I know it is very early in the project and we are still very much in the phase of drawing the regional maps, but I wanted to start a discussion and gauge the mood on where to go next.

We could take another region of the world map and do another landgrab, but I think it might be better to start zeroing in on the regions we have when they are all completed.

My proposal is that once a certain stage of completeness is reached on the regional maps we open up the next level of mapping. I think this should be a local level dealing with things the size of cities, towns, lakes, forests, mountain peaks etc. I believe that none of the regional mappers should have sole rights to map locally in their regions, and that we should actively encourage all guild members to get involved on the local level. I think that anyone who wants to map something local should get in touch with the creator of the regional map. This is for a few reasons:

1. To make sure that the area s/he wants to map has not already been mapped by someone else.

2. To ascertain from the regional mapper any relevant facts that may already be in existence about the local area to be mapped (even if these are only in the head of the regional mapper)

3. To bounce off the regional mapper any ideas that s/he may have for the area to be mapped.

I think we should persist with our policy of no stylistic restriction or binding rules, but that the local map should, wherever possible, be consistent with the regional map.

Those are my thoughts as to what I believe is the most sensible ay forward, but I would really like to hear from you all as to what you think.

Thanks again to all those regional mappers who are bringing this emerging continent to life. We already have plague, resistent beings including gnomes and orcs, abandoned towns inhabited only by the wind and perhaps something else, maritime expeditions to mysterious islands, wild unexplored bogs where travellers fear to tread and feral forested hills, the hunting grounds of who knows what. And this is only the beginning.

As they say in Australia "Go you good things!"

Torq