World Building and Your Maps

[Asaris]

Here are the two maps I've been using. The top is the western edge of the continent, Arden Est, at 24 miles per hex. The bottom is the area the PCs have been adventuring in, Morachi.

[Landifarne]

Premier, I like the stippling around the islands.

[Premier]

What is the size of each of those hexes?

Don't have the notes at hand, but (as the region names might tip you off), this is pretty much Dark Ages Fantasy Britain, so it's about that size - a large scale map.

Premier, I like the stippling around the islands.

Thanks! There's actually a pretty easy way to do it in AutoREALM. IIRC, you draw the island object with normal borders, then you make an identical copy and give it one of the predefined borders which creates that effect. Then you make sure that the non-fancy shape is on top of the fancy one and is set to occlude it so as to avoid the ugliness of the "waves" biting into the land in narrow fjords and bays.

[Xabloyan]

I've never been on your map, man, but I've been to the real-life Gdansk AND the real-life Sardis.

[Theslo of Qualon]

I've said a few times, but I really need to say it again.

Awesome maps guys! I'm so happy this came alive. We are some bad ass D&D'ERS!

[Asaris]

I've never been on your map, man, but I've been to the real-life Gdansk AND the real-life Sardis.

The Dwarven citadel Akron is some miles to the north.

[PJ Garrison]

PJ Garrison, you should work on that....what a great map!

Thanks for the compliment!

I don't intend on using this map though. I made this in my high-school days (20+ years ago) and I wasn't really sure of what I was doing. At the time, I didn't really have my countries, politics, and religions worked out when I drew the map out. So I'm working on these details before I get started with the mapping.

When I do it again, I'll use lighter pigments (watercolors or color pencils) so that the place names will be easy to read (the map I posted is quite dark). I'll also be incorporating city markers and national borders. I'm aiming for a style that's similar to what you see on the Forgotten Realms maps, although campaign-wise I'm more influenced by Greyhawk (I never liked the hexmap style of the original Greyhawk maps).

[Yora]

I created this map of the Savage Frontier from Forgotten Realms in 6-mile Hexes.



Full size

[garhkal]

Did you keep the names of the FR towns and such as is, or just use the map and populated it with your own towns/cities?

[Yora]

I just made it for fun. Doing a world and regional maps for my homebrew setting comes later.

[IluvHalfOrcs]

Building the map is the hardest part of my home b rewed world. I am never happy with the result, partially because my hands don't handle the task well, and partially because, well, it just doesn't seem right.

[Yora]

It never seems really right. I guess at some point when you've redone the whole thing for the 8th time, it just becomes familiar enough so you don't push things around anymore.
My homebrew map has undergone several revisions over the last three years, but things are becomming more and more definitive. Even though it's not really that much different from the first design.

[garhkal]

The only change i can remember to my map, was drawing in 2 new villages, both set up by the first adventuring group in their attempt to clear enough land for their keep once they hit name level.

[Ironface]

A quick idea for a campaign setting I whipped up last week. Drawn on scratch paper, pencil, and a felt-tip pen.

[apprentice]

This is a fun thread.



My group was stuck in the Ethereal Plane for a while too, which was EX1 Dungeonland & EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror crossed with the Realm of Faerie.

[rastus_burne]

The Realm of Farlow:



If it's too unwieldily looking at it on here, follow the link.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9632pedx45c3d ... Farlow.jpg

[Landifarne]

A quick idea for a campaign setting I whipped up last week. Drawn on scratch paper, pencil, and a felt-tip pen.

For the win!

[Aos]

I like to start out wide and zoom in close:
Particulars: everything is handdrawn; I ink with a #3 kolinsky sable brush and color digitally (currently on the ipad2 witht he ArtStudio app).
This one was inspired by the old Divine Right map it is the wide view of the setting, AKA The Wide World. Mash The Dark Crystsl, The Elfin Ship, and Wind in the willows together and you'll get the general sense of what I'm aiming for. I'll be releasing a free pdf of the whole project sometime soon. I began with the idea of making something for everyone that got hosed by the Nystul debacle, so it has a rather Dwarfy focus. However, TBH, in the end, I made it with my two sons (12 and 10 yrs old) in mind. Also it is for B/X.



Here is the the specific campaign area (above ground) The Valley of Bones:




And the Under-Vale


And an illo

[Le Noir Faineant]

This is a fun thread.

This one looks particularly nice! Which program did you use?

[Landifarne]

Aos, I'd like to introduce you to a guy named Wheggi who seems to be in the dumps lately regarding the lack of originality in the OSR...

[Theslo of Qualon]

Has anyone else seen something on a map here, and they're all pretty AWESOME, that they are adding to their game?

The variety of styles is quite stunning, along with the names; I really like the wide array of assorted names.

We do all seem to have a "wild beyond" or "world edge". Pretty cool.

[Ironface]

Aos, your Metal Earth looks like a cross between Hanna-Barbara and Ralph Bakshi. Good stuff.

[Stormbringer]

This is a fun thread.
*map*

This one looks particularly nice! Which program did you use?

If a person had the patience (and talent), this could have been done with Paint.

[Le Noir Faineant]

I wondered, too, if it was a Paint-job, but really, this would take... Days, maybe?

With a drawing pad, however, this would be a matter of minutes, I guess.

[Varl]

This is a fun thread.

Nice map! I've always wanted to have a separate map of the Realms that had all of the names and landmarks off of the map, so I could place published adventures on it without making it more cluttered than it already is.

[Xabloyan]

We do all seem to have a "wild beyond" or "world edge". Pretty cool.

Not only is there historical/real-world precedent for that (western Europe/Mediterranean basin, Tigris/Euphrates, China Sea, India/SE Asia, Maya and Inca all had less developed, tribal lands and wilderness around them) but it helps to keep the game focused on a particular area when starting out.

Also it's nice to have things other than water surrounding or edging your map sometimes. Especially fantasy terrain. It's a lot harder for players to cross a literally burning desert, or a mountain range so tall that it sticks out of the atmosphere, than it is for them to cross a normal sea.

So if the terrain at the edge of the map represents real barriers to travel, then there's less danger of characters walking off the map into areas you haven't prepared for play. Bounding a map helps you limit your campaign world's development to a level that is manageable.

[SBLaxman]

So if the terrain at the edge of the map represents real barriers to travel, then there's less danger of characters walking off the map into areas you haven't prepared for play. Bounding a map helps you limit your campaign world's development to a level that is manageable.

And by the time they are powerful enough to cross those mountains... you've add time to develop the map beyond.

[richgreen01]

What a great thread - so many awesome maps!

How do I insert an image? My Parsantium campaign world map is here: http://richgreen01.livejournal.com/pics ... 1281/82020

Cheers


Rich

[Stormbringer]

What a great thread - so many awesome maps!

How do I insert an image? My Parsantium campaign world map is here: http://richgreen01.livejournal.com/pics ... 1281/82020

Cheers


Rich

There ya go!

[apprentice]

I love that world map, Aos! Great stuff.

Anyone remember the old illustrated maps from Might & Magic?

This is a fun thread.

This one looks particularly nice! Which program did you use?

Hey thanks! This is just MS Paint, as noted by other posters.

Did not take a considerable amount of time. The hex version for the players was way more tedious.