I also changed the background of Locations cards so when the
card is flipped, the color of the player who goes first is more obvious. The color that goes first in that Location is
most at home there, or in some other way knows how to best utilize it, or at
least knows how to deal with the present obstacles and oddities of the
location.
I also made sure to give proper credit for each placeholder
image. I tried to use real names when
possible, but of course sometimes all that's available is an internet handle.
Anyway, here they are, in semi-random order:
 |
| Click each set of cards to enlarge so you can read them. |
Each of these four are good representations of each
color. Green (The Infinite) is rational and scientific,
so The Crystalline Tower is a bit of a sci-fi version of an ivory tower. Yellow (Solidity) is very strategic, and have pretty
much taken control of the universe with their tactics. Since Yellow is the warmongering king of the
universe, Blue (Emptiness) is their rebel counterparts, passive as they can be, given their
situation. Red (The Noise) is barbaric, taking joy
in killing.
These cards are also representative of the art style I'm
going for. The Crystalline Tower
shows off the sci-fi elements; Yellow Fields is an example of the almost
abstract landscapes; Dimension Zed is surrealist fantasy; and Earth is a...
well, down-to-earth art style showing more realistic scenes.
You can see here the differing philosophies of the opposite
factions. In Treetomb, Green wants to
use the dead for study, to prove their religion. In Cremation, Red postures that their
religion is correct unequivocally, and if you don't believe them, you soon
will, when you get to the other side of life.
My attempt for Trail of Emptiness was to really give Blue a
peaceful native feel, and I hope with this card you can imagine a gentle people
who live one day at a time, communing with nature, and trying to mind their own
in the quieter corners of the universe.
The flavor text of Brim of Despair can be taken on multiple
levels. Of course it's a joke of a
quote, but it's also part of Yellow's beliefs--they are torturers and
inquisitors who forcibly convert others to their way. So if you die as they torture you, that's
fine with them, because you wouldn't have the fortitude to understand their
religion anyway.
I love Fortress of Noise. That is all.
Observatory of the Infinite helps to show not only Green's
quest for knowledge and understanding, but also their hubris in their attempts
to get it.
Denial is an interesting one, and it took me a while to find
both a great picture and come up with a good quote to go with it. It's a bit of a stretch, but when I came up
with 'Denial' as a location name, I knew I had to use it. As far as the flavor text goes... I think
there's a ring of truth in almost everything Yellow says, as dastardly as they
are.
As for Blue Blazes... I had a lot more context for that
quote, and I struggled a fair bit trying to articulate exactly what it means in
the space of a little box on a card, but I kinda think it ultimately works when
it's more of a mystery. The meaning is
for me to know and you to ponder out.
My original placeholder picture for Path of the Righteous
was an actual path, but when you use enough Google Fu eventually you hit upon
really cool combinations. This card
shows you the humble conviction of Blue, with a metaphor of the adversity they
have to face.
Vista of the Infinite is a
bit of the opposite of Observatory of the Infinite in terms of obtaining
knowledge and truth. Ironically I think Green perhaps makes the most inaccurate
quotes of all the colors. They're a bit
annoying, like Vulcans.
Strangest Places is blank intentionally. Each color has one Location that leaves them
speechless. Here, for Red, it's the
discovery that books are useful for something, in this surrealistic world. They aren't big readers.
I had a hard time finding a good piece of art for Monument of Solidity, because I tried to find big
rock statues or palaces carved in the side of mountains. The point of the Monument is to show how
strong Yellow is, and I figured a ginormous rock sculpture would be the ticket. But no matter what I found, it always looked
a bit flimsy. Just something wasn't
sitting right about it, and I was getting very frustrated because it was the
last card I found art for. The original
art was that giant statue of Genghis Khan on a horse, which I think was the original
inspiration for the card in the first place; but I couldn't get a war horse
statue picture to save my life. Eventually
I settled on the city you see, which works in a much different way that my
original intention, but it helped to drive the flavor text in a new direction. Sometimes inspiration comes out of left
field, but still works well.
Red is always looking for people to join their cause. They say "Join us," and if you
don't, they'll just kill you. Forsaken
is one of the worlds where they go to pick up recruits. Naturally, The Prison World is run by Yellow,
like all big government structures, and it's full of people (not all criminals)
eager to join another cause. This is
definitely a card I could write a story about all on its own.
Cave of the Weeping is Blue's "silent card". This was the first card that I decided would
have no text. I kept trying to come up
with something to say that would capture the feeling of being inside the Cave
of the Weeping, but ultimately staying silent would be the most respectful
thing a follower of Emptiness would do.
At first I wanted this one to be the only blank card, and I think its
impact might get diminished a little by the other blank cards, like the joke Strangest
Places card, but I suppose as long as you're in a serious mood when you view
this card it works out well enough.
Grime is a planet under the iron thumb of Yellow, of
course. Yellow ultimately wants power,
and wants to use their subjects to stay in power. They want the population of Grime to work
hard for their food, or die trying. This
is another one I think could be its own story.
I do particularly like cards that really help fill out the universe like
this one.
...And Station Station is the opposite of those
completely. I considered a different bit
of flavor text, but anything different would have changed the initial joke of
the thing. Station.
The initial picture for Limbo Rock was Sisyphus rolling the
rock up the hill, which is exactly what it's meant to be. But I didn't want to have a direct visual for
the reference of the title; unfortunately there's not too much in the way of
paintings of rocks that captures that feeling without seeing Sisyphus
himself. Oh well. It's better to have the card appear deeper by
hiding the inspiration a few notches down the chain. Also, I kinda like what I did for flavor
text, if I do say so myself.
Paradise, The Ice World is that old joke about Greenland. But
it's the kind of place Green would be bound to visit because, being so logical,
they wouldn't want Frenzies to affect them and get in the way of their
thoughts. I tried my best with each
Location to have game text that made sense for the place (for the cards that
have game text, anyway).
Dreamscape has the first quote that is probably copyrighted,
so I felt the need to add the writers on the side for that one. I called it an "Ancient Lullaby" in
the Vortex, but it's actually some of the lyrics to Barenaked Ladies'
"When You Dream". I used that
once before in a short story. I guess
that's just one of those songs that really sticks with me.
And if you wanted a card that is polar opposite to
Dreamscape or any of the others for that matter, Battlefield is it. Battlefield shows how brutal Red really is,
and if there is one faction that could really challenge Yellow for control, it
would be Red. Of course, they're a bit
more on the side of anarchy than totalitarianism, so Yellow is pretty safe in
its position as rulers of the universe, and Red is mostly a pest.
Carnival was a tough one, to try to find the right (short)
quote to capture how flippant Red is about life. Carnival, in this case, is not just a
travelling circus, but a psychotic planet with that theme. For some reason, dark carnivals always crop
up in my work.
If Excursion were a Blue card, it would probably fit right
in without explanation. But it takes on
a different meaning when it's Green. To
me (as if I'm interpreting Green like I didn't come up with it), Green is
basically saying "If you make discoveries and gain knowledge in new
places, others will be interested and come to you."
Cosmic Disruption shows that even if Yellow considers itself
the king of the universe, the universe is still bigger than Yellow. The universe has a mind of its own, which is
a big part of how The Vortex works. You
pop from place to place in your Crusades because The Vortex decides it
("decides" being open to debate, depending on your opinions of the
universe's sentience).
The joke of Haven is that even though it is the real paradise (unlike the other Location
with that name), it's just about impossible to find. The "Elder Proverb" is a quote from
one of my dad's short stories, and I don't know if he got it from somewhere
else.
Abyss of Emptiness was another one, like Blue Blazes, where
I was going to try to give the flavor text more context and resolve the
ambiguity of it, but the point of half of what Blue says is to be
ambiguous. So, you figure it out.
Capitalia is, as the name implies, the capital planet of
Yellow. It is their most populous, and
they rule with absolute authority.
Another card I've spent too much time imagining the stories of.
War Machines originally had an awesome piece of art, but I
had a hard time finding the credit for it, so I had to move on and grab
something else. This is the Trojan
Horse, and it definitely gives this card a different feel. Now, Green and Red are bitter enemies, and
you would expect a card called War Machines to be a Red card. The original implication was that Green is
smart enough to use technology for war when they must. But with the Trojan Horse image, it becomes
something different entirely. The flavor
text came naturally the moment I saw the picture.
The original picture for Bottom of the Universe was the Mos
Eisley Cantina from Star Wars, which is the exact image I had in my head (maybe
mixed up a little with a particular Douglas Adams location). I didn't think I'd ever find a picture that
captured such a "wretched hive of scum and villainy"... but then I
did. This picture is great: an alien bar
fight with a sixties Star Trek fashion sense.
Perfect. As far as the flavor
text... well, I assume that even if you didn't understand the quote on Station
Station, you'll certainly get the quote of this. Of course, I took it as more of a threat than
a helping hand in this instance, as Red would say such a thing and carry out
the results of the other's decision, no matter which they choose.
I feel like Gate of Influence is both too obvious to explain
and too difficult to explain. So I
won't. You get it, right?
Eclipse has the only photo of the bunch, while the rest are
paintings or other forms of artwork. I
knew that's exactly what I wanted it to look like from the beginning, and the
previous placeholder art is near identical (I just couldn't find the exact same
picture again with a credit). As far as
the flavor text goes, this is a bit out of character for Green, but the rather
lengthy quote I had was hard to phrase and would never fit with the game
text. So I just opted for another joke
piece of text. Not one of my proudest
moments.
With the Fishes: if
you wanted Red to seem less like barbarians and more like mafia, this is your
ticket.
The first concept for The Signpost was a sign floating is
space, which I originally got burned into my head from the Jetsons at age
eight. But The Signpost got this cool
image mainly because it was hard to find a picture of an actual signpost
without words on it, or at least words I could justify. So instead, The Signpost became a being that
might verbally direct you where you wanted to go. Of course, it's probably one of those
annoying beings that always twists your words and sends you off in the wrong
direction. But as far as the flavor text
goes, it's another one of those cool little Blue sayings. They're just full of mysterious-sounding life
lessons, aren't they?
Now Trenches of Otherworldly Sorrows is just downright
creepy. As if trench warfare weren't
enough, I can only imagine that quote from Yellow as being from a torturer to a
victim. Geez these guys are sadistic.
Green has quite the respect for the Infinite, especially in
regards to things they haven't yet figured out.
Mirage is one of those things.
They study The Desert Castle, but it is a mystery that has not yet been
solved, and many have gotten a little too uncomfortable with it. I imagine a Green philosopher taking someone
to Mirage and giving this warning before they reach it.
Red doesn't say much; they aren't a particularly verbose
bunch. Usually when they do speak, it's a threat hidden behind
humor. This time, in Red Skies, there is
no humor present. You've probably made
someone very, very mad to elicit that statement.
The quote of Aetherworld is just the opposite; it's short as
well, but rather than getting your hackles up and trying to put you on edge,
Blue tries to calm you down with as few words as possible.
Earlier, with Grime, Yellow tries to keep the population
down. At Plains of Filth, Red uses the
poor and downtrodden as a recruitment tool, quite possibly in the, er, "lighter"
context of the phrase "Come with me if you want to live." This is also a similar place to The Prison
World in Red's eyes, though Plains of Filth is not so much under Yellow's
control.
Getting rather surreal in this Green one, you can see that
The Vortex doesn't just drop you off in macro locations within the universe,
but also occasionally in the inner spaces.
As far as the flavor text goes, it's a bit like Yellow's Monument of
Solidity quote, in that they aren't quite aware of just how ironic they're
being.
Holiday shows that Yellow
isn't all bad. Ha.
Paradox is digging yet deeper into the surreal pool. I was certainly never satisfied with the
original placeholder art, but finding a replacement for a place called Paradox
when I don't have much of a visual in my head is tough. I tried some Escher first, of course, then
Dali, but nothing is quite what I'm going for... probably because I don't know what I'm going for. The visual is a bit of a stretch here, but
imagine who those three characters in the scene are, and compare it to the
flavor text and the game text, and it may make some sense.
Waterfall is yet another bit of Blue philosophy. This one is certainly easier to understand
than others. Give it a shot.
House of Solidity is Yellow's "silent card". Nothing could be said to make the House any
more foreboding than it is. If you
talked in the House, you'd probably have your tongue cut out.
Green Pastures is Green's "silent card". In this case... I just ran out of things to
say. I think this is a similar instance,
like Vista of the Infinite, where Green would
put down the notebook of calculations and just enjoy the beautiful view. And all that can be said in that regard was
already said on Vista of the Infinite, so
there's no need for a repeat.
If the barbarian and mafia takes on Red aren't your style,
Amphitheatre of Noise has you covered with a more metal feel. I kept looking for painting of amphitheatres,
coliseums, arenas, and so on, and nothing was ever quite what I wanted. In desperation I randomly typed "rock
concert", and I realized I was trying to get a little too historical
before, and this was more along the lines of what I was trying to capture with
the card. As far as the flavor text
goes, of course it's a morbid joke.
That's Red for you.
...And there is all forty-eight Location Cards. I'll provide a PDF of them once I've altered
the mechanics a bit, mangled the instructions, and redone all the other sets of
cards in the game. Consider this the
beginning of The Vortex, Alpha Version 2.
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