Maps With Character

The black and white map from the
Sovereign Stone Sourcebook.The
"crack" doesn't help matters much.

.

A color map of Loerem found on the
web (on a site in Spanish, no less).

.

A redone color map of Greyhawk;
still has character.

I've been thinking a lot about maps lately. I've actually been thinking about maps for a long time, since I'm still interested in at least finding a livable commercial game world or at best creating my own. I have discriminating tastes in this area and most commercial game worlds, while professionally executed and I'm sure well honed and shined to a gleaming polish for mass-market appeal, just don't fit the bill for me. Therefore, the jury is still out.

Along those lines, I'm in the process of finishing the Sovereign Stone trilogy by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. I've enjoyed the books very much and consider them great inspirational reading. I had before that discovered the D20 sourcebook at Madness but decided to start reading the novels first, as part of exploring the possibility of using Loerem, the fantasy world of the novel, as our next setting. We're currently using Greyhawk, which in itself presents many problems, not the least of which is heavily befuddled source material (for example, I had the damnedest time putting the Greyhawk deities into Hero Lab from the existing sources).The maps for Greyhawk, however, in all their various incarnations, are simply beautiful. They have character.

Unfortunately, just as an aside, there are several problems inherent with using Loerem too, foremost being too much work converting aspects of it (such as Void magic) from D20 to the Pathfinder RPG, which would include laboring at Hero Lab data entry. However, the map of Loerem concerns me too, presenting a number of the same problems most commercial game world maps do.

The map of Loerem on the inside cover of the novels is of course too small, but that's just par for the course, since most maps presented in paperbacks are so presented as more curiosity than anything else. I bought the Sovereign Stone Campaign Sourcebook, a D20 product by Sovereign Press (the website doesn't inspire confidence), hoping the map would be a good deal larger and more legible and while it is, it's still way too generalized to be of functional use. Just for the record, I actually like the map and had hoped to find a more detailed one than either the novel or the sourcebook on the web, but haven't so far. Since we know that updated versions of older game products don't sell well, there never will be. This is, point of fact, why source material is so befuddled for Greyhawk.

Now, I've both created hand drawn maps and used software to make my own game world maps, so I know the gut-wrenching effort inherent in creating global maps. However, I'm often disappointed by the functionality of said commercial maps in today's roleplaying game world products because it seems like there's far more focus on producing pretty, color rich maps than in producing maps that are of any real practical use. They simply aren't very functional. While this notion does not apply to the map of Loerem, since it's in black and white, it does remain full of generalized white space and, again, isn't very functional. Color maps still suffer the same problem, except that the bare white spaces are green. But it's the same problem. Commercial maps such as these lack functionality as well as character, albeit to different degrees.

By the way, black and white maps don't bother me in the least. They're actually more functional because they can be copied, re-printed, colored (with colored pencils for example), color coded (thus making political maps easier) and "bashed" to heart's content. I've concluded that my own classical AD&D roleplaying habits are actually to blame and, paradoxically, I'm somewhat proud of it.

I've long preferred to track overland travel in far better detail than most roleplaying games and game worlds allow. Although not very medieval of me, I like to track a party on the game world map almost radar style. I want to see a pinpoint on the map, where they are and where they're going. I want to be able to show this progress to the group so they're comfortable knowing we've communicated routes correctly and everyone's on the same page. I think that's reasonable.

In the past, I've used transparencies and Plexiglas poster frames to draw out the group's actual progress along a road or through the trackless wilderness. I also like to watch the group plan a trip on the map rather than glossing over it as just another means by which to get to the dungeon or adventure. I enjoy watching them try to avoid the obstacles of terrain and, in a detailed campaign, those of known or conjectured monster warrens. So I guess part of the excitement for me is also the "camping out" aspect of the trek too. Most commercial maps are too dull. Traveling through an airbrushed blotch of green crap to get to another airburshed blotch of brown crap isn't all that interesting. I'm not asking for or seeking a Google Earth level of detail, because that would actually be somewhat ridiculous (though cool on my geek scale). However, I think game world maps should be as functional as they are attractive; they should just have more character. Maybe maps should be more like characters--rough around the edges, a few scars and built from interesting "building blocks." I think that pretty much hits the nail on the head for me.

Not a map.

Maps should have character. One of the things I do like about Loerem is the vibrancy of the terrain described in the novels, vibrancy done little justice by a flat, flavorless game world map. Again, the problem isn't unique to the map presented in the sourcebook. The flashy color rich maps in more recent mass-appeal game worlds are similarly unsatisfying--dull.

So the problem isn't me after all. I just want a map with character--not the game world equivalent of a dumb blond in a red dress. I think maps should have as much character as characters do without all the pretty flash.