I just spent a few hours scribbling on a 17"x22" sheet of graph paper creating a map of my PC's home village and the surrounding area. All in all, it represents over 2,000 square miles of the foothills of the Eiglophian mountains. I created major trails, two rivers, and a forest that spans around a third of the map. I noted places the players have already explored and added neat, new stuff with names like Wounded Canyon (that is created when the Dimond Run and Blood rivers merge, carving out a steep gouge in the earth with almost vertical sides), Blood Lake, and Barne's Bridge. My players can now see the spatial relation of familiar places like the Witched Wood, Blood River Basin, Howling Cave, and Stenna's Orphan Homestead. Sunrise Trail, the major path that takes travelers east, and the Blue Fox Warrens directly to the south of the PC village of Seven Stones Ridge can clearly be seen.
Ya know, you create something like this, and then you just sit back, smile to yourself, stretch your arms behind your head, and nod with nobody else in the room. You just know you've added something "neat" to your game that your players are going to appreciate. You get a type of gamer's high--the GM High--having created something that is going to be useful for several adventures to come.
Do you know what I'm talking about.
There's nobody around to give you an atta-boy, so you just kinda pat yourself on the back and smile. It's a sense of a job completed and a job well done. It's one of the reasons I love to be the GM. Things like this power my creativity, and it just...well...feels good.
Heck, I'd smoke a cigar and open a bottle of wine if I smoke or drank (I don't).
I've wanted to created a map like this for my game since it started. Until now, I've sufficed on smaller, encounter maps. I wanted this thing not only to convey to my players the terrain I saw in my head but to also use it to turn the game into a true sandbox. My adventures so far have been fairly structured. My players always have true input on the direction of the game, but, so far, I've been able to predict and persuade the direction of the game on a specific path. Now, I'm gearing up to open this map up in front of my players and just say, "OK, you're here. It's morning. What do you want to do?"
And, the game will just follow in the direction the players pick.
That kind of stuff is fun.
And, as of now, I'm getting closer to that game session.
Ya know, you create something like this, and then you just sit back, smile to yourself, stretch your arms behind your head, and nod with nobody else in the room. You just know you've added something "neat" to your game that your players are going to appreciate. You get a type of gamer's high--the GM High--having created something that is going to be useful for several adventures to come.
Do you know what I'm talking about.
There's nobody around to give you an atta-boy, so you just kinda pat yourself on the back and smile. It's a sense of a job completed and a job well done. It's one of the reasons I love to be the GM. Things like this power my creativity, and it just...well...feels good.
Heck, I'd smoke a cigar and open a bottle of wine if I smoke or drank (I don't).
I've wanted to created a map like this for my game since it started. Until now, I've sufficed on smaller, encounter maps. I wanted this thing not only to convey to my players the terrain I saw in my head but to also use it to turn the game into a true sandbox. My adventures so far have been fairly structured. My players always have true input on the direction of the game, but, so far, I've been able to predict and persuade the direction of the game on a specific path. Now, I'm gearing up to open this map up in front of my players and just say, "OK, you're here. It's morning. What do you want to do?"
And, the game will just follow in the direction the players pick.
That kind of stuff is fun.
And, as of now, I'm getting closer to that game session.
