Map! - Alan

Rather than string this out into several posts, I'll condense this to one.

Alan was a game world for another DnD campaign that, unsurprisingly enough, never got off the ground. Despite this, the map for it was one of the more educational and rewarding experiences in my RPG map making hobby.

It started simply enough with a bit of whimsy, a generic RPG map tool, and some post editing in Gimp. It also started with area of "Afhoven".

It was functional- but unsatisfying. It provided a game world with enough scope to last the length of any RPG campaign I tend to run or be in. At the time it was all I really cared to do. There was a great deal of background information that needed to be sorted out before I could consider a more time consuming map. Even more daunting than the work load of a nicer map was my cynical pessimism regarding wether or not the campaign would even start.

However the time came when I started producing some player material... a loose map of what the locals would know of (as opposed to the exact locations of some hidden away villages in the jungle).

That map was this:


I rather liked it. It was preliminarily done free hand 'tracing' of the old map in Gimp with a loose use of filters and tools to simplify some of the process of screwing up the map.

However, when passed out to one of the players, the response was quick and unsubtle. "This is it? This is the whole world?". No, I thought, not at all. This is only what the locals know of and by extension, only what you know.

Troubled by this, and motivated by a desire to put everything to proper form, I went ahead and mapped out the whole continent of Alan.


Every mountain, line, and color on this map was hand done in Gimp. I'm a sucker for bright Final Fantasy style maps and I think I mostly nailed it in this one (aside a ghostly white that pervades the image). It also took a gawd awful amount of time to complete. There were other trial and error maps that have been forever lost to data entropy. Suffice it to say, this map was something of a learning process.

Astute readers will notice that the jungles to the south east changed. It was something of a adventure in itself that I was hoping the players would explore. That is, they'd think something was there judging by the old map, but end up sailing to oblivion. Sounds like a great adventure to me.

Unfortunately despite putting all this work into the map, it occurred to me that only I and my wife would ever see it. I just spent countless time building a map no one will ever use beyond myself. But I had fun. So taking that as a win, I more or less realized that I think I like making the maps more than I like actually running the game.

Go figure.