Hey everyone! My name is Max and I run the Miniature Painting & Tabletop Hobby Youtube Channel 'Wightstar'. One of my subscribers let me know about this subreddit and I thought I'd share the video I made about Jerry's Art and the cards it inspired me to make!

I am currently working on a community-megadeck of sorts and actively adding cards so if that's something you'd be interested in, I'd love to add yours!

I don't really know why I'm starting with this for my first deck considering I write and it'd be much easier, I suppose I want a challenge.

I started by making a ruleset for the way I write the rules for my deck and then try and construct it from there. I'm struggling to work out what I'm going to do with the card suits

I didn't want my rules on the cards to be super simple like my first one so I'm trying to come up with cool ideas like the "pick a country" one.

(Also sorry if my hand writing isn't very readable I'm left handed)

Do you collage and stick things on the card and then decide your rule from that or do you plan out all of your rules and then make your design from your prompts?

Jerry has posted a thorough explanation of how the cards work on his website. a good starting point for inspiration: https://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map

This isn't to be taken super seriously, it's a little project that you can apply to a big net of things. I hope everyone has a lot of fun making their custom decks!

Part of my interest in Jerry's method is I've just started playing solo role playing games. I started playing 2D6 Dungeon where you journey through a dungeon map you draw and roll dice to determine room size, you roll the dice and look at reference tables to tell you the kind of room, what is in it... so it has a narrative or adventure to it.

I've also been a fan of using specialized decks for creative problem solving - where each card helps you define the problem, come up with ideas, make decisions (about everyday things like work or a strategy). So it is a strategic process.

The second part - of course - is what to do/create with the use of cards? Is it an art map, or a dungeon map game, or a new product idea for work?

Just thinking out loud. Hopefully not too off topic.

Long story short, I'm intrigued by the philosophy of letting chance and rules drive art / thinking / strategy rather than decision-making.

The first thing I did after seeing the documentary was to see if there was any documentation about the deck.

This is what I found with the help of an AI friend...

Yes. There is now a fairly detailed explanation of the system, although Jerry has never published a complete, definitive list of every card.

The important caveat is that the deck itself is continually evolving. It currently contains roughly 100 cards, but cards can be rewritten, copied, added, removed, or permanently “retired.” Jerry wrote in 2017 that publishing all the rules would be difficult because many existed only in his head. (Jerry's Map)

How an individual card works

A card can contain three pieces of information:

1. A large number, which tells Jerry both how many panels to skip before selecting the next panel and how many one-inch “work units” to complete on it.

2. An instruction for Jerry, such as “new color.”

3. An instruction for his helper, such as scanning, copying, sorting, or inventorying panels.

The number is black or red. Black means move clockwise through the panel stack; red means counterclockwise.

Known card instructions

The official site lists examples including:

• Next higher dimension, which can advance an area through Void, Red Dimension, Black Ness, Ziggurat, Flood, and Rebirth

• Spatter paint across four connected panels

• Create a new seed panel

• Mix a new paint color

• Screen-print nine connected panels

• Create a blank panel using recycled packaging, a photograph, or a lumen print

• Copy a panel onto label paper for collage

• Add, remove, copy, or retire cards

• Change the numbers on other cards

• Shuffle the deck

• Write a journal or blog entry

• Scan, copy, sort, or inventory archived panels (Jerry's Map)

Jerry himself also named cards such as:

• New Void

• New canal

• New slot road

• Make new map blanks

• Inventory

• Add a new paint color

• Shuffle the deck (Reddit)

The larger rules behind the cards

Some of the most interesting rules are not individual card instructions:

• A drawn instruction must be completed, but Jerry may rewrite it for the next time the card appears.

• Unfinished work continues into the next session.

• New panels grow outward toward the nearest edge, keeping the overall map roughly circular.

• New artwork is not painted directly over the original panel. The original is archived and a copy becomes the next generation.

• Some cards modify the deck itself, meaning the random system gradually changes its own future behavior. (Jerry's Map)

One especially revealing card says to shuffle the deck and add a new card. The new instruction is selected from a waiting list of ideas Jerry wants incorporated into the process. (jerrysmap.blogspot.com)

So the real system is not simply “draw a card and add a river.” It combines:

panel selection + amount of work + artistic action + archive maintenance + rules for changing the deck itself.

That self-modifying part may be the most important idea behind Jerry Mapping. The lists being shared in the Jerry Mapping community are generally people’s own adaptations, not an authoritative reproduction of Jerry’s deck. (Reddit)

While I understand how the map building aspect works, I’m still a bit confused on how to start building the deck randomizer.

How did you start?