Reply With QuoteI am now curious after some substantial searching and posts on other forums if anyone finds it odd that maps of this scale seem to be harder to find?
"Local/Region" maps for a Westmarches Campaign (also just looking for links)
From the Instructions in the requesting a map thread: I'd greatly appreciate if anyone had links of maps or wanted to make a map of this style.
Unpaid; I am happy to use maps people have already made and used elsewhere (as long as they're willing to let me, of course).
Time Constraint: Basically none. It's for a West Marches campaign I'll be starting at the end of the summer. A West Marches campaign is a reference to a blog, Ars Lundi, where the focus is on exploring the wilderness and not really any overarching plot.
Style: I am not really concerned about the style; it can be in pretty much any design, though I'm not partial to particularly "Cartooney" maps or maps that have everything labelled. Also, since this is wilderness, any maps with obviously demarkated cities will be less useful (unless I turn them into ancient ruins, of course).
Description of map:
The biggest trouble I seem to be having is in terms of finding proper scale. Regions should be from 2-40 miles (with 2 being the smallest, and 40 miles being the largest). I'll also be using dungeon maps, but finding those is surprisingly easy. Maps seem to be of three types: 1) Dungeon/path/battlemap; with 5 feet squares. 2) City maps, and 3) Continent/Large area; that shows a few forests, mountains, cities, towns, etcetera.
I'm looking for the area between City maps and Continent/Large areas; maps that show a single forest and a mountain, or a single mountain range, or a set of plains with light forests, or a series of 3-4 small lakes islands. If you've played Baldur's gate, http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/ar5000.htm is more or less the right idea. Or from DDO; http://ddowiki.com/page/Map_of_Searing_Heights. Except I generally attempt to edit out the labels, and am generally looking for something a little simpler in style.
Quality/size: All I'm using it for is a D&D 3.5E Campaign, so quality doesn't need to be high at all. I don't particularly care much about dimensions, quality, etcetera. And I don't know what Raster/Vector means.
Copyright: Author retains copyright. I'll also full credit where the map came from when using it, by writing it on the back. I'm also happy to take maps that have signatures/watermarks on them.
I am happy to fit in maps that people have already made and can simply link to. I've searched a lot of archives for maps of this type (including this site) and only found a few that I liked. In total I'll probably need 10-20 maps, and I'm pretty much willing to look at anything if people have things they might think, or could clarify the sort of map I'm looking for.
1-2 medium sized forests
1-2 medium sized foothills bordering to mountains
1-2 single mountain ranges
1-2 grassy plains
1-2 swampy marshes, with rivers and streams
1-2 lake and surrounding wetlands
1 large lake with a series of small-medium islands in it
1 region marked by 4-5 smaller lakes, one or two of which have islands
1 sand-duned/desert with some oasises and occasional vegitation
1 frozen tundra.
I've attached two portions of a map made by Still_Pond on D&DOnlineGames (the D&D playbypost website I play on) that are basically the perfect examples of what I'd like. Each will have 5-15 "special" locations in them; hidden dungeons, ruins, ancient statues, special monsters, isolated communities, goblin camps, etcetera.
Anyways, thanks in advance! I hope I was able to make clear waht I was looking for!
I am now curious after some substantial searching and posts on other forums if anyone finds it odd that maps of this scale seem to be harder to find?
I think a lot of people have a subconscious desire for a "complete" map. They want any land to be fully within the extent of the map, surrounded by water. So we tend to get world or continent maps where a much larger scale map (In cartography speak "scale" refers to the ratio of map distances to real ones, so "larger scale" means "less zoomed out") would otherwise be more appropriate (and they also tend to fit neatly into rectangular maps). There's also a bit of a tendency toward projecting modern ideas of what a "country" is onto historically inspired (if only loosely) fantasy. Modern countries like Canada and the US, or even the comparatively smaller countries of modern Europe, are BIG compared to most medieval polities. Even things like the Carolingian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, and for most of its history, the Byzantine Empire, were comparable with say, modern France in size, and were considered then to be massive empires. Even the Roman Empire, at its height, was less than half the size of the modern US, and in medieval times that was considered an unthinkably huge, world spanning thing.
It's just a hypothesis mind you.
I might be able to draw a map similar to your second attachment. I kind of do that kind of map only that i colour and label it. I will try a to do a similar one and I'll post it here, maybe you will like it.
Edit: Uploaded a small map i drew in about half an hour, just wanted to see if you may like the style.
Last edited by AlexTna; 06-30-2011 at 07:38 AM.
My apologies for the slow reply; that style and size of map is indeed perfect. I don't suppose you'd have some old copies of other maps hanging around that you'd be able to post?
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