Information design has become central to the development of my #dungeon23 megadungeon, The Blades of Gixa. In this case, I wanted to come up with a historical through line connecting the stuff I made up while drawing the dungeon, so referees could have a context for all of its contents. I also wanted to put it all on a single spread, to match the overall aesthetic and design philosophy of the book: embrace density, and minimize page flipping. Here's the video:

About the history

The history of the dungeon is contained in a 2-page flowchart spread, with time on one axis and place on the other. Time is split up into 5 eras: The Age of Caradel, The Life & Times of Gixa, The Age of Sorrows, The Long Drowning, and Now. The place axis is spread across the surface and all 12 levels of the dungeon. Each event in the history is contained in a box, and you can follow arrows connecting the boxes to see the sequences of events. Each major character is introduced with a symbol to help you track them through the history.

If you go from left to right you can follow all the major events that happened in a particular location. If you look below the banners along the top, you can see all the events that happened in a particular era. And if you follow a particular character's symbol, you can trace their path through the history.

Additionally, each era doubles as a table you can roll on, with each event as a numbered entry. Players can find information in books, paintings, rumors, etc. across the dungeon that will be keyed simply as referencing a particular era. As the referee/DM, to work out specifically what it says, you roll on that era and draw from the event that comes up, using context to determine what you convey. So rolling the same event for an elvish history book, a goat-folk religious tapestry, or a giant frog bedtime story might yield rather different perspectives!

Other Blades Of Gixa updates

• The next big spread to tackle is the surface, which I have laid out but still have some inking and plenty of keying to do. Other spreads include character/faction information, tables, and guidelines for running & adapting the book to different systems (what system would you plan on running this with?).
• Galen has been working on the soundtrack – you can hear some of the music sketches in the video!
• I've been working with Glass Embroidery on the bag & hat designs, and they're coming along nicely :)