Need a little mapping help

[Drakkan]

Ok I lied, I need alot of mapping help! ;)

I'm new to the Birthright setting, but have been a DM for countless other games over the years. My specialty is presentation, or in this case maps. I have been reading the official conversion of BR and cruising these forums as a guest for a week or 2 now. One thing I noticed was a startling lack of maps for a game with so much emphasis on conquering. Well I like the campaign idea so much that I’m going to make some maps so I can play with my group, but figured since the maps could be of some use to your project I would take the extra time to make them even cooler and submit them for use in this atlas.

What I need help with is links to any maps you know of, no matter how simple with domain names. Many of the maps I referenced to lay out mine were just barely big enough to see borders and you could not read the actual names or stats of the domains.

Secondly I am curious if there is any reference that exists to map the 2 other continents that are on the edges of the map. The ruins of empire pbem has a world map on it but I have not been able to find reference material for anything but Cerilia so I don’t know if that map is just something they made for their site or if anything exists with those maps.
I submitted for membership in their group anyways hoping that they have more details on them.

Third thing is 2 areas that none of the maps I have found covered. Two very small areas that didn’t overlap at all even with the ton of maps I had to use. The first area is west of the southern plains area. I know that river is supposed to run through it, and its partly marshland, but besides that I have no reference. The second area is between the highlands and giant downs. You can see it from my map demo below where I just stopped mapping. Looks like it is probably only a single domain in there, but I wasn’t for sure so just left it blank till I get an answer.

The last thing (I think) that I need to know is along what borders are the areas divided? Is there any good reference out there that charts the default ownership of the domains at the start of a normal game?

Ok, with that out of the way you are probably thinking I’m crazy and don’t know what I’m getting myself into… on the contrary, I have a fair bit of the map done already. At least most of the boring stuff anyways. Adding color and details is the easy part, only thing left that I dread is labeling all of those regions. O_o
The current stats on the map:
6348 x 4020
300dpi
So if you really want it could be printed to about 8ft x 4ft and maintain almost full detail.

Work Done:
Land masses all placed.
Domain borders about 99% completed.
Lakes and rivers 99% completed

Demo of the map:
http://sidequeststudios.com/roleplaying/mapdemo1.jpg

Closer view: this is 50% zoomed in.
http://sidequeststudios.com/roleplaying/mapdemo2.jpg

[Jamie]

Wow Drakkan nice work. Man I wish I had the information you were looking for so I could help out.

Though wizards.com has a few things you can download for free that have information on the maps and domains. Check out:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads

and

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20020121x5

The legacy of kings board game has a big map and a lot of the base stats of the domains in it.

Sorry I can't help more.

Though I am really interested in getting a copy of this map when you are done. :)

[Danip]

Dont know if you know this site; http://www.saers.com/~cobos/ Has many of the BR maps...

As to your specific questions,


the first area is west of the southern plains area. I know that river is supposed to run through it, and its partly marshland, but besides that I have no reference.
I think you are speaking of the Harrowmarsh. It falls just of the maps like http://users.chariot.net.au/~hoss/pbem/map1.jpg It is somewhat detailed in "Blood Enemies," as it is an awnie dominated region.(little map on p44)


The second area is between the highlands and giant downs. You can see it from my map demo below where I just stopped mapping. Looks like it is probably only a single domain in there, but I wasn’t for sure so just left it blank till I get an answer.
Maybe im looking at the wrong place, but looks like you just missed a few provinces between the Giantdowns and llauraight. You can see them in http://www.saers.com/~cobos/mapsrjurik.htm Provinces there in the cold north look really big, so you didnt miss a whole domain. http://www.saers.com/~cobos/mapswildlands.htm is a closer picture.


The last thing (I think) that I need to know is along what borders are the areas divided? Is there any good reference out there that charts the default ownership of the domains at the start of a normal game?
Not sure what you mean here? Each realm has its own ruler usually, as detailed in the original sourcebooks (Ruins of Empire=anuire realms, Cities of the Sun=khinasi, Havens of the Great Bay=brechtur, Heartless Waste=vos, and the Rjurik book, with a few awnie realms in Blood Enemies).

Might have a look at the map and databases in BirMail, http://sourceforge.net/projects/birmail

Hope this helps a little...

[Green Knight]

Secondly I am curious if there is any reference that exists to map the 2 other continents that are on the edges of the map. The ruins of empire pbem has a world map on it but I have not been able to find reference material for anything but Cerilia so I don’t know if that map is just something they made for their site or if anything exists with those maps.
I submitted for membership in their group anyways hoping that they have more details on them.


Hi,

Being the one that made the World Maps for Ruins, I think a word of caution is in order - the geography of Cerilia has been altered; subtly in some places and more radically in others (altering coast lines etc.). So be careful so you don't end up adding anything that is contrary to the canon maps.

As to the other parts of the world - Aduria is based upon a hand-drawn map provided by Raesene Andu. I think he got it from R. Baker, and the northern end of the continent does indeed conform well to the text from the Lost Files.

The rest of the continents are my creation (obviusly the NW end of Djapar is the one found on the cardboard map from the BR box). Oh, and the scale of the continents are NOT canon, but all dimensions have seen a 50% increase.

[Benjamin]

Being the one that made the World Maps for Ruins, I think a word of caution is in order - the geography of Cerilia has been altered; subtly in some places and more radically in others (altering coast lines etc.). So be careful so you don't end up adding anything that is contrary to the canon maps.


Ever think about taking your 'altered' maps and making a more canon version? It doesn't appear to me that you would need to change much. Of course, I know this still takes a ton of time. But I for one would hail your name for eternity, knowing I had an accurate world map of Aebrynis. Might name my first born Green or something.

;)

[Drakkan]

Awesome, all of that stuff helped!

I was going to buy the box sets on ebay to get the original maps, but decided against waiting that long till they all came up, and spending the money to basically get maps I won't use offline anyways. :P Ended up getting the 4 main sets from RPGnow. Cities of the sun had the marsh map I needed, and between the 4 sets I picked up a few more maps I had not found anywhere yet.

Also in the time since I posted I did some deeper digging and it looks like you already did alot of the stuff I was planning green! Ended up finding that hand drawn map you refered to but unfortunately there was a ton of other maps and things people linked back a couple years ago that are no longer around. When I get done making my current map I may have to come back and pick your brain some about these other continents.

http://sidequeststudios.com/roleplaying/mapdemo3.jpg
Got the oceans cut out and am about 1/2 done with putting in the details. Going to be using the cities of the sun maps to finish off the ocean accurately
and hopefully will have the ocean dividers finished today too. The fault line in the ocean is going to be faded out more in the end, just forgot to do it before I took the shot. Still playing around with different techniques of drawing out the mountains, forests, and grasslands that look cool and detailed but still have the basic feel of the original maps.

[Green Knight]

Ever think about taking your 'altered' maps and making a more canon version? It doesn't appear to me that you would need to change much. Of course, I know this still takes a ton of time. But I for one would hail your name for eternity, knowing I had an accurate world map of Aebrynis. Might name my first born Green or something.

;)

I suppose I could do that. It should not be too much work - I used the original maps as the base anyway, and if I remember correctly, I have them saved as a separate layer in my map file.

However, one big issue remains: My Cerilia has x2,5 the land-mass of the original. With a 50% increase in all dimensions, Cerilia's provinces end up at an average of 2,500 square miles, instead of the 1,000 lister in the original material. And so Cerilia goes from being just a very big island, to a full continent. The same goes for the other continents as well, leaving you with a world with little land and a lot of ocean...

...and there is the issue of my stone-age PC. I quit work on the World Maps a year ago, because the machine to ages to work with the PSP files a use...and the hardware hasn't gotten any better since then. Seems I have to buy a new computer. :o

[Green Knight]

Awesome, all of that stuff helped!

The fault line in the ocean is going to be faded out more in the end, just forgot to do it before I took the shot. Still playing around with different techniques of drawing out the mountains, forests, and grasslands that look cool and detailed but still have the basic feel of the original maps.

You might want to think a bit aobut that fault line. Mnt. Deismaar and the land bridge stood where the Straits are today, so maybe the geology is rather more similar to the area around the Straits of Gibraltar? Just an idea.

The map lokks very nice even at this early stage. I take it you imorted the original maps, and used them as a blueprint? What software do you use?

[Benjamin]

Well, Green Knight, I understand your computer problems. I wish I had more understanding of various programs so I could try to fix it myself. That or I lived closer and you could use my machine to do the work! Alas, neither happens. :(

Drakkan - your site seems to not have the file anymore. :( Any chance of getting it hosted somewhere else for others to look at?

[Drakkan]

yeah the files arent back up yet.

I changed domain hosting because my old one was terrible, just havent gotten to uploading everything back up again yet. Actually... that might be a good project to do right now. :P

*edit* All fixed. Now I just gotta get the time to work on them more. Since I informed my players what campaign we would be playing I have been hounded relentlessly to work on the campaign instead. :eek:

[Drakkan]

Thats basically what I did Green was put together all the maps (though fairly roughly) and used those as a blueprint. Now that I have that big map of the original ones that came in the box sets done I have not tried to lay this one here over it to double check yet for accuracy.

As for the programs, basically the steps so far were this...

Corel painter, drew out the main outline with my tablet and pen over top of the originals on a new layer. Drew out all of the border divions on a second layer, then I exported them both to new files.

Photoshop, put down a base that could be manipulated (the parchment look) and pasted in the outlines and divisions layers. Set both of those layers to multiply so only the lines showed. Went about putting in details and using those new layers to help make a few extra effects like selecting the outside area of the continents outline to cut out the perfect shape for the oceans to work on.

The ocean is a pretty simple couple layers. It was a solid blue layer sitting over the parchment background. Used the opacity slider to make it about 30-40% I think. Then a second layer that sat on top of that is the coastal effect. Thats just simply using the airbrush tool and setting the opacity and flow way down, like maybe 3% to 5% opacity and 25% or so flow. Just apply it a little at a time and you can get that cloudy effect pretty quickly and efficiently. Do just the opposite for the deep water and use dark blue with the airbrush instead of white. The ocean stuff looks ilke the most detailed area but actually didnt take a fraction of the time that the outilnes and borders did. :)

Still have not figured out how I want to do forests, plains and mountains. Likely the forests and plains can be done in a very similar way to the oceans. Mountains I dont see a quick of doing however, so those might take some time.

Hope that answered your question. :) If you got any specific questions I never mind giving photoshop tips.

[Green Knight]

Hi,

What about making some tubes for mountains? Thay would look somewhat similar to the original maps. You would still need some sort of background for the mountains, but with a small set of mountain tubes on top of that you could get a very nice look.

[Benjamin]

Wow! So far, this is looking great! Keep it up! No chance you are in New England, is there? Might help out a bit, especially with far lands.

As for the maps of Aduria and Djapar, I have everything that is canon. The rest of the world is pretty much conjecture.

[Mantyluoto]

where can i find Canon maps about Aduria? please!

[Mantyluoto]

Thanks Benjamin

Manty



(ps i just got an email if you wondered)

[Mantyluoto]

Thanks for the second email Benjamin

[Benjamin]

FYI - I forwarded to Mantylouto Rich Baker's Lost Files on Aduria, and the hand drawn map. I also included Ian Hoskin's (Prince Raesene's) Aduria map that had all the regions marked out. All public domain. Nothing secretive going on. :)

[ausrick]

Is there any way by chance you could attach those here for all of us other salivating BR nuts?

[Benjamin]

They used to be here, somewhere. I thought.

I'll let the full migration get completed, then send them along. Give me a couple weeks.

[irdeggman]

They used to be here, somewhere. I thought.

I'll let the full migration get completed, then send them along. Give me a couple weeks.

Rich's lost files are in an attachment on the Royal Library FAQ thread.

http://www.birthright.net/showthread.php?t=2188

[jsharen]

How is progress on this coming along? :)

Looks amazing so far!