Sandbox style maps?

[Argol228]

Not sure if this is the right place. it isn't a request for something to be made. I amd wondering if anyone has made sandbox style maps. stuff like king maker or west marches. I was going to use a random generator but figured it might be worth asking here for more human touched crafting.

[HBrown]

Wuzzat? I don't know your references. Can you provide an example, or a link to one?

[arsheesh]

A couple of years back I made a hex-map of some islands for a sandbox adventure. I also keyed the map and did a write-up on hex-crawl adventures in case you are interested.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[dsfargeg]

Not sure if this is the right place. it isn't a request for something to be made. I amd wondering if anyone has made sandbox style maps. stuff like king maker or west marches. I was going to use a random generator but figured it might be worth asking here for more human touched crafting.

I looked up King Maker on boardgamegeek but I fail to see what's sandbox about it, or how you'd randomly generate a map with it. Are you talking about Geomorphic tiles, like in Carcassone for example? http://www.kjd-imc.org/hall-of-fame/...rph-tutorials/

[Argol228]

I looked up King Maker on boardgamegeek but I fail to see what's sandbox about it, or how you'd randomly generate a map with it. Are you talking about Geomorphic tiles, like in Carcassone for example? http://www.kjd-imc.org/hall-of-fame/...rph-tutorials/

you must be kinda new to tabletop gaming. sandbox, or hex crawls as somepeople call them, focus on basically having a base city or base location that acts as the starting point. and it is about exploring and discovering new adventures and what have you. Kingmaker and if I recall, keep on the borderlands are this.

[ThomasR]

I master a sandbox tabletop RPG and I just drew a map and put a hex grid on it, then placed some interesting locations. It's not yet finished but it's usable. Here's a black and white version.

Refonte carte Oltrée NB.jpg

The icons can be interpreted by the players or by the DM.

[kjdavies]

I find it interesting that you picked Kingmaker and West Marches as examples, since they really aren't mapped much the same. The Pathfinder Kingmaker AP uses a hex map as I recall, and the PCs explore hex by hex. West Marches, on the other hand, I understand to use a more analog map (i.e. what most people think of as a map) and navigation is more vector-based: pick a direction and distance, go there, repeat.

The maps themselves would likely look quite a bit different.

[kjdavies]

I think there is no particular map type required for this. Some people use an overland map and just explore as they go (West Marches). Many people use hex maps (and Michael's tutorials -- the hall of fame link from my blog, that dsfargeg linked to -- do a good job of describing how to make good hexamorphs). I lean more toward a point-crawl (draw a graph with nodes and edges, associate the nodes and edges with places and routes, then navigate as needed) or pathcrawl (as point-crawl but with allowance for adding new waypoints on the edges that add new edges and nodes -- focusing more on the journey than the destinations, as it were) overlaid on an analog-type map. I don't expect my PCs to be surveyors, they're following paths (physical or informational) to wherever it is they're going.

[jpstod]

Personally We have always used a Generic Map with some Major Spots and Terrain...However we add the small details as our Characters travel and explore. We add the details to the Maps as we go along. Like in real life..I know somethings about Where things are like Yellow Stone Park or Mount Rushmore, the Bronx zoos but I have seen any of them in Life.

A Character that grew up and never has been more than 5 miles from their home Spot may have heard tales of Dragons to the North or Fire Giants in the Volcanoes or the Splendors of the Huge Coastal Capital over the Mountain Range ...But they have no knowledge of what anything past 5 miles actually looks like or where exactly on a Map anything would be until they go and find it in person.

[Mark Oliva]

they have no knowledge of what anything past 5 miles actually looks like or where exactly on a Map anything would be until they go and find it in person.

Unless, of course, they are living in and going into territory that has been mapped by relatively reliable cartographers. There are many great RPG campaigns that evolve around maps in the PCs' hands.