Mapping Challenge: Pick 1 in each Block

[XCali]

I'm placing this into mapping suggestions, because it would be a cool one to do, and a cool one to have as a recurring challenge, since it takes on some really interesting map settings.

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Welcome everybody, let's go beyond the norm a bit, with an altered golden oldy. This Challenge will work as follows. Pick ONE mandatory parameter out of EACH block (1 and 2). And then let your imagination run wild.

Block 1: Genre Twist (Pick One)

High Fantasy:
Lush forests, soaring mountains, and ancient ruins mark this classic setting.
Grimdark:
A desolate landscape dominated by an eerie atmosphere, shrouded in perpetual smog and patrolled by ruthless enemies.
Biopunk:
A world where technology integrates seamlessly with mutated flora and fauna.
Gaslight Fantasy:
Gas lamps illuminate cobbled streets in a world with Victorian-era technology and magical creatures.
Lovecraftian Horror:
A swirling vortex of madness and tentacles hints at terrifying, unseen monsters of the deep.
Skypunk Fantasy:
Floating cities drift amongst the clouds, powered by magical crystals and patrolled by airships.
Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy:
Lush greenery reclaims the ruins of a once-great civilization, where mutated flora harbors both beauty and danger.
Cyberpunk Sci-Fi:
Neon-drenched buildings sprawl across the landscape, controlled by powerful corporations and inhabited by augmented humans.
Sword & Sorcery Fantasy:
A savage and unforgiving land populated by warring tribes, nomadic traders, and legendary beasts.
Space Opera Sci-Fi:
A vast and unexplored star space dotted with vibrant alien civilizations, hidden space stations, ships and uncharted nebulae.


Block 2: Map Focus (Pick One)

High Fantasy - Choices:
1. Elven Town, 2. Forgotten Ruins, 3. Floating Market, 4. Arcane College, 5. Cliffside Town,

Grimdark - Choices:
1. Ruined Factory, 2. Derelict Space Station, 3. Raider Settlement, 4. Crashed Alien Starship, 5. Sieged Mining Colony.

Biopunk - Choices:
1. Glowing Coral City, 2. Symbiotic Treetop Village, 3. Mobile City on a Giant Creature, 4. Mutated Swamp battlemap/area, 5. Underground Hive Town/City,

Gaslight Fantasy - Choices:
1. Fog-shrouded Docks, 2. Academy of Arcane Arts, 3. Haunted Cemetery, 4. Abandoned/Under Siege Outpost, 5. Victorian Age Vehicle Workshop

Lovecraftian Horror - Choices:
1. Sunken City swallowed by the ocean depths, 2. Cyclopean Ruins, 3. Forbidden Island. 4. A town encroached by tendrils of corruption. 5. A Fishing Village consumed by Madness

Skypunk Fantasy - Choices:
1. Skyport bustling with airships, 2. Crystal Cavern powering a floating city, 3. Ruined Airship Graveyard, 4. A Blimp Battlemap. 5. Zeppelin Workshop

Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy - Choices:
1. Oasis City/town, 2. Mutant Forest battlemap, 3. Forgotten Vault. 4. Overgrown Ruins, 5. A Nomadic Caravan

Cyberpunk Sci-Fi - Choices:
1. Neon-drenched alley, 2. Underground Black Market, 3. Cybernetics Corporation layout, 4. Scrapyard, 5. Vertical Slums

Sword & Sorcery Fantasy - Choices:
1. Volcanic Crater, 2. Hidden Village, 3. Ruined Ziggurat. 4. A dragon's lair, 5. Goblin Market

Space Opera Sci-Fi - Choices:
1. Abandoned Alien Megastructure orbiting... 2. Hidden Pirate Cove nestled within an asteroid belt, 3. Thriving Spaceport, 4. A Capital Ship layout, 5. Small Ship battlemap


Usual rules:
1. Any map for this challenge cannot have been started before now
2. Label your map thread like this: .../... 202... Challenge: (your title here)
3. Preface any work-in-progress pictures you post with the WIP tag button - it's in the toolbar on the second row down, towards the right. Or you can just type out ### Latest WIP ### Doing this allows the picture scraper to see your work and let the voters see it at the end of the challenge.
4. Please note in your first post which option you have chosen out of each block

The Challenge will run until the ... (UTC).

Best of Luck!

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You can discuss this idea below in the comments. And/Or give more ideas to put into each block for future challenges.

EDIT After discussion:

Some more punks. (Though obviously the descriptions can be altered to better suit each theme)

Desertpunk:
Parched desert and dune landscapes dotted with nomad settlements, massive windmills, and forgotten ruins guarded by sand leviathans. (Dune wink wink)
Oceanpunk/Piratepunk:
Submerged cities, bioluminescence, and pirates with mechanical limbs scouring the depths for lost treasures. (Bioshock anybody?)
Clockpunk:
Cities with towering clockwork gears, patrolled by brass automatons, and intricate schematics of fantastical mechanisms. (Dishonored I feel)
Dieselpunk:
Smog-choked skies, colossal air or ground ships, sprawling industrial complexes churning out extraordinary machines. (Imagine World War 1 but all the technology is ramped up to extreme levels.)
Gothic Punk:
Decaying Victorian manors, cobbled streets slick with unseen ichor, and intricate diagrams of sprawling catacombs beneath gothic cities. (Van Helsing?)
Steampunk:
Sprawling cities with billowing smokestacks, vast networks of underground steam tunnels, and fantastical steam-powered contraptions.
Hopepunk:
Biodomes nurtured by renegade scientists that left the corrupt corporations, harboring fantastical creatures, and communities powered by shared dreams. (A more hopeful look at a setting fighting to win back its future)



SPIN the WHEEL or other WHEEL 2 options:
Windmill, Mining Colony, Market Place, Raider Settlement, Nomad Caravan, Workshop, Factory, Giant Ring Arch, Floating Landmass, Place of Refuge, Mutated Environment, Haunted, Abandoned Ship/Great Structure, Forgotten Ruins/Derelict Location, Airships and Skyports, In the ocean depths, Encroached by tendrils of corruption, Leviathan, Settlement built on... , Fog Shrouded, Settlement/Landmass on a Giant Creature, Underworld locale, Crystal Caverns, Hidden Library/Archive, Festival Grounds, Battlefield Ruins, Citadel, Precarious Bridge, Mysterious Gateway, Harbor


(Tx Straf for the wheel idea)

[Ifrix]

I like a lot of the ideas here for maps, however the challenge in general is far too open. The point of these challenges is to be a challenge. If you are free to choose between all of the proposed genres and options at will, the challenge prompt might as well read "make any kind of map you like".

In the past, less popular challenges have fallen into one (or multiple) of four categories: Too specific, too vague, unpopular idea, busy time.

The latter two are always hard to gauge when posting the challenge and always difficult to see how much they can be overshadowing either of the first two, though it is often telling from comments or from past challenges (when we were doing the single month challenges, December was unsurprisingly a busy month for a lot of people, but often some of the summer months people's schedules could be taken up with commissions). With unpopularity there will always be people who don't like the current challenge, and I appreciate with two month challenges this problem can be more pronounced (the slowing down of forum traffic in general also hasn't helped, but that's a different story).

The former two are a bit more controllable however, and I believe this may fall into the 2nd category - it's a lot of choice which can be daunting and will also result in such a wide variety of maps that will be hard to vote. It also raises the question of what to do for future challenges - each of these choices could easily be their own challenge. "Map an Elven Town" is kinda weird when following "Map an Elven Town, Forgotten Ruins, Floating Market, Arcane College, Cliffside Town, Ruined Factory, Derelict Space Station, Raider Settlement, Crashed Alien Starship, or Sieged Mining Colony, etc".


Again, not to discount the idea, I think the choices in general are great, however I think a little tweaking and gamifying would help to fit a challenge format.

Personally I would propose trimming out a few of the genres (if the format goes well, we can add some of them back in future iterations), and then combining it with Straf's previous suggestion earlier on here. I think being able to choose the genre is important, many people don't like/are not familiar with mapping some of the settings. However, for the choices we can use a random generator wheel to pick the choices. I'd add some amount of reroll/choice so as not to be too limiting (Like roll 4 times and choose and least 1. I also wouldn't limit the choices to each genre, which could make for some very interesting genre twists on certain choices. What would a sci-fi elven settlement look like? A cyberpunk dragon's lair? A high fantasy corporation?

[KaiAeon]

I like the idea. I suggest adding a 3rd block with event/setting prompts to help us come up with story ideas/backstory of the map. It narrows the focus. Nothing prevents us from combining various prompts to create a novel backstory idea.

It can be as simple as
You are Arthur Silverwing of the Havali people who are able to transform into a bird. You are a descendent of the Great Silverwing Eagle who descended from the Great Roc of the Northwest. You are a gold-ranked cartographer in the Cartographer Guild (an independent organisation spanning multiple countries and regions much like the Artificer and Alchemist Guilds). You accepted the job to map the Great Forest of Vacor. The journey there is perilous. The forest itself is filled with secrets, ruins of lost civilisations, hidden dragons and crouching tigers. It's huge endeavour but well worth the rank up to diamond rank and the benefits it provides... The details can be left for the Cartographer to fill in.

Maybe you can generate a missionboard containing 20+ missions with various imaginary compensations for us Cartographers to either accept or reject. The more specific the task, the higher the "reward"?

We like playing games, reading watching, listening to scifi and fantasy and all their subgenres and cross-overs. So, why not make the next mapping challenging an RPG-style one / choose your own adventure?