February 2016 Challenge: Sword of Shannara

**Troedel** · 02-11-2016, 12:03 PM

As there is now a very trashy TV Series I was reminded of the book I liked very much back in the days. The official map makes the teeth of the River Police grind so I thought it would a nice challenge to make it halfway believeable. So it begins. I think I should have the first presentable lines available tomorrow.

**Troedel** · 02-11-2016, 04:11 PM

I see mountains everywhere...

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**Bogie** · 02-12-2016, 05:25 PM

Nice start. Looking forward to seeing this develop as I am currently re-reading this book. Been decades since I read it. The first thing I noticed when I opened the first page was how simplistic the map is and my next thought was "there are a lot of my friends at CG who could have done a much better map than the one in the book!"
The TV series could be better, but it's not that bad ( Of course, I am easy to entertain ). And it did get me to dig out the old books!

**Troedel** · 02-13-2016, 04:25 AM

No, TV series is not that bad, the thing that bothers me most is the constant hero soundtrack in the background. I hope to live up to your mapping expectations

As i said it was a long time ago and I don´t remember all the details. Please correct me if you spot something off in a major way ( storywise and artistic of course... )

**Troedel** · 02-13-2016, 05:50 AM

More Mountains.... Feeling dizzy
Greatest challenge for me is to keep consistency. It´s easy to get lost. I should revisit everything after finishing the bulk and break up some mountainranges. We will see.

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**Chick** · 02-13-2016, 06:43 AM

The main problem with your mountains is that mountains never occur in blobs or as you call it, bulk. They occur in long curvilinear ranges. This is because mountains form at tectonic plate boundaries which are curvilinear. If you want this map to be something that a knowledgeable person would like, make your mountain ranges narrower and longer, and never let them meet at a big angle, and never circular or semi-circular.

http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/maps/jpg/..._Mountains.jpg

**ravells** · 02-13-2016, 06:58 PM

I bought the book in the early 80's, it was by two brothers, one did the illustrations the other the writing. It was described then as the 'epitome of the Tolkien rip-off industry' and indeed it was! I heard they got better over the years. It makes me think of the first ever D&D adventure I ever ran - one of my friends called himself 'Hugh Oxhine' after the main character.