Post by Bannanachair on Apr 9, 2017 12:06:51 GMT -4
I recently posted a thread about making a D&D campaign, and it got me thinking about the last original D&D campaign setting I made and the map that I had commissioned for it. I called the campaign setting Winterpond, and I can still remember most of the characters and all of the players. I think it was Hwen, Perry, Mikey, Earth and Lego (though he behaved so differently to the Lego here today that I am not even sure they are the same person but rather just two different people with usernames about lego). I later discussed this world a bit with Tails and tried a reboot with him but I don't think that that ever took off. I'm not here to talk about failed attempts at me running a campaign, though; rather, I'm here to talk about the map that I had commissioned.
I remember when I commissioned the map there were a few things about scale - "Are you sure you want it so that it'll take a week to get from Winterpond to Ironfrost via the King's Road? That's quite a large distance you're requesting," (I don't think it was the guy who ended up making the map who said that, but as I posted the request on a (now-defunct) public forum I got some replies that were unhelpful at best). At the time I thought "Well, the two biggest cities shouldn't be located right next to eachother,", but now that I'm older I realized that the scale that I chose is tiny. Sure, this is just a region of the world, but it's a region of the world about the size of Switzerland that I have there. It'd take roughly eight days to use the King's Road to travel from Ironfrost to Winterpond (or vice versa) assuming a walking speed of 3mi/h. According to google maps, it would take roughly that long to walk from Geneva, Switzerland to Lichtenstein (right next to Switzerland). Look at your map of the world and look at how small that distance is. That is over a week of walking. I used Google Maps to find some other interesting journeys, including Brest, France, to Rome, Italy, Paris to Jerusalem and York to Canterbury, all by walking, and then I assumed roughly 8 hours of walking per day to find my number. One of longest distances that I had was Pskov, Russia, to Novosibirsk, Russia, which was a similar distance of Paris to Jerusalem (both journeys would take about a third of a year with modern road infrastructure). Look at the map of Russia that you have hanging up in your bedroom wall. Do you see Pskov? Do you see Novosibirsk? Do you see how small a fraction of Russia that is? Russia is fucking huge!
In case you're unfamiliar with European geography, here are some American journeys which, by foot, are longer than Winterpond to Ironfrost is by foot: Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, Memphis to Nashville, Kansas City to St. Louis, Chicago to Detroit, Milwaukee to Minneapolis, Sacramento to Fresno, LA to Fresno, LA to Las Vegas, Dallas to Houston, Tampa to Miami and Buffalo to NYC. All of those, by the way, have the benefit of modern infrastructure.
I remember when I commissioned the map there were a few things about scale - "Are you sure you want it so that it'll take a week to get from Winterpond to Ironfrost via the King's Road? That's quite a large distance you're requesting," (I don't think it was the guy who ended up making the map who said that, but as I posted the request on a (now-defunct) public forum I got some replies that were unhelpful at best). At the time I thought "Well, the two biggest cities shouldn't be located right next to eachother,", but now that I'm older I realized that the scale that I chose is tiny. Sure, this is just a region of the world, but it's a region of the world about the size of Switzerland that I have there. It'd take roughly eight days to use the King's Road to travel from Ironfrost to Winterpond (or vice versa) assuming a walking speed of 3mi/h. According to google maps, it would take roughly that long to walk from Geneva, Switzerland to Lichtenstein (right next to Switzerland). Look at your map of the world and look at how small that distance is. That is over a week of walking. I used Google Maps to find some other interesting journeys, including Brest, France, to Rome, Italy, Paris to Jerusalem and York to Canterbury, all by walking, and then I assumed roughly 8 hours of walking per day to find my number. One of longest distances that I had was Pskov, Russia, to Novosibirsk, Russia, which was a similar distance of Paris to Jerusalem (both journeys would take about a third of a year with modern road infrastructure). Look at the map of Russia that you have hanging up in your bedroom wall. Do you see Pskov? Do you see Novosibirsk? Do you see how small a fraction of Russia that is? Russia is fucking huge!
In case you're unfamiliar with European geography, here are some American journeys which, by foot, are longer than Winterpond to Ironfrost is by foot: Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, Memphis to Nashville, Kansas City to St. Louis, Chicago to Detroit, Milwaukee to Minneapolis, Sacramento to Fresno, LA to Fresno, LA to Las Vegas, Dallas to Houston, Tampa to Miami and Buffalo to NYC. All of those, by the way, have the benefit of modern infrastructure.
