Hand drawn maps: isometric donjon-castle and pyrenees area

[ElGrandioso]

Hi folks,
this is my first post.
I just registered, in order to browse your maps for something useful.
But i thought, why not give away some my old ones from the
cob-webbed corner of my hard-drive?
The tower map should be useful for any medieval type RPG.
Although there are some german descriptions, the readme should
clarify the important points.
SAXUMNEBULAE.zip
2006-10(Okt)ArMKarteBosque.zip

The second is a fantasy altered map of a real part of the french pyrenees,
during the 12th century. The names are "langue d'oc" style, although
not strictly correct - so don't come whining and waving a dictionary at me.
Some parts are contemporary, some are taken from a map within a early ArsMagica
edition. There's some latin "gibberish" there as well.
The Map was not supposed to be totally finished, as the characters, of a now
defunct group, would maybe find certain interesting locations. But there
are no big blank areas in the center, only some of the remote mountain ranges
have been left empty, e.g. to accomodate the hidden cave of a dragon, plus a
portrait of his ugly hide. Also if you actually know this part in real life you would
perhaps expect that some of the big caves like lombrives, niaux or bedeillac are
shown, but those are hidden and/or "hellish" places.
There are probably many things in it, that would demand explanation.
But i drew them some 8 years ago (scanned them later) and i have no intention to
rack my brain over those old notes. Besides the chance of a ArsMagica (or other
Real-World-Medieval-Fantasy-RPG-Player) actually using this, is quite slim.

I have other maps as well, some that incorporate non-public-domain content
(that i can't post) and some i have to seek out or scan first.
One with a castle sitting on top of a humongous cavesystem will follow soon.

[RobA]

Welcome Aboard!

I quickly took the cut up map and stitched it together. I hope you don't mind the spaces, I just wanted folks to appreciate your effort without having to upen the zip and so forth...

full.jpg

-Rob A>

[hellforgedx]

Looks good! I especially like the border.

[Hai-Etlik]

Very nice, though I don't see how it's isometric.

[Lukc]

I think it's termed "isometric" as a synonym for "illustrated mountains without depth perspective". I've come across that use of the term before, I don't know whether it's correct or not.

[Hai-Etlik]

I think it's termed "isometric" as a synonym for "illustrated mountains without depth perspective". I've come across that use of the term before, I don't know whether it's correct or not.

Really it's closer to an oblique projection, though even that isn't quite right. Really it's just a symbolic representation with no particular projection being used to indicate a 3rd axis. (There may be a geographic projection in play but that's another matter)

Isometric has a very specific meaning, it literally means "same measure" because it preserves linear measures along three particular orthogonal axes. It's only really meaningful if what is being projected has three significant orthogonal axes (Very roughly, something "boxy") Any orthographic projection will preserve some set of 3 orthogonal axes, so it's only meaningful to distinguish a projection as isometric if there is some other significance to the 3 axes.

[ElGrandioso]

I think some of you missed the first link in my original post.
There are 2 sets of maps in zip-files, the first one is in fact isometric.

[Hai-Etlik]

I think some of you missed the first link in my original post.
There are 2 sets of maps in zip-files, the first one is in fact isometric.

Well you're right I missed that map set. However strictly speaking, that's oblique, not isometric. Note how although the walls look as if you are seeing them from the side, the floor looks like you are seeing it straight down. Isometric looks as if you are looking at everything from the same (very particular) angle.

[Lukc]

Yup, we did miss a few. The castle maps are good the hand-drawn feel adds to the sense of a medieval setting.

[loogie]

-very- particular angle what is it? 30deg or something? yeah I thought it was odd that it was that angle or not iso.. but use mappers are nothing if not strict!

i really like the idea of drawing the castle silouette and adding the floor plan inside.. it illustrates the look of it from outside as well as some nice features like windows and such you might overlook otherwise.