Viking Town of Utvikle (commission for Stormbunny Studios)

[Gamerprinter]

Last year Stormbunny Studios, the creator of the Rhune Stormpunk setting (airships and vikings) commissioned me to create a half dozen maps to support their (at the time) Kickstarter. This map is of the town of Utvikle (which is Norweigian for "progress") which represents a village of viking miners who operate as a guild with the mine located north of this map. I also created the interior plan for the Wild Breeze Inn (the largest structure in this town). For this map, I created a rough of the walls and street grid using Xara Designer Pro, then printed that out at 36 x 36 inches, and used that as a "sketch" to place vellum on top and hand-draw all the line work. I digitally scanned the linework then imported back into Xara to create beveled shapes, apply color fills and labels.

Notably, viking towns, especially the more militaristic ones featured square gridded urban layout in the town. So though "modern" was a goal in this map to support this unique setting. That said, square gridded towns are indeed a viking reality.

GP

utvikle-update-final-1.jpg

[Sanderling]

The map is nicely done in itself, and I especially like the balance of colors you've chosen.

But I'm also interested in your comments about its layout:

Originally Posted by Gamerprinter
Notably, viking towns, especially the more militaristic ones featured square gridded urban layout in the town.

…square gridded towns are indeed a viking reality.

Were you using any real-world historical settlements for inspiration on the layout? If so, which ones?

I've never heard of urban planning in Viking settlements, so I'd love to know more about that.

[Gamerprinter]

I've read better threads on this subject through an archaeology site, which I don't have a link to, but here's one I just found regarding viking urban grid plans.

[Viking]

Nice work! I feel as though the docks could have a direct connection from the roads but I suppose that may just be a matter of taste.

[Tonnichiwa]

I really love this! I have only ever seen one snowy village map before and that was produced by Wotc for the D&D miniatures game. Fantastic job on this!

[Gamerprinter]

Its the third notable snowy map I've done. This one, my December 2008 Map Challenge, and another Challenge Map but I don't remember when it was, but was sponsored by Wolfgang Baur for a published adventure. I seem to do well with snowy maps.

[Josiah VE]

That looks really neat. You captured the snowy feeling very well.
The linework almost looks like it is offset from the stuff underneath it.