NOT Mapping the “Nevernever”

Admittedly, the Dresden Files is very new to me. In my Dresden Files Day 1 post, I say as much.

So recently, when I posted an idea of mapping the Nevernever, I really didn’t know much about it. I did know it was more of an abstract thing – an ever changing realm of sorts. I thought it would be interesting to map it out and approach it in a similar fashion to something else I am much more familiar with – the Feywild from D&D. I shared the idea here, and across a number of forums.

I learned a few things after doing that…

1. The Nevernever can’t be mapped. I was reminded that the Nevernever is never the same thing twice, and as such it could never really be mapped. I never intended my map to be particularly accurate – mostly I wanted it to simply show locations of interest that existed there, not necessarily paths between them all.

2. The Nevernever (by the novels) is much more interesting than I was imagining having only the RPG books to read. The RPG books don’t go into much detail (any detail?) about it so I figured it was mine to develop. Of course, as a GM this is always true, but I wanted to to stick to official experience – I just wasn’t aware of it yet.

I do have the novels now, and in fact will be starting book one at some point tonight (after I type this up). With that said, I want to leave you with some of what has been said across some of the forums I posted the map for discussion. These are things that stuck out to me as cool aspects of the Nevernever that I had not known…

The never never in my games never sticks around in the same way long enough to be mapped. Not to mention that distances are entirely subjective even before they start to change. What is ‘just over the river’ for you when you’re happy is a thousand miles away if you’re sad.

And things move. dream scapes can pop up and disrupt things, ghost demenses can form. certain Powerful things in the Never Never can simply reshape it on a whim. Its not firm hard land, rather its a thin crust of reality on a never ending sea of unformed goo. Its only stable as long as its viewed.

There are certain places that will always be (artis Tor, etc) that have enough belief in them to remain firm otherwise things move with the seasons, the time of day and even the thoughts of mortals.

—-

There are levels to my never never, they just don’t entirely stay the same. Also because of how its affected by mortal minds it would be a reflection of the city but not neccessarily the physical city, so the Old hotel is still there years after the physical has been torn down, as long as people remember it. And that getting from one part of the city to the others isn’t always the same as it is in the real world. sometimes what you see is all fields as it was before, sometimes you see mirrors of peoples fears and hopes.

I’d actually agree that ‘Neverwhere’ is a great idea for a reflection of the city but even there, and its more obvious in the TV series (in which in at least one scene they’re wandering along a sewer and then emerge out of a second story door without Door’s help), not everything lines up quite the same everytime. part of the reason that the Marque is so powerful (apart from the deals he makes) is that he, like the rats, can navigate it

— Ricohard1986 (@rpg.net)

The feel from the books is that the NeverNever doesn’t correlate to the real world. While going into the NeverNever from a particular place in the real world leads to the same place in the NeverNever each time, 2 spots in the real world separated by a mile could be a mile, a million miles, in separate realms that don’t connect, or right next to each other in the NeverNever.

The are regular paths (Ways), point A in the real world goes to point B in the NeverNever, then point C, then point D, then point E back in the real world. However going between points A and E in the real world would have nothing to do with the points gone through in the NeverNever.

But then maybe San Franciso is different, just to mess with us.

— smoore (@jimbutcher.com)

Haven’t played the game, but the original source material is pretty clear on the point that distances and travel through the Nevernever are not… simple. Where the mortal realm has a set geometry, the Nevernever is a bit more fluid.

To mirror that, you might do better to map connections between locations, and allow those connections to vary in length depending on circumstances (especially who is doing the traveling). In addition, if I recall correctly, the books don’t have a direct mapping between points in the mortal realm and in the Nevernever.

In your game, you may do as you wish, of course. I mention it so you remember that any of your players who are avid fans of the books may have expectations – you can warn them about the differences, or use those expectations against them, as seems appropriate.

— Umbran (@enworld.org)

Another resource I am using (which is spoiling the books for me of course) is Google Books – searching the term “Nevernever” across all the books let’s me read all the bits about it where the term shows up. I haven’t done a ton of this yet, but so far it’s been a great resource.

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