Wandering Star

[helium3]

This is the starting overland map for my soon to be underway 4E D&D campaign.

The map is essentially the completion of what I was attempting to do for the April Map challenge. I just didn't have the time then to finish it.

I put this together using a combination of Adobe Illustrator CS2 and GIMP 2.0. I used GIMP to handle the layout of the map, masking and transparency and the blur effects. I also used GIMP in April to generate the fractal based sea and land backgrounds.

I used CS2 to trace and modify all the text and "icons" on the map. I have a hex version of this map that I put together using Illustrator. Let me tell you, making a bunch of uniform hex's in anything besides a drafting program like AutoCAD is a real hassle.

Most of the "icons" on the map were scavenged from the internet. The animals are from a national geographic coloring book, the pirate ship is from another coloring book, the skeleton is from Mason Studios and the compass rose is from MyraPedia. The little town icons and the forest icons were taken from a de Bry map I found online, but I had to heavily modify both in CS2 to get them to look like the other icons.

Comments? Questions?

[Bohunk]

Very nicely done. I wish it had more detail though.

[helium3]

Very nicely done. I wish it had more detail though.

Like terrain features? Heh. I'm going for the minimalist style. After all, it's a 4E campaign and in a 4E game, the only thing that matters is where the monsters can be found and where you can sell the loot.

[waldronate]

Like terrain features? Heh. I'm going for the minimalist style. After all, it's a 4E campaign and in a 4E game, the only thing that matters is where the monsters can be found and where you can sell the loot.

Not true! It's loot per hour, which means that terrain features are important! Mountains will slow you down so you want to carefully plan your route to hit the highest-yield monsters while minimizing time to market. Right? ;-)

[jfrazierjr]

Not true! It's loot per hour, which means that terrain features are important! Mountains will slow you down so you want to carefully plan your route to hit the highest-yield monsters while minimizing time to market. Right? ;-)

That is just pure brilliance! I gotta rep you for making me split my side laughing.

Joe

[helium3]

Not true! It's loot per hour, which means that terrain features are important! Mountains will slow you down so you want to carefully plan your route to hit the highest-yield monsters while minimizing time to market. Right? ;-)

Oh right, you want to maximize the ratio of GPS to DPS, right?

[waldronate]

Oh right, you want to maximize the ratio of GPS to DPS, right?

Always. That's what Munchkin, err, D&D is all about!

[helium3]

Hah hah. Well, my previous completed map had a lot of detail and even got featured on this sight. Unfortunately, enough of the players complained about being bored with 3E that I decided to give 4E a try. Problem is, the 3E game is a homebrew and I haven't figured out how to handle some pretty key elements of the setting with the new rules.

So, for the forseeable future I'm running a "4E DMG compliant campaign." This means I'm literally doing exactly what the DMG suggests with zero deviation from any flavor text found in the first three books.

It's actually been kind of cool because I've found that there's still plenty of room to come up with my own stuff. Also, because I'm using no house rules, I'm feeling a lot more free to be absolutely brutal in the encounters, pulling zero punches and fudging no dice roles.

But anyhow, running that sort of game puts the focus squarely on the adventuring sites and takes the focus off world-elements that don't directly impact the adventure. The map reflects this. The players know that if there's something on the map, there's an adventure associated with it.