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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bushfire" data-source="post: 1361974" data-attributes="member: 347">You know wilderness mapping is something I have always done with D&D. I started a long time ago with the Judges Guild Wilderlands and have always figured it was the best way to go. Detailed maps, 5-mile hexes, lairs, ruins, villages all there for you to use. Detailed Judges maps, blank Players maps. Still the best campaign setting ever for outdoor adventuring, even after 25 years. Combined with a good random encounter table and a good weather generator and the outdoors can be as memorable as down in the dungeon.I got pretty spoiled using JG though. When I bought the 1st ed Forgotten Realms box set I liked the world but hated the maps. They had a 90 mile to the inch scale or something right? All I know is that using the FR maps it was darn impossible to actually map the wilderness.I think most all published campaign settings have the same problem. They are trying to present such a large campaign world that the little details like actual terrain get lost. Large scale poster maps look nice and all but are pretty useless to the DM in detailing the wilderness. I mean how can you have a party get lost traveling when you have a map with 65 miles/hex like the LG Gazetter? How can you explore a 65 mile hex? How can you know how the terrain varies within the 65 mile hex? Heck, 65 miles is a days travel even by horse in good terrain, several days travel by foot. Such settings are nice I suppose if you are planning on the party crisscrossing the globe on a regular basis or only following roads. I like site-based adventures but getting to the dungeon should be half the fun.I am so looking forward to the re-release of the Wilderlands maps by Necromancer/Judges Guild, especially with the expanded descriptions of stuff. I will be glad when a new generation of gamers can see what a wilderness map should look like. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I don't tend to modify wilderness encounters by party level like I would in a dungeon where you can have a more linear track. Top level easy, lower levels harder. The wilderness should be dangerous and unpredictable, and parties should have to occansionaly duck and cover (or run and hide) if confronted with something beyond thier ability to handle. In the troll den example above I would keep it a den full of trolls but allow the party the chance to avoid it. If a low-level party wants to try taking out a den of trolls, then thier death is thier fault. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Civilised areas have thier own problems, bandits and tax collectors among others. It is a rare kingdom where a virgin can carry a chest of gold across it without being molested.bushfire</blockquote>

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