Monday, April 13, 2009

So Google Maps is pretty awesome

If my calculations are right each half of this map (above and below the red line) is equal to one standard Judges Guild hexmap at 5 miles per hex.

If memory serves one JG map equals one Indiana turned sideways.

The main island there is Kyushu, known in earlier times as Saikaido. It's the southermost of the four big Japanese islands. In the upper lefthand corner is a little piece of the Korean peninsula.

Towards the end of the 13th century good ol' Kublai Khan mounted two joint Mongol/Imperial Chinese/Korean expeditions to take the islands. Both launched from Korea and both made landfall on Kyushu. The Japanese didn't exactly defeat the forces of the Master of Xanadu. Bad weather did more than katana work to scuttle the invasions.

I don't know about you, but to me the six or so years between the two invasions sounds like a perfect setting for some quasi-historical Oriental Adventures D&D. Especially if you assume that the first invasion wasn't a complete trainwreck, thereby allowing you to pepper the hexmap with some remnants of the invader army: steppeland barbarians, evil old Fu Manchu type wizards, and Chinese-imported hobgoblins.

Also, Kyushu has a bigass volcano in the middle of the island. That's always a plus.

16 comments:

  1. That's some nice speculation.

    Are you aware of the Ruins & Ronins things being done?

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  2. Yes. I look forward to seeing more!

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  3. That would make and awesome map, not just for oriental adventure. Lots of islands is always good.

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  4. They are a little long west to east but the island still fits nicely on two campaign maps. Check your inbox I sent you a link that you can use.

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  5. Takamori Saigo9:00 PM

    Does this mean that Shatnerday is now Sakurajimaday?

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  6. Great idea! And there's not just one big ass volcano but quite a few. Mostly live.

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  7. Anonymous4:50 AM

    Also, while it would be anachronistic (who cares?) you can pepper the Nagasaki region with Dutch and Portuguese.

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  8. Is that the part of Japan that is sub-tropical? If so, jungle barbarians and the weirder monsters of OA could kick it down there, like the Doc u'o'c.

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  9. Not just a volcano - a volcano that's going off all the damn time. Seriously, the Kagoshima weather report includes projected ash fall for the next week.

    @skeleri - Not sure if it's technically "subtropical", but it's (long) shirtsleeve weather in February & they grow oranges there.

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  10. My thinking was to consider one map temperate and the other subtropical, to maximize the array of possible monsters.

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  11. COol map!

    Others I'd like to see: Ireland, Scandinavia, Agean Sea, Oceania.

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  12. I love Asian themed Fantasy (Japan in particular) and I'm really excited to see Ruins & Ronins coming out.

    Odd thing though, I can really only run semi-historical, real world Japanese campaigns. While I've created numerous worlds for D&D and have no problem playing in Greyhawk, Glorantha or any number of other fictional places, my 'Oriental Adventures' take place in Nippon, usually around the 12th or 13th Century. Anyone else have this particular hang-up?

    AD
    Barking Alien

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  13. That is a brilliant idea Jeff! I should dig out my hex paper and make a map...

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  14. I use yahoo maps and google maps for towns all the time. Need a 600 person town on the south shore of a lake? Just do a little clicking around, and sooner or later you'll find just what you need. Put your 8x11 graph or hex paper into your printer - voila, instant small town.

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  15. Barking Alien, sort of. I never understood why Legend of the Five Rings was set in a Japanese-flavoured world, rather than a Pendragon-style Mythic Japan. The latter has always seemed so much more interesting to me.

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