It is an interesting idea.
It might need a bit of tweaking otherwise, it still look like a motherboard.
Couple of tests with the AI controlled zone. I'm thinking about showing it as a display on a computer screen maybe. Or at least have that look. Any thoughts on which is better?
CPU Map test.png
I think I like the green better - it'll work well with what I'm thinking for labels. The effect is a little rougher, though...
It is an interesting idea.
It might need a bit of tweaking otherwise, it still look like a motherboard.
My Deviantart: https://vincent--l.deviantart.com/
Hi Steelmcoy,
This sounds like a really imaginative idea, the neighbouring dimensions are a great source of conflict and variety!
But I have some questions which aren't apparent to me from the map alone. Are the zones occupying the same island but in separate dimensions? How can I cross from one dimension to another and do their borders touch up against each other or blend even? Or if you've read the City and the City by China Miéville, do parts of these different regions actually occupy the same space!
I would lean towards the green AI zone of the options you've presented btw.
And I agree with you regarding the cork board background. Maybe it doesn't help explain the context of the island?
Thanks for posting and look forward to seeing more![]()
A motherboard is a fairly well known object.
If you want a different style, consider some of the following boards:
- hard disk drive board (on the back surface of the disk drive) - lower profile (surface-mount) components, zoom in for detail
- CD / DVD / Blue-Ray drive board; or the main board in a standard player (similar to HDD board)
- a high-end video board - I haven't taken one of those apart yet, but I bet it would be interesting
- boards from old cell phones - super miniaturized and interesting
- boards from an old VCR - often many discrete components for a different look - you might still be able to get an old VCR at a thrift store
- boards from tape-based camcorders - combination of discrete and surface-mount components and very compact - again, try a thrift store
- the main board from a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) - huge heat sinks on those things!
Thanks for the feedback, guys! It's very motivating.
They're on different parts of the same island, with gateways to different realities. The island is floating in sort of a null space - like The Floating Vagabond's corridor dimension. TFV is going to be a big influence for the campaign. So if you want to go someplace similar to Middle Earth, you'd go to the Northwest area of the map. Different regions will have different borders - the fantasy and post-apoc regions will blend in together with access to post-magical-apocalypse regions in the borderlands. The PSR maintains much tighter borders.
The next version is going to include a compass rose in the middle - basically Up=good, Down=evil, Left=chaotic, Right=order in classic DnD terms. Being weird multi-dimensional space, elevation will be correlated with time period (e.g. prehistoric realities will be lower and futuristic ones higher).
The other thought I've been toying with is having it be more of a bar table. That would definitely fit your idea of explaining the context more clearly. And it'll fit the tone of the campaign.
Good suggestions here. Honestly, I'm not well-versed on the differences and didn't even know it was a motherboard. I've got some other misc. parts I could experiment with for sure.
Progress is still on-going. My campaign starts up next week, so I did something a little quicker for that. This was my original plan for the map, but I wasn't super fond of where it was going. It will do for now, and was good practice with a couple techniques.
Multiverse Poster big.png