Roleplayers put a lot of stock in maps.
Maps can fire the imagination, make you see worlds in a way that description can’t. A good map of a fantasy world can supercharge your play experience, and take you into that world better than anything else. I think there’s a reason why the most popular request for Collector’s Edition items in MMOGs was always “a cloth map”.
Not all maps are of fantasy locations, however, and the map that made the greatest impression on my mind as a roleplaying teenager was this:
The city map as seen in the original ‘yellow box’ of Marvel Super Heroes, from TSR in 1984.
No single item (with the probable exception of the map that came in the Advanced Set, two years later) had more of a jumpstart on my gaming than this map. I played endlessly on this thing, generating plotlines simply based off the names on the buildings. It came alone in the box, with no explanation, no attempt to define everything you’d find on it; in other words, your imagination was allowed to run wild.
Looking at it brings back waves of nostalgia, to be sure, but also two definite urges: one, to use it again; and two, to create something similar for myself, even if my illustration knowledge is minimal. Let’s see what I can do….
#1 by Shadowe at March 27th, 2009
Firstly, I’d like to slap you around the head for choosing the Americanism “Artifacts” rather than the British “Artefacts”, but that’s just me being picky.
I’ve never been much of one for drawing maps for my own games – my old ‘puter had at least 6 different RP mapping software apps installed, and I actually used… well, none of them.
For things like “world-maps”, I’ll sketch something up, sure, if I’m not using something pre-published, but it will be rough, ready, and very short on details.
Pre-D&D3E I *never* used maps for tactical movement. Never, ever, ever. I have far more skill at describing a scene than I do at describing it, and as a GM, my imagination is powerful enough to let me map things out in my head, describing things in a couple of quick sentences, and then letting the players’ actions determine how the encounter evolves.
In 3/3.5E I would *sometimes* use a map. In 4E it’s pretty much essential (going back to my “4E is a good miniatures game” theory).
But you’re certainly correct that a map, with little to no explanation, but with points of interest, and possibilities… that can fire the imagination, and provite a wonderful focus for adventures.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
#2 by Rockjaw at March 27th, 2009
I think my first and most frequent exposure to the word ‘artifacts’ was probably through American RPG material, and that’s how I’ve always spelled it since.
I’ve been looking around at mapping software, but unsurprisingly most of it is aimed at producing fantasy maps, and is of course Windows-only. I can get around that, but it’s still a pain.
I have a feeling I could reproduce something like this map using a Visio-a-like. We’ll see.
#3 by Dr Toerag at March 27th, 2009
The first roleplaying I ever did was entirely based on a map. I read about D&D in a magazine, in about 1977-8. With no rules, and no chance of finding any in the backwater I lived in, I took a large poster map of the Moon, pencilled in all the “Mare” to make seas, and took my brothers on an epic journey around the Mare Imbrium.
Later that year I got hold of “Basic D&D” (the red box) and drew a new map of my own world. I had the group clear a dungeon and set up a home there. Happy days…
#4 by Mystie at March 29th, 2009
My RPG knowledge is sketchy at best. My knowledge goes no further than the boundaries of ‘Hero Quest’ and it’s expansions when I was in my early teens.
…but that map looks very Hero-Clixy to me? (http://tinyurl.com/c3fttm) There could be an evolutionary chain of cartography there?
It would be great to play some games again, but I never find the gaming partners these days.
#5 by Crimson_Archer at April 11th, 2009
I have an original of that map up in the loft with the rest of my Marvel Stuff… Have to admit that I never used it though! I did convert the “zones” system of measurement into proper distances purely out of pedantry, but my friends and I were more used to doing it that way.
#6 by Rockjaw at April 12th, 2009
Zones = areas
Yes, a very vague system, but I used to like it. Just like Marvel used to define a combat round as “anything that could happen within a single comic book panel”.