Sunday, October 14, 2007

Cinder map, take 2


Thanks for all the great comments in the last Cinder post! Here's my changes based upon that feedback. The red squares are known volcanos. If I did my math right, a Judges Guild map at 5 miles per hex is roughly the same size as Indiana rotated 90 degrees.* That should give you a rough idea of the starting scale of this map, at least for those of you who have any idea what the heck an Indiana is. Not to imply any dunderheadedness on anyone's part. I just know that if, for example, Settembrini wrote "this map is roughly the size of Prussia" I'd have no idea what that meant.

*Given the central location of my dungeon, I guess that makes it the Dread Pit of Indianapolis.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:34 PM

    Just a few comments:

    Volcanic range (North to East) is where two continents meet. The mountains are young and building though not all peaks are active. They are similar to the Cascade Range.

    Old mountain range (runs to the NE) are mountains not as tall as Volcanic range but tall enough to assist in creating a rain shadow for the Chilly desert. They are similar to the Sierra Nevada Batholith.

    Chilly desert is a higher altitude plateau that is cold and dry. Probably more like a rocky desert than a shifting sands desert.

    Dungeon hills and gulf islands are the newer but smaller hills (small cinder cones) created few million years ago. The vulcanism under the hills is dormant but the islands still have a building volcanic cone. The river that flows through the hills has cut a gorge through the hills. That river is probably similar in size to the Wabash R. or White R. in Indiana.

    The newest cinder cone gulf island and the bay volcano show that the SW plate is moving to the NE since the dungeon hills and older islands have moved to the NE. These are several decades old and have reached a few thousands of meters in height.

    There is vulcanism beneath the Littleass Swamp (might more properly be called a marsh depending on how many trees there are) since it has recently become the site of hot springs and geysers (somewhat like Yellowstone) though there are no volcanic cones. The volcano south of the southern edge of the Big Freakin Forest is very recent (like Paricutin in 1943) and is not on any published map.

    In all a better map IMO.

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  2. It would likely that the river to the east of the starting dungeon would have a marsh or swamp at the end. Otherwise it would cut west or east to cut a shorter distance to the ocean. The reason for the marsh is to show that that whole tongue of land is the result of alluvial deposits by the river. Similar to the Mississippi or Nile deltas.

    If you choose to have a marsh at the end then I would make that river much more curvier with oxbows lakes and the like.

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  3. Don't forget your mountain passes.

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  4. Anonymous1:53 AM

    An Indiana is equal to 100 Berlins, or the third part of 1914 Prussia.

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  5. If your dungeon is the Hell Pit of Indianapolis, the town on the bay northeast of the Littleass Swamp must be the Armpit of the Realm, a.k.a. Terre Haute. This town must needs be a stinking port, filled with gangsters, pirates, and clueless townies. I hereby dub it "Hauteville," and the residents thereof "Hautians," who spend their nights drinking and cruising and days sleeping it all off. There is a tall tower, the "Hauteville Tower" that oversees everything, in which can be found the ruling mobster. The port is a mix of dives, brothels, dive brothels, warehouses, and warehouse brothels. Anything that can be bought and sold is available in Hauteville...

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  6. James, I certainly appreciate the material and will get some use out of it. But I'm gonna have to put my foot down that we will be making no more jokes at Indiana's expense. I don't want the campaign to devolve into a nonstop series of Hoosier jokes!

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  7. LOL.

    Jeff, you gotta understand, I wasted four years of my life in Terry Hut, attending Indiana State University (ISU, or "I Screwed Up"). That diploma entitles me to make as many jokes about Terre Haute as I can fit in a lifetime... :)

    Oh... and you gotta have a raner maned "Larry the Bird" who dresses in green and white and has a leprechaun for a cohort. He meets clients at the Old Sycamore outside of town, near an inn some wags call "Larry the Bird's Connection"... and of course, he has his signature move, the Slam Dunk, that finishes off orcs by lopping off their heads to land in baskets strategically placed by his leprechaun cohort...

    Okay, maybe that is *too* much...

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  8. Er, "ranger named" not "raner maned".

    That's what I get for typing in the morning before that second bottle of Jack...

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