A question about map scale

[tbl1976]

Throughout my years of playing D&D, I've seen various scales used for maps. I was looking at real world mountain ranges and placing comparable ranges to my map, I find the cscale seemed to not fit quite right. I find that I do like the 6 mile hex for regional maps works quite well for overland travel but when it comes to mountains, things seem off. For further out 24 mile hexes seems logical. For example.

Hexes in 6 mile/hex and 24 m/hex

The Andes
Length 4,300 miles 716 hexes 179 hexes
Width 70-300 miles 11.6-50 hexes 2.9-12.5 hexes

Rocky's
Length 3,000 miles 500 hexes 125 hexes
Width 70-300 miles 11.6-50 hexes 2.9-12.5 hexes

Himalayas
Length 1,500 miles 250 hexes 62.5 hexes
Width 125-250 miles 333.3 hexes-341.6 hexes 5.2-10.4 hexes

Appalachian
Length 2000-2,050 miles 333.3-341.6 hexes 83.3-85.4 hexes
Width 100-300 miles 16.66-50 hexes 4.1-12.5 hexes

Now, I've using this scale. I am just not sure what scale to use for continet scale that fits this formula. I've seen where some people suggest using 24 m/h for continets but that seems rather small.

Local 1 mile/hex
Regional 6 miles/hex
Kingdom 24 miles/hex
Continet ?? miles/hex

 

[Tigris]

I think the best is to dont translate it into our measures at all. 1 Hex is 1 hex. It needs X time units to travel.

 

[Hriston]

I think to maintain consistency of the dimensions of the mountain ranges you're interested in representing you could bump it up to a 36 mile diameter hex, but more than that and you'll lose some granularity.

 

[aco175]

@tbl1976 welcome to the boards.

I tend to make maps for 1 day of travel or 1 week of travel. This may mean 20-24 miles on local maps and +/-150 miles for larger maps. I do not really make larger maps so not dure what would be a good scale.

I'm not sure scale is really needed. Wagons and horses travel only so much and I find that people will place campsites and inns about a day's travel apart.

 

[Li Shenron]

Now, I've using this scale. I am just not sure what scale to use for continet scale that fits this formula. I've seen where some people suggest using 24 m/h for continets but that seems rather small.

Local 1 mile/hex
Regional 6 miles/hex
Kingdom 24 miles/hex
Continet ?? miles/hex

For worldbuilding/illustrative purposes, it depends a bit how large you envision your fantasy kingdoms to be, but more or less I think your scales are reasonable for drawing e.g. a single kingdom on an A3 sheet using the kingdom scale. I tend to make fantasy world bigger than Earth, so for a continent I might as well multiply the kingdom scale by 10.

For playing the game, I only measure distances in the time it takes to travel there, because that's the only practical value which matters to the travellers (plus probably the cost, if they have to pay for transportation). So I don't say that Village X and City Y are N miles apart, I say that they are N days (or hours, or weeks) apart, depending on the means of travel.

 

[Fenris-77]

I agree about the scale of trying to fit in the Andes, but anything much bigger than 12 mile hexes gets a bit unwieldy for hex based travel the way it's normally written. Games with longer journey time frames, like UVG and its weeks, don't tend to use hexes.

 

[Koloth]

Another vote for time to destination over a specific unit/hex scale. Even today, most travelers ask "How long will this trip take" instead of "How far is it to where we are going?" Flights are in flight time. Train routes are normally in How long to the next stop. Cars are often questions like "How long until we can stop for food?"

You should be able to work back to a unit per hex scale. Make a GM decision on how many hours/days it takes from X to Y. Determine type of terrain(s). Refer to your game system's travel time over said terrain for a specified distance. Math at that point should be fairly simple. Use that scale for the rest of your map.

Many fantasy worlds seem a lot smaller then Earth so trying to fit an Earth scale feature into your fantasy world may require downsizing the feature.

 

[Fenris-77]

Another vote for time to destination over a specific unit/hex scale. Even today, most travelers ask "How long will this trip take" instead of "How far is it to where we are going?" Flights are in flight time. Train routes are normally in How long to the next stop. Cars are often questions like "How long until we can stop for food?"

You should be able to work back to a unit per hex scale. Make a GM decision on how many hours/days it takes from X to Y. Determine type of terrain(s). Refer to your game system's travel time over said terrain for a specified distance. Math at that point should be fairly simple. Use that scale for the rest of your map.

Many fantasy worlds seem a lot smaller then Earth so trying to fit an Earth scale feature into your fantasy world may require downsizing the feature.

I think there's an interesting Europe vs North America thing that helps explain this. In lots of European countries if you ask how far something is away they will answer in KM, not terms of time. But in North America, and Canada for sure, when you ask how far away something is you get a time, not a distance. When you can drive for three days and still be in Ontario distance isn't the prime mover. Generally, it would help to move from days to weeks and see how that feels. Overland travel is slow.

 

[SkidAce]

I always tell them time when they ask how far away something is.

But I keep miles as the base/common denominator...i.e. "Takes four hours to get to Towndale, unless you take the carriage route, then its two hours."

My notes show carriage route is x2 speed in normal terrain.

 

[Tigris]

I always tell them time when they ask how far away something is.

But I keep miles as the base/common denominator...i.e. "Takes four hours to get to Towndale, unless you take the carriage route, then its two hours."

My notes show carriage route is x2 speed in normal terrain.

Using time as measurement is great. This is even better than hex units what I proposed.


Simpler directly useable and no need for measurements and other modes of transportation can just modify the time modifier.

Horse /2, griffin /4 etc.