D&D 5E [Map Rant] Hey, Developers: Please stop coloring your seas bright sky blue

[Nawara]

[RANT BASED ON PERSONAL SUBJECTIVE TASTE]

Look, I love a bold light blue. It's my favorite color. Half of my shirts are light blue. My winter scarf is light blue. I went to UNC. I'm a fan.

But it has its place, and that place is probably not as the color of the sea on a fantasy world map. It just makes any fantasy map it touches look too much like something from a 1980s geography textbook. (Primeval Thule, I'm looking in your direction.)

There are lots of other options for coloring the sea on a fantasy world map: Sepia tones, desaturated light blues and blue-grays, dark blue, and even dark green all can work well. Historically, each of those was more common than bold sky blue, a color usually (though admittedly not always) reserved for depicting the heavens in ancient, Classical, and Medieval maps.

So, yeah... that's really all I have to say. Don't just color your seas sky blue because you hired a real-world GIS-trained cartographer to do your Kickstarter's maps and that guy was trained in some modern convention.

Thanks.

[/RANT BASED ON PERSONAL SUBJECTIVE TASTE]

 

[Halivar]

Light blue is easier on my poor inkjet printer.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Contrast is a thing. Just sayin'...

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Here I thought that this was going to be a legitimate concern by someone who is colorblind...

 

[ExploderWizard]

Look at the wonderful Darlene Greyhawk Maps. Different shades for water depending on depth.

 

[Morrus]

I think that Primeval Thule map looks just fine.

 

[Nawara]

Contrast is a thing. Just sayin'...

I'm a big fan of this map, from Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I probably should have clarified in my initial post that I'm not against any blue at all, just really saturated light blues like you get in modern maps. This is a really cool blue-gray color that, to me, lends more of an epic fantasy feel to the map than a bright blue would have.

Here's another map where the blue is desaturated enough to maintain the medieval fantasy look.

Here I thought that this was going to be a legitimate concern by someone who is colorblind...

Nope, sorry. I did my best to flag it as a rant, though.

I think that Primeval Thule map looks just fine.

Eh, I think it looks like a road atlas. But to each their own.

(Note: I really like Primeval Thule in general, this is just a nitpick.)

 

[Morrus]

Those look fine, too. They're all fine.

 

[Ristamar]

For maps used purely as reference tools, I don't mind the 1980's textbook look. However, if you're relying on map handouts to invoke a certain feel and style correlated to your campaign, I can understand the gripe.

 

[jeffh]

As long as the seas contrast with the land in some way, I'm fine. I've seen maps where there was more contrast between plains and other landforms like forests and mountains than there was between ocean and land. It looked like half the cities were underwater. That's a MUCH worse design fail than using an inauthentic shade of blue.