The Open Islands

[CaptainJohnHawk]

Just a very simple map I built for a D&D campaign I am running soon.
Let me know what you think!

Thanks everyone
Cheers
Capt.JH

[Ilanthar]

Convincing archipelago Cpt! I like the general shape and coasts.
As I found the way you depict borders quite original (are those more "areas of influence" than water borders?), I think I still prefer more classical ones.

[CaptainJohnHawk]

Thank you very much!
So the campaign is a fight for control between Pirates and Navy. So I tried to add an influence key in the top right of the map, with orange being contested territory. I wanted the border to also show who had control over certain parts of the Sea around the islands as well.

I think in my attempts to make it look pretty, I might have over simplified it all.

But thank you very much for the compliments! It means a lot coming from you

[Sanderling]

I was wondering about the color scheme too, and thought it was just dinoflagellates in the tropical waters.

Overall it's a very good map, and I do like the shape of the islands and their coastlines. The one thing I would really question is the scale bar, which you have representing "one week travel." Since this is a nautical campaign, this will depend on the general sailing era and the ships involved, but unless this is a continent-sized archipelago you might want to reconsider the scale.

A fast frigate from the Napoleonic era could run off two hundred miles between one noon observation and the next, which means one week's travel would be approximately 1400 miles. Carracks and caravels from the Age of Discovery sailed more slowly, but even so they could cover a lot of territory. I know you may have this calibrated for in-game events, and your campaign setting might be a really large waterworld, but it's something to keep in mind.

[CaptainJohnHawk]

That is a very good point. Yeah the travel time is for ship travel, and the water current is similar to One Piece's Grand Line (if you have ever seen that). I just wanted travel time to be a bigger factor for in game decisions while still offering a simple campaign setting to play in. So maybe I should have a second scale that says "On a good day" haha, just so I can fudge the numbers a bit and not get argued with lol.

[Netavio]

Pretty cool map, simple but awesome ^^