Collective drawing

EX-NOVO

Ex-Novo is a map making game invented by Martin Nerurkar and Konstantinos Dimopoulos that invites you to create a city by drawing events and locations based on the roll of a dice.

The game allows you to consider several features that create a city including power structure, geography, size etc. It also introduces a number of storylines based on the dice.

How would the city differ if you were playing this game with different groups of family or friends? What could this tell us about our needs and desires for the city?

COLLECTIVE DRAWING

Image by Ex-Novo community member ‘Fixta’

“Playing Ex-Novo

You (and up to three friends) take on the role of the guardian spirit of a freshly founded settlement. Its founding just brought you into existence. And with it, it brought you your purpose: to witness its growth, shepherd its development and remember its stories.

As you play you will make sense of the events happening as you draw and plan on a collaborative map of the settlement and its changing shape. In the end you will have created an interesting fictional place with a sense of history.

Sequence of Play:

Discussion phase: Here each player shares their assumptions and expectations.

Founding phase: Taking turns, each player defines some of the basics of the settlement, such as its purpose or the surrounding terrain. Whenever a feature is determined the player will draw it onto the map.

Development phase: Here each turn adds an interesting event that needs to be interpreted by the active player. During this time the settlement will grow, change or even shrink. This is where the exciting history of your city is played out, its shape evolves and the map grows.”