Show your skill in making a map after geographical and Fluff descriptions

[bartmoss]

There are probably free (as in open licensing) campaign settings that could be used for this sort of challenge - If the challenge then includes the condition that the resulting maps should be placed under a similar open license, then the resulting map would enrich that setting and thus benefit more people. This is a much more preferable way than using someone's personal setting.

[Jkaen]

I voted yes, but it was on the idea rather than the specific campaign world itself

[Eilathen]

Wanted to give this a bump. Even if it did not get voted for a monthly challenge, i really hope some of the yes-voters do give it a try sometimes.
As Ascension said, this is the truest form of a challenge for a mapper...and i would really like to see what you guys come up with.

[Novarri]

You bumped it, I saw it. I have to agree with Jkaen: I like the idea, but I'd personally rather the person who decided the final rules of the challenge invent the world. I'd like it to be a world that doesn't already exist: that way, interpretations of the geography you hadn't previously thought of (or just very creative use of possible puns, etc.) could make a world that was valid, interesting, and not at all what you imagined; if you use an existing world, then there's the bias in how it's "meant" to be versus how people perceive it. To use a very well known map, I'm sure if I described the Lord of The Rings world map, I would get some interesting versions of it, especially with regards to the shape of the coastline; but because I know what it "should" look like, I'd be biased a bit to ones that look like that. So, that's my thought.

Heh, you were bemoaning your long posts earlier, no? I join you there: I can't write a sentence without writing a book. In any event, those are my frighteningly inflated two cents.

[Eilathen]

I can see your point, Novarri. But it does not fit to this example...because as of now, there is no map of this world...all the fluff text and description i posted is all there is. It was just a "i had some ideas for a world and i throw it out there"-post on rpg.net from this guy (J. Snead, a game designer), not a published setting. So there is no "as it should be" in there. I am sure John has a vague picture in his mind...but i am not him...so i have no consolidated picture in my head.

And yeah, welcome to the club

[Gamerprinter]

The idea in of itself is good, and truly is the truest test of a cartographer. However, the reality is that creating "paid-for" maps for a given setting is really what doing that is all about.

Few feel compelled to work on somebody else's world and not get paid for it. The reason being, that many of us work on our own home-brew worlds for the effort, without consideration of pay. Yet, most people building their own home-brews do not feel compelled to work on someone else's home brew for free. Winning a challenge is not enough incentive to do this - at least that's how I feel about it.

The September 08 challenge, was here's a rough coastal outline, placement of towns, forest, mountains and swamp, now create a world based on this rough draft in your own style. That challenge worked, as though there was plenty of direction given, there was no required specificity to a given setting - it was up to our imaginations on what that world was and why.

To come up with a completely stand-alone, for this challenge kind of home-brew is for one too much work on the part of the CLs to develop for a single challenge.

Those challenges related to the CWBP while similar is a project that guilders feel some investment has been done by the community and are willing to map for the sake of the challenge - this works. And we has challenge participants are willing to do such an exercise.

For all these reasons - this challenge idea won't work, and you probably won't get participation from me. Not that the idea is bad, just the fluff surrounding it is not compelling enough to participate. So bump all you want, I don't see it happening.

GP

PS: I've got no compunctions in writing long posts. I prefer complete answers, I almost never make short posts

[Eilathen]

Thanks for your input GP. And as i said...i hope some of those 11 yes voters (that is a good portion, i think) do it nonetheless. Even if it is not an official challenge (how many "yes" votes does an idea need to become an official challenge?). I think it is still an educational experience...or it can be.

See it as an unpaid map-making request if it does not fit into a challenge.

[Gamerprinter]

Despite what I said, I voted "yes" for this when it was first posted.

GP