Concatenating Relationship Maps

[jburneko]

Hello,

Has anyone here experimented with concatenating more than one relationship map together.  That is, reading say, three novels, and linking the maps together via extra links to create one really big relationship map?  I'm interested in doing this for a potentially large group of players.

Does this, in general, work?  What are the potential pit falls?  And what are good things to look for when linking the maps together?

Thanks.

Jesse

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Jesse,

I do it all the time. I've found it to be no problem at all, and to pay off in a big way. In fact, in Hero Wars, it is one of the great joys in prep to have one relationship-map going on in the present day (of game play) and another that existed generations, even centuries before.

Remember in the Sorcerer forum on GO, I built a map based on someone's description of that TV show? Can't remember the name of it; there was a couple trying to get the relationship together, and each had a huge mishegoss of a complicated life. I drew a map for each one and Clinton posted a link to it. That's a simple example of two (almost) separate maps in interaction through one or very few nodes.

One of the nice things about this is that no one map has to be huge. Another is that (for me) using several maps facilitates originality - in order for them to "fit" all right, I find myself either warping the derived map out of recognition or even just making one up. I'd always wanted the book-method to be a springboard rather than a fixed mold, as the Soul text acknowledges.

Best,
Ron

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

As an excellent and over the top example of interconnected stories, I'd recommend reading a bit about the Wold Newton universe:

http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm

I always find a moment of the WNU is inspirational, it inspires interesting connections I wouldn't always consider.

But personally speaking, no. I haven't yet used relationship maps at all, ack.

Joe.