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Thread: D&D Mars

  1. #1

    Wip D&D Mars

    Been lurking for awhile (hi!) and trying out some of the helpful tutorials, and now I'm finally starting my first for-real mapping project.

    So basically, I'm making a D&D setting based on the John Carter of Mars series of books. Or more specifically, Mars: The Savage Worlds Edition book by Adamant Entertainment.

    With a significant amount of artistic liberty, I've taken topographic data of Mars and created this generic fantasy world map. I'm also using historical maps as inspiration for the names of regions, seas and eventually cities and geographical features. (What I have now are temporary, proof of concept names.)

    The next step will be to drain the oceans and add in the infamous martian canal network.

    I would love some critiques. Especially for any heinous river botches. Thanks!
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  2. #2

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    Welcome to the Forum. Looks really good!! don't worry people are going to give you plenty of constructive critism here on the forum with good intent. the rivers.... I can already hear the sirens now... the river police are on the way... again, welcome,


    Marc
    Visit my site for roleplaying at http://www.rpgrescue.com.

  3. #3
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    The rivers look fine to me, nothing wrong there. Most of the lakes don't drain to anywhere so that could be seen as an infraction but since this is Mars, shrug, who knows and since you're going to dump the water anyways it's irrelevant. Nice color, and nice job so far.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  4. #4
    Community Leader mearrin69's Avatar
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    Nice stuff and a great idea. I would have never guessed it was based on Mars at a quick glance. Looking forward to seeing where you go with it. I'd give you some rep but will have to wait for the board to get back to normal before I can figure out how to do it
    M

  5. #5
    Professional Artist Guild Donor Sapiento's Avatar
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    Welcome! A nice map, even if it is a bit small, at least for me.
    I did a Mars map some time ago and used Nasa satellite data for it.

  6. #6
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    The only issue I can see with the rivers (Aside from questionable non-draining lakes that we can just say are salt basins) is the river on the bottom right, the one that flows out the corner of Tharais. The mountain range continues down, but the river seems to flow back into its path. I would have expected the river to stay more north/west of that location and drain sooner. As it is now it looks like it randomly goes to what should be an up hill region.

  7. #7

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    Hellas-Lake is too large for a water area inside an endorhenic bassin, at least on earth. But with the lower temperatures on Mars who knows what might happen.

  8. #8

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    Thanks for the advice, everyone.

    I added/removed some lakes/rivers as well as better defining the volcanoes on Tharais (now more accurately named Tharsis.) I also adjusted the map's horizontal orientation for easier labeling when I get to that stage and added a grid (still needs tweaking) and a texture layer.

    I'm still trying to decide:

    1. Whether or not to include a compass arrow. It seems a bit redundant for a world map... Except in this case, technically the map is upside down. But I'm not sure if having the up direction as south would add unnecessary complexity.

    2. Whether to create a series of smaller maps with different information on each or whether to create one big one and try to label as much as possible, atlas style.

    3. How to distinguish labels for cities/towns, geographic features, continents, and seas typographically. (I added some samples on the image.)

    With regards to Hellas. I always imagined it being a landlocked sea. I'm not sure how realistic that is but I liked the idea enough that I'm willing forgo realism for creative license. Of course, it wouldn't be that difficult to physically attach it to the rest of the ocean, so it's still up for debate.

    PS: It just occurred to me that I may have posted this thread in the wrong forum. My apologies.
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  9. #9
    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    That's some stellar color work. I've always been partial to that steel blue plus tan...reminds of the old Ajax away jerseys that they wore one year back in the early 2000s.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  10. #10
    Community Leader Guild Sponsor Gidde's Avatar
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    Haha! The only thing I was going to mention was that it was upside down, and you already did This looks awesome.

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