Mapping

[Trifletraxor]

I'm strugling to understand my new mapping software, but but it will go easier with time I hope.

Before I sit down to do some serious mapping, I've made an ugly sketch from the geography descriptions in the wiki conscerning the portal and the green. Is this what people where imagining?



Now, this does not fit very well with the idea of boiling waters around sky mtn. causing the rain that fall later, or the land getting colder and colder away from the sun.

So the question is, shall we go with something like this and discard some of the old ideas, or shall we adjust the map to the old idea?

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

Also, should we go for a full map of the world at once, or start it up gradually expanding the map as more areas are described?

SGL.

[rust]

As I understood Puck's sketch, there should also be mountains "north" and
"west" of The Green, turning The Green into a wet basin that is surrounded
on three sides by mountains and opens to the "south" to the sea, and being
more narrow at the "northwestern" end and more broad in the "east " ?

Besides, I would propose to start with one region (from The Green to the Sky
Mountain), and add other regions later, as they are developed by and by. It
seems that up to now there are no proposals what these regions should look
like, so you would have to invent them on your own - and then probably to
change them again and again, as ideas and proposals are developed.

The "boiling waters" around Sky Mountain seem to have gone out of fashion
somewhat, currently all the proposals seem to include deserts around Sky
Mountain ...

[soltakss]

I'd start with the whole world rather than a little section of it.

This map doesn't show the Sky Mountain being the center of the world, it seems very peripheral.

Nor does it show seas, large landmasses etc.

I'd draw the world outline with large areas drawn with a broad brush. That way, we can add things to those areas and they can be added to the map afterwards.

The trouble with describing small regions and drawing maps of those regions if that they become isolated and it is difficult to see how they interact with other areas.

As for the geography itself, deserts arouns Sky Mountain is fine, put seas around the deserts and possibly deserts around the seas. The Inner Desert would be very hot and extreme where only Heroes go. The Outer Desert would turn into chaparral/bush at the outside extremes but would be proper desert near the inner seas. Since the seas would be evaporated quickly there would be salt pans and salt deserts there, but the seas would also regenerate somehow.

[soltakss]

I like the graphics, though, simple and clear but not too basic.

I'd pefer a more ancient look, but that's because I like ancient-style maps.

[Puck]

I very much like the lay and feel of Frogspawner's map. I would prefer to juggle Europe and the Mediterranean so It was not so noticeably the real world (maybe have different, more interestingly shaped protrusions instead of Spain, Italy and Greece), but that is just my personal preference.

The idea of two continents coming together from the northwest and southeast works very well, particularly, with narrow waterways widening to seas between the two. This can allow for all sorts of civilized and rival future write-ups.

That Icelandic island would work nice as a home for Viking types when the Brp Vikings book comes out.

For the Green, Rust has it dead on. I was thinking that north-western corner would be kind of hooked and heavily pressed between the mountains and the sea. As it fades to the southeast it would broaden allowing for greater variation. I was hoping the mountains could be very high and rise up steeply like the Himalayas.

It would be nice to have a very large, intense, somewhat mountainous desert behind the Green as the mountains suck the moisture form the sky. This would be fun to work on as a possible future project as well.

As for sun mountain, I kind of liked the way it was central and yet very hard to reach, strange that it is in the north and not the south though.

Just an idea: What about placing sun mountain on a plateau or several plateaus of higher mountains kind of like a Natural god-made ziggurat. People traveling there would have to climb cliffs or mountians with each level One level could be a burning Desert the next plateau where water vapour rises to the air could be very steamy.
Sun god temples could be ziggurats in miniature and their temple rites could be mini hero quests of climbing to the sun. This stuff is really Soltakss’ specialty though, I do not know what he has planned.

[soltakss]

Did you just hack into my PC and read what I was writing about Sky Mountain?

[rust]

Soltakss probably is right, a map of the entire world really has the advantage
to make it easier to fit additional creations into it and connect them to the
other regions - I did not think of that. Well, I am still used to pen and paper-
maps, and changing anything on them is a nasty job (I still have to get used
to computers ...).

Otherwise, I think all the ideas mentioned are fine.

[Puck]

Did you just hack into my PC and read what I was writing about Sky Mountain?

Nope, I am just telepathic.

It is amazing how ideas and thought tend to come together that way. A week ago I would not have even thought of it. But after reading your myths and stuff, it just seemed to kind of match up.

Well, I am still used to pen and paper-
maps, and changing anything on them is a nasty job (I still have to get used
to computers ...).

Amen. I had a scanner and I could just make a rough outline, scan it, make a few copies to play around with, rough drafts as it were. Now it seems every time I need to change something I've got to retrace the entire map. The Scanner seems to have died though.

[Trifletraxor]

So, understanding a tiny bit more of the software now...

Below is a map-suggestion for Sky Mtn., and the desert surrounding it:



Any feedback? I planned to work outwards from the middle. I've attached the CC3 file for anyone with CC3 who would like to modify it.

I imagine a large landmass to the north, connected by the northeast arm of the desert, and a large unconnected landmass to the south.

Could the green be on the southern landmass and the Portal/Hell Ruin on the north, or do they need to be on the same one?

SGL.