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D&D (2024) Greyhawk 2024: comparing Oerth and Earth
- Thread starter Yaarel
- Start date
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
The latitudes of the Greyhawk map are known from the 1983 World of Greyhawk Glossography.
They correspond to North America. Blackmoor is in the latitude and the geography of Hudson Bay of Canada. The Burneal Forest corresponds the subarctic boreal forests across Canada. The Corusk Mountains are Labrador and Newfoundland. Shar of Cuba, Florida above it. Note the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Woolly Bay and Relmor Bay are swollen versions of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Aerdi Great Kingdom is the eastern United States. From the east coast of Flanaess to the Yatil Mountains compares the east coast of the US to the Rocky Mountains.
The sense of size and scope demonstrates how massive the Greyhawk map is. Each hex is 30 miles across. 23 hexes northward is 10° latitude. Thus, the size of the planet Oerth checks out, and is the same size as the reallife planet Earth.
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Emerikol
Legend
Nicely done. I love maps. I'm almost tempted to get the DMG 2024 just for the Greyhawk map. Probably why it's there.
When I do my maps in Worldographer, my high level map is 180 miles across a hex. My continental maps are 30 miles across a hex. My lower level maps are 6 miles across a hex. 180 divides into 27,000 exactly 150 times so my planet is just slightly bigger than earth but not by much.
When I do my maps in Worldographer, my high level map is 180 miles across a hex. My continental maps are 30 miles across a hex. My lower level maps are 6 miles across a hex. 180 divides into 27,000 exactly 150 times so my planet is just slightly bigger than earth but not by much.
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Honestly, it is worth buying the book just for the map. Especially for those of us who are into the mapping. ... And you know it will be a collectors item. Might even get an extra book to keep mint.
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
From the latitude map in the 1983 Greyhawk Glossography, the larger yellow rectangle above is official 1983 canon. It is worthwhile to clearly understand what is going on within this wider area.
In the upper left corner of the rectangle, we see some of the northerly continent of Hyperborea. Some fan maps depict all of Hyperborea as a polar icecap. (I too assumed this.) However its lower warmer latitude means it is moreso as Europe! Much of Hyperborea is heavily populated.
In the lower left of the rectangle, there is Zindia, including the part corresponding reallife India. It is a suitable location for a fantasy version of a Hinduesque campaign.
By the way, some DMs use the Greyhawk map (1980, 1983, 2024) but not the Oerth world map (1996, 2000). When I refer to a location somewhere else in the world outside of Greyhawk, just think of it as a placeholder that can be plugged in anywhere that makes sense in whichever world map you use.
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Emerikol
Legend
Not sure about the collectability of these things. I'm not sure the 1e DMG is really all that collectable. They are relatively cheap online. But I agree the map is really nice.
David Howery
Hero
and the NyrDyv is Lake Superior. Almost exactly.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Except by latitude. Superior is north of Minneapolis, Minneapolis is at the 45° latitude as is Dorakaa. Nyr Dyv is quite south from Dorakaa.
Think of putting Superior between Chicago and Nashville for Nyr Dyv’s climate.
Yaarel
🇮🇱He-Mage
Definitely, yes.
At the same time, when I compare the geographies, I read Nyr Dyv as a merging of the other nearby Great Lakes as well, along with Superior. The only Lake missing is Ontario. I imagine it being there, in some sense, not necessarily as a body of water. Even a notable river can work. As the C&C Great Kingdom map evolved into both the Greyhawk campaign and the Blackmoor campaign, what where originally minimalist sketches of rivers, were rendered as significant water bodies in later maps.
At the time, they were modeling reallife maps, mostly to have a map that felt "realistic" and "plausible". Even their sketches were looking at actual atlases. Albeit, there were many distortions.
Like the 1996 Oerth map has an East Oerik that has its coast roughly follow the coastline from Poland all the way to Spain ... except France is around the size of the continent of Australia.
Now that I have a clearer idea of where the latitudes are, and what the plausible weather patterns are, it is difficult to reconcile some of the D&D narratives.
Heh, I meant the map will be collectible. Players chew thru maps. The good maps get much love and nostalgia. And the 2024 Greyhawk map is beautiful in its own right. A couple decades from now, a mint map will be valuable.
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Aellic Mornbringer
Explorer
If one is just in the market for the map, as I believe darjr mentioned in another thread, Mike Schley will soon be offering the map on his website. I'm planning to get one direct from him for a nicer, maybe larger scale, wall mount copy.
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