and I'm trying to turn those "hobbies" into a profession. Actually in the middle of trying to edit the manuscript for my company's first roleplaying product, since our editor returned what we'd given him with more redlines than original text. (I only wrote a small portion of the original. I'm having to rewrite pretty much everything that I didn't write in the first place.) We're over a year past our original deadline, but thankfully the game that our book is a sourcebook for hasn't been released yet, either.

I'm not a collector, but I read comics. A lot of comics. Across the entire range of genres. I'm mostly a Marvel Zombie, but I also read pretty much everything published under DC's Vertigo imprint and almost all of the properties licensed by Dynamite.

I've also got an obsession with certain video game franchises that has spread to infect my other hobbies. My favorite RPG setting is actually my homebrew conversion of the Mushroom Kingdom, and aside from HARP-- my company is developing for HARP Sci-Fi-- my favorite RPG is White Wolf's long out-of-print licensed Street Fighter game. I also read every Street Fighter comic that gets published, and I've seen all of the anime and I'm looking forward to the new movie.

Beyond that, my other hobbies are mostly recreational combat and expressing my crazy theories, ideals, and agendas on the Internet.

[The Drunk Guy]

I'm a writer and a gamer, and I'm trying to turn those "hobbies" into a profession. Actually in the middle of trying to edit the manuscript for my company's first roleplaying product, since our editor returned what we'd given him with more redlines than original text. (I only wrote a small portion of the original. I'm having to rewrite pretty much everything that I didn't write in the first place.) We're over a year past our original deadline, but thankfully the game that our book is a sourcebook for hasn't been released yet, either.

I'm not a collector, but I read comics. A lot of comics. Across the entire range of genres. I'm mostly a Marvel Zombie, but I also read pretty much everything published under DC's Vertigo imprint and almost all of the properties licensed by Dynamite.

I've also got an obsession with certain video game franchises that has spread to infect my other hobbies. My favorite RPG setting is actually my homebrew conversion of the Mushroom Kingdom, and aside from HARP-- my company is developing for HARP Sci-Fi-- my favorite RPG is White Wolf's long out-of-print licensed Street Fighter game. I also read every Street Fighter comic that gets published, and I've seen all of the anime and I'm looking forward to the new movie.

Beyond that, my other hobbies are mostly recreational combat and expressing my crazy theories, ideals, and agendas on the Internet.That sounds like one hell of a job. Hiring?

And I'm a comics dork of old. I got in when XMen blew up comics in the early '90's, so I keep up with their bat-shit-crazy stories. In my adult years, however, I've moved to the good stuff from Moore, Gaimen, and Miller.

And who doesn't love spouting their opinions forth on the internet? ;)

[The Drunk Guy]

Looks like maps are a common hobby/interest around here. :)

I've got several antique maps (and/or reproductions thereof) on the walls of my library/study (1650's Paris, a map of Alexander's Empire, 17th century Carribean, 1650s Blaeuw worldmap) and I've always had a passion for looking at old maps (modern maps aren't so interesting).

Anyway, I also have a long history of association with the game of Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D to be specific) - primarily as a game master and/or game designer. And apart from the gaming modules themselves, it is a great pleasure to create an entire 'world' which serves as the geographic setting. I use a program called Fractal Mapper which is a vector-based program and is very good for creating maps and diagrams for use in the game (campaign world). Creating a campaign world is particularly interesting fun as it involves lots of history, geography, economics and politics - topics that I find endlessly fascenating.

I also love the whole idea of the way geography tends to determine history. Thus, to create a world involves inventing the various human races & cultures, then inventing the general outline of the history one wants to have, then designing the geography in such as way as to make that imagined history a natural result of the geography.

My latest obsession is all about creating a couple of highly realistic medieval walled towns (5000 to 10,000 population). I've spent years researching medieval economics and medieval towns gathering the information needed here. You can be sure that the population distributions in my campaign worlds fit actual historical patterns - I have even created my own feudal economics model based on various hypothetical GDP per capita rates that goes with my population-distribution-density model. :D

I also have a (not-surprising) passion for satirizing actual or real history in the creation of my fantasy game worlds. My most amusing creation is the "Danian Empire" which is essentially a communist version of the Roman Empire. ;)

What is particularly challenging (and thus very interesting) is to try and create/imagine Elven or Dwarven politics! :D

So that's my 'map' hobby. I created a 'world' about 15 years ago and I've been recreating, redesigning, refining and mapping various parts of that world ever since. Cities, towns, trade-routes, even ancient history maps. Its also fun to create little lists of the "Seven Wonders of the world" for my little world.

Note to Drunk Guy: If you need a 'fantasy world' actually created & mapped, I could possibly help you do that. I've created a couple different ones over the years. I can work to your specifications. :)
I envy your map collection. I have had to go the poor man's route: old text books. My favorite is in my grandfather's daily planner from 1959. Just a small political map, but still so telling of the angst of the Cold War. :D

Your world creation is exactly on the nose with what I'm doing. I've done similar things before. When I was in my early teens, I would draw maps on Paint and then create their wars with a swath of red on a battle field. (Harbors even held the debris of the sunken warships.)

I sketched out the continent where the main character (Maeson) will go through most of his tale today. I'm really excited about this version. I plan on transplanting into political form later this week. That's when the fun will start. :D And I'm going to look up that program. That would be much handier than hand drawing each version.

[Korimyr the Rat]

That sounds like one hell of a job. Hiring?

We're struggling to pay our freelancers right now, much less paying ourselves. Maybe if one or two of our board games take off, and once we've got our RPG line securely in print, we'll be able to start looking for permanent contributors.

And I'm a comics dork of old. I got in when XMen blew up comics in the early '90's, so I keep up with their bat-shit-crazy stories. In my adult years, however, I've moved to the good stuff from Moore, Gaimen, and Miller.

Yeah. Early Nineties was when I started taking comics seriously. Took a break for most of my teens, then started getting back into them around the turn of the century. Of course, since then I've had to go on a few dives to find older masterpieces-- Swamp Thing and Hellblazer particularly.

[SMadsen]

Looks like maps are a common hobby/interest around here. :)

I've got several antique maps (and/or reproductions thereof) on the walls of my library/study (1650's Paris, a map of Alexander's Empire, 17th century Carribean, 1650s Blaeuw worldmap) and I've always had a passion for looking at old maps (modern maps aren't so interesting).
That reminds me, when being a kid I genuinely thought the world had physically changed from the way it looked in old 17-18th century maps to the way it looks in modern maps. Finding out that it only due to improved mapping techniques was a trauma akin to, I can only assume, when some kids find out that Santa is a lie :)


As for hobbies, I change them like underwear. One day one passion, the next day another passion. A particular hobby persists, though, but then it's more of a lifestyle than a hobby.

[Dominick]

As for hobbies, I change them like underwear. One day one passion, the next day another passion.
I'm the same, though with a slower rate of rotation. New passions always need to be explored to the bottom. That may take months, years, a decade, it doesn't matter. At the moment NL Texas Hold'em poker is the passion. I will know everything there is to know about it by the time I'm done with it, whenever that is.

The only passions (I hate the word hobby) that have persisted are reading, which I would call a raison d'être no less, racing -mostly virtual alas. And women. Which does not translate to sleeping with as many as possible by the way.

[dilettante]

Given that several people have said they enjoy creating maps/culture/history for imagined worlds, I wonder if anyone would be interested in trying to collaborate on creating a world on the forum?

It might make for an interesting forum "game" of sorts. We could decide on some basics, divvy up creative tasks, and maybe eventually set up some sort of wiki to hold everything. It could be an expanding fictional world created by DWF.

I'm not sure how it would work, but it seemed like an interesting idea when it came into my head 90 seconds ago...

[SMadsen]

I'm the same, though with a slower rate of rotation. New passions always need to be explored to the bottom. That may take months, years, a decade, it doesn't matter. At the moment NL Texas Hold'em poker is the passion. I will know everything there is to know about it by the time I'm done with it, whenever that is.

The only passions (I hate the word hobby) that have persisted are reading, which I would call a raison d'être no less, racing -mostly virtual alas. And women. Which does not translate to sleeping with as many as possible by the way.
:thumbsup:


As to rate of rotation, well, exaggeration helps :) I once spent most of my spare time over the course of 20 years on high level programming. So it's not really like changing underwear (I hope!) but can, like you say, be months, years or decades.

I'm not sure I have something against the word 'hobby'. But then I'm nerd so I probably wouldn't :D

[Michael]

Well yes, hobbies do evolve over time, but I only mentioned the ones that have stood the test of time. I've dozens of minor hobbies where my interest rises and falls from time to time.

[wphelan]

I don't know if I'd call playing basketball a hobby, but it's something I'm always looking to find a time and place to do. I used to play three to five days a week in college because the courts and games were so accessible. Unfortunately, now that I'm back living where I am, it's tough to find anywhere to play pick-up games, let alone good ones. I find myself driving up to Chicago some weekends just to meet a friends I played with in college so we can find some decent games. I put some miles on my car, but it's usually worth the drive.

[Americano]

My posting here has been lax due to pursing a hobby, putting up firewood for next winter. Those here who know me understand I do it for exercise due to a slowing metabolism as my wife's health club doesn't allow beer to be consumed while using the facilities.

I've also been getting a plot ready for a special garden, including 8' fencing to keep the deer at bay.

[Michael]

Given that several people have said they enjoy creating maps/culture/history for imagined worlds, I wonder if anyone would be interested in trying to collaborate on creating a world on the forum?

It might make for an interesting forum "game" of sorts. We could decide on some basics, divvy up creative tasks, and maybe eventually set up some sort of wiki to hold everything. It could be an expanding fictional world created by DWF.

I'm not sure how it would work, but it seemed like an interesting idea when it came into my head 90 seconds ago...
I suppose this could be interesting, but one needs a theme or a reason to provide the structure/plan. Without that, everything is just random.

[The Drunk Guy]

I suppose this could be interesting, but one needs a theme or a reason to provide the structure/plan. Without that, everything is just random.
Why don't we just make a thread and toss some ideas around. We'll build the world from the ground up. How many continents, seas, island nations, etc... Then, we'll move to types of people, then nations and cities. After the physical and political world is set, you can stretch the world to allow for game play. I don't know the rules of role-playing, but I'm sure we could work those out.

Btw, I now own Campaign Cartographer 3. It's very pretty and fairly simple. I've completed my first 'learning curve' map and I'm looking at making a couple more just for fun before I delve into the world of Maeson Dunkirk.
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[roxferdmeccos]

Different people have different choice. These are my hobbies :

* Reading books related yoga and health
* Cycling
* Swimming
* Visit new places