Map making and reading

[Li Shenron]

The 3.0 edition sourcebook for rogues and bards (Song & Silence) had a treasure hunter prestige class, and he need map reading skills, if I remember tonight, when I get home, I will try and post up the skills that wer prerequisites and class skills of the class.

Unless someone here has acces to it now and could post it

Feegle Out

The Royal Explorer's requirements included 8 ranks in Profession (Cartographer).

 

[Warehouse23]

For a little historical accuracy, most "maps" in a medieval/western fantasy setting should be little more than pictures/sketches of major landmarks, shorelines, mountain ranges, etc. Map-making really only came into its own post-Renaissance, with the advent of reliable surveying tools and a need for trade maps.

Another factor to consider is that different cultures map differently. A common practice in many pre-modern middle eastern/Indian sub-continent cultures was to make maps where the linear scale on the map represents travel time, not distance (so an impassable mountain range would be mapped large, whereas the royal road, no mapper how long, might be drawn as a short line). I would think that this kind of map might work well in a pre-surveying, post-literacy fantasy setting common to many D&D games.

 

[Li Shenron]

For a little historical accuracy, most "maps" in a medieval/western fantasy setting should be little more than pictures/sketches of major landmarks, shorelines, mountain ranges, etc. Map-making really only came into its own post-Renaissance, with the advent of reliable surveying tools and a need for trade maps.

Another factor to consider is that different cultures map differently. A common practice in many pre-modern middle eastern/Indian sub-continent cultures was to make maps where the linear scale on the map represents travel time, not distance (so an impassable mountain range would be mapped large, whereas the royal road, no mapper how long, might be drawn as a short line). I would think that this kind of map might work well in a pre-surveying, post-literacy fantasy setting common to many D&D games.

Interesting knowledge... But we also have to remember that D&D is not really medieval after all. It doesn't have much technology from renaissance (esp. it doesn't have weapons, it doesn't have any gunpowder for example), but most of the gaming groups assumes that the D&D world has large availability of books, travel facilities, metropolitan cities, commerce goods, academies for everything etc. It's more like if the medieval age hasn't ended, but survived into later centuries.