_text_

I seem to recall that Dungeon magazine rolled out a "generic fantasy world" map as a freebie in one of their last issues. I could scan it if everyone wants to use it. It is a beautiful full color map with cities, dungeons, and points of interest already labelled.

Let me know :)

...and a pantheon of gods gathered. Looking down upon the blank canvas that was to be their world, they smiled. For here, they would create life...and legend...

Just a little comment to keep enthusiasm high. Consider it a little prayer for our future endeavor. Good luck to all, and I look forward to seeing everyone's contribution!

Once the member list is final, we need to decide how we will handle the land grab.... there seems to be varying opinions...
pre-gen map? piece together into one map in the end?

Donny, I'd like to see that map, if only for my personal games here at home...

I say we do a pre-gen for those that want that approach and then anyone who goes free-form we can piece in seperate continents later.

I'm good with pre-gens. It would make it easier in the beginning and, if someone did want a specific piece of land, they can ask to trade with someone else.

I attached a crappy B&W copy of the map in question. It is the "lands of Mystery" map from dungeon #150 by Chris West. May have a copyright issue as it belongs to WotC, and they have refused to re-release it since taking the magazine licenses back.

Smarter people than I could figure that one out, though with the artist's permission, and changing the names of the locations, I think fair use would be satisfied.

What you guys think? I can get a color scan up in the near future if it is what we want to do :)

Also, do we have any Campaign Cartographer or other mapping types, I also attached a very cool NOAA map of our world...no labels, just relief and bathymetry. Always a classic :)

Okay - we'll do this, if a group wants to work off a pregen, they will, and those of you that want to design your own and build a second continent, combining your realms, we'll do that.

Part of this exercise was that I wanted to try a tutorial I picked up online for map making in photoshop... so i'd like to be able to go that route while still satisfying those of you who'd rather work on your own creations.

Both groups can be satisfied i think...

When the signup period ends, i'll ask for those of you that want the pregen route to email me stating so, so i can divide the map.

I really don't care whether it's pregened or not. All I want is a smallish group of islands somewhere. I'm happy to do the map for it myself if needed.

I have some experience with mapping and the issues involved. I think regardless whether contributions are part of a pre-gen or designed their own we should a common format. Similar to how Judges Guild had the Campaign Map (52 hexes by 34 hexes) then the 5 mile regional hex map with .2 miles hexes then the .2 local map wilth 42 feet hexes. We don't have to use numbered hexes or even hexes at all but should have similar set of scale.

For example for a 8 1/2 by 11 map we have a campaign overview map that is 220 miles by 170 miles. And it is divided into regional 8.5 by 11 regional maps 22 by 17 miles and then down to the local scale of 50 feet per quarter inch. I will work tonight on some formats (there is some math involved) and throw them out for comment.

I just want Alaska : )

Rob can have Hawaii!

I suppose this might be covered when things go "live"; but has anyone given any thought as to this setting's physics. By physics I mean, planet size, day/night cycle, commonly used dating system. Are we assuming an "earth-normal" thing here? Twelve months, 24 hour days and all that? I can pretty much adapt to just about anything, but wondered if anyone was gonna cover it in advance. Also, the space around the planet could become important as well. Nearby moons, planets, are there one or two (or more) suns? Well, you get my point. Just curious...

I'd be happy with something close to earth-like for the basics like gravity, length of a day and year. The calendar can vary by culture of course. I'm sure someone will want an extra moon though. :) Probably need to define the appearance of the sun(s) too.

On the mapping issue:

If you want, I can draw a Tolkein-style fantasy map and scan it on my university's equipment(The advantage here being a larger surface with which to scan the image and therefore a more detailed map), but I need to sign up to use it and get an art student to supervise, so that could be a while. I also don't know anything about the common formats Rob was talking about, so I'd need a refresher.

Fractal based terrain design is also really cool, and can render versatile, large, and realistic maps very quickly, but most of the software is either ridiculously complicated and renders low quality or expensive and proprietary.

Hey guys, so the signup day has passed, and now it's time to start!
From the feedback I've gotten, it seems many of you would rather work on the setting outside of a fixed map. That's cool. What I'd like to know is how many people wold like to work on a land that's part of a map. I just need to know that so I can slice up the map in a number of parts.
If you want to work as part of a map sharing borders with other bloggers, shoot me an email at newbiedm@newbiedm.com
Thanks! And soon we'll have all the details ironed out!

I'm happy to work from the map as long as its a coastal/islandy type of place. Otherwise I'll throw together my own.

I'll take an alaska-like place. Mountains, valleys, and ice - lots of ice. Lessee...polar bears, inuits...maybe Canada? : )

You think the Cartographer's guild would like to be involved? Maybe a contest for some of their pros? Just a thought, I've been snagging gimp tools and small building maps all morning and they are SWEET!

That's not a bad idea donny. i'd be willing to step aside in my map making for a kick ass map from their guys. do you know anyone over there?

Unfortunately no. I just joined like 3 days ago so I could get some GIMP pointers.

Should I inquire?

I would prefer having a map drawn out for me. I'm terrible at creating my own.

I wanted to run this by all 30 of you.

What do you think of reaching out to another RPG Community, the Cartographer's Guild, like Donny brought up?

I think it serves 2 purposes. One, it allows them, as mappers, to work in a contest outside of their community and showcase their work, and two, it exposes the RPG Bloggers network to an audience that may or may not be readers of our blogs.

It'll bring 2 communities together, and not make our project so inclusive.

I'll give them a deadline, say 3 weeks, for themselves as a community to figure out how to come up with an unlabeled world map for us, to use in our world. Then once we have the map, we ourselves divy it up how we would like.

We don't make requests, we let the mapping pros at the cartographer's guild do their thing.

I really like the idea of expanding beyond our borders, pardon the pun, and seek assistant from outside the network.

Thoughts?

Well, you can see what they think, though we might have to open this up to non-RPGBN members (which doesn't much matter to me). ALSO, the admin of the Cartographer's sister site, the Campaign Builder's Guild just contacted me and was interested in helping, I forwared the email(s) to you Enrique.

I am also going to post my map up here just in case it is a no-go with the Cartographers. The primary limiting factor in using my map is that the landmasses continue off the edges of the map, which will make it a pain in the ass to "add" to it if we need to.

Thanks for letting me in, guys. Also, the Cartographers' Guild is filled with great, friendly people, I'm sure someone over there will help out with a map. On the other hand, the one Madbrews came up with looks pretty good anyway!

I'm thinking of them maybe setting up a contest amongst themselves, and we pick from their top 3 maps or something...

oooo ive got my eye on those islands in the bottom right ;)

While I would prefer a bit more island areas - this looks like a good start to me. Obviously, if this is _the map_ then I would like to suggest the first thing we do is have another working version that includes a grid with a coordinate system so that we can all know exactly what everyone is talking about.

I got dibs on that tiny spec of an island in the northern part of the giant bay in the upper right hand portion of the map, close to the deeper water area. It's all that remains of the gnome's homeland after it sank into the ocean - thus forcing them to learn the secret of flying boats and barges.

@Jonathan_Jacobs A straight grid would be great for picking areas, but may not lend itself well to specific nations/countries/regions. Maybe we could just draw up a bunch of arbitrary boundary lines? Or even just have people pick pretty general areas (I personally have my eyes on between the small landbridge with the two little lakes on it, joining to two larger masses up top), and we could work with our neighbors on boundares. So if I picked that area, and you picked the area west of it, right around that bay, we could just come to an agreement (or roll dice, it'd be like armies battling! ;) ) on where the actual nation boundaries would lie. Just some thoughts.

Anyone want to guess at a scale for this map?

I'm eying that large gulf and its western shores.

Well, unless a random assignment procedure goes into effect, I'd like to use the small fish-shaped island in the upper right-hand corner of the map, and the shore just to the east of it. The island is next to the southern end of the far eastern landmass.

@brandon : I guess I should have made myself more clear. My apologies. I was thinking a grid would help facilitate accurate communication for contributors -- not for claiming areas. For example "I want to put a drawven mine up in thos mountains along the that coast line over by that bay." vs. "In are C32, I'm dropping a ruined dwarven mine." Then, everyone knows exactly where it is. Also, HEXMAPPER or other ap could easily be used to drop a _numbered_ hexgrid on top of the map - might be better than a square grid anyway.

@Jonathan : Yeah, I assumed as much afterwards, but never got around to editing my post. My apologies. :)

I will make a suggestion: The left hand side of the map can be cropped and attached to the right hand border, i think the land masses could line up in photoshop.

Do you guys rather I dont want to reach out to Cartographer's guild?

Lets put it to a vote.

I just noticed the cartographer's guild has their own world-building project going on
http://forum.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

I'd be fine with using the map you've provided as a starting point. I don't see the need to wrap it or stop the run-off edges. There be dragons!

I'm interested in hex 0705 and the coastline to the east.

bear in mind that some folk have land masses outwith this map that they are using so wrapping it takes them out of the world :(

I'm interested in the islands on the borders of 0505, 0506 and 0605

We can add more oceans to the east or west to accomodate more lands.

I think the map is looking great as is. Great work with the hex grid. I think that's the perfect thing to assist in the divvying up of the land. My request is to have hex 0803. I particularly want what looks like an island in the middle of that hex (although I think it may technically be an archipelago), and I'll want the coastal section of land that lies within the same hex. Welcome to the Free City of Helmsport!

0703 for me. That's the location of the last "groundling" remnant of the Nation of Aerkestralund; the tiny speck of an island in middle of 0703. The rest of their country was swallowed up by some awful oceanic force - and now they are banished to drift through the skies until the curse placed on their people can be undone.

Whats the scale of that map btw? I seem to remember the tutorial suggested something like 2 miles per pixel.

The little land bridge in the middle of 0601/0702 is the area I'm interested in.

Two questions. 1. is this the map we're using? 2. are there rivers draining the large lakes on the NW continent? If the answer is yes to both I'd be interested in most of grid 042.

I would prefer area 0107 and the little bit of land that juts out of it to the west. :)

I would like 0507 and either or both of those partials to the east and west :)

I would like 0603 - I have a floating city idea that would be great there, I think.

So maybe we should set up a chart that goes ahead and shows which regions everyone wants. Also, more love is needed for this project!! One day between each post is far too long! :)

I think the hexes are useful, but I don't think we should just divvy them up. I know that we want to diplomatic in the way we divide up the land, but some countries should be bigger and smaller than their neighbours. If we all just pick a hex then we're all more-or-less getting the same size slice of the pie.

Part of the fun I expect to have when carving out my niche is explaining why my country may be larger or smaller than those around me. As well as exploring what I’m doing about defending my land or what I’m doing about trying to get some more.

I think we should designate one person to draw tentative boarders. Then through a lottery we decide who gets which country. We can finesse the borders after everyone has an assigned region. I’ll volunteer to take on this responsibility if the rest of you are ok with that.

I can only speak for myself, but I only took on one hex, because that's all the room I needed to develop an island, a nearby city-state, and a cavern complex. I imagine if someone wanted to develop a larger territory, they could simply request the needed hexes. I suppose it might end up as a bit of a land-grab, but if it comes to that, then our moderators can step in and settle (negotiate, go to war over) the dispute.

On another note, I do think it's a good idea for someone to begin to update the existing map with the lines that folks have already claimed. Of course, on all issues, I differ to our moderators for their decision.

Hear! Hear!

Can we get the original maps posted up in native format (file attachments I guess). That way if someone wants to do some local maps they have the best source possible.

OK -- added a copy of the hex'd out map with names laid out for current land grabs.

Mark, that looks great and is really helpful. That way it's easy to see who our neighbors (friendly or otherwise) are. Thanks, much!

I would like to claim 301 and 401. Thanks!

I'll try to update this every day or so until everyone gets a spot.

On behalf of the Dungeon's Master team (Derek Myers and Wimwick); I'd like to claim hex 502 and the part of hex 501 south of the mountains. I'll negotiate with whoever takes 503 for control of the small land mass in the western hex of 602.

Derek, I left this comment on one of the new pages. I also wanted to negotiate with the claimant of 503 (as well as 403 but that isn't germain to this comment) Shall we make a joint claim on 503? I'm willing to negotiate. contact me vulcanstev(SHIFT-2)hotmail(DOT)c-o-m

Steve -- obscuring your email address when it's your site name, might be a bit of a waste ;)

I've begun negotiation comments on Home > Meta > The Map. That way this area left clear for Land Grab comments

@Mark That was done more to stop 'bots that scan. 8-)

Map updated with latest claims.

I would like to claim 1003 or 1004 if someone hasn't already taken them, thanks.

I'm interested in 403.

503 would make a good place for a common border between Daniel, Derek, and myself.

I would like 203 if it isn't taken.

Map updated with latest claims. I marked 503 as borderlands based on surrounding territory and Vulcan Stev's comment above.

I have attached a copy of the map over at my section with Derek's and my proposed borders. Mine are by NO means set in stone. The proposed common border between our territories in 0503 is a river that connects the lake to the ocean. There is wiggle room in that proposed border. Mark proposed over at the Google forum a city state in 0503. I think that's a great idea. Having the river fork and surround the city state.

Quick question, can someone tell me (in miles, please) each hex is (both from corner to corner and side to side)? I would really appreciate it. I'll be able to start on my regional maps with that information. Thanks much!

I would like 103, can I also include that tiny island just on the other side of the boarder into 203?

Randall - I don't think anyone has settled on a scale yet. My vote is for each hex to represent 200 miles from corner to opposite corner **if this is not the entire world map (there's more we're not seeing)**. If it is the whole map, then I guess a more logical size would be 500 miles from corner to opposite corner?

Brandon that sounds damn good to me.
Settled then.

If possible, NewbieDM would like sections 905 and 906

SInce I'm really only interested in doing a free city on a river and the immediate environs, how about I place it in the borderlands of 503?

I would suggest something closer to a 500 miles/hex scale. Folks in the north are looking for icy cold and those in the south are tropical. 500 across the flats gives up about 3500 miles north - south.

@Lucasa 78: Can you tell me your site name at the left so I can insure it matches up on the map?

Map updated with latest.

Note to those in 503: Sounds like both of you are interested in a city-state type setup so there should be plenty of room. That area is looking like the hotbed of intrigue and politics!

I would actually like to change to 504-604, if possible. Thanks!

I am only going to use the northen part of 906, from the lake and up.... the southern part below the lake is free for anyone who wants it!
Just so you know who shares the land, it is a monarchy that up until 20 years ago was at war with a small dwarven kingdon in 905. The ruler is an usurper, the king's brother, who had his brother assassinated in order to end the war and make a truce with the dwarves.
But that's not common knowledge in the realm.

@Enrique - From your response to my post above - do you think each hex representing 500 miles from corner to opposite corner, or 200 miles is better? 200 miles gives us smaller territories to work with (but also more manageable territories?), but if that's the entire map up there, it would make the world a very tiny little world - only 1800 miles (or so) circumference. So we would probably need to assume there's more to the world than what we see on the map (which is perfectly reasonable). If we say that map is the entire world and we use the 500 miles marker, that gives us a roughly 4500 mile circumference to the planet, making it a much more reasonably-sized planet, but still only 1/5th or 1/6th the size of earth! (and actually even smaller than our moon). So my recommendations would be, no matter what scale we use, 200 or 500, we assume there's more to the world than what we see in the map. If we go with 500, then we probably want to assume the world is horizontally two times the size of the map we see. If we go with 200, we probably want to assume the world is horizontally five-to-seven times the size of the map we see . Those scales would give us a mercury-sized planet, which is probably pretty reasonable.

Just some math-and-logistics-related thoughts.

I hope you guys don't mind, I added a quick-link to "the map" at the top of the page, I couldn't find any other links anywhere, and was getting tired of filtering through home/meta/the-map! :)

I'd like 0902 and 1001, if that's doable. I have an city of evil alchemy/steamworks gnomes, clans of herdsmen in the rugged hills, and something special planned for that little island. :)

@Brandon: Don't forget we need room for some contributors who aren't using this map. I'd suggest we treat this as a slice of the northern hemisphere of the world. The north end of the map is arctic, the south tropical. Maybe we should pick a size between 200 and 500...

I'll have the revised map with latest grabs up shortly.

Ummm... before I grab a piece of land, I'd like to know what sort of temperature zones things are in.... it looks like the map runs the full set of latitudes of a world (there appear to be ice caps at top and bottom)- and I think people have been assuming that, but Mark's last comment suggests otherwise...

Maybe the hexes are just (far?) too large?

@Chuck sounds good to me. I don't Derek will mind.

Stuart - I've been viewing the bright regions on the south end of the map as desert. They look yellow to me...

@mark- Sorry, My name is supposed to show as "MacGuffin," donno why it is showing the actual name... Anyway, I'm MacGuffin from Ideamancer. If anyone knows how to change the display name, let me know!

And there we go! all fixed! Lucasa78 = Macguffin!

How do I set up my name properly? Call me Ishmayl.

I think Chuck Wilbur and Evil DM are the same person (my email address is evildm[at]earthlink.net), thus "both" of us wanting city state setups in the same hex.

@mark (or whoever answered MacGuffin) - How do I get my name to show up everywhere as Gregor LeBlaque (which is what I use on my blog)? I want to bombard the site with as many of my aliases as possible to sow maximum confusion :P

@Chuck - A two headed, Evil DM run city-state? Sounds fun! Sorry for my confusion, I'll try and catch up the names on the next map update.

I'm not sure how to change your posting name, though changing the title of your realm page does seem to change it in the side bar (not the URL though).

@StuartBroz, maybe the hexes are in fact too large... maybe there are lots of empty spaces of wilderness, and we make this point of lightish...

@chuck and Brandon- go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount
then click "edit profile" and change your name. I only have one word name so I used my blog's name as my last name ^^

Map should be up to date with names squared away.

Guys, FYI, I am working on a version of the map with no labels, hexes, mountains or anything... a plain flat one in hi res for when the land grab is over... i say this in case anyone else was working on the same thing we don't...

Thanks Macguffin

Question to MadBrew....is there a higher resolution of the map available? I'm getting ready to begin detailed maps of my particular little hex, and wondered if there was a higher resolution to work with. I understand if the original map was too large to post to the site, but if you could email it to me, I'd be grateful. If not, no worries...thanks much!

I think NewbieDM thinks I'm invisible :S

Robert - I have to add the islands, I realized I left them out.
No worries, I'll get to it...
:)

I’m not sure if we have yet come to a consensus, but where would the equator lie on this map? Does it split the map horizontally around hexes 104, 304, 504, 704, and 904? Or is this entire map the northern hemisphere, and the equator is the very bottom of the map below hexes 107, 307, 507, etc.? If the equator is at the bottom of the map then 107 would likely be mostly desert. If the equator is in the middle, then 107 would be a cold, Antarctic-like place.

Mark Thomas already pointed out that the bright areas at the bottom look like they are desert (sandy), which was my first instinct as well. Stuart Broz suggests that the equator would lie in the middle of the map.

My feeling is that this map depicts the northern hemisphere, which would make the equator run along the bottom. I think we need to come to a firm decision soon. This will affect how everyone will design their country.

Well for my two cents, and based on some of the comments I've seen above, it would seem we're looking at the northern hemisphere and that the equator lies along the southern boundary. I think we are also looking at each hex being 500 miles from point to point. Now if I understood Turtlewood's math, we're only looking at one half the the northern hemisphere. Someone out there correct me if I'm totally off base here...

I'll take 0306.

Please don't call this Blogeria...

Hahahahaha Blogeria!!!!

Why don't we make this the northern hemisphere, to allow those working off map access to the southern hemisphere? So the ecuator would be running through the 07's?

At that scale this slice ends up being something like a quarter to a third of the northern hemisphere east-west. I think that gives any off-map people plenty of room to work right?

It sounds like we have something approaching a consensus here.

the latest map doesnt include tiny islands or even larger islands. FOr example, my area is gone; plus the islands in 0505 0605 and 0506 are gone.

Work off the original map.
The islands will be put in don't worry.
It's a work in progress....

Land grab updated to the latest. I also threw some base assumptions up on the map page concerning scale and layout.

"...Now if I understood Turtlewood's math..."

It's TurtleLORD! ;)

And I was talking about 500 miles from point-to-opposite-point. Very important. Just point-to-adjacent-point would make the hexes a good bit larger.

Are we going with the top of the map being relatively arctic (or at least sub-arctic), with the bottom being equatorial?

I'd like the area around 806, please. Also the moon.

Mia Culpa, TurtleLORD...my bad. I was totally exhausted when I typed that message, lol.

YOu know, Blogeria is really starting to grow on me.

Blogeria is cool, it's what we are doing. A world by bloggers.
Blogerious... Blogeria.... Bloge'rath ... Blogdamia

Please, please, please let's not call it "blog*" anything. If you must use that four letter word, let's do something like "Alblogia" or "Morblogia" or even "Saturblogia" Just my two cents. I'll stop gnashing my teeth now.

Okay...just uploaded my first map. This map covers my entire region (1 hex). I'd like some feedback from the moderators on the image size and such. I uploaded the image as a .jpg file, and it was a little bit under half a meg. I wasn't sure how much space was allowed for images and such. If I need to change file formats or upload a lower resolution file, please let me know.

Dude. That is awesome.

Thank you! The map was created using a program called "AutoRealm" and I did the lettering in Macromedia Fireworks.

I think I would like to add the area that is "0600" (right above 0601) to my area if I can.

when are we getting the map with islands?

Soon... for now the hex map has all the islands....

so, is this work as you like or are there any deadlines?

I know this might sound like a really stupid question, but are we expected to draw the map of our own areas? Or can we just give fluffy description on our page?

Hopefully there are no deadlines, that would make things difficult for a number of us, I imagine. I think maps are a good idea, Questing GM, even if you can't do it yourself, someone would probably be willing to throw up a rough sketch for you based on your suggestions.

I am hesitant to set a deadline, considering there is no publishing deadline or contest or anything of the sort. Your world is ready when it's ready. As far as teh maps, no, my goal is to have eventually one big map of the area. If you'd like to draw a map, by all means go ahead, it'll give your setting more life, but it isn't necessary.

Oh good! I'm terrible at drawing maps and I don't have a graphic program (except for MS paint) to make even a presentable one.

If no one has it yet, can I claim 0206 as my hex?

Map is updated with the latest land-grabs.

I have just added the map for the Free City of Helmsport. Enjoy!

Oops...forgot to add....check out my section...that's where you'll find the map.

Hey Viriatha, I don't want to disappoint you, but there's nothing in your hex but water... ;)

One question. Is there an assumed climate, weather for the map yet? I think it would be weird if I did a tropical jungle while my neighbor is a frozen winterland.

Well if we're working from the 'slice of the northern hemisphere' baseline, we should also use similar climate assumptions. North is cold, south is tropical, middle is temperate.

Just finished adding the map for Smokefire Island. Please see my section for the graphical goodness!

@Randall - A suggestion: It would be easier to see your section if I knew which one it was. I added (Chuck Wilbur) to the title of mine so anyone reading my comments could track back to my section. I would recommend doing something like this to anyone else whose comment-posting name doesn't match their blog pseudonym...

Would anybody like to be the patron of Sir Marcus Tildon, founder of Tildon's folly? I need a patron nation and sovereign that dispatched this fool to explore for fun and profit.

There was, of course, a bloody mutiny and revolt following his demise on the ice, so there may very well be a contentious relationship involved.

@Chuck. Thank you for the suggestion. I've added my name behind the title of my section so it's easier to reference. To all: I have added my final map. I also reduced the size of viewable image on each page so that the page will be more visually appealing. You can still click on the image to get the full sized map. Now for the hard part...writing things up. How's everyone else doing?

Can whoever is admin on site please revert permissions on recent changes so they can be seen again :)

Did anyone agree on scale?
500 miles point to point is making my islands landmass the same size as the UK almost but with over 100 miles of open sea between them.

Dont want to start going to far down the line of actually placing towns etc until I know for sure. I've already had to rewrite some of the background as the scale just makes the distances involved to huge. :S

@mark: I'm not sure how...
@Robert: I plan on posting some general assumptions later on this month, after I come back from vacation. I want to get this project moving, I feel bad that's it's sort of dead in the water...
Give me a few days.

@Enrique Any news or thoughts?

Right..I've waited 3 months to find out the scale so I'm going with 250 miles point to point as it makes my life easier with my islands.

If it turns out you guys go with 500m ptp then I guess I'll just pull out and carry on with my islands on my own :(

Well, it took forever, but the first part (of four total parts) of my section of the campaign setting has been posted. Not sure anyone else has done this level of development yet, but I'd love it if you'd all take a look and let me know what you think. Would love to see some of the rest of the group dive in here and really get some stuff labeled out.