Adventures in the Three Kingdoms

 A while back I worked up a combined, modified map, based on three old-school Heritage Dwarfstar mini-game maps from Barbarian Prince, Goblin, and Demonlord. I'm finally getting around to running a game using it. I'll be running using OSE Advanced Fantasy.

Here's the Player's Guide material I worked up that combined the histories and cultures of the three settings:

The Three Kingdoms – Westria, the Midrealm, and Oestria – are the central lands of Nearth, the major human continent of the World of Neorth.

Westria is kingdom without a king, a land still recovering from a Barbarian invasion a century ago, with wild tribes, free towns, baronies, and counties scattered among howling wilderness. The Westrons mostly remain polytheistic, still revering a variety of gods, as opposed to the Midlanders and the Eastrons, who are mostly dedicated to Hosar, God of the Sun. The exceptions are the Theocracy of Hosaria and the County of Aeraviria, which are dedicated to Hosar.

The Midrealm was able to either defeat or assimilate the Barbarians a century ago, but they never recovered and today are embroiled in a life-or-death struggle with the Goblinoids of the Dragonspine Mountains. To make matters worse, the King and the Crown Prince, the king’s sole heir, both fell in battle against the goblins, and so the forces of the realm are divided between the royal cousins Haakon, Count of Brax, and Olaf, Count of Tewks. The combination of invasion and civil war may do what the Barbarians were unable to do a century ago – bring down the kingdom!

Oestria similarly fell a century ago, when the Southrons of the Demon Empire invaded, and they were unable to get any help from Westria or the Midrealm. The Southrons, however, for all they worship demons, are still a civilized people, and rather than destroying Oestria they properly conquered it and ruled it, enslaving its people. However, 20 years ago many of the locals rose in rebellion, and today are free, united by the League of Light through the worship of Hosar, God of the Sun. The Demon Empire has recovered from their losses during that rebellion and are gathering their forces to invade and retake their rebel dominions.

Humans of Nearth

Barbarians (Norse). A century ago, the Barbarians invaded Westerland, destroying the Kingdom of Westria and settling amongst the native Westrons. There are still many Barbarian tribes in the Cold North, and they are not uncommonly encountered in the lands of the Three Kingdoms, as raiders, traders, or even mercenaries. They are tall, pale-skinned, with honey gold to platinum blonde wavy hair, and blue-eyed. Zhor is their Storm-God; his devotees are berserkers who forgo armor and often even clothing and attack in a blood-mad fury, never breaking morale. Names are Norse. Barbarians speak the Barbarian tongue; most leaders at least speak a little Imperial (Common).

Eastrons (French). The Eastrons are descended from a mix of Imperials, Savages, and Barbarians, an older wave of Barbarians known as Northrons. The Imperials, Savages, and Northrons merged following the fall of the Empire of Old to become the Eastron folk. They were always a quarrelsome folk, not as able to unite as the Midlanders or even the Westrons, with the nobles always in rebellion against their king. Then the Demon Empire invaded from the southeast and destroyed the rich eastern heartland of the kingdom, now known as the Dragon Wastes. The eastern dominions were reduced to wild meadows and their peoples were enslaved. The Woodsmen of the Great Woods retreated into their forest, abandoned the Lords of Light for their ancient patron, the Beast Lord, and reverted to atavistic savagery. The western domains were slowly conquered, but arose in rebellion en masse 20 years ago and cast off the Demonic yoke. The Demonic Reconquest has just begun. Eastrons are of average height and build, have pale to tan skin, brown or black straight hair, and hazel, blue, or green eyes. The free peoples revere Hosar, with small cults to the other Lords of Light. The slaves of the east placate the Demon Gods. Names are French. They speak Eastron and Imperial (Common)

Imperials (Italians). The Empire of Old ruled the lands of the Three Kingdoms and more, besides, long centuries ago. Then came the Dark Times of Decadence, Depravity, and Disaster, when the Empire fell to the forces of Chaos. The Three Kingdoms formed thereafter in the north, while the southern lands either collapsed completely and turned wild or devolved into warring City-States. The ruler of each of the city-states claims to be the heir to the Empire and styles themselves as the Imperial Prince or Imperial Princess. The people are still considered decadent and depraved by most right-thinking folks, and this is generally the case. Imperials are short and wiry, with olive skin, black or brown curly hair, and brown or amber eyes. Their religion varies from city-state to city-state, usually some mix of all three pantheons of gods, with the Pagan gods generally dominating as Zoreus, Neora, Incantatrix, and Ferox. Names are Italian. Imperials speak Imperial, which is the Common Tongue. 

Midlanders (English). Midlanders are descended from a mix of Imperials, Westrons, and Barbarians, both an older wave of Barbarians known as Northrons and their modern Barbarian cousins. The Imperials, Westrons, and Northrons merged following the fall of the Empire of Old to become the Midland folk. Barbarians invaded a century ago but were bought off with lands and titles and assimilated – most Midlander nobles are descended from this mix, notably the Royal Family and its cadet branches. Midlanders are of average height and build, with pale or ruddy to tan or olive skin, blonde or red to brown or black hair, and eyes of just about any color. Nobles tend to look like Barbarians, and are generally taller, paler and blondish, with blue or green eyes. Nobles and urban Midlanders strongly favor Hosar; rural folk often still follow the older Pagan ways. Names are English, with noble families usually having Norse names. Midlanders speak Midlander and Imperial (Common)

Westrons (Gaels). Westrons are descended primarily from the native peoples of Westria; though conquered by the Empire of Old, and later invaded by tribes of migrating Barbarians, they were never fully assimilated. The Westrons of some areas, however, have stronger foreign bloodlines, such as the peoples of Aeraviria and Hosaria (Barbarian) and Agorosia and Drogathia (Imperial). Most Westrons are divided into semi-barbarized urban peoples of the towns and the semi-civilized barbarians of the countryside, with rustic rural folk in between. Westrons are of average height and build, with pale to ruddy skin, brown to fiery red wavy hair, and green or hazel eyes. Westrons are polytheistic, though most revere at least the Earth Mother, among the other gods. The Aeravirians and Hosarians of course revere Hosar and the Lords of Light, while the Agorosians and Drogathians revere the Pagan gods in their Imperial guises (and have no few hidden temples of the Demon Gods). Names are Gaelic and Welsh. Westrons speak Westron and Common (Imperial). 

Demi-humans of Nearth

Dwarves. The Golden Age of the dwarves ended a century ago. The corrupted Duchy of Kabir fell to Chaos and its peoples were transformed into Goblinoids. They invaded the Dragonspine Mountains. The Great Delve of Pelgar fell, with the surviving dwarves scattered across the land. Their only remaining major delve is Ulaaria in Oestria. Dwarves have skin in earth tones, hair in metallic sheens, and eyes that glitter like gemstones, which glow when using infravision. 

Elves. The elves are divided not by culture, but by age. In their youth they are Sylvan Elves, living lives of wild abandon in fey woodlands; they are in the spring of their lives; they are short, with green skin and hair and shining emerald eyes; some grow antlers. In their middle age they are urbane High Elves; of medium height, with tan skin, raven dark hair, and shining sky-blue eyes. Grey Elves are elder elves, tall and stately, with pale alabaster skin, platinum blonde hair, and shining purple eyes. The Grey Elves usually guide their realms and culture; the High Elves usually manage the realms and are artisans; and the Sylvan Elves usually guard the realms and are hunter/gatherers. However, there are lackadaisical elves who never amount to much until later in life, so a player character can be a Sylvan, High, or Grey elf – but even as an elder Grey elf, they have little influence or power, no greater wealth, and know little of history or the world.

Halflings. Halflings are hobbits straight out of the Shire.

Lawful Lords of Light

Clergy are known as Crusaders. Symbol is an ankh.

Donat. Lawful Sage-God of Purity, Rectification, Knowledge, and Wizardry. Depicted as a stately, man in fine wizarding robes with a noble beard, bearing an ankh-tipped rod in one hand and a large, thick tome in the other. He and Sekruma are especial enemies.

Duffyd. Lawful Beggar-God of Law, Suffering, Mercy, and Peace. Depicted as a simple, very human man in a homespun robe with a rope for a belt and a beggar’s bowl, with an ankh painted upon his forehead. Duffyd is the psychopomp of the Lords of Light, mercifully freeing the worthy faithful who are dying from their suffering and accompanying them to the afterlife.

HOSAR. Lawful Sun-God of Light, Wisdom, Order, and Rulership. Primary opponent of the Demon Gods. Depicted as a muscular hawk-headed man with a mace in one hand and an ankh-embossed solar disk in the other.

Sulwyth. Lawful Warrior-Goddess of Law, Chivalry, Justice, and War. Depicted as a pale-skinned, athletic blood-red-haired maiden in shining plate mail wielding a sword in one hand and a heater shield bearing an ankh in the other. She and Ninnghiz are especial enemies.

Neutral "Pagan" Gods

Clergy are known as Druids. Symbol is a four-pointed star.

Branwyn. Neutral Fey-Goddess of Enchantment and Magic, aka the White Raven. Depicted as a veiled maiden, matron, and/or crone, with a crystal ball in one hand and a wand in the other. Generally beneficent, but whimsical and fey.

Bruidh. Neutral Woods-God of the Beasts and Plants of the Wilds, aka the Beast Lord. Depicted as a muscular satyr with a cudgel in one hand and pan pipes in the other. Generally savage, and as per his epithet, bestial and foul. 

NEORTHA. Neutral Earth-Mother Goddess of Farms and Fields, Harvests and Fertility, Family and Children, Queen of the Gods. Usually depicted as an ample, matronly woman with a cornucopia and a crown of flowers and leaves. Commonly-held beliefs are that Zhor is her husband and Branwyn and Bruidh are their children. 

Zhor. Neutral Grim-God of Mountains and Storms, Lightning and Rain, War and Dooms, King of the Gods. Usually depicted as a tall, muscular warrior with a horned helmet, a spear in one hand, and a lightning bolt in the other. He and Shagrath have an ancient enmity.

Chaotic Demon Gods

Clergy are known as Sorcerers. Symbol is a demonic eye.

Ninnghiz. Chaotic Queen of Dragons, Demon-Wyrm, Destroyer, Mother of Ruin. Depicted as a huge dragon, a great wyrm of many colors, and sometimes with two to five heads, always chromatic and of demonic countenance.

Sekruma. Chaotic Queen of Depravities, Corrupter, Mother of Monsters, Bloodsucker, Soulreaver. Depicted as a voluptuous, alabaster-skinned, raven-haired woman with eyes of glistening black in which one can see the stars of the night. Often has fangs, sometimes has many arms each holding a monster or egg, rarely is depicted with clothing, sometimes head is just a skull. Revered by vampires.

Shagrath. Chaotic Lord of Death, The Battle-Master, The Slayer. Depicted as a giant, obscenely muscular warrior wearing only a loincloth and a great helm that obscures his entire head. He is depicted with four, six, or eight arms, each holding a weapon. Favored by the Demon Legionnaires, Goblinoids, and Orcs.

YORGASH. Chaotic King of Hell, Lord of the Pit, Father of Demons, Whisperer in the Dark, the Dark Master, the Fiery Doom. Depicted as a classical balrog, complete with fiery sword and whip. Ruler of the Demon Gods, mate of Ninnghiz; Sekruma and Shagrath are their children. 

Coinage

The Three Kingdoms use the following coinage:

Copper (cp) Common

Silver (sp) Guilder

Gold (gp) Noble

• 1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp

• Dwarves, elves, and halflings use the coins of the Three Kingdoms as well as their own.

• Dwarves mint platinum coins known as Plates (pp), each worth 5 Nobles. 

• Elves mint electrum coins known as Stars (ep), each worth five Guilders.

• Halflings mint small copper coins called Farthings (fp) they are 4 to the Common, and are used for gifts and tips. They are also commonly minted by the Three Kingdoms, and are called Beggar’s Bits, used to give alms to the poor.

The Demon Empire uses the following coinage:

Copper (cp) Urudu

Silver (sp) Khugu

Gold (gp) Zhavu

The Old Empire and the modern Imperials use the following coinage:

Copper (cp) Denarius

Silver (sp) Argenteus

Gold (gp) Aureus

Barbarians, Nomads, Goblinoids, and Orcs use jewelry, gems, hacksilver, and foreign coins.

[Mystara] Karameikos -- Kelvin and Environs

This map is from when I ran a 5E campaign set in Mystara.

This goes with the earlier map. I love the simplicity of the "Grand Tactical" map, so I bumped the Known World map up to 25 miles from 24 miles per hex.

Thus, this map is 1 mile per small hex, 25 miles across the big hex.

[Mystara] Mystaran Known World Map a.k.a. The Continent

 Just need some place to hang this...

[Throwback Someday Post] Original Blackmoor Maps

NOTE: This post is from my old game blog, the original Adventures in Gaming, which is closed. I've had enough requests to re-open this post that I've decided to just do a throwback post. It is copied here, more or less, like it was then. Originally posted in October 2009.

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There's a thread on the Original D&D Discussion boards about the Blackmoor map, specifically, where it came from originally. There are different reports on this, apparently based on different things said by Dave Arneson at various times. Some believe the map coastlines and rivers are based on Lake Superior, others say it is based on old maps of the Netherlands, and some believe it may be a combination of both. 

Dave himself wrote in First Fantasy Campaign that the maps were "...originally drawn from some old Dutch maps. Much of the rationale and scale was based on data found with the Dutch maps. Later, the game moved south and we then used the Outdoor Survival tm map for this phase of the campaign..." 

One point I believe has been missed and has greatly complicated matters is that the well-known map, the map that was published in the Judges Guild First Fantasy Campaign booklet, was not, in fact, the map originally used by Dave Arneson! This map was created by Bob Bledsaw for the product; that the work is Bob's is indisputable, as he was the cartographer on all the large scale maps (the 18 region maps for the Wilderlands), and this is definitely his cartography style. 

So that map, and all the maps made for Blackmoor thereafter, were in fact based on Bob Bledsaw's interpretation of Blackmoor... not Dave Arneson's original map, which presumably is what is found on page 12 of the First Fantasy Campaign. There, Dave writes: "In redrawing the first campaign map, I decided that it would be advantageous to make some minor changes along the south and west borders to link it with Judges Guild's "Known World" area..."

However, from the great differences that exist between the original map and the Bledsaw version, much more was changed; whether this was changed by Bob with Dave's blessing or they were changes by Dave that Bob made to the map when he drew it may now never be known. A few points from the "original" map in comparison to the Bledsaw and subsequent maps: 

WATERWAYS

The "inner sea" that would be later named "The Black Sea" in the TSR version was much smaller, and not (apparently) directly connected to the "Great Ocean" (which was later named "The North Sea" in the TSR version). The "Sinking Lands" thus were not at all yet sunk. There is no sign of the peninsula that is home in the Bledsaw version to the Egg of Coot, and in fact, it seems the Egg of Coot is much further to the north, though the "Firefrost Channel" already exists. The waterways of the southeast are much changed, with many of the lakes being moved south and west (likely to make room for the mountains, which were greatly expanded in this region), while the waterways in and around the southwestern swamps are most changed in the area that would be known as "Loch Gloomen."

SETTLEMENTS Most of the settlements are recognizable; a few that fail to appear in the Bledsaw version actually appear later in the TSR version... 

1. Vestfold.
2. Blackmoor.
3. Bramwald.
4. Might be Maus, could be Archlis, most likely is Jackport, as it is most directly through the "Elf Forest" across from Blackmoor, though Maus is actually mentioned in the FFC booklet...???
5. Glendower.
6. Sage's Tower/The Wizard Watch.
7. Lake Gloomy.
8. Unmarked on the Bledsaw map, this is named Hanford on the TSR map.
9. ??? The northern point is unmarked on the Bledsaw map, though in the TSR map is named Kenville; in both maps the southern point is named Boggy Bottom.
10. This is in all likelihood the Temple of the Frog, as the trail from Boggy Bottom heads to the Temple, though the islands in Loch Gloomen are changed so significantly on the Bledsaw map it is hard to be sure. 
11. Not on the Bledsaw map, this is identified as Williamsfort on the TSR map 
12. Again, not identified on the Bledsaw map, this is in all likelihood the location on the TSR map named Erak.
13. With all the shifting around of the mountains in this region, I would guess that this location is the Regent of the Mines, though in the Bledsaw and subsequent maps it has been moved south and west.
14. This might be Southport, identified as such on the TSR map, or perhaps it is the meeting point for the "Nomads of Ten," later known in the TSR version as Whitehorse. Note that in the original Blackmoor, then, these would be desert nomads, not plains nomads... but neither are likely choices, frankly, as there are no major roads in this area! Similarly, the settlement to the south and east along the road is nowhere to be seen.

Of course, with the Bledsaw maps being designed to match up with the Wilderlands maps, and the region there near the Valley of the Ancients being utter wilderness, the lack of these settlements and roads makes some sense... As for the "old Dutch map"... well, here's some food for thought... 

ORIGINAL ORIENTATION

FLIPPED AND INVERTED...

As usual, click to embiggen... and then look closely at the lakes in the western peninsula jutting north (modern North Holland) that is, in the flipped and inverted version, the "southern peninsula" jutting to the east... and if you take the waters of the North Sea outside the Zuider Zee ("Holad") and make them land, say desert in the west and the Great Kingdom in the east... it looks a bit familiar, no? 

HOW DID HE DO IT?

Of course, back in the day they didn't have even simple computer programs that could manipulate maps... all he had, likely, at best was a photocopier or mimeograph machine; at worst, he had an original copy of an old Dutch map of his own, likely from some old history book, which lacked printing on the back of the page (you'll find a lot of old history books with maps had these as fold-out insert sheets with no printing on the back of the map). 

So Dave either took a copy of a map or an original map and did one of two things: 1) He had a light table (easy enough to make with a piece of strong plastic and a light) and set the map on the table, then drew on the back; or 2) He took a thick black marker that would bleed through the back of the paper, drew along the coast lines on the front of the map, and then flipped the map over and using the bleed-through lines as a guide, drew the coastlines and rivers. 

I used the second method, with the thick black marker, to make the map above... Blackmoor at the center, desert to the south and west, Great Kingdom to the south and east, ocean to the east, Frisia to the north and east (and yes, that's exactly where Frisiae, or the RW Frisia, really is), and Duchy of Ten to the west. Egg of Coot... note interestingly that the Zuiderzee, the extension of the North Sea that went into Holland, was slowly reclaimed for land through the Zuiderzee Works, a decades-long project that made whole new land. Once upon a time, historically, it had been land... and sank... through the Middle Ages. Sinking Lands? hmmm... and later, the land of the Egg of Coot rose from the seas (right were, on a modern map of the Netherlands, you would find one of the major pieces of land reclaimed from the sea)? More than mere coincidence, I think... 

I also think that perhaps when he and Bob put together the new map for the First Fantasy Campaign, Bob went back to the original "Old Dutch Map," or something close to it, for inspiration to expand out the north... which had been truncated by Dave in his original map (maybe he only had the southern portion of the map available originally?) Maybe, during their conversation while Bob was trying to make this new map, one or the other suggested putting the Egg of Coot on "reclaimed" land... 

Finally, I should note that Blackmoor proper, east to west from Jackport to Hanford, is about 300 miles using the original Bledsaw map at 10-mile per hex scale... the region of North Holland, which is essentially the area used to "create" Blackmoor using the Old Dutch Map, was about 30 miles north to south, from Amsterdam to where, in the Old Dutch Map, the coastline was on the north... so all Dave had to do was multiply the RW scale by 10... 

Finally finally... one must wonder. "Duchy of Ten"... is it possible that the map Dave used numbered the maps on the bottom of the page? Numbered them as "plates," as many maps and illustrations were so called in those days? Perhaps, just perhaps, the "Duchy of Ten" was inspired by the fact that in that area of the map page, near what would have been the bottom of the page, were the words "Plate No. 10"...

[TOEE] Local Cultures, Elemental Evil Domain, and Minor Map Revisions

Here are the latest updates on the development of my 5E Temple of Elemental Evil Campaign:

I have completed my write-up of the local cultures, human and demi-human:

Dwarves: Graybeard Mountain Dwarves of the Lortmil Mountains.

Gnomes: Curelneblin Rock Gnomes of the Kron Hills, Neurlneblin Forest Gnomes of the Gnarly Forest.

Elves: Arostorin High Elves of Celene & Verbobonc, Gorgladhrim Sylvan Elves of the Gnarly Forest.

Halflings: Noniz Halflings of the Uleks.

Humans: Flannae (Adohinagi of the Gnarly Forest and Welkwood, Digadushi of the Kron Hills and Lortmil Mountains), Kronfolk of the Kron Hills, and Velvervyn of Verbobonc.

E-mail me at jamesmishler and gmail dot com if you want a copy of the PDF. 

Next I am going to finish the Random Encounters and Geographical Regions sections. Here's a sample of that:

***

I developed an Elemental Evil Domain for use by the clergy of the Temple of Elemental Evil. It is available as a PWYW product on Dungeon Masters Guild. Click here to go there and get it.

Please let me know what you think!

***

Finally, some minor changes on the map:

[TOEE] New 5E Greyhawk Campaign OAR6 Temple of Elemental Evil

 I have started a new Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign using Goodman Games' Original Adventures Reincarnated #6 -- The Temple of Elemental Evil.

While I very much enjoy most of the conversion, one thing that I felt needed more personalization was the map of the environs of Hommlet and Nulb, the easternmost section of the Kron Hills and westernmost portion of the Gnarly Forest. And so I have made a new map; it is more focused than that of OAR6, covering only the area of the original map included with the TOEE, so it is about 30 miles north-south by 50 miles east-west, or thereabouts.

It is also much more solidly packed with lesser and side adventures than OAR6 or the original. I based the amount of potential adventures on Gary's Random Wilderness Terrain generator (Appendix B, 1E DMG p. 173), which assumes a scale of 1 mile per hex (as I have for this map), and therein 1 in 6 hexes thereof should have some sort of settlement, stronghold, or ruin (in addition to any monstrous lairs). In the case of the region, most settlements and strongholds are ruins, of course, and I also folded monstrous lairs and special locales into the fold; yet even with seeding only one locale in 10 hexes, I still have 138 locations on the map!

I am assuming population density of around 10 per square mile, equivalent to that of the North of England after The Bastard's Harrowing. 

It gives the whole a very Wilderlands-esque feel. Excellent!

As it is getting late, without any further ado, here is the map. Email me at jamesmishler at gmail dot com if you want a larger version.

Right Click and Open in New Tab to Embiggen... 

[World of Greyhawk] Hexographer Map of the Thillonrian Peninsula

The World of Greyhawk continues to hold my interest and inspire my work, and from time to time I like to clear my head with some general cartographic work on Hexographer. So as I did earlier with the Central Flanaess, now I have put together a Hexographer map of the Thillonrian Peninsula -- the home of the Frost, Ice, and Snow Barbarians, as well as the Hold of Stonefist. This is a big, empty land, By the Map, and so were I to set a campaign here, I'd be adding a lot of new and interesting geography. But you got to start with the basic setup...

The Thillonrian Peninsula, or "Rhizia" as the natives call it, is essentially Oerth's Scandinavian Peninsula, complete with Vikings. I always found it odd that the G (Giants) and D (Drow) series of modules were placed much further south and west, in the Hellfurnaces, rather than in the Corusk Mountains, but that just shows that the various events of the south and central regions of Keoland and Greyhawk, both much more obviously directly derived from Gary's own "True Greyhawk," were much closer to his heart and mind. They could both readily be moved to this region; plenty of room for glaciers and volcanoes in the Corusk.

The map is pretty much as exact to the original Darlene map as I could make it with the classic Mystara-style hexes. As per the original, scale on this map is 1 hex = 10 leagues = 30 miles.

As always, email me at jamesmishler@gmail.com if you want the original Hexographer file or a larger PNG file.

Central Flanaess Map -- By the Map

Here is something I've been meaning to work on for some time -- a map of the Central Flanaess of the World of Greyhawk. I'm not sure it is dead on center, but it is centered the way I want it to be.

Here you have just about everything you need to have a full series of adventures in Greyhawk. Mountains, forests, plains, seas -- elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins -- great ruined piles and decadent cities, knights in shining armor and temples of Evil High Priests.

The map is pretty much as exact to the original Darlene map as I could make it with the classic Mystara-style hexes. As per the original, scale on this map is 1 hex = 10 leagues = 30 miles.

As always, email me at jamesmishler@gmail.com if you want the original Hexographer file or a larger PNG file.

Click to embiggen

Middle-Southlands Map

Seems I am on a map-making tear rather than a campaign-development tear.

Reading through the OD&D boxed set and the B/X books of late, combined with several recent requests for the Hexographer file for my old Southands map, caused me to return to that map and see what more I could do with it.

So I thought to myself, "Self, what would 13-year old you do with this material and Hexographer?"

And so I present to you a map of "Middle-Southland," combining the Outdoor Survival map with OD&D, B/X, and a few other choice bits of D&D, with Middle-earth (and a dash of Shannara, I suppose), as I probably would have drawn back when I first read through Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion.

Grab a copy of the map, pull out your OD&D box or B/X (or Labyrinth Lord) books, and get together online with your buddies, and let your 13-year old selves do some exploration...

Click to embiggen

If you want a larger PNG of the map, or a copy of the Hexographer file, just email me at jamesmishler@gmail.com

Stay Home! Stay Safe!

Enjoy!

[Mystara] Tepeshiya Map WIP Mk. I

Here's a preview of the map of Tepeshiya; it is a work in progress and subject to change.

I'm drawing on a lot of the resources available at the Vaults of Pandius, though still distinctly making this part of my Mystara, so not everything out there in the Fanon will make it in (and much of what does will be altered).

A complete list of what came from where will be included down the road.

As usual, click to embiggen...

[Known Realms] Map of the Northlands for Dungeon Crawl Classics

Back in early 2018 I started working on a campaign for the Known Realms of Aereth, the campaign setting for the original 3E Dungeon Crawl Classics line. Being me, of course, the first thing I had to do was set up a Hexographer map of the Northlands; nine maps, each hex 25 miles across, covering pretty much the entire Northlands except for the northernmost wastelands and Punjar (which really is part of the Lostlands, anyway).

 

As is normal with my life, other things got in the way of completion, and I moved on to other campaigns. However, the maps have still been sitting there, not complete but mostly complete, and now and again I've been thinking of them and what I can do with them.

 

Would anyone be interested in seeing these maps completed? Along with a Wilderlands-style run-down of major cities, towns, castles, citadels, ruins, islands, and lairs? Each of the nine maps would be sold separately with a gazetteer (under license from Goodman Games, of course).

 

Below is a small, stitched-together version of the first draft of the nine maps. Each of the nine has since been worked over more, with more details and corrections between the stitching areas, so this is merely a rough draft.

 

Click here to get a larger version from of my Google Drive.

 

Let me know what you think...

Click to embiggen

[JMG] The Incompleat Realmscrawl

So last year I tried to jump into the 5E market on the Dungeon Masters Guild, with some hex-based mapping of the Forgotten Realms called Realmscrawl (also, alternate version of FR based on some old campaign stuff). Sales went nowhere, for various reasons.

 

I had already done a lot of work on the rest of the Realmscrawl maps, and have decided to release the Incompleat Realmscrawl maps into the wild. The linked product includes all eight of the remaining Realmscrawl map Hexographer files, as well as small PNGs of each region, and one very small scale "mega-map" of all nine regions of the Eastern Heartlands altogether.

 

As mentioned, it is incomplete... none of the maps have any names on them, most got to the placement of locations stage, and Map #9 is only in primitive layout stage. But if you are into FR, or just need a blank sandbox or eight, this is for you, and at the right price... if you have Hexographer, of course...

 

The Incompleat Realmscrawl

 

 

Herein you will find the remaining eight maps of the Realmscrawl line, which never quite took off.

The initial release, Realmscrawl Campaign Map #5: Tilverton, never sold enough for me to further develop the line.

 

However, I still have my initial work done on the rest of the maps; here they are, incomplete, ready to be further developed for your own campaign using Hexographer.

 

Included are the Hexographer files for Maps 1 to 4 and 6 to 9.

 

Maps 1 to 4 and 6 to 8 are essentially complete, save for names. Map 9 is in a rather more primitive condition, but the general outline is all there.

 

Also included are small maps of each of the eight regions, in PNG format, as well as one map of all nine regions stitched together in a primitive fashion (made with slightly older versions of the maps included herein).

 

PAY WHAT YOU WANT
 

Click Here to get the Incompleat Realmscrawl at DMG

[Pokémon Campaign] Pokémon Campaign

I've been pretty quiet here lately, been concentrating on playing games rather than writing about them... well, of course, I have to do SOME writing about most of the games I run. I've been running two campaigns, both 5th Edition.

 

I recently put the bigger campaign on hiatus, as I've got less time right now. The campaign is set in Kvin Mondöj, though less Heavy Metal and more Kitchen Sink. I ran the campaign at a local game store every other Sunday for several months, and even though we'd have an average of 8 to 10 players at a time, most of the characters reached 5th or 6th level... and that's where I find 5th Edition to kind of break down, with twice as many characters at that mid-level. I hope to pick up the campaign again, but first I'll have to figure out how to run it in a balanced yet challenging fashion for that many players at that level and higher...

 

It got a little weird at times, almost but not quite this weird...

 

The other game is a one-on-one I've been running with my wife. She's a huge Pokémon fan and so she introduced me to the anime midyear last year. After watching several episodes, I commented on how it would make a wonderful tabletop RPG, and wondered why such had not appeared as yet (in official licensed form)... and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

At first I looked through the usual suspects for a system to use (all the old Guardians of Order systems, for example), but I felt that they really didn't capture the experience just right. So I punted and started designing a Pokémon trainer class for 5E. I also snagged the Kanto Pokédex from Caniswolfman24 on Reddit; though it is a very good start, it only captures each Pokémon in a snapshot, and even then, as mix of each of the various generations as the author preferred... and as I wanted the Pokémon to be able to level up, just like they do in the game (and the anime), I had my work cut out for me...

 

And then, too, I needed a world... well, a Region, really, as these adventures needed to take place in their own region. I could have used Kanto, or Johto, or any of the already defined regions, but I wanted something that would be unknown and wild and open... a real Pokémon Sandbox, so to speak. So I created the Byoga region (not based on any real Japanese region or other worldly region), and set about creating the region based on my wife's favorite artist. Try to figure it out...

 

The main map isn't finished yet; I just wanted to get a decent feel for the overall region, and then drill down to the individual hexes. The campaign started in Café Town, and her first adventures were all in the Café Hills. The region hexes are 5 miles, and the township hexes are each 0.20 miles. I packed a LOT of stuff in each hex; with the way Pokémon trainers wander, they tend to miss a lot, so she was guaranteed to find SOMETHING each session (each session is one or more "episodes," depending on the action that takes place and the length of the session).

 

Anyhoo, here are three of the maps, and I'll see about posting some of the information about the Pokémon Trainer class and the various Pokémon Racial Classes...

 

 

[Found Treasures] World of Snarfquest

Long ago the pages of Dragon Magazine hosted Snarfquest, Larry Elmore's comic series about the adventures of a strange being, Snarf, who was a Zeetvah, an odd humanoid race. The world included all sorts of standard fantasy creatures, in addition to the odd creatures such as the Zeetvahs; while most of these "Exotic Beings" were found in the appropriately-named "Valley of Exotic Beings," a few other such critters could be found elsewhere.

At one point the comic featured the brief depiction of the map of the continent and region upon and in which Snarf adventured. And of course, with my love of maps, I took it and ran with it... end ended up with a series of interesting maps, closely based on the map depicted, but slightly changed up, with a few name and other changes here and there...

I never ran a campaign set in this world; it was only an exercise in map making and world building. Maybe someday... as it seems like a wild and wahoo kind of world suitable for a B/X, BECMI, or Labyrinth Lord campaign. Or maybe that's just because I associate Elmore's work on the Mentzer version of Basic and Expert, and thus could easily see Snarf walking through the art in those pages...

If only Aleena had had Telerie Windyarm at her side instead of some nameless schmuck, she'd still be with us today and Bargle's skull would be a random bit of dungeon dressing...

Here's the map of the geography of the continent...

Here's an map overview of the world's regions...

Here's a map that focuses on the geography of the Westrian Kingdoms, the area where Snarf was from...

Here's a regional map of the kingdoms of Westria...

And here is the regional map for the Tyran Empire... gotta have an Empire of Tyrants. A great place for gladiator games, debauchery, and backstabbing...

And here's a scan of the original map as depicted in the comic series (Dragon #94)...

I found two little notes in the folder where I keep the maps. One indicates that there are 48,000 Whaven, the "Exotic Nomadic Tribes" of the plain of the same name. There are nine tribes, each with a different skin color... Black, Red, Orange, Gray, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and White. The tribesmen ride zebras known as "Kwags."

The other note indicates the ethnic types of the region. Wesmen are red-haired Celts; Whaven are tawny-haired Picts; Elani are black-haired Greeks; Gelts are tawny-haired Germans; Northrons are blond-haired Norse; Martani are black haired Berbers; and the Tyrans are a mix of Elani, Gelts, and Wesmen.

There is also a little random chart to determine the title of the ruler of the village, town, or city that characters pass through. Even the smallest hamlet might be ruled by a king... very points-of-light style...

[Found Treasures] Gamma World Map featuring the Yceea Campaign

I went to grad school at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa from 1992 to 1994. While there I ran numerous campaigns with many gaming groups. One of these campaign was the Yceea Gamma World Campaign. This Gamma World setting had several influences. The two most prominent were from television and literature.

As one can see, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV series had a major influence, from the inclusion of a "New Chicago" arcology/mega-city in central Illinois. New Chicago, along with a dozen or more similar locations, were built by the Starmen, the Pure Strain Humans who arrived from interstellar colonies and re-colonized the irradiated Earth. The Starmen were the source of all Pure Strain Humans in this campaign, as all native humans were Mutants. PSH had spread throughout the lands, as the Starmen arrived centuries ago, had a civil war, and those who wished to live free from the kind but stifling benevolent tyranny of the City-State settled their own lands.

The other influence were novels by three authors: Donald Moffat with Crescent in the Sky and A Gathering of Stars; the excellent Budayeen Cycle by George Alec Effinger; and of course, the Horseclans series by Robert Adams, notably mentions of the Khaleefate of Zahrtogah. And so most of the Earth, or at least, the campaign area, was dominated by a vaguely Islamic-style culture, with Ahmeers and Sooltahns, Mahleeks and Khaleefs; as with the Khaleefate of Zahrtogah, rulership was usually held by those with the most potent mental mutations...

I haven't yet found any of my notes from the campaign, just this map. I hope something printed remains; all my notes were on the first computer I ever owned, complete with a dot matrix printer. I think I might have even typed up some notes on a typewriter I still owned. But almost 25 years later, it is unlikely that much else remains. I might just rebuild it from the ground up for a Mutant Future or Mutants & Mazes campaign...

Scale is 8 kilometers per hex, or about 5 miles per hex.

As usual click to embiggen...

[Found Treasures] Labyrinth Lord Known Lands Expanded

Here's a map of far more recent vintage: an unfinished attempt to expand out the Known Lands of Labyrinth Lord. I never got very far with this map; IIRC, this was from around the time I picked up Hexographer and started working on the Olden Lands. I was definitely going with a Norse-inspired section in the north, something England-like in the east, Mongols in the west, and Egyptian/Arabic in the south... but never got any further than this.

Scale is 30 miles to the hex, as the original map it is based on was 10 miles to the hex, but IIRC I was planning on changing that to 24 miles and 8 miles, respectively, to fit with the old school scale of the Known World...

As usual, click to embiggen...

[Found Treasures] Hand-Drawn Map of Taymor

So I've finally gotten a chance to go through some of those boxes of long-stored gaming materials. I've found a trove of old maps and campaign notes, stuff I wrote ages ago that, if they exist in digital form anywhere, it is likely they are rotting on an old 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" disks in a box somewhere in the back of storage... so I'll eventually sort out what is cool and not, scan it, OCR it, and maybe do something with it... we'll see.

But for now, the maps. I used to hand draw TONS of maps back in the day, all sorts of maps from dungeons and wilderness to cities and villages. Now I pretty much doodle on Hexographer for hex maps and use existing maps from elsewhere for dungeon and city maps.

This map was my first go at a version of Taymor, the lands of the Known World of Mystara back before the disaster that created the Broken Lands and destroyed the Kingdom of Taymor. I wrote up a TON of backstory on Taymor when I was running Mystara on a regular basis. Most of that can be found on the Vaults of Pandius; at least, that which I posted to various Mystara fan sites. There's a ton of stuff still remaining that I might get to eventually...

This map is of course at the 24-mile-per-hex scale that was used in the Known World series.

As usual, click to embiggen

[From the Vaults] Isles of Ages

So I've finally gotten around to sorting through a few boxes of old campaign materials from our storage, and have found a LOT of cool stuff, much of which I have forgotten. Here's a scan of the map I drew for my Isles of Ages campaign setting, a portion of which, Lost Dragonia, was featured in Fight On #10. The Isle of Ages is a classic "lost world" campaign setting, complete with dinosaurs, cavemen, vikings, conquistadors, amazons, Lovecraftian beings, and a few daikaiju-style gods...

Maybe someday I'll get around to doing more with this setting.

Right Click to Embiggen...

[Kvin Mondöj] Kvin Mondöj Regions

And the last of the maps of Kvin Mondöj for a while, the Regions map. In most cases, these are broad regions, more or less united by geography, history, race/ethnicity, politics, trade, or what have you, even if it is the neighboring folks saying "this area has a lot in common" and thus giving the region a name.

The only true kingdoms shown on the map are the Empire Satanicum, the Sultanate of Shamharoosh, and the Tyranny of Achariyth. Most of the savage tribes of Utgard fall under the dominion of Thule; Mercadia considers all of the petty domains of Vulkodlak their personal playthings; and Ahrihann is loosely united in a confederacy against Shamharoosh (save, of course, for the Ghouls of Pnath) under the leadership of the Padishah of Akem Manah. Similarly the King of Rammstein holds the fealty of many of the lords and chieftains of Galaroth, while the Governor of Mount Salem is counted as the "First Among Equals" by the Governors and Mayors of Eternia (the Old Blood Nobles, of course, being generally inimical to all of the upstart Republics of the region).

More on the Regions, Locations, and Geography another time...

Click to embiggen

[Gondwane] Map of Lin Carter's Northern YamaYamaLand

One of my favorite series by Lin Carter is his exploration of the Dying Earth genre, the Gondwane Epic featuring the tales of Ganelon Silvermane. Gary thought enough of them to include them in Appendix N. They read like the adventures of a gaming group, and the world seems designed for a science-fantasy campaign, with its odd mix of magic and technology.

Being on a map-making binge, I was overjoyed when I discovered that I had thrown an early, hand-drawn study of Northern YamaYamaLand, the main region featured in the adventures of the first two books, in my box of papers and stuff before heading out for Virginia. So over the last couple days I've been futzing around with another Hexographer map. 

The general form of the setting is as per the book; I've added in additional details such as villages, more ruins, lairs, and the like, and filled in a few holes in the northeastern and northwestern corners of the map. The most unusual features, for the uninitiated, are those found in Dwarfland. These are not Tolkien dwarves; they are the Death Dwarfs, a form of Unlife, inimical to the more common like of Gondwane. They are more like poisonous goblins than dwarves, and the life and lands they rule are similarly unpleasant...

The scale is arbitrarily set to five miles per. It could as readily be six or 10, as during the story the distances traveled seem not to jibe with one another, essentially traveling at the speed of plot...

Anyhoo, one of these days I might get around to trying a Mutants & Mazes (Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future) or Labyrinth Critical campaign in the setting... that would be sweet. As usual, if you want a bigger map or the original Hexographer files, just let me know.

Click to embiggen