Lauralie Summerhome

This is my first attempt at a city map - started back in June of last year. It was done for a campaign being run by two friends, who determined the layout and placement of various city sections (wards) and important locations, as well as the shape of the city, etc. In other words, Im just trying to get as close to their idea of Lauralie as I can.

The scale issues on this map baffled me. Showing all of the streets and buildings in appropriate scale for a city this size made the city just look black and ate up all my CPU/memory resources. I decided to throw scale out the window for drawing the various buildings and for the thickness of the walls and size of the towers. I also opted for the overland style of symbols rather than the traditional overhead view.

Any suggestions for a more 'traditional' map for a city this size are welcome - I can't seem to wrap my head around it for some reason.

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Originally Posted by Mowgli

Any suggestions for a more 'traditional' map for a city this size are welcome - I can't seem to wrap my head around it for some reason.

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If I'm reading that scale bar right (If "5" means "5 miles" as opposed to "5 something-else"), you've got something close to 5,000 hectares of raw fantasy urbanity happening inside those walls ... roughly 30 times the size of 14th-century London, and more than 20 times the size of Paris in the same period. Ancient Rome, which was much bigger than anything medieval would ever get (but is a good model for badass fantasy cities) was about 1/9th the size of this town you've got here.

Now, that's cool, obviously, 'cause fantasy cities may as well be badass if that's what you're in the mood for ... but you're right that it'll require a non-traditional approach when mapping, something more like a modern-day city map than a style suitable for an ancient or medieval one. Stick to showing major streets only, and naming your districts and major landmarks. In other words, you're on the right track, just keep on with that, IMO.

On the other hand, I readily admit that I have no idea if I'm reading the scale-bar right. Clarification on that, please.

Edited Addition: I love the name of "the dammit wall".

Ghalev -

You are reading the scale correctly. The campaign takes place almost entirely within the confines of the city and undercity, so they planned for something that would give them lots of leeway for expansion. In fact, most of the action is supposed to be confined to the 14th Ward (the northwest section with most of the landmarks mapped).

The city planners are a couple of very creative guys I've known since Jr High School. If you're interested in the origin of 'The Dammit Wall' (or any other part of the city or world) you should check out their Wiki ( http://lauraliesummerhomecampaign.wikispaces.com/) or the ENWorld game threads. There's some really cool stuff there.

Thanks for the feedback! It's good to know I didn't just miss something simple with my scale difficulties. Leif and Scotley originally had something more the size of Chicago (with all of it's suburbs!) in mind but that was a little too bad-ass even for them!

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Originally Posted by Mowgli

Thanks for the feedback! It's good to know I didn't just miss something simple with my scale difficulties.

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No indeed, but you can take some encouragement from the possibilities of an unusual mapping challenge ;)

If you're feeling industrious after you're 100% satisfied with the main map, it might be fun to zoom in and do a closeup of just the 14th Ward ... which, if I read the background info correctly, would (by itself) be the size of a more ordinary [large] fantasy city, and suitable for street-to-street mapping (running the math quickly, I see that the 16th ward, across the water, is about the same size as Ptolus, a recently-published fantasy city ... so if the 14th Ward is somewhere in the same size-range, that'd be just about right for a big, busy street map you could sink your teeth into).

[Re-reading your own post, I see that the 14th Ward is much larger than the 16th ... so maybe just zoom in on a critical portion of the 14th ...] :)

Is that a river the city is on? Based on your scale, that bad boy is about 10 miles across which I think would make it more like a lake or straight or something. Do you intend the river to be that big? Even by ship, that would take some time to cross.

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Originally Posted by RPMiller

Is that a river the city is on?

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My assumption was that the 16th ward was an island in a lake or out at sea ...

If it's a river, it's ... best not to even think about that :)

[checking the wiki he linked to: no worries ... it's a bay]

Ah, a rather large bay, but a bay is good. :) I would probably go more with sea, but we haven't seen the whole area so bay works.

Just compared it to San Francisco Bay. It is about the same distance to the 16th ward as Oakland is from SF. So the bay would appear to be about twice as large as the SF Bay, but again hard to say without the rest of the area.

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Originally Posted by RPMiller

So the bay would appear to be about twice as large as the SF Bay, but again hard to say without the rest of the area.

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I get the impression that this entire fantasy world is about the majesty of Bigness :)

ETA: But holy crap ... looking at the water math I notice I seriously messed up my read earlier (forgot to square a thing, or something): this thing is more like 78,000 hectares of city, which is just ... woo :) No wonder they have all those different transportation methods.

Mowgli, sorry about the earlier error: this puppy is slightly larger than Chicago [and roughly 150 times the size of ancient Rome] ... I triple-checked it this time instead of doing it in a rush. D'oh. Either way, same comments apply to mapping it: stick with districts, landmarks, etc. and you're golden.

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Originally Posted by RPMiller

Is that a river the city is on?

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The city is on a very large lake - actually more like a freshwater inland sea. I'm working on putting together some of the street names/locations now so I can start putting them in the map.

Unfortunately, my ambition seems to have overcome my common sense and I've got two other maps well started and several more in the 'idea' stage. Cities seem to be very difficult for me, so I've tended to procrastinate on this one.

I should have a slightly updated map posted in a few days for more of the excellent - and encouraging - feedback!

BTW - Glad you checked out the wiki, Ghalev!

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Originally Posted by Mowgli

BTW - Glad you checked out the wiki, Ghalev!

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Yah, fun stuff :)