[unpaid]Wanna draw me a pretty simple map?

[Rel]

So I have to ask. Is this a plateau above a wasteland or peaks above a poison sea? or .... How do you envisage these safe areas existing with the rest of the geography?

These are all good questions. I've given it a bit of thought but, from the perspective of the civilized populace, the lowlands are very much a mystery. That's "Here There Be Dragons (and Mist Demons)" territory.

Is the poison fog Windblown? If so are spaces in the lea of mountains safer?

The fog is effected by tides a bit as well as weather patterns. I'd say that the lea of the mountains might be a bit safer in some areas but altitude is the primary safety feature from the toxins of The Mist. There are definitely low lying areas that can get swamped by The Mists when there is bad weather at "high tide". These areas are analagous to places like Florida or the Gulf Coast of the US where the coastline doesn't provide much protection against rising water.

Is it generated by lowlands ? In which case are the leading edges of islands safer?

The exact origins of The Mist are unknown.
To be honest, I've not quite decided. Some friends I've been talking the idea over with have posed the idea that The Mist is a by-product of the use of Arcane Magic and that the rise of an empire of Wizards of late (who have solved the problem of transport by way of magical portals) is causing The Mist to rise.

One thing I should clarify about The Mist: It's not like cyanide gas or anything quite so dangerous. It is toxic over long periods and exposure for even a day is enough for weaker individuals to become sick. Eventually (in as short as a few days) it can be fatal. But exposure to small doses over a long period can also cause memory loss and mutation. And of course there is the hazard of the Mist Demons who can't live for long periods outside The Mist. (some think that the Mist Demons are humanoids who became mutated by The Mist - they may be right)

If this is all mountainous - how do they deal with water? Often, not a lot of land around a mountain that's usable. Plateau's can be limited or very far apart....

Yeah, I'd considered this as well. So far my answer is that the humid Mists of the lowlands cause the area to get a larger than average amount of rainfall. The flatter, larger plateaus have some sizable lakes (and some AMAZING waterfalls off the edges!). In places where water tends not to collect so easily, the inhabitants have dug large cisterns inside the mountains and plateaus. All that and a little GM handwaving makes the world habitable.

Just trying to work out the wrinkles in my own head....


Sigurd

Me too man.

[Sigurd]

I don't know if this is 'simple' - the full file is 480 meg in size

This is a attempt at the mountain peaks of an island\continent.

Tell me what you think. This is sized to fit on a Open Office page (18cm wide). The size is very much reduced. I'm planning on being able to put out full page maps of any of the inner islands etc...

Obviously the island below the mist level has to exist too. I'm less sure about that. I left this blank so you can write names, scale, etc... how you please.

I invite anyone who wants to try and rationalize the geology of this . I think the lakes would never happen etc... but then this is fantasy . Still anyone who wants to kibbitz is welcome. The islands are distinct and I like the one dead center that looks like a hippocampus. I'm thinking about expanding this for my game too.

Any crits or suggestions welcome - from anyone.


Sigurd

[Sigurd]

This is the island I like - Don't know if its finished but hey.... I'm working to the Board file size limits. This is a full sized 18cm wide slice of the map. The finished work will be too big to simply post.

I have to get more memory. Need to learn about big picture file mapping.

Sigurd

[Rel]

It looks fantastic! This is obviously something way, way more intricate and pretty than anything I'd be able to create.

I guess that if I were going to offer any suggestions about how to change it, I would say that I'm looking for the peaks protruding above the mists to be slightly smaller and a bit (but only a bit) more spread out. The basic look of it is great. But the individual land masses being smaller with more separations.

I say all of that with no concept of how easy or hard it is for you to make changes like that. I certainly don't wish to seem picky for somebody who came begging.

[Sigurd]

The scale of the map is not set so come up with a size for a land mass you like and add a scale.


I'm guessing the continent is about as big as Germany but I haven't really thought it through. Feel free to shrink it to any size you like by changing the scale. All the little islands might be the tiniest of peaks and not reliably above the fog line.


I could take out islands if you wanted more distance between them.

We aim to please.

I can see how wider valleys might be more realistic. I think I need a better idea of the whole geography. I can move the mountain tops around but I have to try and reconstruct the island\continent completely and then add fog. I'm not really pleased with the height lines or the messy blue lake borders either.

There are many better, more knowledgeable mappers here. Lets give this 24 hrs for any other input. Maybe I can combine some good suggestions and avoid a revision or two.

Sigurd

[Rel]

Thanks again for all your work to this point, Sigurd. As far as a scale goes, I think that if the image you posted above were about a thousand miles on a side that would be about right for what I envision. In an effort to try and crudely illustrate what I'm talking about in terms of the number and size of the land masses, I rather artlessly modified your version. Here is a low res version of my modification:



With the thousand mile scale I mention above, that puts the bigger land masses at maybe 100ish miles across and the smaller ones a good bit smaller than that. I think that fits the scale of the world I'm after pretty well.

Obviously I'd love to hear any other thoughts that you or others have about any changes you'd recommend.

EDIT: Oh and, just to give a bit more territory to play with, I would be good with adding more such "islands in The Mist" in the southeast and northwest corners of the map to fill it out a bit.

[Sigurd]

Your picture didn't come through.

Oh and, just to give a bit more territory to play with, I would be good with adding more such "islands in The Mist" in the southeast and northwest corners of the map to fill it out a bit.

You're a DM after my own heart. One of the problems with the plateau idea and normal mountains is that you're selecting away most of the land mass for playing. I'm beating on the believability to give you more islands, never mind that the valleys below them might be too shallow to let your poison fog sink.

Getting a better idea of the underlying geography\geology would make this better. Most mountains I can think of form on the edges of tectonic plates - that means long island ranges not thick ones. Even Volcanoes seem to be long irregular lines. I'm leaning to something like south america but that will probably mean your islands will be further apart and more lateral.

I game tomorrow and I have prep of my own, not to mention life , I'll get back to this after Tuesday.

Sigurd

ps. I originally moved the islands around that way to give us room for a legend rule and rose in the lower right. .