Maps and Stuff

[LRonKnieval]

Hey all,
Just trying to figure out where we stand with the world map.
I'd kind of like everyone's thumbs up on the rough draft, before I continue.
For all those MIA for the last few threads, I made a rough draft based on
GreyOnes world map and modified it to several of your specs. I'm all ready
to make it pretty, I just want to make sure were not forgetting anything
before I get started.

http://www.members.aol.com/looleee/DF.Draft5.gif

Lets get the feedback rolling so I can make us a map
that actually represents DF.

 

[The Burned Man]

Well you know my opinion?

So whats yours Grey One?

---------

 

[GreyOne]

I like it oh Royal Mapmaker.

 

[LRonKnieval]

Here's the next version of the map....
I'm going to post updates as I build it to avoid mishaps, mislabeling, misinformation...well, you get the idea.www.members.aol.com/looleee/DF.Draft6.gif
as usual post comments

 

[GreyOne]

Beauty map, oh small, purple, monkey-creature!

Qualifications:

Should the mountains in the central lands be so closed in (doesn't seem to be room to breathe)?

Should there be actual fire in the south (still seems a bit too close)?

The Land of the Many should be partly tundra and rolling plains. Maybe the forest should not be SO predominant.

 

[LRonKnieval]

Thats where you put the mountains buddy!!!!
Just kidding, I'll shrink 'em down a little... Do you want some removed or just the widths decreased. Give me a verbal description based on the rough draft and I'll adjust it.

As far as the fire in the south goes...
This goes back to the age old question of what the DF world looks like?
If it is indeed flat, then yes.. actually fire should probably go in the south.
To my understanding, the flat world merges with elemental planes/nodes or something like that.
If the distance of the fire is too close, thats another issue.
I haven't placed a map scale yet but its about 1"/1,200 miles. That means that its 4,800 miles from Mt. Barakus to the edge of the world. In d20 terms, thats about a 200 day walk for a PC with movement rate of 30.
I'm ok with that for three reasons:
First off, even if it seems like a short distance, DF has no teleport spells or magical way of instantly getting from one place to another, (at least I remember R-Wicket stating that at one point) so it shorter distances make the more interesting locations a little more accessable for adventuring.
Second, the danger factor. Poorly navigated boats and airships run the very real risk of disappearing of the edge of the world.
Third, limit the space and the need and importance for habitable territory increases. This naturally creates conflict , not only between fiends and mortals, but between mortals themselves. Overpopulation and expansionism threaten to push weaker civilizations of the face of the earth.
If everyone wants the world larger, thats also something that can easily be rectified.

How should I break up The Land of the Many?
Scattered forests, or the forest in one area (if so nw, se, etc.)? Give me a verbal description based on the roughdraft, and i'll do it.

keep threading the commments and it'll all get done.

 

[GreyOne]

I would break the forest into many forests (and have perhaps one larger one). The northwest and central north was populated by the "Horse and Lion peoples" and I envisioned a sort of grassland/boreal forest mixture. However you decide on doing this is fine.

Yeah, just decrease the width of the mountains so there's a bit more leg room.

As to the fire, yeah the world is flat and you eventually come to the elemental plane of fire, but I think it should be more gradual (in each direction), making it more inhospitable as you progress but not unsurviveable (is that a word?)

 

[The Burned Man]

maybe the fire in the map is just the artistic license of the cartographer who made it, he doesnt know what lies further to the south....

 

[LRonKnieval]

The current map is centered around Mt Barakus, with all distances being placed at an essentially equal length from the center ( perhaps the map should really be circular to better reflect this factor). My point being that, if the plane of fire moves farther away from the center, thoeretically, everything else should too (unless Mt.Barakus isn't truly in the center of the world, and is only the center of the fiend lands or something like that). To respond to GreyOnes comments, I was under the assumption that the fiendlands wer the inhospitable areas that lead to the elemental planes and that the farther into the burned lands a person travels, the more inhospitable the land would become. Same goes for the endless ocean, land of the many and the land of the broken with each of their connecting elemental planes.

Its not a problem for me to make continents bigger, but once again consider the arguements I made about the distances in my earlier post.

So my question is, is there something that needs to be placed further south on the map?
If so I will add it, and increase the map size. If there isn't something there in the text, why bother adding, there is enough of the DF world that currently needs/lacks development and adding to that won't help the task get finished.
In the future, if there is something that people feel should be added that lies "beyond the flames (or other elemental plane for that matter)" we can add that at a later date as an anomoly or as "demi elemental planes" or something like that. passing through the planes to get to new realms might make an excellent high level adventure at some point.

Also, should the map be circular to account for Mt. Barakus being the center of the world?

 

[RangerWickett]

Nice idea, BM. Scholars say that there are elemental lands in the cardinal directions, but almost no cartographers would know whether that is truly the case.