Mapmaking merry (5)

As promised last week, another instalment of the very occasional series on merging mapmaking and terrain-making. The reason given to the mapmakers for tuning in?

For a different kind of expression, for time away from the number crunching and paper, from pencils and dice. Indulge the artist within, get tactile - show yourself in another medium. It's a breath of fresh air, and will likely give you a different understanding of spaces and decor that will feed back into games.

And for the terrain-makers just a few of those words need switching round.

For a different kind of expression, for time away from the sculpting and scattering, from paints and LOS. Indulge the planner within, get calculating - show yourself in another medium. It's a breath of fresh air, and will likely give you a different understanding of spaces and movement that will feed back into games.

Foxing Day

We've all had some time with our gifts now, and probably been thinking about presents for ourselves and others plenty over the past few weeks. Johnathan at Ostensible Cat prefers not to list and I largely agree, while Desert Scribe at Super Galactic Dreadnought has thoughts on golden oldies (for Star Wars fans years could fall away at Back in '81). But how much have you thought about gifts in general?

I've mentioned The Log from the Sea of Cortez here once before. This is one of those books that keeps on giving. In the appendix Steinbeck suggests a defining quality of his close friend and mentor Ed Ricketts may have been the ability to receive. Steinbeck describes giving as a “a selfish pleasure”, but says receiving done well needs “a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness”, “humility and tact and great understanding of relationships”, wisdom and even “a self-esteem”.

Ricketts is described as accepting a thing, but not taking it and keeping it as property, and association with him is said to have been “deep participation”. From reading the book as a whole, the authors – Ricketts included – seem to have an almost mythical view of synthesis and the non-teleological, the thing as it is.

As Steinbeck also says, giving can be “downright destructive”. We know this. In games plenty can be done with the fact. Where would Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 be without the corrupting gifts of Chaos? How about Tolkien's Rings of Power? They must have seemed like the perfect present at the time, for the lord who has everything. A DM/GM can use his or her players worst instincts against them, luring them into danger on the basis of greed or lust, or just giving them an item they can't not use...

Mapmaking merry (2)

The flight paths of Porky's Expanse! may be growing slowly into bustling space lanes, but the mission remains the same. In just the same way, tenuous links may become major thoroughfares and well-worn dirt tracks be paved over, with purpose unchanged. Imagined landscapes are made real.

The first post in the series offered ideas found treading the paths of cyberspace, a range of approaches to mapmaking for wargaming and roleplaying, from 2D to 3D. This second post will too, but with an emphasis on giving an idea for a landscape a fixed final form. Stunning vistas await. Click and lose yourself somewhere out of this world.

Mainly fantasy 2D

• In Places Deep reminds us of a useful resource, a geomorph mapper.
• A host of links to make mapping easier at Old School Heretic.
• Thoughts on a fortress at A Wizard in a bottle.
• No maps, but time is brought into the equation at A Paladin in Citadel.

Fantasy and sci-fi 2D / 3D

• Ogre Miniatures shows us how to make a 2D hex-board a 3D crater field.
• Over at Plastic Legions is a skirmish battle board of cellars and caverns.
• Building vertiginous virtual caverns at Some King's Kent. Don't look down!
• The Sin of Alacrity emerges from the Warp at A Gentleman's Ones...
• A while back Blue Table Painting put up a vid of a pulp docking bay. There's one of it in action too.

Fantasy, modern and sci-fi 3D

• The Angry Lurker has a funky diner. Food in games too... Yum.
• Will this breathtaking landscape for Mordheim ever be outdone? Why not?
• This might just help you do it - some research at Marvelous Miniatures.
• Some tiered Eldar terrain at Bell of Lost Souls, with links to more pics in the comments - yet another reason to learn Italian.
• Apocalypse is no small-scale affair.

Mapmaking merry (1)

Wandering the labyrinthine byways of the internet of late, I seem to have taken a lot of very right turns. Even without a map to guide myself by I've come across reams of maps. The one that set off this post was one that inspired me long ago. It was a city map...

Blacksand!

That's right, Port Blacksand of Allansia, star of the Fighting Fantasy solo gamebooks and Advanced Fighting Fantasy system. Do you shudder with pleasure, or fear?

I relived the memories at Brighton Roleplayers, specifically at their post on urban settings in fantasy. While you're there, check out Sigil too. Right up my alley. They have the map from Blacksand!, and if you want a list of streets, there's one here. (I've added this useful wiki to memory banks in the right-hand column.) We met the city first in City of Thieves, the solo gamebook, helpfully reviewed here at Fighting Dantasy.

But this only set me off. I think we all love urban maps, whether campaign maps, adventure maps or criss-crossed tabletops, for roleplaying or wargaming. So Porky went snuffling for new or lesser-known options, and presents a subjective selection below.

Mainly fantasy 2D

• Lots of map roundups at Carto Cacography, the latest with some real gems
• Plenty of dungeons and tunnels at Aeons & Augauries
• A couple of post-apocalypic at the Forumopolis

Mainly sci-fi 2D / 3D

• S6 Engineering have some modular road, canal and city block terrain
• Jawaballs is hawking copies of the latest Space Hulk with its superb boards
• Litko have space corridors of their own and industrial towers with walkways

Many genre / fantasy 3D

• WorldWorksGames offer a vast terrain range for printing onto card or pre-cut
• Painted or unpainted fantasy buildings from Custom Kingdoms, shown off here by Blue Table Painting
• Impressive new fantasy towers from Games Workshop, one ruined, one dividing out into floors

No dead ends there - a host of atmospheric destinations - but stay in the lamplight!

So what have I missed? What grand thoroughfares, cramped streets and dank alleyways do you frequent? More to the point, which would you like to?
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