Homemade fantasy settings and the map

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Unwitting Pawn

For their homemade fantasy settings, how much of the world-map do GMs create in advance? I suppose this relates quite closely to how much of the regional/global politics the GM decides (is necessary) in advance.

Let's see, last time i did such a thing I statted with a world map complete with origins in Mythic History for why it looked the way it did. This set gneral terrain for the campaign area and when I set "Cheapinghaven" on the map i knowe where it was in relation to everything else and what the local land looked like in basic terms.

None of this turned out to be either useful, important or even intertesting to anyone but me and I haven't done so again.

This sort of segued into a magical palce that couldn't be mapped (The Transdimensional Tunnels of Tuzun Tha) but after that I haven't really done "original" settings. This is not to say that the original creators of the local dungeon maps I turned into The World of D'y'r't woud recognize the place but I stopped drawing my own maps.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Unwitting Pawn

For their homemade fantasy settings, how much of the world-map do GMs create in advance? I suppose this relates quite closely to how much of the regional/global politics the GM decides (is necessary) in advance.

I ask out of curiosity, rather than expecting a "solution". I find myself in the situation of being mid-campaign, and having created just enough of the map that was necessary at the time (national map plus borders), I now struggle to "expand" the region/continent, reconciling what I have created so far with all the things I want to include now (and might in the future).

My starting size depends upon tech level and magic levels - mostly for travel limits - and nature of campaign.

Generally, I start new fantasy campaigns with 1 week's best travel available to PC's mapped out. (I start Traveller settings with a subsector or two.) If the party wants a travelogue type game, I'll start with a couple months worth, but in less detail.

Now, one particular game world, I started with 1"=100NM, and 2 sheets of 7.5"x10" map - whole world was islands. The only details were the language and cultural overlays, and the races of the setting. (I wrote up first for Rolemaster, but ran it far more in Hero System 4E. Used Fantasy Hero supplement for races and some rules addenda, but used the Mystic Masters magic rules.)

[Graham]

I started with a dungeon level back in early 1979, and soon added a village up top. That was quickly expanded to the surrounding island. Six months (and a lot of sessions) later that island became a tiny dot on a world map.

33 years later I'm still filling in the detail...

Graham

[digoraccoon]

Originally Posted by Unwitting Pawn

For their homemade fantasy settings, how much of the world-map do GMs create in advance?

Area-wise, my maps are about as large as the east half of the USA (Mississippi River to the Atlantic). This has always been plenty of land to depict at least one prominant nation per "civilized" race and lots of little sandbox style points of interest where a dungeon could be hiding.

[Joseph R]

Some sage replies; thanks everyone. Made me smile too :-)

If you're ready for a follow-up question, what scale(s) do you use?

I began with 1 hex = 10 miles for my nation-map, because it seem suitable for assessing travel distances. Now I'm growing the map "outwards", so I (am) stuck with the same scale; not sure it's ideal for a continent, though!

[ak_aramis]

In thinking about my current T&T game. They're in a small, 10-guild, town, with a mayor who's the senior guildmaster, and a council comprised of guildmasters. We know of three guilds so far: Smiths (undifferentiated), Hosteliers and Brotheliers, and Wizards'.

A valley running N-S starts 1mi north, and is about 1 mi wide there; it's down to 1/2 mile wide some 10 miles in, and narrows eventually to 1/8 mile wide at the pass; it's another 30 miles from the pass down to the city. There's another, smaller, town at the other end of the valley.

There are Orcs and Brownies in the wide valley. Heck, the valley, despite the road, is pretty damned wild.

South of town are fields.

That's it. That's what is known. But this is a patron driven game.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Unwitting Pawn

If you're ready for a follow-up question, what scale(s) do you use?

"Vague"

Seriously, if surveying and cartography are not that advanced in-setting, then the characters and NPCs don't know precisely how far apart things are. Worrying about this is unnecessary.

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"Vague"

Seriously, if surveying and cartography are not that advanced in-setting, then the characters and NPCs don't know precisely how far apart things are. Worrying about this is unnecessary.

That's pretty much my answer, too. The Port of the Gates, largest trading town in the anarchistic Outmarches, is about four days' overland travel from the borders of the Grand Duchy of Bolg (whose leaders fancy themselves the true heirs of the First Empire), but that varies depending on weather and encounters en route. How far is that in miles? What's a "mile"? You get there by heading out the East Gate, following the Old Road to the town of Crossroads, then heading northish along the main thoroughfare until you reach the barred gate. Don't try to go around it, because the Duchy doesn't deal nicely with people who try to circumvent their laws...

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"Vague"

Seriously, if surveying and cartography are not that advanced in-setting, then the characters and NPCs don't know precisely how far apart things are. Worrying about this is unnecessary.

And most people in a pre-modern world will likely think in terms of travel time not distance. Towns connected by narrow and rough trails will be more isolated than those on flat, paved roads, even if the physical distance between them is the same.

[Grouchy Chris]

Originally Posted by Unwitting Pawn

Some sage replies; thanks everyone. Made me smile too :-)

If you're ready for a follow-up question, what scale(s) do you use?

I knew about how large I wanted the starting country to be, so I drew its borders and then added a scale showing 200 miles. It turns out to be about 1 inch = 71 1/9 miles, or 1/4505600 scale.

I began with 1 hex = 10 miles for my nation-map

I don't use hexes unless I'm making a combat map. I wouldn't find them useful on a map of a city, country, or continent.