*** May 2016 Challenge: Map a Trade Route ***

[Diamond]

The fact that I'm a day late and a dollar short posting this segues nicely into this month's challenge: map a trade route! This can be any genre - fantasy, western, sci fi, whatever. There are some criteria though (come on, it's a challenge!). Each map must contain EACH of the following:

1. An oasis, caravanserai, way station, inn, etc. (or more than one)

2. Clear icons or text describing exactly what is being commonly traded on this trade route

3. Some indication of the length of time it takes to transit each part of the trade route

4. Clear icons or text indicating at least one danger that is common along the trade route - bandits, monsters, space anomalies, etc.

Please remember to title your threads like so:

May 2016 Challenge: < your title goes here >

ALSO PLEASE REMEMBER TO PUT THIS HASHTAG BEFORE EACH OF YOUR WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES:

### Latest WIP ###

If you don't, the thumbnail scraper won't pick it up, and no one will see your entry when it's time to vote.

This Challenge will end on Tuesday, May 31st, after which there will be three days of voting, and after THAT someone's gonna get a shiny new golden compass to brag about to all their friends.

[jbgibson]

Ooooooh just great - now I have to (self-imposed hafta) work up another version of my Guildworld map :-). 'Cause that is what immediately springs to mind....

I even have a harebrained idea for the way stations... what if cheese got more special if it cured for differing periods in different environments? The fromage caravan spends six months in the dwarven kingdom to get that nice mold thing going, a dozen fortnights at the oasis of Djinn to harden off the rind with dryness, and finally gets dunked in the streams of the mountain Duchy of Czree for weeks on end, which seems to impart an interesting sulphurous tang to the whole thing. On the way back home the same oaken vats that carry the cheese wheels, carry bulk wine or whiskey, which in turn permeates the wood, helping the next shipment of cheese start with a nice whiff of flavor. The alcohol also sterilizes the vats, otherwise the fungus spores that one is subject to on the trip through the Forest of Dank would ruin the next cycle.

All that to say: ya hooked me, and reeled me in. You also have given serious impetus to getting my Ondeet map better polished off, in the Anniversary Guildworld activity. Thank you, sir!

Thinking..... thinking..... more fun if I negotiate this to transit multiple Guildworld domains... thinking....

[tilt]

Sounds like an interesting challenge.. hope to find the time for it ... not nearly as far ahead in my thoughts as jb but I'm thinking .. .space... the final.. well, okay.. well within the boundaries of known space of course.

[madbird-valiant]

Been waiting for the new monthly challenge to give me a boot to get back to doodling maps. Sounds interesting!

[Josiah VE]

Funny, I was just thinking of something like this for a challenge. To map human activity, good ones I thought of were mapping a caravan, an invasion, a siege, so long as it has people in it, maybe even a farm would be good.

I really, really want to join (even though I'd have no chance against you experts ) but I already have several other maps going, and I would like to join the lite challenge but with school I just don't have time! I must try to make time!

[Diamond]

Hey everybody, just a reminder that this challenge will end Tuesday night, likely around 9PM Pacific time. So you've got about 58 hours left to create a masterpiece.

[tilt]

Thanks for the reminder - so that's about 6 AM on the 1st here in central europe.. so two evenings left for mapping

[Diamond]

About 8 hours left - time for the final push!