Lite Challenge Results
The Lite Challenge for May/June took the form of a commission for an imaginary novel. Bogie (who is clearly a romantic at heart) challenged Guilders to create a map for a book, specification as supplied...
"For my new book "The Old Mage Finds a New Love" I need a map of a small country. It should cover an area about 500 miles E-W by 700 miles N-S. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a N-S mountain range that is about 400 miles long and 150 miles from the East side of the map. In the middle of the mountain range there should be an active volcano. To the west of the range should be a mix of plains, forests, hills, and lakes with 3 small isolated mountains and 1 large asteroid crater that is about 100 miles in diameter.
There must be 2 medium and 1 large cities east of the mountain range and 5 medium sized cities west of the range. You can place as many towns and villages as you like, just don't overcrowd the map with them. There will be an impressive wizard's tower in the crater, and a dungeon entrance near the volcano. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages."
One of the best parts of Guild challenges is seeing how people interpret the criteria, and we always finish up with some interesting and diverse maps. Bogie's challenge this month seemed to tickle the fancy of a bunch of people and we had some outstanding entries. Many were in agreement that this challenge produced some of the strongest entries we've seen in a while, so huge thanks to everyone who took part!
Voting was close between the top contenders, but our winner this month is Loukana with the simply fantastic entry "Escoba". Well done for winning against some tough competition! Loukana wins a first silver compass, so huge congrats on that! You can check out the WIP thread here.
Honourable mentions to runner-up Warlin with gorgeous entry "The Lands of the Frozen Tears", and third place was claimed by Jshoer with his beautiful hand-drawn work "Orihlam".
The new Lite Challenge for June/July is up, and I'm detecting a theme...
"For my new book "Death Came Calling" I need a map of a village or small town. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a crossroads, a town square, a tavern or Inn, a handful of personal residences and a few shops. Pond or river is optional. Now the tricky stuff, the town should have a SECRET that shows on the map, such as a grotto, or a hidden cave behind a waterfall, a druid's grove or small stonehenge, or even a crashed alien space ship. AND the town was just recently attacked and partially destroyed by forces unknown, natural or otherwise. Maybe a tornado ripped through town or a wildfire, or a horde of orcs sacked the town, or two duelling mages couldn't control their fireballs, or the whole Aliens vs Predators vs Arnold thing happened here. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages."
This challenge will run until mid-July, so plenty of time to sign up.
Other News
The regular challenge for June is "Map a Real Place". Create a map in any style of somewhere that exists on Earth. More info here.
If you haven't already read it, be sure to check out our 'On the Map' interview with Jared Blando, aka The Red Epic. You can check out all our previous On the Map interviews via this link.
GuildWorld
Members have been posting their completed GuildWorld maps over the past few weeks, and it's wonderful to see so many different styles and interpretations. Many have also posted world-building info in the various threads. Remember that the GuildWorld project will run as long as people are interested. We'd love to see some regional and/or city maps of your area, so keep on mapping!
If you've got any ideas about how to develop the GuildWorld project, or if there's something you'd particularly like to see, please post in the main GuildWorld discussion thread, or PM one of the Community Leaders. This project belongs to everyone who's taking part and we're open to suggestions about how to develop it further.
Also remember to check out Redrobes' pan & zoom GuildWorld map. We'd love to be able to zoom right down to city level with this... but we need some maps from you guys to do that!
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