"The American Schematic"

watercolor, ink & gouache on paper, 15 x 20 inches

Wars of Beleriand board game. The Silmarillion wargame.

 Wars of Beleriand board game. The Silmarillion wargame.  

However you want to say it...

This is the rulebook for a sort of late stage playtest copy of the unpublishable Silmarillion board game I designed. There are just two of them and they are each unique one-of-a-kind handmade prints. The rulebook itself is 136 pages divided into 53 sections. It uses a case system for easy reference. The game maps are printed on canvas (again, two of them, each unique), maybe not the best choice of materials, tbh.There are a few hundred counters and chits and markers and some card chart thingies too. It's a two-player game. One side is the Noldor and co. and the other player is Morgoth and all his baddies. It's asymmetrical in that each player plays a very different game. 

But this is as far as it goes. All the components are stand-in roughs. Lots of hand drawn things and visible corrections. Also some blatantly swiped graphics including a piece by Tolkien himself, a John Howe and the cover of the Ronnie James Dio album "Lock Up the Wolves."

Though unpublishable, I would like people to know that someone made a quasi-simulation of the Silmarillion in the hex and counter form of tabletop game. It's 20 turns long. And Nienor is in there somewhere too. 

And now it goes in a box on a shelf until the year 2090 or something.