This is the Kara Sea, which I spoke of a few posts ago. The very top right corner of this map has a latitude of 82.62 degrees, which makes it very far north indeed ... further north than any human was known to have travelled until the 19th century. This is the most northern piece of land I have yet mapped. Much of the 'sea' on this map is covered by a permanent ice pack - north of the small island of Sergeya, close to the center of the map.
I continue to argue that most D&D maps do not include territories like this. However empty it may be, its emptiness promises a difficult, dangerous campaign, cut off from the world in pursuit of some distant, lost point on the map. Note that there are only two towns. I assure you both are small, with less than a thousand inhabitants ... and in my world, both are occupied entirely of gnolls. The small bits of green along the coast are the only humanoid habitations of any kind, each representing a clan of some 60 to 100 members. Beyond those few hexes, the only residents are monsters adapted to the most extreme conditions.
Incidentally, if you turn this map 60 degrees, it will fit neatly with the map I last posted.
"I'm guessing that another map can only bore the gentle reader..."
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I always enjoy a new map post. :)
Very nice. Reminds me of my own attempt in high school (right after the Companion Set came out) to chart the polar regions north of Norwold. I should get back on that--as you say, not enough of this sort of thing gets done, and there are geothermal vents (surrounded by impassable ice) to situate lost worlds around!
ReplyDeleteI had a long chat with a good friend of mine who was an a paid member of and still heavily involved with the Role Playing Game Industry.
ReplyDeleteThe part of this chat that might interest you is something you and I discussed briefly on the balcony of your home. "Is this worth anything?"
The short answer is, "Yes."
The longer answer is more complicated. The only properties that make money in the RPG industry are "worlds" or campaign settings. Witness The Forgotten Realms, Ed Greenwood's giant-ass campaign setting for D&D, released in the mid-1980s. See also Greyhawk and now Eberron.
Apparently rule-systems are dead. No one wants to buy a new rules system *unless* that system comes with a heavily-detailed campaign setting within which to play those rules. More often than not, some clever devil will come up with a new rules system that's very good, easy to learn, intuitive to play, flexible and useful, only to have their system not sell because there is minimal, if any, supporting setting to go along with the rules.
Alexis, given the level of detail you have in your world, and the hunger for believable and detailed campaign settings that apparently exists (and I cannot say for certain that it does, merely that this is what the industry-related folks are telling me) I'd say you may have a gold mine on your hands there.
I hope you had a good weekend.
-Carl
I appreciate that Carl.
ReplyDeleteBut how to start digging into that sucker with the pick?