Look at this map, tell me what you see.


Advice


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Hello forum friends,

Here is a nifty map that I drew up in about 25 minutes on this cool website. I was just kinda eyeballing it for fun, with no particular goal in mind other than to make a fun adventure backdrop for a new campaign.

I was hoping for some inspiration from you folks!

Take a look and tell me - what do you see?
-What bad guys do you see living in which areas?
-What possible conflicts do you envision here?
-What geography would make for a particularly interesting trade route, monster infestation, or challenging wilderness?
-Do you see any geographical edits that would make it more compelling?

My simple vision is that this area of the world, titled simply The Far Reach, is a new frontier with little in the way of goodly folk but rich in D&D goodness such as ruins, evil humanoids, and the like. The PCs would likely be arriving by sea.

I'd love to hear any opinions you have to offer.


I'm not sure what some of the colours mean; are both of the cities largely surrounded by forest? That implies they're rather small.

There's quite a lot of plains, and the geography doesn't seem like they'd stay unforested without people farming them. There must be a reasonable rural population there.

Coasts being largely wild means that there must be some major danger from the sea.

The cities are positioned on the rivers coming down from the mountains. Maybe they're ports for shipping ore out?

Given the forts you've placed, the swamps are presumably inhabited by people hostile to the plains folk. One obvious conflict there is that the swamps have valuable resources of some kind - anything from wet farmland to amber to ancient artefacts. The other is raids out by the swamp-dwellers.

If a dragon or dragons control the headwaters of one of the rivers then the miners must have some relationship with it, anything from the dragons being the rulers to anti-dragon cannons.


Plains sometimes stay plains because large herd animals graze down young trees before they have the opportunity to become old trees. Think of the Great Plains of North America or the Savannah of Africa.

Liberty's Edge

You mention your PCs would be arriving by sea.

It strikes me that the very narrow channel between two mountain ranges is a prime location for bandits or monstrous creatures to attack what must be a busy water-way. That being the case, I could easily imagine a series of cliffside 'forts' or an active navy being employed by the cities that use that channel - both of which could be interesting adventure hooks or sources of conflict.


JamZilla wrote:

You mention your PCs would be arriving by sea.

It strikes me that the very narrow channel between two mountain ranges is a prime location for bandits or monstrous creatures to attack what must be a busy water-way. That being the case, I could easily imagine a series of cliffside 'forts' or an active navy being employed by the cities that use that channel - both of which could be interesting adventure hooks or sources of conflict.

Yeah, gargoyles, harpies, or payment-for-safe-passage stone throwing giants come to mind.


Joey Cote wrote:
Plains sometimes stay plains because large herd animals graze down young trees before they have the opportunity to become old trees. Think of the Great Plains of North America or the Savannah of Africa.

...and where large herd animals or large herds of animals graze, something even bigger comes to eat them.

Liberty's Edge

Agreed. A bunch of giants hurling rocks onto the deck of your cargo freighter is surely going to put a crimp in your day.

There is no shortage of creatures I can think of who would want to take advantage of something like that.


The icon to the east of the dragon...orc horde? Hobgoblin horde? Slavers that prey upon miners in the mountains?

The icon directly south of the Kraken...ruins? The now ruined former stronghold of an order of once noble paladins that sank in the ruins as they fell to darkness.


that is a nice looking map.
Thanks for giving me a heads up on that page, you might have made my mapmaking days easier :)

on ideas from the map:
the 2 mountain ranges that meet in the middle in a fort with a whole region behind said walls tells me that there is a story - a paranoid country avoiding contact with others? or is the wall there to keep something in?

there is obviously some draconic massive scary thing to the top left, possible winter dragon or somesuch.

and it's neighbours along the top must be dark elves (warhammer style)

I agree with JamZilla that the narrow channel leading to the wider peninsula (is it a peninsula? I can never get geography terms right) must be pirate/bandit waters ...

and the two volcanoes in the surrounding mountain range around that same waters tells me fireworshipping outcast land with some messed up rituals and crazy high priestesses leading a small pirate nation (blood for the blood god etc)

so the end question is: are all the plains peaceful farming areas+ or are they ruled by nomads?
(Native American Inspired Orcs riding Dinousaurs Because Why Wouldn't You?)

that's what I get from first impressions ...


The two cities so close to forests make me think the cities / settlements are on the smallish side. It also makes me think there is a strong elf, fey, and/or druid presence to keep the human (assuming the cities are human) encroachment at bay.

Grand Lodge

Legolas, what do your elf-eyes see?!...
-Mountains: they need foothills, so lets assume they're off to the west, and mountains imply the impact of tectonic plates or holes in the mantel for volcanic activity (usually along tectonic plates too), so your area is somewhat rife with them. Earthquakes and the disasters that go along with them is definitely something you can employ here.
-Weather patterns: West -> East or East -> West? Which hemisphere? Seeing the arid looking lands to the West, so the rainshadow effect probably implies you're in the southern hemisphere of an earth-like world (East -> West winds). However, the north is all icy instead of the south, so I'm going to guess that this is a wacky world where things are backwards and we're northern hemisphere with East->West winds instead of West->East. Maybe the northern plains are home to tribal folk who control the weather, making it a bit more hospitable for what should be some pretty heavy storm fall during the rainy seasons. (edited, the world is topsy-turvy!)
-Swamp lands East of the central peninsula: Orc lands? Some sort of intelligent but savage race goes here I would guess. Humans have put up a defensive structure to hold them on the peninsula, but that allows the orcs to raid boats coming in the northerly and southerly inlets, which would have caused economic impacts to the cities further in-land.
-Nobody lives on the coast: Why? Coastland is a huge source of trading and food. I'm guessing something lives in the water that nobody wants to be around. This might be why the less brutal/civilized races bottled the orcs in an area surrounded by it, knowing they couldn't escape. Big bodies of saltwater might hold something terrifying that everyone avoids and that destroys attempts to populate the coast. The inlets might be brackish enough to let whatever is out there come in only so far. Maybe whatever it is could have discovered a means of coming further in due to a change in weather? Now those cities have to fight for their lives against increasingly common attacks, and the heros need to track down what stopped the rains from coming in and pushing the salt water back out?
-Civilized Population Centers: maybe you're just showing the big ones, but there doesn't look to be many cities in a pretty isolated area. Did they get cut off from other populations? How long have they been out here? They appear to have enemies at all sides, so this could be a story about a desperate struggle to survive.


Pirates. All of them.

Mountain pirates with airships, plains pirates with landships, underground pirates with drillships, and the big baddie to end it all...

The Dragon Pirate, Captain Rumscale.

Grand Lodge

DominusMegadeus wrote:
The Dragon Pirate, Captain Rumscale.

I hope he has a literal scale made out of frozen rum. It's where he got his name.


Divvox2 wrote:
DominusMegadeus wrote:
The Dragon Pirate, Captain Rumscale.
I hope he has a literal scale made out of frozen rum. It's where he got his name.

No come on, he's either a alcoholic kobold/lizardman/something scaly, or a half dragon drunken master.


LuxuriantOak wrote:

that is a nice looking map.

Thanks for giving me a heads up on that page, you might have made my mapmaking days easier :)

Thanks for the compliment. Isn't it a cool program? I found it intuitive and easy, and yes, part of the reason I posted the thread was to share the website with fellow gamers. I hope you make use of it.

-----

Thank you all for the responses so far. I'm liking the ideas and I'll be taking notes when I get off work later.


Twinbridge looks like good place for trade city, as it got like best connections. Especially with wide road in to big city throught the forest. Perhaps the city need fast escape route due volcanic eruptions or other troubles.

The structure in swamp, looks bit elven. I quess this world have savage swamp-elves. Perhaps mixed descendants of elves and goblins. I wonder why it is so near the castle. Perhaps they are subjucated to pay tributes, so it helps to have it one place. Perhaps trade between them makes them forget such differences. Perhaps it is show of power like north korea, filled with soldiers made from twigs and reed.

Now I think there was a tsunami years, maybe centuries ago. Most cities of coast are swept away. Leaving ruins and sunken lands.


Rather than a solitary dragon, how about an entire nation of half-dragons?


Other than the tops of mountains, there's only snow in the big bowl with the dragon icon. That screams ecological disaster from a rather annoyed White Dragon. He's the reason that area is full of snow, which means he can also be the reason water is not flowing as freely from that region as it used to. This gives a solid reason for prior comments about salt water moving upstream and bringing oceanic trouble with it. I'd go with a salt water bred aquatic Troll problem, they can handle being on land within tolerance, so it explains giving the ocean a good wide berth. If the dragon gets bigger each year, the problem will only get worse.

The desert spot to the left could be a rain shadow, or there could be really porous ground there that drains off rainwater into underground channels. A spot to get into the underdark? Possibly a structural problem that could collapse the mountains and cause major disasters for the mining community? Possibly even caused *by* prior generations of mining community?


Shiroi wrote:
*snipped*

I love it.

My first notion was that the snowy dragon area was a higher elevation as opposed to a north/south global orientation causing the cold. But I think I like your idea about the snowy embrace being caused by the presence of a dragon (or dragons and their kin)(nod to Melkiador). Furthermore, the notion of frozen rivers failing to run to the ocean is a really neat idea for a landscape changing phenomenon, which would have consequences for anyone/anything near the rivers.

Dry riverbeds, abandoned communities, animals/monsters having to find new locales, oceanic salt trolls venturing further upriver (your idea), etc.

Love it!


Also I'm thinking of rescaling it from a 25 mile/100 mile to a 10 mile/40 mile scale. (per the map legend).

I think it makes more sense given the layout, and brings some of the dangers a little closer to home.


Shiroi wrote:

Other than the tops of mountains, there's only snow in the big bowl with the dragon icon. That screams ecological disaster from a rather annoyed White Dragon. He's the reason that area is full of snow, which means he can also be the reason water is not flowing as freely from that region as it used to. This gives a solid reason for prior comments about salt water moving upstream and bringing oceanic trouble with it. I'd go with a salt water bred aquatic Troll problem, they can handle being on land within tolerance, so it explains giving the ocean a good wide berth. If the dragon gets bigger each year, the problem will only get worse.

The desert spot to the left could be a rain shadow, or there could be really porous ground there that drains off rainwater into underground channels. A spot to get into the underdark? Possibly a structural problem that could collapse the mountains and cause major disasters for the mining community? Possibly even caused *by* prior generations of mining community?

Wow Shiroi (Japanese for white btw), good write up!


Thanks, I love this kind of stuff. I'm bad at making maps but they have so many ways to twist them into a good game story.

Yeah I usually go by Shiroi Ka, it's a really long story. Lol

To be fair, I used other people's posts prior to build up some of those ideas. I'd never have thought of the white dragon and the sea trolls if it hadn't been mentioned that something was attacking from the coast and that the rivers backing up for some reason might have caused it.


How about inverting some of the usual expectations of Fantasy geography? Normally the plains and grassy lowlands are where you'd expect to find civilisation and "good" farmers, traders, towns etc. Mountains, swamps and gnarled forests are where Orcs and nasties live, right?

Wrong.

What if monstrous humanoid populations have occupied the best arable land and trading ports? Humans, Elves and so on have been pushed to the inhospitable fringes - surviving in isolated mountain villages or hidden marsh communities.

In general though - any bridge or ford on a river is a valuable point from a trade or military perspective. Establishing a toll bridge or market (or both) could be the making of a town - or how one city-state controls trade between neighbouring rivals.

Also - what is to the South? There's a long border and nothing near it. Is that region largely unclaimed or lawless? Could retaking that wilderness (similar to Kingmaker) be a way of rewarding the players with land and strongholds?


People above mentioned natural disasters. That means ruins from the destroyed cities and towns (not necessarily human ones). Suggest you add additional ruins (if possible with the software), possibly on local sub-maps. Ruins are awesome, IMO.

What lives in the ruins? Well, everything. Undead former inhabitants, regular "wandering monster" types (owlbears, wyverns, abberations, etc...), goblinoids that moved in, cultists or monastic orders, outsiders left over from now broken magic circles or other containment, etc. And of course occasional dragons or other local BBEG/bosses.

Perhaps the reason for so few cities is that there's been a large natural disaster (or a series) within the last 500 years. So everything's still competing for space/in the process of reaching equilibrium.

Consider a couple mythal types areas - the magic defended the inhabitants from everything except the natural disaster... Also be sure to put some *good guys* in with all the mobs.

Perhaps in this world, there was a race of advanced, civilized ogres (ie, semi-giants or "noble" ogres). Canonical ogres are the degenerate scions of that race, but there are remnants (such as large-scaled ruins and statues) of their once-proud civilization scattered about. Maybe they previously enslaved "lesser" races such as humans/elves/dwarves, or perhaps they used to protect them.

Consider the fort/tower on the far west as the first outpost of a desert nation (at least I think that area's intended as desert). But players have to "unlock" this at higher levels, maybe by finding a way through the mts somehow - you don't want to give yourself too much to do...

Liberty's Edge

Active Volcanoes...FIRE GIANTS ! ! !


Provenance wrote:
Perhaps the reason for so few cities is that there's been a large natural disaster (or a series) within the last 500 years. So everything's still competing for space/in the process of reaching equilibrium.

The only real concept I had in mind so far was that this land is a relatively recent discovery, only accessible by sea, but has lately become an exciting new frontier for daring adventurers and wealth seekers. Think of the Californian gold rush of the mid-late 1800s.

I suppose in order to back up this "gold rush" theme, I need a reason to justify a recent influx of activity. Maybe gold or mithril mines? Lucrative trade opportunities with local humanoids? A chance to carve out a settlement - like in Kingmaker?

Any other compelling ideas??

JPSTOD wrote:
Active Volcanoes...FIRE GIANTS ! ! !

Yes! I thought the notion of volcanoes so close to one of the settlements would present some fun options.


Hm. Great map. Just putting that out there before I really get into it. If the PCs are arriving by sea, I can see (heh) a number of good choke points that could be used by bandits. If this isn't what you're looking for, then I could definitely see a quest involving some trouble with hostile sea beasties in that bay. Maybe a tribe of Skum or Sahuagin taking up residence in the bay? Besides that, I can see the plains being mainly inhabited by a massive population of a grazing animal. Doesn't have to be anything to weird, could just be bison or some such (Though Catoblepas would be cool if you want to spice it up). The interesting things on the plains would be the predators. I would advise pack animals, like dire wolves or just normal wolves. At the higher levels, you could have some massive rocs or dragons who prey on the herd animal. A monstrous race living on the plains would be a good idea. Gnolls would probably serve best, though I guess orcs or a savage human tribe would serve as well. Maybe a good aligned plains race (Centaurs maybe?), though this race would be a minority compared with the larger more hostile race. Good quest there, helping the little guy fight the big mean gnolls (Insert chosen race here). I'll get back to you with some more ideas later.


Zedth wrote:

Provenance wrote:

Perhaps the reason for so few cities is that there's been a large natural disaster (or a series) within the last 500 years. So everything's still competing for space/in the process of reaching equilibrium.

The only real concept I had in mind so far was that this land is a relatively recent discovery, only accessible by sea, but has lately become an exciting new frontier for daring adventurers and wealth seekers. Think of the Californian gold rush of the mid-late 1800s.

I suppose in order to back up this "gold rush" theme, I need a reason to justify a recent influx of activity. Maybe gold or mithril mines? Lucrative trade opportunities with local humanoids? A chance to carve out a settlement - like in Kingmaker?

Any other compelling ideas??

Hi Zedth -

Well, the questions in my mind tend to be "who used to live here" and "who lives here now".

If you're going for an area that's been completely cut off from any civilization, except maybe nomadic tribes, I think others above have made some great suggestions.

During the actual gold rush (1849 one) there was very significant tension (low scale war, in fact) between the Native Americans and the 49ers/settlers. Not sure how realistic you want to be, but possibly something like that is going on with whoever lives on the plains (posters above mentioned orc tribes and gnolls - not sure if you're going to run with that, but sounds workable).

Another thought - who lives in those mountains to the west? Dwarves? If they've been there a while, are there underground cities? Maybe mithril trade is going on with the dwarves there, but the overland trade route between the mts and the coast is quite dangerous, beset by raiding?

If you like that, have the dwarves had time to delve deep? Stirred up any Underdark denizens yet??

My $0.02...

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