Thinking Big about Guild maps

**RobA** · 03-25-2008, 03:25 PM

First time chiming in on this thread.

It almost sounds like what is needed is a "graphical wiki" where larger area maps are hot-linkable to more detailed maps, and so on... Or even like those map books of street maps where the NSEW pages "point" to the next map in that direction... Just being able to geolocate every map, providing the lat/long of each corner as well as the projection would go a long way to make this workable.

-Rob A>

**ravells** · 03-25-2008, 03:35 PM

I'm not sure...I do feel like I'm in danger of hijacking Torq's idea into a different direction than was intended, so I'll remain quiet for a bit!

All I do know is that the my experience about multi-user projects like these is that people spend all their creative energy talking about the parameters and the technology etc and the danger is that it just gets bogged down in that and never actually gets started!

**Torq** · 03-25-2008, 04:40 PM

No worries about hijacking Ravs. I think the idea was for this thread to be somewhat free-form. I think Redrobes has a legitimate concern, about spreading things to widely at the outset. In the beginning there will only be a few starters and thats to be expected, so we dont really want 5 people each choosing a region half a planet away from each other.

I suggest, knock up an FT world map with some borders Ravs. Then we can all have a look at it and use this thread to agree on a starting region, that we will all begin with. All that is needed then is a basic layout (which I'm happy to do) of that region and we can all select smaller areas that take our fancy and go for it. Only once these are done will the more zoomed in projects become available. Obviously as we go the idea will be for the debate to be ongoing about themes, common naming conventions etc. I agree that we could get endlessly bogged down in parameter details and this could easily choke the project, so I vote we just go for it.

Sure this approach will produce some vanilla, but it will also bring out the tastes of many other flavours, including some none of us have tasted before.

Torq

**The Cartographist** · 03-25-2008, 06:57 PM

Torq - Great idea. I've been reading this thread with keen interest. I have a some thoughts:

- In your very first post, you suggested starting at the world/continent level and then slowly zooming in. Very recently, the discussion turned to starting with a smaller scale and then slowly expanding. I recommend starting at a small region scale--perhaps a map that is 100x100 miles. On it, include a full range of geography (coast, river, forest, hill, mountain, etc. - but don't name them) as well as the names of a couple of cities, perhaps several villages, a few strongholds of some type, and then a few other random locations to be mapped. In some way, allow people to volunteer to map whatever area/portion of an area/specific location that they want to. Track that, so people do not duplicate effort. Once a certain level of detail has been established, expand the base map in some direction.

- Everything will be a WIP. What I mean is that once someone has sufficiently finished their map, they present it to the Guild, and we offer recommendations for improvement, suggestions for names, etc. Additionally, the moderators could make ample use of polls to make decisions. So if mapper X called his city "Great City" and the Guild (via a poll) decided that they preferred some other name, the mapper would be bound to change the name to the Guild's preference.

- Polls to make decisions could occur regularly, i.e. if a question comes up that requires a decision, moderator X sets up a poll that will last for 72 hours. There could be multiple polls running at any one time for one or many different maps. Members of the Guild participate in the mapping and polling as they desire.

- The "world" grows organically in that people map what interests them. And if I see something in one of your maps that sparks my imagination, I might start mapping that next area immediately.

- I don't think that much central guidance is required except for setting the physical boundaries of the area to be mapped. The boundaries will be slowly expanded as the place is fleshed out.

- As maps are drawn, there will probably be other Guild members (or members from the sister sites) who choose to write material (whether gaming or merely background) for the various locations. This material will then contribute to the organic growth as ideas spring in people's minds, based upon what they read.

I really think that this type of project would work better in a wiki as RobA suggested. Although not just a graphical wiki, but a full blown wiki. Wikidot.com does free wiki hosting, although I'm not sure of size limits, etc.

I'll stop there, but I'll offer some more thoughts in the coming days.