What are the most iconic maps/cartography to come from the RPG/fantasy genre?

[bartmoss]

Aweosme thread and I will definitely follow the bigmaps blog, thanks for posting that.

As for the maps themselves, innovative is not really something you will find here. Maps are maps, really, and the innovations are done by the pros. And how much can you innovate anyway? We probably don't need another map projection, and the rest is down to technology. Like, 3D representations, GIS, whatever.

Do you require authors of the works to create the maps themselves? If so, you will find almost no examples really.

That said, some pointers:

- JRR Tolkien, Middle Earth is a given.
- D&D cartography: Many of the D&D worlds have HUGE maps, for example check out Anna's huge Greyhawk Map (http://ghmaps.net/). And nobody will argue the influence D&D had on the fantasy scene.
- Traveller: Influential Sci Fi RPG and the first attempt at detailed sci fi settings maps. http://travellermap.com/ - it covers a lot of territory.
- Star Wars: Their cartography was nonexistant for a long time, but they nailed it down eventually. Go to Amazon and order the Star Wars Essential Atlas, it's an amazing book with awesome maps. Again, nobody will argue about the Star Wars influence.
- Same deal for Star Trek, except I am not aware of an official map for the setting. They did have a lot of amazing blueprints of star ships though, which kind of qualify as maps.
- Ultima had "innovative" maps in that they included cloth maps with every game, as well as other trinkets. Probably not what you are looking for for your site, but still cool stuff.
- if I recall correctly, Jules Vernes mapped his Mysterious Island, which is probably a fairly early example of creating a fictitious place in detail
- Most MMOs have TERRIBLE maps, they are built around gameplay purposes and almost never feature realistic or even consistent geography.
- Do check out the ROckstar Games Grand Theft Auto games, San Andreas and Liberty City especially, which from what I have seen are very well designed. I am not sure nice maps of them exist, but google is your friend.

As for great maps on this site.. browse the archives of the completed map section, check out random images in the galleries, that sort of thing. That are a lot of great maps on this site, and some are even huge. There's also a worldbuilding group on Deviant Art that has some awesome maps collected.

As a total aside, you absolutely should talk to Jerry: http://jerrysmap.blogspot.com/


- Nils