Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added

[darebear]

A terrain legend is in the works (completed and done).

The scale at the bottom was done when I did not have a hex overlay that would show up clearly. I did those scales for folks who wanted to convert the image to a PDF and pop it into an editor. PDF-XChange Editor has some great tools for calculating distance and area. I kept the scale bar in for folks who want both methods of calculation.

The original image is huge (1771.726mm by 1337.742mm). At that scale, distance is 24 miles per 10mm. Each hex is 24 miles, or 500 square miles)

If you scale that original image down to 11x17, then the distance on the actual physical paper is 24 miles per 2 mm.

Keep in mind, if you convert the image to a PDF, you can print just the area you are viewing on the screen rather than the whole map. This allows you to zoom in on a particular country/area and print an 8x11 map without any loss of resolution. I have done this for Caithness and produced very usable GM maps on a single page.

It is 3500 miles from the west coast of the orclands to the City of Megalos (as the crow flies). I did perform a scale check on the original map vs the hex map. It is pretty close.

As far as distance of terrain features I used Sinle's original map that had cities on it for reference. The borders of the Great Desert, Bronze Mountains, Great Forest and the Fence of God are per his original map.

There is a lot of room for the Blackwoods to expand, especially to the east. The Blackwoods, from tip to tip, east to west, is just under 700 miles. I ran it through PDF Editor and found the area to be roughly 130,000 square miles. I see no reason not to expand it eastwards personally, possibly with an added mountain range or lost plateau in the interior.

The Great Forest is over 150000 square miles. These are truly huge areas. In any previous campaign I ran, I found that an area of 50000 square miles was more than adequate. The civilized core of Caithness is well over 200,000, not including the Great Forest, the southern badlands and eastern plains which are unpopulated (except for monsters and bandits). Heck, the forests in Caithness are huge, most bigger than Yellowstone Park.

My own version of Ytarria might have some changes. A small desert can easily fit between al-Haz and al-Wazif (or within the interior of al-Wazif itself), allowing for desert adventures without going to the far west. Forests and mountain peaks need names, as do rivers and other geographic landmarks. The Nomad Lands (not a fan of that name, but my favorite area of all Ytarria) need fleshing out (clan names, ect). Ruins, wizard towers and other adventure sites need to be added. Banestorm was written as a kitchen sink setting, which personally I like. It is quite easy to take material from other settings and plop it in somewhere.

IMO, Tacitus is the perfect place for a traditional fantasy campaign. Forests, dwarven mountains, the rebel's at Wallace, The Great Desert and the Orclands, all filled with whatever monstrosities a GM can envision and all within a few days ride of each other.

Sinle sent me a blank hex map of Ytarria done to a scale of 6 miles per hex. Its insane, well beyond my ability to map at the present time (that is a project that would last over a year at least). In any case, mapping the whole of Ytarria at that level of micro-detail would be of dubious practical value to most campaigns anyway.

Anyway, I appreciate the feedback and glad that this map is useful to more than just myself.