 Hi, I'm Kyle and this video is brought to you by the Old Road Zine. Today we're drawing the kelp scrubs and I'm going to talk to you about how to read art. You can conceptualize just about anything as having a code or being a text or having a grammar. That is to say, the more you know about the way that something is put together, the more you can have fun just understanding how those components are interacting and vibrating and adding meaning to the next part of it. In the game design space, there is sort of a default assumption that writing and design is going to be done through text, going to be done through rules, but writing can be done through drawing and visuals as well. We even use the term reading a map to understand it and that is not to say you are only reading a map when you are reading the place names, you are reading a map to understand how it is all fit together and what it has to do with you. The first step to reading any kind of text is to make a thorough inventory of symbols and understand how they fit together. It's like learning the alphabet, learning to read, learning how words modify each other, all of these things. It's the same way with visuals as well. The first thing that you need to do is take a thorough inventory of the symbols in front of you and this is where things get really exciting and really interesting is because symbols are slippery and there are ways to have fun with that and to project your own creativity onto a reading of a text and it gets even more fun when you include people you trust with you to help you interpret the the symbols to help you recombine this thing once you've taken it apart. This is why I don't like using words on my maps and I definitely don't key my maps to a list of corresponding room descriptions because what I'm trying to do, my whole mission here is just to get you to have fun with your friends just looking at art. For instance, let's take a look at this kelpie. Don't go reaching for that monster manual. Don't go searching things on Wikipedia. Just what do you know about seaweed and naked witch ladies and in deals and fairies and bargains and adventures? Just what do you know? This isn't an academic symposium. You don't have to defend yourself. Just what are the assumptions that you bring with you when you see this and respect other people's interpretation of that as well. When you look at an image of a kelpie sitting out on a rocky outcropping with a bridge going to it, what are you curious about? What would you ask her? Are you afraid of her? Does she need help? Where do you go from there? However you interpret that can be true. You just have to talk about it and negotiate it with your players or with your GM or however you want to put it. But I know, I know, people are very used to having the answers, to being able to look up the monster stats, to be able to look up the weaknesses or the backstory and to have a concrete answer. This is going to take time. This is going to take practice, but I've got an idea. I've got an approach. Maybe you'll find it helpful. So I wanted to talk about this little book of games that I made. It's just kind of a little zine called The Book of Common Games. I wanted to talk about this one in particular called Sea Feel Wonder, the game of aesthetic attunement. Just by going through a piece of art, an illustration, a map, whatever, and kind of going through these steps of saying I see, it makes me feel, and it makes me wonder, you kind of get at a way of involving yourself in the artwork in a very personal and intimate way. So let's try this out. I see several conjoined sea mammals. It makes me feel uneasy. It makes me wonder what is causing these conjoined sea mammals to land here on this beach in particular. I see this hanging jibbit. It makes me feel sad and unsafe. It makes me wonder who is kept there? For what are they being punished? I see a giant horse skull covered in snails. It makes me feel frightened. It makes me wonder how big this horse must have been. This can really enrich any art experience, including game experiences, and attuning with the details that you see there and kind of seeing where the adventure is. I see that there is more to be gained from art by being curious about it and being in tune with your own experience about it than just learning what all the correct answers are and solving all the puzzles before you even learn what mysteries there are about it. I think this would be a great way to involve art at your tabletop in your game, in your preparation for your game, if you're the GM, or if you're doing a solo RPG and you have all of these maps and books out in front of you of just like drawing more nectar out of the experience for you. So, you know, maybe next time you're GM-ing a game, you put some art out and you talk about it and when your player says, I wonder how big that horse would have been if the skull is that big, you can put a giant horse skeleton that's looking for its head in your game. Thank you for indulging me on that. I know a lot of people are just watching this to see me draw a pretty map, but I want you to think about how you are engaging with the arts just by looking at them. You are creating your own experience just by being a thoughtful observer and I think that's a really powerful and important thing for everybody, not just for artists and not just for GMs, but just like for people. Now, this is really just like the tip of the iceberg, the very beginning of talking about art critique and postmodern theory and if you want, I can get more into it in a future video, but this might just have to do for now. That's it for this video. If you heard something you thought was pretty nifty, leave a like. If you want to see more videos, hit the bell or subscribe and maybe one day we'll meet on the old roads. Until then, farewell.