Unfortunately, the map from the actual game is too large for me to use without the players seeing it (since this is unfamiliar wilderness to them). So I needed a smaller map I could keep hidden and have decided to use this one, created by Snorri of A Wizard in a Bottle.
I'm making some modifications to the map to better reflect some already-established details of the campaign, but, overall, this will do very nicely. The scale will be five miles per hex and I'll be using the OD&D rules for wilderness travel/encounters, ported over to Labyrinth Lord, in addition to some house rules of my own. I'll post these rules, along with a full report of today's session, later in the week, as usual.
what is up with this geology? I see lots of parallel folding and then a thin ridge crosscutting it all (and of course everything at 60 degree angles). The rivers are totally freaking me out.
ReplyDelete...and then I remember the elves, the dragons and the magic spells and it doesn't bother me so much.
ReplyDelete:)
Richard has a point. If one of the aspects of Old School D&D we embrace is naturalism, then that should logically carry over to the geographical character of the world as well. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteThe geology is there because it's from the map to one of the deadliest Avalon Hill games ever, designed to kill whole camping parties in a few in-game days or less. Outdoor Survival is likely more deadly than D&D.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1511/outdoor-survival
I think the Bat in the Attic blog guy has a redrawn version very nicely done in his Wilderlands/generic map product not called Wilderlands map style but the scale or physical size may be too large for James' needs.
You mean this one ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://wilderlands.batintheattic.com/southlandsm.jpg
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just reacting to the information imparted by the map. There is clearly some pattern in this terrain - it looks designed: as a player that intrigues me, just as a notched old shield would, if the notches happened to look like a message carved in runes.
ReplyDeletethanks a lot James!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you need the outdoor survival map, but honestly, the one I saw the you created from long ago I think is much nicer. Why not use it or just draw another map?
ReplyDelete"The geology is there because it's from the map to one of the deadliest Avalon Hill games ever, designed to kill whole camping parties in a few in-game days or less. Outdoor Survival is likely more deadly than D&D."
ReplyDeleteI got Outdoor Survival a year or two back, and my friends fell in love with it. Possibly our favorite boardgame.
Games can teach the starkest of lessons; this one was intentionally designed that way. (It comes with a handbook of actual outdoors survival techniques.)
Lesson learned: Get to the fucking water, man.
I won a near-mint/unpunched copy of Outdoor Survival on EBay, it arrived in the mail a few days ago. I'm going to use the map as the basis/inspiration for wilderness maps from on on.
ReplyDeleteArtist and game designer Thomas Denmark (of Dungeoneer fame) also redid the map for his own OD&D game:
ReplyDeletehttp://originaleditionfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/original-campaign-world.html
Followed by these posts:
http://originaleditionfantasy.blogspot.com/search/label/lavivrus
If and when I get my druthers during my Tuesday night Board Game group I always vote for Outdoor Survival. It plays fast, it's fun, and as a myriad of people have already pointed out it's BRUTAL!
ReplyDeleteThere is clearly some pattern in this terrain - it looks designed: as a player that intrigues me, just as a notched old shield would, if the notches happened to look like a message carved in runes.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I've been toying around with notions related to this but I don't want to say too much for fear of establishing things about my campaign world that hasn't yet come up in play.
That said, I actually wound up using a wilderness map that's a bit different than this one, in part because I didn't like the mountain ranges in the Outdoor Survival map -- but for rather different reasons.
Outdoor Survival... wow, I don't care how silly that game was, or what reputation it had, it was the first game I got with my own money, and it will always be one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and I still get it out now and then and play the "lost" variation for a good short brutish laugh.
But back to your map question, there was a post-apoc game a few years back that simply flipped North America upside down for its map. It was immediately alien yet totally believable.