Conan-based 3.0/3.5 Game

[JakobLiar]

I had at one point been trying to work on a birthright game based on the map/theme of Conan using either the 3.0 or 3.5 edition Birthright book/D&D PHB. I was hoping someone could help me with figuring out how to get it set up for Birthright (the Conan map, that is).

[AndrewTall]

I had at one point been trying to work on a birthright game based on the map/theme of Conan using either the 3.0 or 3.5 edition Birthright book/D&D PHB. I was hoping someone could help me with figuring out how to get it set up for Birthright (the Conan map, that is).

I'm not quite sure what perspective you are coming from - artistic, campaign building, etc.

I'd note that Cerilia is quite small - 1,300 miles or so across - about as wide as Cimmeria, the Black Kingdoms or Hyrkania - but nowhere close to the size of Hyboria itself which looks to be about 6,500 miles across. I'd suggest starting with just one of the Hyborian kingdoms or changing the province scale drastically.

The BR issue with province design is that the populous holdings are effectively political boundaries, while the source holdings are based on terrain and features - and simple decisions like drawing a border down the middle of a mountain range instead of down one side can have a significant game impact on wizards.

From a 'make a map' perspective:
Being crap at drawing, and worse at computers I'd suggest getting

a) colour photocopies of the conan map (if possible)
b) good quality tracing paper
c) drawing the boundaries, names, etc on the tracing paper and overlaying it.

On the downside we all know that the tracing paper is going to need to be re-drawn a lot.

A computer program allowing you to layer the details must be out there but I can't help with it.


From a 'where to place the boundaries' for the campaign perspective:
1. I'd start by following geographic boundaries most of the time -rivers, forests, etc would likely denote political boundaries in any event and these boundaries fit both sources and populations.

2. Then I'd tweak some of the borders to keep some good source levels around swamps, mountains, etc.

3. Then I'd fill in the 'voids' where you have big plains, etc without natural boundaries with wiggly lines to cut the void down into provinces of about the right size (wiggly lines let you claim that they follow some obvious border - you only see straight lines for political boundaries in colonies usually).

4. I'd use terrain type and river/coast border to identify maximum population and source levels in each province

5. I'd use any symbols of cities, etc on the map to place the high population provinces, and then use low/mid levels to balance the different kingdoms out to give the desired campaign status for strong/weak countries.


Starting maps:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/index.htm

has some nice looking maps but they don't appear to have much detail when you get down to it - you may have a lot of work to do if you don't cut the project down at the outset.

[Birthright-L]

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AndrewTall wrote:
------------ QUOTE ----------
I had at one point been trying to work on a birthright game based on the map/theme of Conan using either the 3.0 or 3.5 edition Birthright book/D&D PHB. I was hoping someone could help me with figuring out how to get it set up for Birthright (the Conan map, that is).
-----------------------------



I`m not quite sure what perspective you are coming from - artistic, campaign building, etc.

I`d note that Cerilia is quite small - 1,300 miles or so across - about as wide as Cimmeria, the Black Kingdoms or Hyrkania - but nowhere close to the size of Hyboria itself which looks to be about 6,500 miles across. I`d suggest starting with just one of the Hyborian kingdoms or changing the province scale drastically.

The BR issue with province design is that the populous holdings are effectively political boundaries, while the source holdings are based on terrain and features - and simple decisions like drawing a border down the middle of a mountain range instead of down one side can have a significant game impact on wizards.

From a `make a map` perspective:
Being crap at drawing, and worse at computers I`d suggest getting

a) colour photocopies of the conan map (if possible)
b) good quality tracing paper
c) drawing the boundaries, names, etc on the tracing paper and overlaying it.

On the downside we all know that the tracing paper is going to need to be re-drawn a lot.

A computer program allowing you to layer the details must be out there but I can`t help with it.


From a `where to place the boundaries` for the campaign perspective:
1. I`d start by following geographic boundaries most of the time -rivers, forests, etc would likely denote political boundaries in any event and these boundaries fit both sources and populations.

2. Then I`d tweak some of the borders to keep some good source levels around swamps, mountains, etc.

3. Then I`d fill in the `voids` where you have big plains, etc without natural boundaries with wiggly lines to cut the void down into provinces of about the right size (wiggly lines let you claim that they follow some obvious border - you only see straight lines for political boundaries in colonies usually).

4. I`d use terrain type and river/coast border to identify maximum population and source levels in each province

5. I`d use any symbols of cities, etc on the map to place the high population provinces, and then use low/mid levels to balance the different kingdoms out to give the desired campaign status for strong/weak countries.


Starting maps:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/index.htm

has some nice looking maps but they don`t appear to have much detail when you get down to it - you may have a lot of work to do if you don`t cut the project down at the outset.