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The other day, just for s%%+s and giggles, I started watching Babylon 5 again. That inspired me to do a bit of redesign on a pirate-city I’d done awhile back. It’s slow going, but I’m liking the way it’s turning out.
My roommate just rewatched it again, and I love all sorts of individual elements of that show like the Psi-Cops and the deep dives into the Minbari, Centauri and Narn races. Having a spinning cylindrical 'station' floating in the void of space for a Spelljammer-esque setting could be interesting (perhaps set in the outer reaches of the Golarion system, run by heavily-robed Mercane (or constructs with the Mercane body type, but the stats of shield golems?) that all go by the name of Kosh?).
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Last night, whilst watching the classic Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, I got the idea for a new map. This one would be kind of like the land of Hyperborea from that movie, but with elements of Marvels Savage Land.
Whether or not I actually overcome my current bout of apathy to create said map is something else entirely.
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I haven’t done much mapping recently, but the other day I did at least start a new one. It’s a Savage Land (Marvel Comics) inspired overland map.
I love the idea of the Savage Land, but it needs to be like six to ten times bigger, just to support the various dinosaurs.
Which is totally doable, since there's a ton of extra room on Antartica that isn't being used anyway, and the Savage Land bio-dome thingie could easily be six to ten times bigger without affecting anything.
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I haven’t done much mapping recently, but the other day I did at least start a new one. It’s a Savage Land (Marvel Comics) inspired overland map.I love the idea of the Savage Land, but it needs to be like six to ten times bigger, just to support the various dinosaurs.
Which is totally doable, since there's a ton of extra room on Antartica that isn't being used anyway, and the Savage Land bio-dome thingie could easily be six to ten times bigger without affecting anything.
Yeah, my own version is (to begin with) contained within an oval that measures about 900 miles by 700 miles. When I started the map, I debated going bigger, but decided to give the standard size a chance first.
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On a related note, when I started working on this map yesterday, I changed the size to be 3000 miles by 2400 miles. Then, adding in the oval that represents the borders of this “hidden land”, the “working” map area was about 2400 miles east to west, and about 2000 north to south. That gave me space for landmasses roughly equal Australia, which is about half the size of Antarctica.
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I did end up doing a revision of my Savage Land inspired map. Kept the continents and the overall framework of the map, but changed around the geographical features so they made more sense to me. I have over half the island continent taken up by a plateau, bordered by mountains and hills. The smaller western half is lowlands with plains and some jungle.
All in all, it came out much better. If I make any further changes, it will likely be to add in some more points of interest.
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Last night, the TV went into screensaver mode, and the picture that popped up was of some old stone bridge. It ran over a gap between two peak/cliff things, and there were what looked to be old fortifications (or, at least, old buildings) on either side.
Huzzah! I figured it out!
On a whim, I did a Google search of Amazon Fire Screensaver pictures. It came up with a page of something like 180-ish pictures to scroll through, and I found the one that had caught my eye.
Turns out, it was Ronda, Spain. The bridge in the picture I had seen, called the Puente Nuevo, was built starting in 1759.
Now I’ve started a map based on Ronda. Hopefully, it’ll come out okay. Working on it, however, I once again realize the weak point of Campaign Cartographer - drawing elevation. Specifically, drawing elevations of varying size and slopes.
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Reading through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage 5E book I bought, and now I'm tempted to return to the Dwarf King's Halls map I've done some work on. I think I've done four or five maps so far. It's kind of my Moria.
Of course, that would be after I finish my current map, which is going much slower than I thought it would.
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This being October, I tend to watch even more horror-related movies and TV shows than usual. The other day, such viewing put an idea in my head:
The Oracle in Chains - this would be an ancient vampire, his desiccated corpse strung up in chains, hanging in a mountain cave somewhere. He was placed there by some powerful deity he pissed off, and now is forced to offer predictions or knowledge to help guide others. Maybe they have to make some kind of blood offering to get him to talk.
I might even try to make a map for this, although I don’t think I have symbols for a vampire corpse or chains.
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I popped into Half-Priced books today to look for another copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the copy the boy is reading started to fall apart).
Anyway, while I was there I decided to look in the Architecture section again. Lo and behold! I found another book in the History of World Architecture series. This one is Baroque Architecture. Not one I was particularly interested in, but I’m still hoping it can give me some inspiration.
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I finally finished my Palace of the Mummy Lord map. It took at least one restart (to make it bigger), and some rethinking about content, but I'm mostly pleased with the end result.
If, at some point in the future, I were tempted to revisit it, the surface portion would only get some minor details added. The underground portion is where I'd be tempted to make some bigger changes.
One thing of note, I made a little more than half the map sort of barren, this in keeping with the 5th edition version of the Mummy Lord, where any water in their lair evaporates.
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Last night, the TV went into screensaver mode, and the picture that popped up was of some old stone bridge. It ran over a gap between two peak/cliff things, and there were what looked to be old fortifications (or, at least, old buildings) on either side.Huzzah! I figured it out!
On a whim, I did a Google search of Amazon Fire Screensaver pictures. It came up with a page of something like 180-ish pictures to scroll through, and I found the one that had caught my eye.
Turns out, it was Ronda, Spain. The bridge in the picture I had seen, called the Puente Nuevo, was built starting in 1759.
Now I’ve started a map based on Ronda. Hopefully, it’ll come out okay. Working on it, however, I once again realize the weak point of Campaign Cartographer - drawing elevation. Specifically, drawing elevations of varying size and slopes.
Aaaaaaannnnddd.....I finally finished my map based on Ronda, Spain. I think it came out okay.
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Not map related, but....
Having been working my way through the TV show Person of Interest, I was thinking of how to adapt the idea of The Machine to a fantasy RPG. I think the best way would be an oddly powerful Crystal Ball, which had somehow achieved consciousness and decided to use its power to help people.
I recall something from an FR book, which had a minor deity of divination, and some of his worshippers became liches in crystal ball form. Or...something like that.
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Having dogs on the brain (specifically, my dog, which is currently shedding like crazy)….
I was thinking of revisiting my shrines and temple series of maps. I can do….TEMPLE OF THE DOG!!!
Yeah, I know it was a band. Still, the dog is big with symbolism, so I think I can make it work. Who knows, maybe it can serve as crossover to a new series - maps inspired by rock band names.
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Yeah, I know it was a band. Still, the dog is big with symbolism, so I think I can make it work. Who knows, maybe it can serve as crossover to a new series - maps inspired by rock band names.
Judas Priest - temple fallen into corruption by a heretical priest who betrayed the faith to an evil rival faith.
Iron Maiden - temple of Brigh, with Brigh-shaped shield guardians / grave guardian constructs and a Brigh-shaped iron golem in the apex.
Def Leppard - temple of one of those 'forgotten' lion gods that are rivals to Walkena's faith, sadly fallen into disrepair as the god 'is no longer listening.'
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Now I'm debating what to do next. I've got some options.
(a) Continue with the Highgate series of maps for my Dwarven Kingdom. I think I've got at least one more.
(b) Start on a new part of the Dwarven Kingdom. If I do this, it would probably be the Doors of Moin area. Or, I could work on the Skandarsgate area.
(c) Search through my various continent/island maps for some city, dungeon, fortress, or ruins to map.
(d) Come up with something completely random that has nothing to do with the world I created as a focus for most of my maps.
(e) Take another break from mapping and let the creeping despair of too much thinking work its tentacles into the depths of what remains of my withered and blackened soul.
Decisions. Decisions.
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Another thought has entered my head - A Twin-Cities style location. There are plenty of examples of twin, tri-, and quad cities throughout the real world, but I can't recall to mind any from fantasy settings. The idea was put into my head from a Clark Ashton Smith story.
Could be kind of cool, especially from a back story perspective. It would have to be a big map, though, to do it justice.
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Another thought has entered my head - A Twin-Cities style location. There are plenty of examples of twin, tri-, and quad cities throughout the real world, but I can't recall to mind any from fantasy settings. The idea was put into my head from a Clark Ashton Smith story.
Could be kind of cool, especially from a back story perspective. It would have to be a big map, though, to do it justice.
One funky bit for a fantasy world would be a city split over two sides of a river, and on each side is the 'X quarter' of a specific race, with a shared market space on a super-wide bridge they've built across the river. Various outsiders might think the two races are ripe for sowing division, since they choose to almost exclusively live on 'their side' of the river, and they each have their own mayor, etc. but actually they only have settled this way because of physiological or cultural or even architectural reasons (like one race prefers to live in warrens underground, and the other in above-ground dwellings, or one side is the halfling quarter, and all the ceilings are too low to be comfortable for the humans on the other side, while the halflings are a bit agoraphobic and prefer the cramped quarters of their narrow streets & alleys and 'proper-sized' homes).
Or the two sides could be divided between different interpretations of a particular faith. Neither side is a heretical sect or anything, they just focus on different tenets of their religion.
Example: Side A worships Pharasma as the Kindly One, Patron of Midwives, Goddess of Birth and Weaver of Fate. Side B sees her as the grim and merciless Lady of Graves, Judge of the Dead, waiting patiently for everyone to stand before her in the Boneyard. They don't dislike each other, and indeed, most of them even see each other as necessary, as they each fulfill a role necessary to the tenets of their greater faith, and sometimes even are relieved that 'the other side' is handling the stuff they personally don't find as compelling and necessary.
Or it could be a historical thing. The river used to mark the border between two kingdoms, and people on both sides established what where border towns of their respective nations. Centuries later, both kingdoms are long since changed or fallen, and now only a single nation rules lightly over both, and yet the fused town still retains some individual character depending on which side of the river one is on, despite the people having long since integrated and speaking the same language and sharing the same values and thinking of themselves as one people.
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I tend to world build when I making maps. I find it easier to give the maps flavor.
That said, in my current round of map obsession (which started about a year and half ago), I created a kingdom of mostly swamp, bordered in the north by hills. The primary denizens are (mostly) good-aligned lizard folk and halflings. Strange bedfellows, but it worked for me. The lizard folk bring size and strength, the halflings bring beer.
Anyway, I did a map of a large town/small city, where the lizard folk are concentrated in one part, and the halflings in another. It's an older map, so I might revisit it sooner or later. Maybe make it a bit bigger.
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I think my next map will be The Temple of the Goddess of Night and Desire. I just have to work myself up to get it started.
I finally got around to this map, though I altered the name from "Temple" to "Basilica", and dropped the "of the Goddess" part. I've been working and reworking it for the past few days, but now it's on a track I like. I'm hoping to be finished it soon.
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Finally finished my Basilica of Night and Desire map. It was partly inspired by Smith’s The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles.
The other part comes from the home brew world I use to help keep maps straight in my brain. That world has a Goddess of Night and Desire. Her clergy are kind of like Companions from Firefly, with a healthy dose of Bene Gesserit for additional badass-ness.
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I surprised myself by coming up with another map idea. This one was loosely inspired by the Diablo video game series.
The Shrine of the Triad is dedicated to three powerful archangel type characters, worshiped both individually, and as a trinity. They also promote the worship of a higher power they refer to as their father.
The map cam out pretty decent. The surface level is an equilateral triangle, as symmetrical as I could get it. I also used my book on Byzantine architecture as an inspiration for the interior.
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I haven’t started any new maps within the last two weeks or so, but I did start fiddling with my existing world map. Since I use it to help me keep existing maps straight, as well as help generate ideas for new maps, I like to revisit it on occasion.
I was adding roads, hills, forests, and the occasional village/town/landmark/etc. I changed one name from “The Tower of Heshet” to “The Diamond Tower of Heshet”. That’ll possibly be my next map. Another nice piece of flavor I added was naming the forest right outside the main halfling community. I called the The Dimwood, with the idea that it’s haunted, and these halflings refer to ethereal beings as “dims”.
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I've been continuing to add little bits of flavor to my organizing world map.
Banshee Mountain is kind of like my Wundagore - a haunted place full of dark power. Sickle Hill is an ancient place of power for druids, with maybe a bit of dark edge to it.
Vinterton and Marshedge are two of the main settlements for halflings, with the hills in between where they grow the grapes and gather the honey used for their well-known wines and mead. I might also expand their brewing to included beers, whiskeys, etc.
I added a place called the Hexspire just to fill in space. Not sure what kind of magic users they'll be.
The idea for Sablemane's Rest was inspired by the 5E Monster Manual entry for centaurs. It talked about how centaurs who couldn't keep up with the tribe might settle on the edge of a small town or village. The same entry also talked about centaur migrations spanning entire continents. That got me thinking maybe one who couldn't keep up decided to settle near the hills (and lake) anchoring one end of their migration route. Other centaurs, and a few folks from other races, eventually settled their as well. Since it's size varies with the centaur migration patterns, I show it as more of a landmark than a town or village.
One region I started to develop was inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's supernatural France stories. It bordered the main elf kingdom, and I decided that it once was part of the elven realm. The north western part was where most of the elves lived, but the southeastern part (which eventually became this France-like kingdom) was primarily dominated by half-elves. Eventually, they separated, and the french-like place became a combo of mostly half-elves and humans.
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Of course, most of this will ever see the light of day. Except for snippets I post about here, and the maps I put up on my facebook page. Mostly, it's all just part of the effort to keep myself from being bored. Same reason I still post on these boards.
I have a long history of world building, though, going all the way back to my middle and high school days. I used to tape pieces of 11x17 paper together to make world maps. Back then, I'd use pencil and crayon. These days, my maps are done exclusively with CC3+. I've been known to use Power Point as well, however.
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I also realized I only had one city and a fortress in my Fire Giant-controlled region, and I hadn't given the area a name. So I added a new fortress, Helgvar (to accompany the city of Skolmir and the other fortress of Eldur), then named the whole area Brandsten (which, according to Google Translate, is Swedish for Fire Rock. Brilliant, eh?). Not sure if I'll keep that name, since I don't think it sounds sufficiently menacing.
Still, maybe that should be the point.....